Pride story - Maharaja Agrasen

Maharaja Agrasen was a great Indian king (Maharaja) of Agroha, a city of traders. Maharaja Agrasen was born in a Kshatriya family. Maharaja Agrasen (4250 BC to 637 AD) was a promoter of Vedic socialism, Yug Purush, supporter of Ram Rajya, great donor and the first promoter of socialism. He was the Maharaja of a republic named Agrodaya. Whose capital was Agroha.

According to religious beliefs, he was born 5143 years ago in the last days of Suryavanshi Maharaja Vallabh Sen and in the beginning of Kali Yuga. He was the king of entire Khandavprastha, Ballabhgarh, Agra Janapada (today's Delhi, Ballabhgarh and Agra). No one was sad or helpless in his rule. He was very popular among his subjects since childhood. He was a religious, peace messenger, people loving, anti-violence, one who stopped the practice of sacrifice, a repository of compassion, a kind king who loved and cared for all living beings. He was the eldest son of King Ballabh of Ballabhgarh and Agra, elder brother of Shursen. Maharaja Agrasen belongs to the 34th generation of Kush, son of Lord Rama. At the age of 15, Agrasen fought the Mahabharata war on the side of the Pandavas. Lord Krishna has commented that Agrasenji will be a Yug Purush and incarnation in Kali Yuga who will soon come after the end of Dwapar Yuga. Agrasen was a Vaishya king of the Solar dynasty who adopted the Vanika Dharma for the benefit of his people. Literally, Agrawal means "children of Agrasen" or "people of Agroha", a town in ancient Haryana near Hisar in the region of Kuru Panchala founded by Agrasen.

According to the account of Bhartendu Harishchandra, Maharaja Agrasen was a Suryavanshi Kshatriya king, born in the last stages of Dvapara Yuga in the Mahabharata epic period, a contemporary of Lord Krishna. He was the son of King Vallabh Deva who was a descendant of Kush (Lord Rama's son). He was also a descendant of the Suryavanshi King Mandhata. Agrasen founded 18 gotras which are based on the names of 18 sages from whom the Agrawal gotras came into existence.

Biography

Agrasen participated in the swayamvara of Madhavi, daughter of King Nagaraj Kumud. However, Indra, the god of heaven and also the lord of storms and rains, wanted to marry Madhavi, but she chose Agrasen as her husband. Because of this, Indra became furious and decided to ensure that there would be no rain in Pratapnagar. As a result, a famine struck the kingdom of Agrasen, who then decided to wage war against Indra. Sage Narada approached Indra, who mediated peace between Agrasen and Indra. As per the advice of Maharshi Garg, he married Sundarvati to increase his wealth and health.

Marriage

In his youth, he was invited to attend the swayamvar of Princess Madhavi, daughter of King Nagraj. Many kings and princes from far and wide had come to that swayamvar. Even the king of gods, Indra, had come there, captivated by the beauty of the princess. Princess Madhavi garlanded Prince Agrasen at the swayamvar. It was a union of two different sects, castes and cultures. While Agrasen was a Suryavanshi, Madhavi was a daughter of the Nagavanshi.

Conflict with Indra

This marriage made Indra jealous and angry and he stopped rain in Pratapnagar. There was chaos everywhere. People started dying prematurely. Then King Agrasen waged a war against Indra. Since Agrasen was fighting a dharma-yuddha, he had the upper hand. Seeing this, the gods made sage Narad the mediator and got the two reconciled.

Penance

After some time, Maharaja Agrasen went to Kashi city and did severe penance of Lord Shiva for the well-being of his subjects, which pleased Lord Shiva and he advised him to do penance of Maa Lakshmi. Maa Lakshmi, pleased with the penance done for charity, appeared before him and told him to establish a new kingdom and follow the Kshatriya Dharma and protect his kingdom and subjects! His kingdom will always be full of wealth and grains.

