I am Visha Shrimali Deravasi Jain. What can be my original surname/roots/gotra
Very briefly:
- Meaning of what you wrote
- Jain – follower of Jain dharma. - Deravasi – Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjak Jain (who does pūjā of mūrtis in derasar/temple). - Shrimali – an old Jain/Vaniyā community whose roots go back to Shrimal/Bhinmal area in Rajasthan. - Visha Shrimali – a particular subdivision of the Shrimali community (vīśa = “twenty”), mainly settled today in Gujarat/Rajasthan.
- About “original surname”
- Community name (Visha Shrimali) is not the same as surname. - Traditional surnames in your samaj can be things like Shah, Mehta, Doshi, Zaveri, Gada, Mehta, etc. but which one is yours can only be known from your family line, not from “Visha Shrimali” alone. - Surnames have often changed with time and place (for example, some took on town names, occupations, or “Shah/Mehta” later), so there is no single “one original surname” for all Visha Shrimali Jains.
- About gotra / roots
- Gotra is a specific kul/lineage (e.g. Bhardwaj gotra, etc.). - Within Visha Shrimali, different families have different gotras. It is decided by your own kul–dev, kul–devi, and vanshavali (family lineage records), not by the words “Visha Shrimali Deravasi”. - Only your family elders (or old kul‑pustak, Jain samaj vanshavali books, or your kul‑purohit if your family has one) can tell you your exact gotra and ancestral place (mūl‑gaam).
- From Jain dharma point of view
- For spiritual progress, samyak–darshan, samyak–jñān, samyak–chāritra are important; surname / samaj / gotra are secondary. - Still, knowing your roots is good for family identity and correct marriage rules (naatikraman etc.), so it is worth checking properly with elders and samaj records.
So, based only on “Visha Shrimali Deravasi Jain”, we can say your community and sect, and that your historical roots are in Shrimal/Bhinmal region, but your exact original surname and gotra cannot be determined without your own family’s lineage records and elders.