There are many theories and legendary stories about the history of Kadva Patidars (Kurmis, Kanabis). According to the most believable theory, based on the historical records and credible evidence, Kadva Patidars roots go all the way to the origin of Hindus. According to the same theory, Hindus came to India from the Pamir region on the Ayu River in Central Asia (in Azerbaijan) via the Caucasus Mountain and Afghanistan (see right image). At that time they were called Aryans (not Hindus) and they worshiped life-sustaining elements like sun, wind, fire, and rain, etc. They believed in one God “BRAHAMAN”. Their religion was known as Aryan Dharma, Sanatan Dharma, or Vedic Dharma, but not Hindu Dharma.
When the Aryans came to India they settled in the plains of a big river that they named Sindhu (which means big like an ocean). With time, the Aryans got integrated, socially, culturally, vocationally, and religiously, with the natives living there. Together, they established a well-organized and developed settlement that became known as Sindhu Valley Civilization, also known as Indus Valley or Harappa Civilization.
Sindhu Valley civilization is the mother civilization of Hindus and Kadva Patidars (and most of the North Indians). It was established between BC7000 and BC2000 and started shrinking in BC1600. It covered 1.2 million square kilometers (400,000 square miles) from Kashmir in the North to Godavari River in the South and from Delhi in the East to the Arabian Sea in the West. It was a most advanced civilization with farming, commerce, and social amenities. Its inhabitants had established standards, based on the decimal systems, for weight, length, area, and volume measurements. They had engineering and technical skills for transportation, farming equipment, metalworking, and town planning. They had a language with 26 readable and writable characters. It was written from left to right. They were followers of Shiva.
Later on, that area became known as the Punjab area, also known as Saptasindhu Valley (currently some part is in India and some in Pakistan). While Aryans were in the Sindhu Valley, they established trades with Mesopotamia and Iran. Those people cannot pronounce the sound of “S” instead they say the sound of “H”. They started referring to the people of Sindhu Valley as “Hindu”. This is how Aryans became Hindus. With time the Hindu society, settled in the Sindhu Valley, got divided into four social classes by profession as described below:
1. Brahmins: Provided education and religious services
2. Kshatriya: Protected (during wars) and ruled the society
3. Vaishya: Conducted businesses and commerce
4. Shudra: Did manual work and served the other three groups
Later on, the Kshatriya class got divided into three sub-classes, Rajan Kshatriya (Kings and leaders), Kshatriya (worriers), and Kurmi Kshatriya. The Kurmi Kshatriya did farming during peacetime and helped the army during the war times. Later they became known only as Kurmis, working on farms (growing food and raising cows for the benefit of the entire society). All Patidars are descendants of those Kurmis.
Starting in the year BC1000, foreign invaders from the West (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, etc.) started attacking the people settled in the Punjab area and robbing, torturing, killing, and destroying houses, farms, and temples. This forced the Kurmis and others to leave the Punjab area and migrate to the eastern and southern parts of India. Some Kurmi groups migrated to and settled in North Gujarat (near the Unza area) and continued farming occupation. Not to forget the origin of their ancestors, they adopted their last names (family names) based on the town name (in Punjab) where they lived before migrating.
While in Punjab, those Kurmis who lived in the Karad area of Punjab (Gujranwala) were known as Karad Kurmi and those who lived in the Leu area were known as Leu Kurmi.
With time and migration to the south, the “Karad” word got distorted to “Kadva” and the “Kurmi” word got distorted to “Kanabi”. Thus Karad Kurmi became Kadva Kanabi and Leu Kurmi became Leuva Kanabi. While settled in North Gujarat, Kadva Kanabis made Unza the center of the community and established a Temple of Umiya Mataji, their family goddess.
In the 17th Century, the Kanabi community requested to call them Patidars, which means managing leased land (mostly from kings). This changed Kadva Kanabi to Kadva Patidar. When Gujarat was taken over by Muslim kings, they started torturing the public. To escape from the torture and shortage of the farming land, some Kadva Patidar families migrated from North Gujarat to other parts of Gujarat. Some of them adopted a new last name (based on the name of the town they lived in North Gujarat), while others kept the original last name.
When the Patidars started owning land, they adopted the title of “Patel”, a short form of the “Patidar” word. Other populace started referring to Patidars as Patel caste. (Kadva Patidars as Kadva Patels). However, the word Patidar is still a very popular and frequently used word for Kurmis/Kanabis. Recently, some of Kadva and Leuva Patidars have adopted “Patel” as their last name.
To continue to prosper, some Kadva Patidars migrated to other parts of the world including Africa, UK, USA, Malaysia, Canada, and Australia.
Early Patidar ancestors, being farmers, were providers, of all the basic life necessities to the entire population. That is the reason; Patidars are also called caretakers of the world.
As described above, our ancestors migrated, from Central Asia to Sindhu Valley, to Ganges Plains, to North Gujarat in search of peace and prosperity. Wherever they went, they prospered due to their hard work, dedication to society, resilience to torture, adventurous nature, and having skills to survive in any circumstances.
Late in the 18th century, Kadva Patidars ancestors understood that education was the central spine of social reform and progress. That gave them an appetite for education. They poured money into building educational institutions and providing scholarships and other encouragements for education. This revolutionized and modernized the entire Kadva Patidar community and helped the community to transform the ensuing generations from simple farmers to industrialists, businessmen, doctors, engineers, accountants, scientists, professors, teachers, soldiers, writers, and politicians. The current Kadva Patidar generation is a result of the education euphoria that started less than 130 years ago.
Early in the 19th century, Kadva Patidars started Kadva Patidar conventions to uplift and modernize the community. Such conventions inspired the entire Kadva Patidar community to get an education and to reform the old social customs (such as child marriage, bride selling, multiple wives, and expensive funeral ceremony) which were holding them back. Many Patidar /Kurmi publications were also catalysts for this transformation.
Once we comprehend Kadva Patidars triumph based on their history, migration hardships, their social progress, changes in their lifestyles and living standard, their appetite for education, and their forward-thinking, we can not help ourselves but be proud of our rich and inspiring history and heritage.
Therefore, do not let anyone fool you, nor let anyone put you down. We, Kadva Patidars are not uneducated hillbillies anymore. Our history is very rich and inspiring. Our ancestors struggled to put us in our current state. They never tortured anyone, killed any masses, robed people and destroyed their homes, destroyed any places of worship, or forced anyone to convert his/her religion. There is nothing in the history of Kadva Patidars that is to be ashamed of. Instead, it gives us pride in being descendants of our ancestors.
With Umiya Mataji’s blessings, we, Kadva Patidars, will continue our march for peace and prosperity that our ancestors started a long time ago.