Nahata Gotra
Oswal Jain
At a glance
- Called a
- Gotra
- Community
- Oswal Jain
- Found in
- Rajasthan
About
Nahata is an Oswal Jain clan. A Jain history of Rajasthan derives the name from the Bahuphana (Bafna) story, in which men of the line stood their ground in battle, and the oswals.net page on Bafna lists Nahata among Bafna's sub-gotras. A temple record of 1439 names a man of the Nahata gotra. The best known Nahata family today is the Khartargachha Jain family of Bikaner.
What “Gotra” means for the Oswal Jain
Oswal Jain families call their clan names gotra; these are not Vedic rishi gotras, and the gotra is the exogamous unit. Some lists place Nahata as a branch of the older Bafna gotra, others list it as a gotra of its own.
Name and Origin
The chapter on social divisions in the Jainworld history of Jainism (Dr K. C. Jain and team) says that in 1120 AD the acharya Jinadatta Suri, after addressing Jobana and Sachchu, established the Bahuphana gotra, and that the descendants of the line did not move from the battlefield and were therefore called Nahata. The same chapter also offers a second suggestion for the Bahuphana name, a man called Bappanaga. This is a community and devotional history and gives no contemporary document for the story. The oswals.net page on Bafna, which tells a related story of two Panwar princes, names Nahata among the Bafna sub-gotras and says a Bafna gotra made by the Panwars is not the same as the Bafna listed second among the first eighteen Oswal gotras.
Historical Journey
The Jainworld chapter records a Nahata in a dated temple inscription: in 1439 AD Majana of the Nahata gotra built a devakulika (a small shrine) of the Vimalanatha temple at Karahada through the monk Manjanasagara Suri. A 1329 AD inscription in the same chapter names Mokhada of the Bahuphana gotra, which shows the parent gotra was already in use a century earlier. In the 20th century the Nahata family of Bikaner became known for the Abhay Jain Granthagar, a private collection of more than 85,000 books, manuscripts and works of art; Wikipedia's article on Harakh Chand Nahata (1936 to 1999), who led the Khartargachha Mahasangh from 1990, says his uncle Agar Chand Nahata and his brother Bhanwar Lal Nahata were authorities on Prakrit literature. Whether every Nahata family descends from the Bahuphana line is not shown by these sources.
How the Gotra Is Kept
The gotra is exogamous as in other Oswal clans. The Bikaner family named above belongs to the Khartargachha, a Jain monastic line. Other Nahata families may follow other gachchhas. No kuldevi common to Nahata families is documented in the sources I found; the oswals.net page names Sachiya Mata of Osian for the Bafna gotra, and a Nahata family should check whether its own line keeps that goddess or another.
Presence Across Regions
Bikaner
Oswal Jain
The Nahata family of Bikaner keeps the Abhay Jain Granthagar, a collection of manuscripts and books, per Wikipedia's article on Harakh Chand Nahata.
Notable Personalities
Harakh Chand Nahata
1936 to 1999
President of the Akhil Bharatiya Shree Jain Shwetamber Khartargachha Mahasangh from 1990, born into the Nahata family of Bikaner, per Wikipedia (which cites the Nahata Group and news reports).