Doshi

This article is about the Indian surname. For the Japanese village, see Doshi, Yamanashi.

Doshi is a fairly common surname in India. While the roots can be traced back a few hundred years, the origin of the name is still a matter of much dispute. There were two different stories- one is from the History Of Oswals basically from Rajastan.

1. As per “Oswal Jain Gyati Mahodya”(ancient book on history of Oswals)in the year 160 AD at the city named Bhatia (old name of Jaisalmer)in Rajasthan , it was the kingdom of Bhati Rajputs. Its capital was Lodarva.(now a well known Jain Teerth) Heer Singh Sonigara Rajput was the rular of this state. Thakur Heer Singh Sonigara had no son so he prayed the Kshetrapal (A loka devata-local god) to give him a son, in return he would spend 1,25,000 gold coins on his temple. When he got a son, he named him as Khetal on the name of Kshetrapal Singh Sonigara. After some time the Kshetrapal Singh Sonigara (A loka devata) wanted more and more chadhaava; Heer Singh Sonigara could not collect so much of money so he was helpless. When Kshetrapal Singh Sonigara was of 8 years then Kshetrapal became furious. He entered the body of Kshetrapal Singh Sonigara and began to create nuisance and violence in whole of Jaisalmer. When Heer Singh Sonigara heard about the arrival of Jain Acharya Jindutt Suri, he prayed the Acharya to help him. Acharya poured some mantrit water on Kshetrapal Singh Sonigara and charmed Navkar Mantra-Namokar Mantra There was peace in whole Jaisalmer. Heer Singh Sonigara adopted Jainism and converted into Oswals. His gotra was named Doshi for the fault he did, other Rajputs were named Sonigara according to their original caste. The one minister of Heer Singh Sonigara was Pithal so his family was named Pithalia. In Vikrama Samvata 222(165 AD) a big Mahajan community gathered in Khandela near Jaipur. At that time all Mahajans of Osiya were named as Oswal and all Gotra became part of Oswal.

2. Another one is a popular Gujarati story which Narsinh Mehta mentions the Hindu deity Krishna appearing as a doshi vanio. A doshi was somebody who carried a dosh, or a sack of grocery/clothes, to sell as he wandered. This is similar to another translation of doshi as a rough cloth seller. Most Gujaratis believe this is the true story behind the last name "Doshi"

3. A third possibility is a direct translation, taken literally from the Hindu word dosh (meaning in this case guilt), defines doshi as someone who has been found guilty of a crime. A historical anecdote uses this definition of the word to explain how people assumed the name. According to Kishor Doshi, former President of the Houston Jain Society, the research he has done on this topic indicates Doshi was a last name given by a sixteenth century king in Gujarat to all of his subjects who did not participate in a compulsory census. He pronounced them guilty, or in Gujarati, doshi theravya. Not many people believe in this possibility given the fact that the whole state of Gujarat was never under the rule of one king. The present day Gujarat is the result of a merger of tens of princely kingdoms.

References

1.Oswal Jain Gyati Mahadaya 2.DOSHI

External links