Pattegar

Ethnic group From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pattegar (also spelt as Patvegar, Patekar & Pattagar) or Patkar (Khatri) is a Hindu community predominantly residing in the Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.^[1] All of them follow Hinduism^[2] and are traditionally silk weavers and dyers.^[3] Their principal deity is Shakti.^[4]

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Pattegar
Regions with significant populations
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry
Languages
Marathi, Saurashtra
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Savji

Etymology of Patkar and Khatri

Patkar and its variants are believed to derive from the word pattu/pat (“silk”).^[5] However, the community is also called Khātrī in Gujarat and Maharashtra, a name that they have carried to other states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.^[6] The Gujarati word Khātrī (IPA: kʰaː.t̪ɾiː) meaning a 'caste of Hindu weavers' is believed to derive from the Sanskrit word kṣattṛ, meaning "carver, distributor, attendant, doorkeeper, charioteer, son of a female slave". ^[7]

Origins

Modern sources describe Patvegar/Patkar (Pattegar) as immigrant silk weavers from Gujarat who settled first in the Deccan. A Government of India craft study on Ilkal sarees from the Census of India records that “Patvegar are silk ribbon weavers hailing from Gujarat,” ^[8] situating them in the Ilkal weaving complex of Karnataka. Census India Karnataka’s Tumkur District Gazetteer (1969) likewise calls Patvegar “another class of immigrant weavers” and notes they speak an Indo-Aryan dialect akin to Gujarati and Hindi, reinforcing a western-Indian provenance. ^[9] Scholars place this movement within a broader Gujarati weaver migration that, over the medieval and early-modern periods, spread from Gujarat into the Deccan and further into South India (Tamil Nadu/Andhra), as mapped in studies of artisanal migrations in Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India. ^[10]

Historian Douglas E. Hanes states that the Patkar/Khatri weavers in Gujarat trace their ancestry to either Champaner (Panch Mahals District) or Hinglaj (Sindh) and the community genealogists believe that the migration happened during the late sixteenth' century.^[11]

Language

The Pattegars speak a language called Pattegari or Khatri or Saurashtra,^[12] a dialect of Gujarati with the amalgamation of present-day Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu and Kannada.^[13]

Traditional Occupation

Historically silk weaving, dyeing, and related textile finishing, with many families continuing dyed/printed silk and cotton work. ^[14]^[15]^[16]

History

Suraiya Faroqhi, writes that, in 1742 Gujarat, the Khatris had protested the immigration of Muslim weavers by refusing to deliver cloth to the East India Company. In another case Khatris taught weaving to Kunbis due to receiving excessive orders who soon became strong competitors to the Khatris much to their chagrin. In the mid-1770s, the Mughal governor granted the Kunbi rivals rights to manufacture saris. This licence was later revoked in 1800 due to pressure from the British, after a deal was struck between the Khatris and the East India Company, in which the Khatris would weave only for the EIC until certain quotas were met.^[17]^[18]^[19]

Anthropologist Karve, based on the post-Independence research of castes by a in Konkan, Maharashtra, classified Marathi Khatris^[a] as one of the "professional/advanced castes" as they were doctors, engineers, clerks, lawyers, teachers, etc. during independence. She states that their traditional professions were silk weaving and working as merchants although they had entered other professions later.^[20]^[21]

Notes

[a]
Khatris claimed to live near the Bombay island from at least the mid-1800s and would speak Marathi.

