Please visit http://vadnagar.blogspot.com/ to view my father's hometown - VADNAGAR. It also has photographs of my grandparents - Sheth Mayabhai Manilal Mehta and Kusumben Mayabhai Mehta.
Do visit the complete site - it also has information on my mother's hometown - PATAN.
HATKESHWAR based NAGARS have a boon from LORD HATKESHWAR that, whatever they speak will happen. ( However, no NAGAR family is able to permanently settle in Vadnagar. )-due to curse from LORD HATKESHWAR.
In olden days, some Muslim kings attacked Vadnagar. This went on repeatedly. So people of Vadnagar decided to build a fort around the town to save themselves from the invasions. The senior and older citizens of the town advised to build the fort in such a way that the temple of LORD HATKESHWAR will be inside the fort and remain protected. For some reason, this could not materialize. So the temple ended up being outside the fort. Hence, LORD HATKESHWAR gave a curse to the Nagar community, " Just as you have kept me out of the town, you also will always be out of the town for ever."
Even today, the temple of LORD HATKESHWAR is situated outside the town. It is said that, no NAGAR family has been able to permanently settle in Vadnagar.
Nagars, are, though a sub-caste of Brahmins, a much different in many ways. While people of other castes worship other GODS, Nagars and Brahmins - intellect oriented as they are - worship LORD SHIVA. Even LORD SHIVA has two faces in his worship.
(1 ). One face of SHIVA surrounded by ghosts - a frightful one, and
(2 ) A perfect Tandav based beautiful face of LORD SHIVA. Even in this beautiful face of LORD SHIVA, two interpretations are available. One is destruction and
the other, new creation from destruction.
SHIVA does not have any births - as LORD SHIVA is omnipresent and his idol is absolute. Even amongst these facets, LORD SHIVA's complexion of beauty and new creation is more positive.
Nagars, in order to live nicely with their original cultural values, have started devotion of this lustrous and creative beautiful complexion. Only as a result of this, the life style of Nagars is more culture oriented and illustrious - much different from that of other communities.
