Shri Nathji’s Parental Lineage

Shri Nathji had some similarities with the previous Avataras. Like his previous Avatars, Rama And Krishna,  he choose to be born  into a Kshatriya family on high bearing. He chooses North India for his appearance and pastimes. And he choose to appear in the most beautiful body in human form. Here is a short note on the Kshatriya clan of His parents.

Shri Nathji’s father Babaji Maharaj, was a Kharti of Mehta clan. Mehtas in Punjab  and Himachal Pradesh, were usually chiefs of villages or princely states assigned by the King. In recent years, people have dropped their original surnames and taken up "Mehta" as their surname which was a title given to the head of their family. Mehta families were also present before Partition of India in Punjab and Sindh of Pakistan which after partition either converted or migrated outside Pakistan.

The Mehta Rajputs are the one's who were given this title for their ability to handle large areas for land use. Similarly the father of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Guru of Sikhs was titled as Mehta and is still known as Mehta Kalu Das. The Rajput Mehtas settled in the area around Hoshiarpur. These Mehat’s were given high titles by the rulers to recognize their contribution and ability to manage.

 Mehta Raja Jau Singh Sawai had two sons, of whom one, Raja Jagna having quarrelled with his father came to Punjab and founded Banga, a town near Phagwara.  (The shrine of the ancestors Mehta clan is in Banga) Later Jullundur, Bajaura in Hoshiarpur, and Panchat in Kapurthata being subsequently founded by five of his descendants. while Mahia his eldest son founded Mayopati in those parts. Mian Mota, who first settled in Jaswan Kopti near Chamba, and then in Rajpur near Hoshiarpur, founded Narur in Kapurthalal, naming after elder son Nar Chand.

For the most part, Mehtas and other Khatris have been in the civil, government, and military administrators roles for centuries. Some have gone into the merchant business as traders, and have participated in trade well beyond India's borders, for many centuries from Burma to Russia. At one time, the Mehtas and other Khatris controlled a significant share of the trade in the central Asian region. The Hindu fire-temple of Baku, Azerbaijan in Cetral Asia,  supported for centuries by Khatri merchants flourished until the middle of 19th century. The Hindu temples of Kabul built by the Khatris still exist.

Shri Nathji’s mother belonged to the Kaura family of Batala. Kaura is one of the prominent sub-castes of the Khatri, Kamboj, and Rajputs , found in Indian and Pakistani Punjab.

The Kauras have originated from the Kuru Vansha. The first line of Bhagvat Gita starts with the verse – “Dharam Shetre Kurukshetre”. This is in reference Kurukshetra, where the great battle between the Kaurvas and Pandvas took place. Kurukshetra is called Draram Shetra (The Abode of Dharma) because it got its name from King Kuru, from whom the Kuru Vansha originated. He is said to have his capital at Kurukshetra and ruled over the world. He was so pious and religious, that the subjects of his kingdom also become pious and because of the pius activities of the people on earth no one was going to Narka (hell). The hells then had no souls to torment.

World historian Arnold J. Toynbee analyses that the Kambojas and Kurus, originally residing in Eurasian Steppe in Central Asia , took part in the volkerwanderung of the eighth and seventh centuries BCE and then split into two wings, the right wing migrating to north of Iran while the left wing moving to Afghanistan and Punjab.

Numerous ancient Sanskrit texts like Ashtadhyayi of Pāṇini,  Manusmriti, Mahabharata, Kautiliya's Arthashastra, Harivamsa, Vayu Purana,  Brahmanda Purana and several other authorities reveal that the ancestors of the modern Kambojs, in ancient times, were prominent Kshatriyas  and were established in the Kshatriya-Dharama as a warriors and a rulers. The Kambojas and the Kurus are documented as the most ancient ethnic tribes in Indian subcontinent and as Arnold J. Toynbee and Chandra Chakraverty have analysed, the Kurus and Kambojas were originally a single tribe, hence it can be deduced that the Kaura clan, even if it evolved from the 'Kuru' is basically and fundamentally a Kuru-Kamboja clan name.