Bafna Gotra
Oswal Jain
At a glance
- Called a
- Gotra
- Community
- Oswal Jain
- Found in
- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
- Family deity in tradition
- Sachiya Mata
About
Bafna is an Oswal Jain clan. In the traditional list it is the second of the eighteen gotras said to have been formed when the Jain acharya Ratnaprabhasuri brought the people of Osian into Jainism. The Jain name of the gotra is Bahufana. A community history names Sachiya Mata of Osian as its kuldevi. Bafna families are recorded at Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Indore, Ratlam and other towns of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
What “Gotra” means for the Oswal Jain
Oswal Jain families call their clan names gotra, but these are not Vedic rishi gotras. The gotra is the exogamous clan: a person does not marry within it. Writers also group each gotra under a gachchha, the Jain monastic line the family has followed.
Name and Origin
Jain sources write the gotra name as Bahufana (also Bahuphana). Three accounts are in circulation and they do not agree. (1) The Oswal tradition in the Jain Jati Mahodaya, as summarised by C. M. Lodha, lists Bafna among the eighteen gotras that Ratnaprabhasuri is said to have named at Osian, and places its original caste as Panwar (Parmar) Kshatriya. (2) The Mahajan Vansh Muktavali of Yati Ramlalji, as given on the community site oswals.net, says two Panwar princes of Dhar took Jainism after a battle at Jalore and that the acharya named their gotra Bahufana. That page adds that a different Bafna, made by Panwars, should not be confused with the Bafna listed second among the first eighteen. (3) A history of Jain communities in Rajasthan by Dr K. C. Jain and team (on Jainworld) says the Bahuphana gotra was established in 1120 AD by Jinadatta Suri. All three are community and devotional histories. None cites an inscription or a contemporary document for the naming.
Historical Journey
The Oswal community is traditionally said to have begun at Osian (Upkeshpur) in Marwar. Historians do not accept the traditional dates (the year 70 after Mahavira's nirvana, or Vikram 222). The Jain history by Dr K. C. Jain and team finds no trace of the Oswal caste before the 8th century AD and says the castes and gotras of Rajasthan took shape between the 8th and 13th centuries. The 1120 AD naming by Jinadatta Suri falls inside that window. The oswals.net page for Bafna records families in the service of princely states in the 19th century. Joravarmal Bafna and his brother Bahadurmal were active at Udaipur from 1818, and Joravarmal received the title Seth. Premchand Bafna of Udaipur was given the hereditary title Nagar Seth in Vikram 1908. The Patwa family of Jaisalmer is listed under Bafna on the same page, with a pilgrimage sangh led by Deoraj Patwa in 1891, which the page ties to an inscription at the Amar Sagar Jain temple.
Migration and Diaspora
The oswals.net page lists Bafna families at Jhalrapatan, Ratlam, Udaipur, Indore, Jaisalmer, Kota, Harda, Dhulia, Sitamau, Ajmer, Sirohi and Bikaner. The page does not date these moves. Several are towns of princely states that drew Oswal bankers and officials in the 18th and 19th centuries.
How the Gotra Is Kept
The gotra is exogamous. Lodha counts 52 sub-gotras under Bafna, the most of any of the eighteen original gotras; the oswals.net page lists Nahata, Bopala, Kothari, Sanghvi and Gandhi among them. Lodha lists Bafna both among the Upkesh gachchha gotras and among the Kharatara gachchha gotras, and the oswals.net page gives a Kharatara acharya from the Bafna clan, Jinkripachandra Suri (born at Chomu, Vikram 1913). Which gachchha a family follows differs by family. The oswals.net page names Sachiya Mata of Osian as the kuldevi of the gotra; branches may keep other practice.
Presence Across Regions
Jaisalmer
Oswal Jain
The Patwa family, whom the oswals.net page lists as a Bafna branch, are recorded here; the page cites an inscription at the Amar Sagar Jain temple for a pilgrimage sangh of 1891.
Udaipur
Oswal Jain
Joravarmal and Bahadurmal Bafna are recorded as bankers here from 1818, and Premchand Bafna held the hereditary title Nagar Seth, per oswals.net.
Indore
Oswal Jain
The oswals.net page lists Sir Siremal as a Bafna who rose to Prime Minister of the Holkar state at Indore in 1926.
Notable Personalities
Joravarmal Bafna
d. 1853
Banker of Udaipur, active from 1818 with his brother Bahadurmal; given the title Seth. Source: oswals.net, which does not name its own source.
Jinkripachandra Suri
born Vikram 1913
Acharya of the Kharatara gachchha, born at Chomu to Meghrath Bafna, who became a yati in Vikram 1936 and acharya in Vikram 1972. Source: oswals.net.
Sir Siremal
born 1882
Rai Bahadur and CIE; minister at Indore from 1915 and Prime Minister of the Holkar state in 1926, according to oswals.net.
Stories and Legends
The naming of Bahufana
The account in the Mahajan Vansh Muktavali, as given on oswals.net, runs as follows. Two Panwar princes of Dhar, Jeevan and Sachhu, fought the Rathors of Kannauj at Jalore. Before the battle the Jain acharya Jin Vallabh Suri gave them a mantra. After they won, Raja Jaychand Rathore honoured them, and they took Jainism under Acharya Jinduti Suri, who named their gotra Bahufana. The same page says the names of Jivan and Sachhu do not appear in the pedigrees of Jalore and Dhar, and the accounts differ on whether the acharya was Jin Vallabh Suri or Jinduti Suri.