Aggarwals - History Culture Meeting Sharing

Large membership, but not many active people?

ashok.aggarwal — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:09:00 GMT

This site has gained a fairly large membership, but people don't seem to be posting or collaborating much...

Please, message me or post a question if you are having issues. You can contact from my blog at www.mraggarwal.com.

Are you wondering how to use this site? How to participate?

ashok.aggarwal — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:10:00 GMT

I notice we have a lot of users, but we want more interaction and collaboration between members of our community. If you do not know how to use the site, send me a private message. You can do this by following the below link and clicking "Private Message" next to my name (ashok.aggarwal):

http://aggarwals.com/user/Members.aspx?search=1&t=ashok.aggarwal&st=all&su=1&se=1&s=All&sb=1&so=1

I look forward to hearing from you!

What would you like to see out of this site?

ashok.aggarwal — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:10:00 GMT

I wanted to place a post here so people could share their thoughts on what they would like to see on this site. Please, share in the comments...and perhaps we will move the discussion to the forums at some point.

Are All Gupta's Decendents of King Agrasen?

ashok.aggarwal — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:37:00 GMT

Someone posed this question to me yesterday. After some research, I verified that although many Guptas are indeed "Aggarwals", not all people with the last name Gupta is. Of course, every Aggarwal belongs to a Gotra -- many Guptas have an Aggarwal Gotra, but some do not.

Aggarwals.com - Tell Your Friends

ashok.aggarwal — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:00:00 GMT

This is an great place to be! We have released our 4th version of Agagrwals.com, now with all kinds of comunity features like blogging, file download, image galleries, and FORUMS.

Use the forums (any registered user can publish). If you have a topic you are passionate about, drop me a message and I will get a blog created just for you where you can publish information.

An Aggarwal and Gupta Meet

ashok.aggarwal — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:17:00 GMT

I met my college roommate and dear friend one sunny day of my freshman year of college. Once we introduced names, he quickly asserted that we must be brothers. Being that this is a small world, it turned out our extended families lived in close vicinity in India and that indeed, through a distant relationship, a few years later one of my family members married one of his. It is funny to think back to when we first shook hands...

Maharaj Agrasen

ashok.aggarwal — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:23:00 GMT

The icon of non-violence, messenger of Peace, Emperor Agrasen was the eldest son of King Ballabh of Pratapnagar. King Ballabh was a Suryavamshi ( lineage from the Sun). According to the Mahalakshmi Vrath, the age then was the last stages of Dvaapar Yug. The birth of Maharaj Agrasen took place about 5185 years ago according to the current calendar. Even when he was very young, Prince Agrasen was well known for his compassion. He never discriminated against anyone and the subjects were very pleased with the way he conducted himself.

When Agrasen became a young man, he attended the Swyamvara of the daughter of the King Nagaraj, Princess Madhavi. Many kings from around the world attended including Indra, the King of the Devas. In the Swayamvara, Princess Madhavi selected Prince Agrasen, by putting the garland on him. This marriage merged two different family cultures, because Prince Agrasen was a Suryavanshi and Princess Madhavi was a Naagavanshi.

Indra, the King of the Devas had been smitten by the beauty of Princess Madhavi and had planned to marry her. However, he became very jealous and angry at Agrasen for ruining his plans. To get revenge against Agrasen, Indra also known as the Lord of Rain made sure that Pratap Nagar did not receive any rainfall and famine struck the Pratap Nagar kingdom. Emperor Agrasen then waged war against Indra, and because he had dharma on his side, his army vanquished Indra's forces and put them to flight. Faced with this situation, Indra approached Narada (the celestial sage) for mediation between him and Emperor Agrasen. Narada was able to negotiate peace between them.

Agrasen was became concerned with maintaining a long lasting peace to end the enmity. So Agrasen went to the city of Kashi and started penance to propitiate Lord Shiva. Pleased with the severe penance of Agrasen, Lord Shiva appeared in front of him and advised him to propitiate Shri Mahalakshmi. Maharaj Agrasen began meditating on Shri. Mahalakshmi. Goddess Mahalakshmi was pleased with the dedication of Maharaj Agrasen and appeared before him. Goddess Mahalakshmi blessed Agrasen and suggested that he take up the Vaishya tradition of business for the sake of the prosperity of his people and give up his Kshatriya tradition. Additionally, she requested that he establish a new kingdom in return for her eternal presence with with his descendants.