References

[1]
Kāmat, Sūryanātha (1993). Karnataka State Gazetteer: Gulbarga District (Kalburgi District). Office of the Chief Editor, Karnataka Gazetteer.
[2]
Sri Sathyan, B. N. (1967). Mysore State Gazetteer: Chitradurga District. Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press. p. 114.
[3]
Ramaswamy, Vijaya (2017). Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India. Taylor & Francis. p. 131.
[4]
Mysore (India : State); Sri Sathyan, B. N. (1972). "Mysore State Gazetteer: Bellary". Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press: 120.
[5]
People of India: India's communities. Oxford University Press. 1998. pp. 2822–2823. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
[6]
Government of Telangana. Backward Classes Welfare Department – – Certain amendments – Orders – Issued, G.O. Ms. No. 16, 11 March 2015. "Patkar (Khatri)"
[7]
Burrow, T. (October 1986). "R. L. Turner: A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages Addenda and corrigenda. Edited by J. C. Wright. 11, 168 pp. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1985. £16". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 49 (3): 592–594. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00045390. ISSN 0041-977X.
[8]
Census of India, ''Handicraft Survey Report: Ilkal Sarees, Part X-D, Series–9'' (New Delhi: Government of India, 1981 [pub. 1989])
[9]
"1969 Gazetteer On Tumkur District PDF | PDF". Scribd. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
[10]
Rai, Santosh Kumar (5 July 2017), "Many Madanpuras", Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India, Routledge, pp. 225–257, ISBN 978-1-315-09115-0, retrieved 18 August 2025{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
[11]
Small Town Capitalism in Western India:Artisans, Merchants and the making of the Informal Economy. Cambridge University Press. 2012. p. 31. ISBN 9780521193337. Weavers and other artisans frequently moved to places where the prospects for international trade or state patronage were great. Khatri weavers living in Gujarat largely trace their ancestry to Champaner in the current Panch Mahals district or to Hinglaj in Sind. Community genealogists today preserve the memory of how Khatri families fanned out through towns in central and southern Gujarat during the late sixteenth century, a period of rapid expansion in the region's foreign trade.
[12]
"Glottolog 3.2 - Saurashtra". glottolog.org. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
[13]
Joshi, L. G (1964). A descriptive Grammar of the Khatri dialect. Pune: Doctoral dissertation, Poona: Deccan College. p. 291.
[14]
Edwards, E.; Khatri, I. M. (2016), Bancroft, C. (ed.), The work of the Khatris of Kachchh: ajrakh and block printed textiles, London: Saffron Press, pp. 96–109, ISBN 978-1-872843-32-2, retrieved 18 August 2025
[15]
Singh, K. S. (1998). India's communities. People of India National series. Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2. The traditional and present - day occupation of the Khatri is silk and cotton weaving, colouring, dyeing of threads and making jari and garlands.
[16]
Gillow, John; Barnard, Nicholas, eds. (2008). Indian textiles. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51432-0. KHATRI A caste of professional dyers
[17]
Suraiya Faroqh (2019). The Ottoman and Mughal Empires: Social History in the Early Modern World. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 254. ISBN 9781788318730. In the study of the political economy of Gujarat in the second half of the eighteenth century, the author points out that castes and subcastes did not prevent inter-caste mobility. Thus, when the Khatri weavers found that they have more orders for high-quality cottons than they could fill on their own, they employed adjuncts from another caste known as Kunbis. The latter soon learnt the craft and turned into formidable competitors. Particularly, the Khatris resented that at some time in the mid-1770s, at the very end of the period studied here, the Mughal governor had granted their Kunbi rivals the right to manufacture saris, a popular female garment. In 1742, the Khatri weavers refused to deliver cloth to the EIC to protest against the immigration of Muslim weavers; it is difficult to say whether this strike was a purely economic matter or whether religion, status and caste were an issue as well.
[18]
Moin Qazi (2014). Woven Wonders of the Deccan. Notion Press. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-93-83808-62-5. With the Muslim invasion the hereditary art fell on bad times, as the khatri community of weavers scattered far and wide in search of work
[19]
Nadri, Ghulam A. (2009). Eighteenth Century Gujarat: The Dynamics of Its Political Economy, 1750-1800. Brill. pp. 26–28, 31. ISBN 978-90-04-17202-9.
[20]
Gordon Townsend Bowles (1977). The People of Asia. Scribner. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-684-15625-5. Following Karve's classification in the Konkan, the Kayastha Prabhu, Pathare Prabhu, Pathare Kshatriya, Khatri and Vaisya Vani may be listed with the Brahmins as professional groups. The intermediate or artisan and service castes include the Sonar (goldsmiths), Kasar (coppersmiths), Shimpi (tailors), Teli (oil pressers), Khosti (weavers), Bhajvsar (dyers), Nhavi (barbers), Parit (washermen) ...
[21]
Irawati Karve; Vishnu Mahadeo Dandekar (1951). Anthropometric Measurements of Mahārāṣhṭra. Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune. (Pg 16)Group I. Castes which follow various professions like teachers, doctors, clerks, pleaders, engineers etc:-All Brahmins,Non Brahmins: Kayastha Prabhu,Pathare Prabhu, Pathare Kshatriya, Khatri, Vaishya Vani (pg 29) Castes called Khatris are found in Gujarat Karnataka and Maharashtra. This sample represents the Marathi speaking khatris who claim to have living near the Bombay island for the last century at least. Khatris are found in other towns in the west maratha countries their hereditary profession is said to be that of silk weavers and merchants. Now they have entered into all services like clerks, teachers and higher administrative jobs and also follow professions like law and medicine.....