Agrawal

]

Many Agrawals have adopted their gotra name as their surname. Many others use surnames linked with the place of their origin. Eg: Jhunjhunwala, Kediya, Gindodiya etc. Many Agarwals have also adopted the surname Gupta.

According to the legend, the Agrawal community developed twenty rules of conduct. Those who followed all the twenty rules were called "Bisa" Agrawal, those who followed only ten rules were called "Dassa" Aggarwals, those who followed only five were called "Punja" Agarwals and so on.cite web
url=http://www.agraniapex.com/menus/Evolutionofsamaj.asp
title=Evolution of Agrawal Samaj
accessdate=2007-04-19] According to some sources, the "dasa" Agrawals are said to be the descendants of Agrawals through non-Agrawal wives. .

In his book "Agarwalon ki Utpatti", Bhartendu Harishchandra categorized Agrawals in four branches according to their places or inhabitation:
# Marwaris
# Deswal
# Purabiye (Easterners)
# Pachihiye (Westerners)

Culture

The Agrawal community generally speaks Hindi or its dialects. Many Agrawals have been notable Hindi authors like Bhartendu Harishchandra, Babu Gulabrai and Vasudev Sharan Agrawal . Some of the popular Hindi newspapers and publishing houses are run by Agrawals. These include The Times of India, Indian Express, Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar etc. Older generations of Agrawals living in Haryana, Delhi and western UP often speak Hindi with a Haryanvi accent. Agrawals from Rajasthan traditionally speak Rajasthani or Marwari, those in Punjab, speak Punjabi.

Agrawals have traditionally been strictly vegetarian and non-alcoholic, though some have changed in the modern times.

Distinguished Agrawals

Notes

I. Note_label|A|I|none Many alternative spellings include Agrewal, Agrawal, Agarwal, Agarwala, Aggarwal etc.

External links

* [http://www.agrasen.com www.agrasen.com] , a community portal for Agrawals including matrimony
* [http://www.agarwal.org www.agarwal.org] , a common Agarwal networking site
* [http://www.agarwaltoday.com www.AgarwalToday.com] , a monthly publication focussing on the Agarwal community.
* [http://www.aggarwals.com Aggarwals.com] , a community site for Agarwals
* [http://www.agrawal.com Agrawal.com] , daily blogs for the Agrawal community

References