With the blessings of Sri Mahalakhmi, King Agrasen toured all of Bharat (India) . During his travels, he found a few tiger cubs and wolf cubs playing together. To King Agrasen and Queen Madhavi, this was an auspicious indication that the area was Veerabhoomi (land of the brave), and they decided to found their new kingdom at that location. The new kingdom was named Agroha. In due course, Agroha became prosperous and the influence of King Agrasen was felt in all neighboring areas as well. Trade, agriculture and industry flourished and the fame of King Agrasen spread far and wide.

Maharaj Agrasen, performed many yagnas (sacrifices) for the prosperity of his people. In those days, performing a yagna was a symbol of prosperity. During one such yagna, Maharaj Agrasen noticed that a horse that had been brought to be sacrificed was trying hard to get away from the sacrificial altar. Maharaj Agrasen was filled with pity and thought about what prosperity can be achieved by sacrificing mute animals. The idea of Ahimsa came into Maharaj Agrasen's mind, and the King discussed it with his ministers. The ministers advised Maharaj Agrasen that Ahimsa could be considered by neighboring kingdoms as a sign of weakness and encourage them to attack Agroha. Maharaj Agrasen felt that putting an end to violence and injustice does not show weakness. Thus, he proclaimed that there would be no violence and killing of animals in his kingdom.

Maharaj Agrasen proceeded to conduct 18 Maha Yagnas. He divided his kingdom among his 18 children and established the 18 gotras after the guru's of each of his children. These same 18 gotras are like the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavadgita; although they differ, they are still related to each other to form the whole. Under this arrangement, Agroha prospered very well and flourished. In the latter part of his life, Maharaj Agrasen nominated his eldest son Vibhu to the throne and took up the Vanaprasth Ashram.

The neighboring kings were envious of Agroha because of its prosperity, thus they frequently attacked it. Because of these aggressions, Agroha faced numerous plights. In due course, the strength of Agroha was sapped. A huge fire engulfed the city causing the citizens to flee and disperse into various areas of Bharat. Today, these people are known as Aggarwals. They still have the same 18 gotras that were given to them by their gurus, and they carry on the fame of Maharaj Agrasen. As per Maharaj Agrasen's guidance, the Aggarwals are in the forefront of social service.

Credits: I am not sure of the original author of this as I found the same text in multiple places, but agrawal.org/maharaj.htm is one.

Welcome to the new Aggarwals Portal!

ashok.aggarwal — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 21:39:00 GMT

We have established this latest portal (this is the third iteration -- we've been around for a long time in terms of the Internet) with the entire Aggarwal community in mind. Each user can participate in the blogs, forums, and galleries. It also serves the purpose of allowing private groups to be created for sub-communities that might want to collaborate with one another.

Aggarwal, Agarwal, or Agrawal History and Information

ashok.aggarwal — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:08:00 GMT

There are around 4 million Aggarwals in the world today.

The name Aggarwal is derived from Agroha (Sanskrit Agrotaka), the original center of the Aggarwals, which is near Hisar in Haryana. From the Hisar region, Aggarwal descendants have migrated mostly to Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Western Uttar Pradesh, but they can also be found in other parts of India. Those living in Shekhawati region in Rajasthan are generally called Marwari.

Maharaj Agrasen, who lived around 5,150 years ago had 18 children. The names associated with Gotras (and variations thereof) come from each of the childrens' gurus and many of them serve as the surnames of the Aggarwal community today: Mittal, Bansal, Singhal, Jindal, Kansal, Airan, Tingal, Bindal, Garg, Goyal, Goyan, Mangal, Dharan, Madhukul, Tayal, Bhandal, Kucchal and Naagil. All eighteen of these names are synonymous with the Aggarwal surname.

Namaste...Revisited

ashok.aggarwal — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:58:00 GMT

When you look at the deeper meaning of Namaste (deeper than the normal "hello" and "goodbye"), it reminds you how nice the gesture truly is:

In, Sanskrit "namah" means "bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration" and "te" means "you". A literal translation of namah te is thus "reverential salutation to you." It is commonly accompanied by a slight bow made with the hands pressed together, palms touching, in front of the chest.

In a religious context this word can be taken to mean any of these:

The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you.
I greet that place where you and I are one.
I salute the Light of God in you.
I bow to the divine in you.
I recognize that within each of us is a place where Divinity dwells, and when we are in that place, we are One.
My higher energy salutes your higher energy.

In the end, the gesture recognizes the equality of all, and pays honor to the sacredness and interconnection of all, as well as to the source of that interconnection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste