How 140 Airan families rebuilt their roots after a century
More than a hundred years after families left their ancestral village, over 100 descendants, scattered across India and abroad, found their way back. It was not by accident, but through a shared purpose and memories that refused to fade. It is a unique tale of a village and one of its communities coming together with concerted efforts by the next generation.
A dispersed Vaish community, originally from a small village named Kota in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, also my place of birth, did something rare: they began rebuilding not only Kuldevi and Kuldevta (family or clan goddess and god) shrines, but also a sense of collective identity that had nearly dispersed geographically and disappeared over time.
This is not merely the story of a village but a living example of how lineage, faith, and memory can reassemble a community long after it has been geographically scattered.
The origins of a name
Kota is a name most Indians associate with the well-known city in Rajasthan, widely recognized as a premier coaching hub for engineering and medical entrance exams. But the Kota, Saharanpur, of this story is a much smaller village, located more than 600 km away, carrying within it a deeper lineage and memory.
Local tradition traces its origins to Lala Charan Das of the Airan gotra, who is believed to have migrated from Kota in Rajasthan nearly five centuries ago and settled in what is now Kota in the Saharanpur district. In keeping with the customs of that time, the new settlement took on the name of the place left behind. It also came to be known locally as “Charna ka Kota”—the Kota of Charan Das.
Whether preserved in oral histories or family memory, such narratives matter. They are not merely stories; they are frameworks through which communities understand themselves, as lineages shaped by movement, continuity, and shared origin.
A shared lineage
One striking feature of this village is that all its Bania/ Vaish families are understood to belong to a single gotra: Airan (or Airon). Among Vaishya traditions that trace descent from Maharaja Agrasen, the Airan gotra is one of the eighteen recognized lineages.
In Kota, this shared gotra, Airan, became more than a genealogical detail. It became the thread that made reconnection possible, as shown below.
Families who had migrated over generations, some to nearby cities and districts, others farther away, and even overseas, were no longer just individuals with distant roots. They became part of a larger whole, waiting to be rediscovered. Once again, the same Charna ka Kota established centuries ago, became the center of attention for families with their roots.
Kuldevi and Kuldevta shrines: A center of memory
At the heart of this rediscovery stood two old, dilapidated Kuldevi and Kuldevta shrines. It is believed that across generations, the ancestral Kuldevi has watched over the lineage, Airan in this case, since its founding.
These shrines were originally built more than a century ago in memory of a man and a woman associated with local historical practices remembered as Sati and Sata. They reflected the beliefs and social frameworks of their time, preserved not as prescriptions for the present, but as part of the community’s inherited memory.
Over the years, the shrines fell into natural disrepair. Their decline was not only physical, but also symbolic, a gradual fading of collective remembrance.
What endured for over a century
Migrated families continued to return to the village during life events such as weddings and childbirth. Traditionally, families are expected to visit at least once a year to seek Kuldevi’s blessings. Many would visit the shrines on the outskirts without meeting other families still residing in the village, while others would reconnect with extended families. These visits, however informal, sustained a quiet but enduring connection to their ancestral home.
What had once been maintained through custom and faith gradually evolved into something more deliberate and organized. The planning, coordination, and execution of reconnecting these Airan families was led largely by a younger generation based in and around Kota and Saharanpur. The photo below shows the intergenerational group deserving accolades and recognition for achieving what earlier generations could not. Through word of mouth and, eventually, modern tools such as WhatsApp, they brought together more than 140 families from across regions and countries.
What followed in the months ahead transformed this quiet continuity into something far more powerful, a coordinated act of faith, memory, and collective will. The reconnected lineage of Kota’s Airans is once again a single large family under the protection of their Kuldevi and Kuldevta.
(To be continued in Part 2: Rejoicing faith, family, and the shrines)
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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Formerly, a researcher in Italy, Japan, and France, he has widely travelled and came to the US in 1978. He was a faculty and academic administrator in several different universities in PA, TX, NJ, MN, WI, and NY, and an Executive Fellow in the White House S&T Policy during the Clinton administration.