Seventeen and a half clans

The Maharaj divided his kingdom into 18 Ganas and established 18 Gotras in the name of 18 Gurus. Despite each Gotra being different, they all remained part of the same family. Due to this reason, Agroha could also make all-round progress. By taking one representative from each of those 18 Ganas of the kingdom, he established a democratic state, the form of which is visible today in the current democratic system. The 18 Gotras of Agrawals are as follows -

1. Garg

2. Goyal

3. Kucchal

4. Kansal

5. Bindal

6. Dharan

7. Singhal

8. Jindal

9. Mittal

10. Tingal

11. Tayal

12. Bansal

13. Bhandal

14. Nangal

15. Mangal

16. Airan

17. Madhukul

18. Goyan

Establishment of Agrodak Republic

For the establishment of his new kingdom, Maharaja Agrasen toured the whole of India with his queen Madhavi. During this time, he saw a lioness giving birth to a cub at one place, it is said that as soon as it was born, the cub immediately jumped on Maharaja Agrasen's elephant thinking it to be a danger for its mother. He felt that this was a divine message which was indicating him to establish a kingdom on this Veerbhoomi. On the advice of sages and astrologers, the new state was named Agrayagan or Agrodaya and the place where the cub was born was established as the capital of Agrodaya, Agroha. This place is near Hisar in present-day Haryana. Even today, this place is worshipped as the fifth Dham for the Agrawal community. Presently, the Agroha Vikas Trust has provided facilities to the people of the Agrawal community by building very beautiful temples, dharamshalas, etc.

Pioneer of Socialism

Maharaja Agrasen is called the pioneer of socialism. To establish true socialism in his area, he made a rule that to help every family coming from outside and settling in his city, every family of the city will give them a coin of the current currency and a brick, so that the newcomer family can easily arrange for a place to live and business for themselves. Maharaja Agrasen gave birth to a new system in opposition to the monarchical system of governance. He again implemented the basic principles of Vedic Sanatan Aryan culture and took up the task of reestablishing moral values ​​along with the development of agriculture-business, industry, cow rearing in the reorganization of the state.

In this way, during the reign of Maharaja Agrasen, the Agrodaya Republic progressed by leaps and bounds. It is said that at the time of its peak prosperity, lakhs of traders used to live there. The families settled in the state would gift one rupee and one brick as help to the newly arrived family, thus the newcomer would get lakhs of rupees and bricks to establish himself and he could start his business without any worries.

Eighteen Yajnas

With the blessings of Mata Mahalakshmi, Maharaja Agrasen divided his kingdom into 18 republics and created a huge kingdom, which was named after them as Agrey Republic or Agrodaya. Maharishi Garg made Maharaja Agrasen take a pledge to perform 18 yagyas with 18 Ganaadhipatis. The 18 and a half gotras (Aggarwal and Rajvanshi Samaj) of Agravansh were established in the name of these 18 Ganaadhipatis who sat in the yagyas. At that time, animal sacrifice was mandatory in yagyas. Garg Rishi himself became the priest of the first yagy, initiated the eldest prince Vibhu and gave him the mantra of Garg gotra. Similarly, the second yagy was conducted by Gobhil Rishi and the second Ganaadhipati was given Goyal gotra. In the third yagna Gautam Rishi made him adopt the Goin gotra, in the fourth Vatsa Rishi made him adopt Bansal gotra, in the fifth Kaushik Rishi made him adopt Kansal gotra, in the sixth Shandilya Rishi made him adopt Singhal gotra, in the seventh Mangal Rishi made Mangal gotra, in the eighth Jaimin made Jindal gotra, in the ninth Tandya Rishi made Tingal gotra, in the tenth Aurva Rishi made Airan gotra, in the eleventh Dhoumya Rishi made him adopt Dharan gotra, in the twelfth Mudgal Rishi made Mandal gotra, in the thirteenth Vasishtha Rishi made Bindal gotra, in the fourteenth Maitreya Rishi made Mittal gotra, in the fifteenth Kashyap Rishi made Kuchhal gotra. 17 yagnas had been completed. When live animals were being sacrificed in the 18th yagna, Maharaja Agrasen was disgusted by seeing that scene. He stopped the yagna midway and said that in future no person of my kingdom will sacrifice animals in yagna, neither will kill animals, nor will eat meat and every person of the kingdom will protect all living beings. Influenced by this incident, he adopted the religion of non-violence. Here in the last and eighteenth yagna, the yagnacharya declared animal sacrifice to be mandatory, it was said that if it is not done, the gotra will remain incomplete, but on the orders of Maharaja Agrasen, Nagendra Rishi blessed the Naangal gotra in the eighteenth yagna. This gotra is considered half due to no animal sacrifice, thus even today in the Agrawal society, not 18 but 17 and a half gotras are prevalent.

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At that time, performing yajna was considered a sign of prosperity, grandeur and happiness. Maharaja Agrasen performed many yajnas. Once, he found the horse brought for sacrifice in the yajna very restless and scared. He thought what is the use of such prosperity which is drenched in the blood of innocent animals. At the same time, he banned animal sacrifice despite the unwillingness of his ministers. That is why even today the Agravansh community lives with non-violence.

