The Kharola or kharol are a
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
Rajput caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
found in the state of
Rajasthan and Uttarakhand in
India.
History and origin
The Kharol community is historically associated with the occupation of salt making. In the local language,
Rajasthani
Rajasthani may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India
* Rajasthani languages, a group of languages spoken there
* Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the region
* Rajasthani architecture
* Rajasthani art ...
, the word khar means cotton, and a kandera means someone who works with cotton. They are from
Rajput ancestry. They are said to have migrated from
Delhi to
Ajmer.And some of them had migrated to the mountains, of Uttarakhand. The community speak the
Mewari , Garhwali dialect.
Present circumstances
The community are divided into two endogamous divisions, namely the Rajput and Todwala. These two divisions are sub-divided
gotra
In Hindu culture, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) is considered to be equivalent to lineage. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally, the gotra fo ...
s, and they maintain gotra exogamy.The Kharol are no longer involved in their traditional occupation of manufacturing salt, and are mainly involved in agriculture, being landless labourers.
[People of India Rajasthan Volume XXXVIII Part Two edited by B.K Lavania, D. K Samanta, S K Mandal & N.N Vyas pages 532 to 535 Popular Prakashan]
References
{{reflist
Social groups of Rajasthan
Indian castes