Asati

Asati is a merchant community in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India.

It is said that the Asatis originally hailed from a village near Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and later shifted to around Damoh in Madhya Pradesh. They subsequently migrated throughout the Bundelkhand region.^[1]

History

In some texts the name is given as Asahati or Asaiti.^[1]

Navalshah Chanderia, who wrote Vardhamana Purana in 1768 AD at Khataura, included the Asati community among the eleven merchant communities that are partly Jain.^{[2][original research?]} Russel and Hiralal in 1916 also mention a minority being Jain.^[3] Brahmachari Sitalprasad, in his introduction to an edition of the Mamala Pahuda (Taranpanthi Jain text) wrote that one of his used manuscripts was copied in an Asahati temple in 1624.^[1] The Taran Panth is followed by members of six communities in Bundelkhand, Asati being one of them.

The community celebrates an annual Asati Diwas.^[4]

Notable figures

Ganeshprasad Varni, one of the foundational figures of the modern North-Indian Digambar intellectual tradition during early 20th century was born into an Asati family.^[5][6]

See also

• Gahoi
• Golapurva