Posted by: chanaa_tarkaari December 10, 2009
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Pokhari, I think you are totally wrong. "Shrestha" is NOT a broader last name that many Newars can have similar to "Sharma". You can find Sharma Poudel, Upadhyaya Sharma etc. among bahuns, but have you seen any name Maharjan Shrestha, Tamrakar Shrestha, Sthapit Shrestha, Shahi Shrestha, etc.? Nor these lastnames are interchangeable as Sharma and Poudel, Sharma and Adhikari etc. are.
Shrestha is as specific as any other last name among Newars. Satyamohan Joshi's claim about its link to the Sanskrit word "Shresthi" is more reasonable as a lot of Shresthas are somehow related to business however, if the data is properly collected, I believe the majority of Shresthas are farmers.
I once asked to Late Ashakaji Nanicha, who had a lot of knowledge on Newar Society and history, about the Shresthas. He was a highly respected GURU of my grand father's generation. Unfortunately his knowledge is not well documented and his lifelong accumulated knowledge is lost together with his sad demise some 20 years ago.
He told me that Shrestha is relatively new category of last name emerged in Nepal after failure of King Jayasthiti Malla's attempt to impose the social restructuring based on Hindu Cast. The King was trying to divide the society into Bramhin, Kshetriya, Vaishya and Shudra after his visit to India. King Jayasthiti Malla brought 36 Bramhins from South India to Nepal and asked them to suggest cast-based restructuring of Nepalese society. The hierarchical structure suggested by those Bramhins (Bramhin > Kshetriya > Vaishya > Shudra) was hugely unpopular in Nepalmandal. A large group of people including some powerful Bhardars revolted against the King. The King somehow managed to control small groups who were classified into Shudra by assuring their professional rights and security of future generation but those who practiced Newar-buddhism and a large sector of Newars practicing hinduism rejected the division suggested by the King's Bramhins. Due to the mass rejection, there is no clear demarcation of brahmin, kshetriya, and vaishya among Newar population until now. Although it looks like Karmacharya, Guruvacharya, Rajopadhyaya, Mishra, Jha, Joshi, etc. (among Hindu) are in Brahmin category of Newars, some of them are more close to Shresthas too. I have also seen many Shresthas who have taken the bramhin education and do have rights and social acceptance to work as a bramhin in rituals. According to Late Ashakaji Nanicha, King Jayasthiti Malla awarded "Shrestha" last name to those powerful Bhardars who led the revolt against cast-based hierarchical division after consulting the Bramhins which was then adopted by the entire middle class newar population, mostly Hindu, who refused such cast-based division among Newars. Therefore the Shresthas are wide spread everywhere.
Your feeling of recent uprise of Shresthas is not due to change of lastname by so called lower cast but due to the reach of communication and exposure of Shresthas from every corner. Previously you might have heard about Shresthas from KTM only, but now Shresthas from Bandipur, Baglung, Ilam, Dhankuta, Dolakha, Chainpur, or any part of country are being heard as well. There may be a few, who have changed to Shresthas to hide their own lastname for some reason, similarly, Shresthas might have dropped using it but I don't think those numbers are as large as it could impact the total Shrestha population. If one feel he can get advantage by changing his last name, he would certainly adopt Koirala, Dahal, Sharma, Upadhyaya or Nepal instead of Shrestha. What is their for them to be attracted special to Shrestha? Nothing.
Also, Chhathare is NOT Chhetris of Newar. If you do not know about Chhathari and Paachthari Shrestha, why should you opine on this matter? The society has that division, but that was evolved in time merely due to economic differences (khandan pride). At one point, there was the division of tinthari, chaarthari, paachthari, chhathari, saatthari among Shresthas. Now, almost noone know about tinthari, charthari or satthari and very few people know about paachthari and chhathari. Probably, this division will not exist in the next generation.
Last edited: 10-Dec-09 10:55 PM