History-5
History of our samaj-5
As a token of appreciation the king gave the Parajiya's the right to rule the kingdom of Siddhpur Pattan for a period of three and half days. Shree Nandaji Chavda became the king of Gujarat and Shree Gangaji Chauhan become his prime minister for a period of three and half days.
During this time a Royal Coin was issued in the name of Shree Nandaji Chavda. As the king he gave lot charity to the poor and the needy.
He also granted the farmers freedom from that year's tax. He also reduced the octroi for the Businessmen and made many more changes which were helpful to the subjects of the kingdom.
He appreciated the work of the Royal office bearers for doing a fine job of implementing the Royal decree. He released all the beggars and eunuch's kept in the jails. It is said that since that day no beggar or eunuch has the right to accept or ask for alms from the people of Parajiya Soni Samaj.
On the Third day of ruling Shree Nandaji Chavda honored the King Siddhraj and offerred him his most beloved Black Stallion in gift and returned the kingdom . As a remembrance of this event the King Siddhraj proclaimed that henceforth the descendants of Shree Nandaji Chavda shall be known as the Patels (elders) of Parajiya Soni Samaj. Shree Gangaji Chavda and his descendants were given the degree of Patlaiyee ( Lordship of particular territories) their escendants ,i.e., the Patt's , Dhorda's, Bhindi's and the Lodhiya's are also known as Patels. Since then the Parajiya's started practicing their craft of goldsmith along with the Gurjar Soni's. They were also accepted as warriors, craftsmen, advisors, wise-men, faithful, loyal and sincere people by the society.
In the year 1101 AD that is in the sixth year of coming into Siddhpur Pattan some of the Parajiyas decided to resettle themselves in the Sorath / Khatiyawar area of the Gujarat. But due to enemity between the two kings of that time they were not permitted to cross the border. But the persistent and clever Parajiyas managed to achieve what they set out to do and settled themselves in Kathiyawar.
Some of the Parajiyas settled themselves in Gharana village and hence came to be also known as Gharana Soni's or Girnara Soni's. They kept spreading themselves all over the Khatiyawar and slowly created & merged into new communities. Their kept their memory of their origin alive and kept the purity of their blood by avoiding inter caste marriages and kept following their traditions and rituals. Thus they ended up being Independent communities and came to be known as Girnara Parajiya Soni.
After the death of King Siddhraj the prince Paadraj took over the rule. The Jains were favored by the new King therefore the Jains gradually became to be more influential and powerful. These lead to lost of mistrust and the parajiyas settled there decided to migrate to Kutch area of Gujarat. At that time the people of the Kutch region were being harassed
by dacoits. The brave Parajiyas solved the problem with their might and acumen and resettled themselves as Parajiya Soni 's and developed their business.
The wealthy among the community offered the Parajiyas money and right to protect the community from the problem of the Dacoits and Looting. When this word reached the King of the Kutch, he welcomed the parajiya's with pomp & splendor. He gave them twelve villages as a token of appreciation.
The Parajiyas revived the ancient culture of these villages and set up three more villages viz. Parjav, Devaiya and Happa In Naliya Taluka of todays Gujarat The Kshatriyas of Songadha came to be known as Parajiya Sonis. When they settled in other regions they came to be known by distinctive names viz. Parajiya Pattni Soni, Garana Soni, Kutchi Soni & Sindhi Parajiya Soni
These communites of Parajiya Soni's have been goldsmiths in Gujarat for the last 1500 years. The last 800 yrs they have made Saurashtra & Kutch as their new homeland and have been living with complete peace & harmony since then Today there are approximately 51 sub - castes of the above mentioned first three Soni Castes. The total population of Parajiya Soni's is estimated to be around 1,30,000 settled all over the world.
For the information provided above we have been assisted by helpful contributions made by Shree Sagarkumar Ranabhai Barot and Shree Natubhai Bhimjibhai Barot. We hope the person going through this information is enlightened and made more aware of the illustrious history of the Parajiya Soni's.
We appeal to the elders of our community to come forward and assist us in making this website more richer in content by their valuable contributions. We have tried to be true to the history as far as possible