The Saraks is a community in Bihar

Bihar

Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

, Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

 and Jharkhand

Jharkhand

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...

. They have been followers of Jainism

Jainism

Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...

 since ancient times, however were isolated and separated from the main body of the Jain community

Jain community

The Jains in India have been the last direct representatives of the Shramana tradition in India. They follow Jainism, as the dharma taught by the 24 Tirthankaras, the last of whom was Mahavira.-Cultural influence:...

 in western, northern and southern India.

History

There are remains of many historical Jain temples specially in Purulia

Purulia

Purulia , also spelled Puruliya, also known as "Manbhum City", is a city located in West Bengal state, India, and was constituted in 1876. It is the location of the district headquarters of Purulia district. Purulia is located on the north of the Kasai river and is a major road and railway...

 district, where the Saraks have continued to worship. They have continued to remain vegetarian

Jain vegetarianism

Jain vegetarianism is the diet of the Jains, the followers of Jainism. It is the most strict form of religiously-motivated diet regulation in the Indian subcontinent....

 even though this practice is uncommon among other communities in the region. Saraks have Parshva

Parshva

Pārśva or Paras was the twenty-third Tirthankara "Ford-Maker" in Jainism . He is the earliest Jain leader generally accepted as a historical figure. Pārśva was a nobleman belonging to the Kshatriya varna....

 as a favored patron and recite the Ṇamōkāra mantra. They visit Śikharjī

Shikharji

Shikharji or Śrī Sammed Śikharjī , also known as the Parasnath Hill, located in Giridih district in Jharkhand state, India, is a major Jain pilgrimage destination and is the most sacred place for Jains in the world. According to Jain belief, twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained Moksha ...

 and other tirtha

Tirtha

In Jainism, a tīrtha |ford]], a shallow part of a body of water that may be easily crossed") is used to refer both to pilgrimage sites as well as to the four sections of the sangha...

s of this region.

The region is called Vajjabhumi

Vajjabhumi

Vajjabhumi was a part of Rarh in ancient times. It is located in what is now Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The more rugged western part of the district was known as Vajjabhumi, the country of the thunderbolt....

 in ancient texts because diamonds were once mined in the region. The Tirthankara Mahavira

Mahavira

Mahāvīra is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamāna who established what are today considered to be the central tenets of Jainism. According to Jain tradition, he was the 24th and the last Tirthankara. In Tamil, he is referred to as Arukaṉ or Arukadevan...

 visited this region according to the Kalpa Sūtra. Acharya Bhadrabahu

Acharya Bhadrabahu

Acharya Bhadrabahu was a Jain monk. He is more famously known as a spiritual teacher of Chandragupta Maurya and author of several texts related to Jainism, including some of the most important works, Upsargahara Stotra and Kalpasutra....

 was a native of the Pundravardhana

Pundravardhana

This article is about the historical territory. For the Mahabharata kingdom see Pundra KingdomPundravardhana , was a territory located in North Bengal in ancient times, home of the Pundra, a group of people speaking languages not of the Indo-European family.-Etymology:There are several theories...

 region of Bengal.

Rashtrakuta period

In 13th century, Porahat

Porahat

Porahat is a town in West Singhbhum District of Jharkhand state in eastern India. Before Indian independence in 1947, it was the capital of a princely state of British India. The town also gives its name to the Porahat Forest Division....

 in Singhbhum district was conquered by Rashtrakuta

Rashtrakuta

The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...

 (Rathore) chiefs. Their traditional account Vamsa Prabha Lekhana (edited by Raja KASHIRAM SINGH II, 1641) mention that the Sarak entered Kolhan before 7 th Century AD.

Separation and rediscovery

The Saraks lost contact with Jains in the rest of India after its conquest by Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji. Contact with the Digambara Bundelkhand Jains

Jainism in Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand, in the heart of India, has been an ancient center of Jainism. It is mostly in modern Madhya Pradesh, but part of it is in Uttar Pradesh.Bundelkhand was known as Dasharna or Jaijakabhukti in ancient times...

 was reestablished when the Parwars

Parwar (Jain)

Parwar, also spelt as Paravāra , is a major Jain community from the Bundelkhand region, which is largely in Madhya Pradesh, but also includes Lalitpur region of Uttar Pradesh...

 Manju Chaudhary (1720–1785) was appointed the governor of Cuttack

Cuttack

Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...

 by the Maratha Empire

Maratha Empire

The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....

.

Saraks are concentrated in Purulia district of West Bengal and Ranchi, Dumka and Giridih districts of Jharkhand. The Saraks of Jharkhand and West Bengal are Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

speakers.

Professions

In the past they were engaged in copper mining in the region. Most Saraks are farmers engaged in rice cultivation. Some of them have shops related to agriculture. Many are well educated. There are some teachers, doctors and professors in this community.

It has been found that in this region Sarak students are excellent in education.