Pathare Prabhu

Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). These people are among earliest settlers in the city. They are known to have one of the oldest academic traditions amongst Hindus on par with Brahmins. They were amongst the first of the Hindus to adopt to British educational practice and be well educated in it. They never treated women badly but offered complete freedom, occasionally even sending them to study in foreign universities. They advocated widow re-marriage, an act considered a taboo in the orthodox Hindu society of those times and they were amongst the first in abolishing hunda custom.

History

According to their own detailed chronicled lineage, they trace their descent much further back in Indian History from King Ashwapati (circa 700.B.C ) who was a monarch of Nepal and from the solar lineage of Lord Ram. Amongst Pathare Prabhu families 12 families belong to solar line and 17 to lunar line. Solar from Lord Ashwapati and lunar from Lord Kamapati probably the king of Kamarup or present day Assam. Pururavas being one of the prominent ancestors from the lunar side. And so this community has both solar and lunar lineages unlike other Kshatriya clan. As we see that both the kingships were close to each other geographically intermarriages were possible amongst them and so eventually that became...
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