Rejecting violence: Sacrifice and the social identity of trading communities

Abstract

In recent decades Agravāl leaders have been promoting a centre for caste pilgrimage at Agroha, the supposed place of Agravāl origin, and an associated Agravāl origin myth. Analysis reveals that this origin myth belongs to a class of similar origin myths found among North Indian trading castes. The central element in these myths is the ancient rite of sacrifice. The origin myths of the Khandelvāl Vaiśyas. Māheśvarıs, and Khandelvāl Jains all attempt to show how the caste in question acquired its current identity and social persona because of an alienation from the sacrifice, followed by a restoration to the rite on a new basis (or in the case of the Jains, a shift to an alternative ritual order). Variants of the Agravāl origin myth being publicised currently are often presented in a context suggesting social and scientific modernity, but underlying contemporary retellings we find the same sacrificial symbolism seen in the myths of other trading castes.