Ahivarn

Maharaja Ahibaran was the ancestor King of Varanwal/Baranwal community. Ahibaran was a Soorya vanshi kshatriya, who was the 21st descendent of Emperor King Mandhata, the ruler of Ayodhya. Ayodhya is the place where Bhagwan Sri Ram was born and ruled. The descendents of Emperor Ahibaran were called baranwal. He was a Tomar king and his successors ruled areas of U.P. and Haryana for many centuries. Later the seat of power went to Dors and Chauhans, with the rise of Hardatta, a Dor ruler who took possession of Baran along with Meerut and Koil. He was soon beset with troubles due to the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni. The last Hindu ruler of the state was Chandrasena. The family and relatives of the Tomar and the Dor kings formed a separate endogamous community of their own.^[1]

According to Mahalakshmi Vrata Katha, Lakshmi, the HIndu Goddess of wealth blessed Ahibaran and his descendants with सुख (happiness) and समृधि (wealth).

Biography

The Barnwal family crest was started by King Ahibarn, whose ancestors had moved to a place called Ahar in North India. Ahibaran renamed the Ahar kingdom after himself as "Varnavati" and was the founder of modern Bulandshahar in present-day Western UP.

The city of Bulandshahar (literal meaning - High City, due to being situated at a high place) derives its name from the fort of Barnwals located at a very high mound/ hillock. The old name 'Baran' can be still be traced in the old Government documents. It was a rich and prosperous capital state of King Ahibarn's kingdom and numerous copper and gold coins with Greek and Pali inscriptions had been excavated at the site of the fort as mentioned in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 52, Parts 1-2 By Asiatic Society of Bengal and many other journals.

Ahibaran was a Suryavanshi Kshatriya who was the 21st descendant of Emperor Mandhata, the ruler of Ayodhya. According to the mythological Mahalakshmi Vrat Katha, Ahibaran, the son of King Parmaal, and the King Agrasen (son of King Vallabh) belonged to the same lineage. According to a treatise called Jaati Bhaskar, Mandhata had two sons, Gunadhi and Mohan. Parmaal was the descendant of Gunadhi, while Vallabh was the descendant of Mohan.^[2]

The history of Bulandshahr begins even before 1200 BCE. This region is close to the capital of the Pandavas - Indraprastha and Hastinapur. After the decline of Hastinapur, Ahar, which is situated in the north-east of Bulandshahr District, became an important place for the Pandavas. Later the king Parma made a fort in this part of the region and a king named Ahibaran laid the foundation of a tower called Baran (sahar). Since it was perched on a highland it came to be known as "high city", which translates as Bulandshahr in Persian language. King Ahibaran or Ahibaran was a Kshatriya and a Suryavanshi (lineage of the Sun). He was the 21st descendant of Samrath (Emperor) Mandhata, the ruler of Ayodhya. As per Mahalakshmi Vrat Katha, it is under Emperor Mandhata lineage that at one stage son of King Vallabh, Agrasen was born and at another stage son of King Parmaal, Ahibaran was born; both of whom further started their own clans: Agrawal (or Agarwal) and Varnwal (or Barnwal). The Pandavas were the five sons of the king Pandu. The first city of Delhi is believed to be founded by the legendary Pandavas of the Mahabharata around 1400 BC. It was called Indraprastha. It is a town and a nagar panchayat in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

As per an old treatise on the caste system of India, 'Jati Bhaskar', it is understood that Samrath Mandhata had two sons, Gunadhi and Mohan. King Parmaal was the descendant of King Gunadhi while King Vallabh was the descendant of King Mohan.

In 1192 CE when Muhammad Ghauri conquered parts of India, his Senapati (Military commander) Qutubbudin surrounded Fort Barn and, with the help of traitors, was able to kill King Chandrasen Dor and in the process take control of the Barn kingdom.

After the fall of Barn-sahar, the Baranwal community scattered to different parts of India, mostly to the Gangetic plains of India, and started living under the various names of Goyal, Bakshi, Choudhary, Gupta, Modi, Jaiswal, Agrawal, Lal, Arya, Shah and Singh. They are mostly spread in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal along with a sprinkled presence in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh Gujarat and Maharashtra and the neighboring Kingdom of Nepal. Some of them have spread globally and settled down in UK and USA.

The ancient ruins found at places in Bhatora Veerpur, Ghalibpur, etc. are indicative of the antiquity of Bulandshahr. There are several other important places in the District from where statues belonging to the medieval age and objects of ancient temples have been found. Even today, several of these historical and ancient objects such as coins, inscriptions etc. are preserved in the Lucknow State Museum. Moreover, according to Hindu mythology the pandavas had an encounter with prajapati daksh, father-in-law of Hindu lord Shiva; the place of their conversation, a pond, is in Bulandshahr.

References