Mahajan
Mahajan is an Indian surname and caste that belongs to the Hindu Baniya Community. It signifies the profession of a moneylender, merchants, bankers and administrators.[1]
The word Mahajan generally refers to a trader and the last name may be found in that caste.[2][3]
Mahajan is a Bania subgroup, meaning "great people." Maha means "great" and jan means "people." Most of the Mahajans come from present-day Rajasthan.
History[edit]
Mahajans originally are believed to be descendants of King Kuru. He was very religious, just, fair and a good administrator. Mahajan word is a very respectable word, meaning high in knowledge, religion and actions. According to Vaman Puran - "Mahajano si mahalroshi mahajano yen gataa sa pantha." God Vishnu was pleased with King Kuru, and King was shifted to Vaishya. God Vishnu said to King Kuru that he has done great job and he is a great person. Therefore, your dynasty will be called MAHAJAN and all rulers will be known as Vaishya, because by doing agriculture, you have accepted Vaishya. They migrated from central India to Rajasthan and then to the Punjab region several hundred years back. A renowned social reformer Lala Hans Raj Mahajan urged people to replace "Gupt" (Modern "Gupta") with 'Mahajan' as their surname in the early 20th century as Mahajan word denotes a respectable community. Historically, they are a people who shifted into the foothills of the Himalayas during the Mogul Era to escape cruel Islamic rulers.
Some People in Gujarat Madhya Pradesh's Nimar region also bear Mahajan as a surname. They also use other common surnames such as Nema. They believe in Srinathji at Nathdwara (Rajasthan) and are staunch vegetarians. In Gujarat, the Bhatia caste also uses the "Mahajan" surname, as the Mahajan community was traditionally associated with money lending. Later some Brahmins people in Maharastra also started using this surname. The Mahajan community of North India was based in the undivided Punjab region. They have been in money lending activities for centuries within the Punjab and nearby areas such as Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the Mahajan today speak Hindi, but Marathi, Punjabi, and Dogri are also spoken among them.
Notable people[edit]
Notable people with this surname include:
- Jangi Lal Mahajan, Indian Politician
- Poonam Mahajan, Indian Politician
- Ashwani Mahajan, economist, National Co-Convener, Swadeshi Jagran Manch; Professor at PG DAV College
- Harsh Mahajan, Indian politician
- Mehr Chand Mahajan, former Chief Justice of India and former Prime Minister of Kashmir
- Pramod Mahajan, an Indian politician (Maharashtra State)
- Rahul Mahajan, an American blogger
- Rahul Mahajan, Indian reality TV personality
- Sumitra Mahajan, an Indian politician Who is the speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha
- Vijay Mahajan, former Dean of the Indian School of Business, a Marketing professor at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin
- Vikram Chand Mahajan, an Indian politician, Senior Advocate (Supreme Court of India)
- Girish Mahajan, an Indian politician
References[edit]
- ^ Ian Stone (25 July 2002). Canal Irrigation in British India: Perspectives on Technological Change in a Peasant Economy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 356–. ISBN 978-0-521-52663-0.
mahajan : merchant , moneylender
- ^ Jonathan P. Parry, ed. (13 September 2013). Caste and Kinship in Kangra. Routledge. pp. 110–. ISBN 978-1-136-54585-6.
- ^ Bam Dev Sharda (24 August 2005). "Status allocation in middle India". In David Bills (ed.). The Shape of Social Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective. Elsevier. pp. 229–. ISBN 978-0-08-045935-6.
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