Asati is a merchant community in Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand anciently known as Chedi Kingdom is a geographic region of central India...

 region of Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

. The traditional population centre has been the Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand anciently known as Chedi Kingdom is a geographic region of central India...

 region, with their origin claimed to be from the Tikamgarh

Tikamgarh

Tikamgarh is a city and a tehsil, in Tikamgarh district, Madhya Pradesh, it also the district headquarter. The earlier name of the town was 'Tehri' consisting of three hamlets, forming a rough triangle. In the Tikamgarh town there is muhalla still known as 'Purani Tehri'...

 district.

Origin

In some texts the name is given as Asahati or Asaiti. They may have originated froma town named Asahat ( असहट ). There is a village Mahawatpur Asahat in Fatehpur district, UP. There is also a village named Asati

Navalshah Chanderia, who wrote Vardhamana Purana in 1768 AD (sam 1825) at Khataura, included the Asati community among the eleven merchant communities that are partly Jain. Others include Gahoi

Gahoi

Gahoi is a merchant community in central India. The traditional population centre has been the Bundelkhand region, with their origin claimed to be at Kharagpur....

, Nema

Nema

Nema is an occultist and writer best known for her magical writings about the Ma'atian current. She has been practising and writing about magick for over twenty-five years...

, Porwal, Maheshwari

Maheshwari

Maheshwari are a business community of Vaishnava, originating from Khandela, Rajasthan in western India. They are a sub-group within the Marwaris community. The community is found throughout North India.- History & Origin :...

 etc.

Bramhachari Shitalprasad, the commentator of Mamal Pahud, a canonical work by Taran Swami, mentions that one of the manuscripts was copied at an Asahati temple in 1624 AD.

Distribution

The census of India, 1891, reported 3,071 Asatis in the British ruled districts, of which 450 were Jain. They were mainly present in Jabalpur, Damoh and Sagar, where a significant fraction (27% in Jabalpur) were Jain. Smaller number were present in Bhandara, Nagour and Chhindwara, where all of them were Vaishnava. This does not include Tikamgarg, Chhatarpur and Lalitpur. Russel and Hiralal in 1916 also mention a minoriy being Jain.

In Damoh and Chhatarpur, there are localities named Asati Ward and Asati Muhalla.

Currently, the largest concentration is in Sagar city, according to a marriage data-base.

Organization

The national organization of the Asati community is Akhil Baharatiya Asati Mahasabha. In 2011, it decided to celebrate Sharad Purnima as Asati Divas

Ganeshprasad Varni (1874 - 1961)

Ganeshprasad Varni

Ganeshprasad Varni

Kshullak Ganeshprasad Varni was one of the foundational figures of the modern Indian Digambar intellectual tradition during early 20th century...

, one of the foundational figures of the modern north Indian Digambar intellectual tradition during early 20th century was an Asati. He was the founder of several schools and institutions of advanced learning including Syadwad Mahavidyalaya at Varanasi in 1905, Varanasi and Satark-Sudhataringini Digamber Jain Pathshala, now Ganesh Digamber Jain Sanskrit Vidyalaya at Sagar.

The Asati community at Baldevgarh celebrates his birthday annually