History(contd)

Eventually, a weak and a spineless king named Vikram Dev Parmar ascended the throne of Virani. He initially continued to respect the Nandimukh Brahmins and take their advice, like his predecessors. The courtiers who were sidelined because of Nandimukhs were unhappy with the rise of the Nadimukh Brahmins and jealous of their position. These people began to poison the king's ear against the Nandimukhs. The king did not know whom to believe and swayed in his loyalty from one group to the other.

One day King Vikram Dev decided to hold a Saptachandi Yagna. As a part of the yagna, a feast for all the 84 sects of Brahmins was held. The Nandimukh Brahmins were also invited to this feast. However, since becoming ayachak ( not accepting alms or dakshina ) the Nandimukhs had stopped taking part in these kind of feasts and informed the king about this. This gave the jealous courtiers an opportunity to turn the king against the Nandimukhs. They told the king that with prosperity, the Nandimukh Brahmins had become too arrogant, and even though they were Brahmins they refused to eat with other Brahmins. They said that this was an insult to the King. The King got carried away and proclaimed that "whoever disrespected the invitation of the brahmbhojan despite being a Brahmin will be expelled from the Kingdom".

Our proud ancestors wound up their business and without creating any fuss left the kingdom before the yagna. However some of them stayed back on the condition that they would partake in the bhojana but will not accept any dakshina. It soon became apparent that the prosperity of the Virani Kingdom was in large part due to the intellegence and abilities of the Nandimukhs. After most of them left the kingdom, the prosperity of the Virani Kingdom vained. The later Parmar kings tried to woo our ancestors back but the Nandimukhs were too proud to go back.

This annoyed the then king of Virani and he decided to take revenge on the Nandimukhs. He incited the kings of Sadadi and Jodhpur, where many Nandimukhs had moved from Virani, to hold a brambhojan for all the 84 sects of Brahmins and to invite the Nandimukhs to the feast. Our ancestors once explained to the kings their inability to eat at this bhojan and to accept dakshina. The kings did not accept this explanantion and merely said that they will pay a heavy price for insulting the kingdom. Sensing the wrath of the kings, our ancestors left the area once again and moved to settle in Gujrat near Ahmedabad. Again, some of the Vandimukhs stayed back on the condition that they would take part in the bhojana but would not accept dakshina. This incident is supposed to have taken place around 1209 AD.

An Event that Changed the Course

A continuing story in the books of Barots of Rajashtan about the Nandimukhs goes as follows.

The multi-millionaire Shri Devchand Upadhyay arranged a Maharudra Yagna. The entire Nandwana community was invited. Doodh Pak was the main dish at the feast. During the cooking of this dish, a cat fell into the vessel full of doodh pak. The cat was pulled out alive but did later. The cooks kept this incident a secret because they did not want to cancel the feast and waste the food as people had come from far and wide to partake in it. However, the story could not be kept hidden for long and the truth emerged. The people involved in the cooking of the food as well as those who had hleped to hide the incident were thrown out of the caste. These people and their close relatives moved to Gujrat and began trading goods between Kutch and Saurashtra. Evenually, they also settled in Kutch and Saurashtra, inviting other relatives from Rajasthan to join them. At this time, there might have been about 350 Nandwana families living in this part of Gujrat.

                                                                                                   [Contd]

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