His neighbouring kings were very jealous of the grandeur of Maharaja Agrasen's kingdom. That is why they used to attack Agroha again and again. Despite being defeated again and again, there was always tension in the kingdom due to them. Due to these wars, Agrasenji's works for the welfare of his subjects were disrupted. People were also scared and troubled by the daily fights. Along with this, once a huge fire broke out in Agroha. It could not be controlled in any way. Thousands of people became homeless due to that fire and settled in different parts of India in search of livelihood. But they did not give up their identity. Even today they prefer to be called Agrawal and have maintained their identity with the same 18 gotras. Even today they all follow the path shown by Maharaja Agrasen. Agroha was the capital of Maharaja Agrasen. Discipline was followed during his rule. People performed their duties with freedom and devotion.

Sanyas

Maharaj Agrasen ruled for 108 years. The values ​​of life that he adopted show a balanced harmony of tradition and experimentation. On one hand, he accepted the field of work prescribed for the Kshatriya Varna in the Hindu religious texts and on the other hand, he established new ideals in the context of time and place. There are basically three ideals of his life - democratic governance, economic equality and social equality. After attaining a certain age, in consultation with Kuldevi Mahalakshmi, he handed over the rule of the Agraya Republic to his eldest son Vibhu and went to do penance. In the last days of his life, the Maharaj handed over all the responsibilities to his eldest son Vibhu and adopted the Vanaprastha Ashram.

Even today, Maharaj Agrasen is mentioned in history as a very glorious, religious, tolerant, inspiring great man of socialism. Hospitals, schools, stepwells, Dharamshalas etc. at various places in the country are the basis of Agrasen's life values ​​and these life values ​​are symbols of human faith.

Agroha Dham

Agreya mentioned in ancient texts is the origin place of Agrawals, which is today's Agroha. Maharaja Agrasen is situated in Haryana, 190 km from Delhi and 20 km from Hisar, as a hamlet on the side of National Highway No. 10 Hisar-Sirsa bus route. This city, which was once the capital of Maharaja Agrasen, is today situated as an ordinary village with a population of five hundred families. Near it, the remains of the ancient capital Agrah (Agroha) are spread over 650 acres of land in the form of Teh. Which depicts the glorious history of Agrasen Maharaj's Agroha city.

Books on Agrasen Maharaj

By the way, countless books have been written on Maharaja Agrasen. The famous writer Bharatendu Harishchandra, who himself belonged to the Agrawal community, has written an authentic book named "Agrawalon ki Utpatti" in 1871, in which they have been described in detail. Ravi Prakash Rampur Uttar Pradesh wrote the book "Ek Rashtra Ek Jan" on Maharaja Agrasen, which also has a Hindi verse translation of Mahalakshmi Vrat Katha.

Honor by Government of India

On 24 September 1976, the Government of India issued a postage stamp of 25 paise in the name of Maharaja Agrasen. In 1995, the Government of India bought a special oil carrier (ship) from South Korea for Rs 350 crore, which was named "Maharaja Agrasen". Whose capacity is 1,80,0000 tons. National Highway -10 is officially named after Maharaja Agrasen.

Agrasen Ki Baoli, which is located on Hailey Road near Connaught Place in Delhi. It is a 60 meter long and 15 meter wide stepwell, which is under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India under the Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958. In 2012, a postage stamp was issued on Agrasen Ki Baoli by the Indian Post.

Other

According to a survey, more than 25% of the country's total income tax belongs to the descendants of Agrasen. Agrawals contribute 62% of the total social and religious donations. Out of the total 50,000 temples and pilgrimage sites and 16,000 cow shelters in India, 12,000 are run by the Agrawal Vaishya community. 25% of the contribution in India's development belongs to the descendants of Maharaja Agrasen, whose population is just 1% of the country's population. The grand Agrasen temple in Agroha, Hisar district, a pilgrimage site for the Agarwal and Rajvanshi community, was inaugurated on 31 October 1982 by the Chief Minister of Haryana, Hon. Shri Bhajan Lal.

The foundation of Agroha Dham was laid on 29 September 1976 and the construction work of Agrasen temple started on Vasant Panchami in January 1979.

The words 99 Vani Jay Nivasina are inscribed on a stone inscription dated 1384 Phalguni Sudi 5 Manar, found in Sarwan village near Delhi, which is preserved in the National Museum number B-6.