Kargi Family History & Genealogy

I first heard the name Kargi from my father. We were on our way to a city called Durgapur where I was going to spend the next four years pursuing my college degree. The 2000-kilometer journey by train took around 30 hours which is when he narrated the following anecdote:

The scene is set in a rural town in ancient India. That was a period when the caste system was prevalent and strictly followed. There were four castes called Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisya and Sudra and most people identified themselves with one of these. The Brahmans or spiritualists consisted of people who were motivated by knowledge. They studied the ancient texts and scriptures and dispersed their knowledge to the rest of the community. The Kshatriyas or administrators consisted of people motivated by virtue. They made sure law and order pervades the society, punished the wicked and protected the weak. The Vaisya or merchants were people motivated by creativity. They used the natural resources to produce tangible goods like food and clothing that everyone needed. The Sudra or craftsmen consisted of people motivated by wealth. They converted the raw material into attractive products like shoes and dresses and sold to the people who cherished them.

This created a system where people were able to pursue what gave them happiness and still contribute to the needs and wants of the society. People within a caste had common interests and priorities and therefore benefited from interacting and sharing amongst themselves. With multiple generations of expertise within their field, they were able to achieve a high level of efficiency and perfection in their trade. Altogether it was a wonderful system that produced happy and successful communities. Or so it seemed to everyone until this kid noticed something wrong. His name was Ram.

Ram was a youngster who was born and raised in a brahman family. After completing his schooling, like every other kid in town, Ram went to his father to discuss his career plans. However, he was not interested in continuing the same tradition followed by his family or even his caste. He told his father that after seeing people lined up for food at the temple door every morning, he felt that the town had a food shortage. Therefore he wanted to cultivate crops and produce more food to quell the hunger of these people. His father explained to him that the food distributed to those people was prepared from the excess produce town farmers donated to the temple. Therefore, there was no shortage of food and in fact the town actually had a food surplus.

Unable to hide his disappointment Ram replied to his father that hoping to take up agriculture, he had been observing the farmers since the beginning of this season and made detailed plans on how to cultivate and harvest crops. His father suggested that he could use the acquired knowledge and write a book on how to do farming. Ram felt that it was a good idea, conveyed his agreement and concluded the discussion.

Later that morning he headed to the temple to offer his prayers and begin his new task. On the way he noticed that the people had collected their food and gathered at the temple hall to enjoy the same. He noticed that there was a lot of noise and commotion emanating from there. It was because the older kids were snatching the food from the younger ones and consuming them in addition to their share. He immediately raced back to talk to his father again.

Ram waited for his father to come out of the study and told him what he had observed. He then added that this showed there was not enough food for everyone. Therefore, his original idea to take up agriculture to produce additional food to feed the people in need was justified.

Hearing this, his father said, "Taking what belongs to someone else by force is the most atrocious form of stealing. We should not do anything to encourage such behavior." Seeing his son loiter reluctantly, he added, "I do understand your concern. However, unless one of the victims comes forward and reports the issue, this problem will not get resolved."

The explanation his father gave made sense and so once again Ram headed back to the temple to recite his prayers and begin his book auspiciously. It was then mid-afternoon and by this time the youngsters had finished their meal and were out playing in the fields nearby. Some of them were hurling stones at the mangoes high up in the orchard trees. Ram entered the temple, recited his prayers and finished his worship to the Almighty. He then headed to the crop field to observe the harvesting process so that he can write about it in his book.

At the field, work had been interrupted because one of the farmers was hit on the head by a stone. Other farmers had gathered nearby and were tending to their colleague who was bleeding profusely. The farmers provided first-aid to the injured farmer and rushed him to the doctor. By then it was almost the end of the day and therefore Ram returned home.

The following morning Ram headed back to the field to continue his observations. As he crossed the temple, he noticed that there was now a young woman with an infant child in her arms who was also waiting in line for the food. At the sight of this, Ram knew there was something wrong with the way things are headed in his town. He immediately ran back to talk to his father.

Ram told his father about the scene he observed today and asked his father, "How can we justify an infant waiting in line for food?". His father did not answer that question. So he concluded that his original idea to become a farmer and produce food for the needy was the right course of action for him to contribute to the well being of the society.

Ram's father did not object to his notion anymore, but pointed to his shaven head and said that he should wait till he grew some hair before taking up farming. Until that time Ram could work with him in his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Saying so he pointed to the pile of books next to him. Ram was in no mood to be appeased and yelled, "Is this paper going to feed the baby?" and kicked the books. Ram's father was furious by this action and retorted, "How dare you kick the Holy Bhagavad Gita! I will not talk to you anymore. Do whatever you want.", and left the room.
The next morning Ram packed his backpack getting ready to leave the house. When he went to bid goodbye to his mother and take her blessings, she wished him luck and gave him a gold coin. He thanked her and left his home.

Ram decided that his first step would be to purchase some land and get it ready for cultivation. He went to a Vaisya and said that he was looking for some land in exchange for his gold coin. The merchant was surprised to see a youngster with shaven head was trying to do farming. He decided to oblige anyway and said there was only one piece of land he could give him in exchange the gold coin. However, he warned that the land was barren with no source of water and therefore deemed unfit for farming. Ram asked the merchant whether he could take a look at it first before he made a decision. The merchant told him where it was and Ram headed over to take a look.

The land was indeed devoid of any vegetation. There was an irrigation well that had dried up and a run down toolshed. He could sense that the land was once used for farming, but has been abandoned this season. Ram was in a dilemma, but then noticed that in the Northwest corner there were some thick shrubs that looked like weeds. That was an encouraging sign and therefore he decided to try it out.

Ram went back to the merchant, told him what he had observed and said that he was ready to buy the land. The merchant was impressed by his determination and said that in addition to the land, he would give him the tools he needed for cultivating crops. Ram thanked him, collected the items and headed back to his land. That night he slept in the toolshed planning out the steps he needed to get started.

The following morning, he woke up and went to the temple, showered at the tank, and recited his morning prayers. He stood in line to collect the food offered to God. He then went back to the land. He knew his first task was to fix up the toolshed. That took him a couple of weeks. His next task was to find a water source for irrigating the crops. Since there were weeds growing at the Northwest corner, he concluded that there must be water available there. He brought the tools and started digging a well. Soon he reached a bed of rocks. Ram tried to dig around the rocks, but no matter which way he went, he kept hitting the rock bed. He had been working for several hours now and there was no sign of water yet. All he could uncover was a solid bed of rocks that seemed to line the entire bottom of his well. The midday sun was pounding over his shaven head and so he went back to his toolshed and started writing the book about farming his father had suggested.

That night as he fell asleep tired and weary. Maybe his father was right. Farming was a bad idea and he was not prepared for it. But on the back of his mind there was a strange, but encouraging sign he had felt when he was digging the well but he couldn't remember what it was and fell asleep.

The next morning, the day started as usual but Ram did not proceed with the well. He continued working on his book instead, writing about his experience so far. He then went back to the well in the evening trying to remember the strange feeling from yesterday. Then it came to him. When he was standing on the bed of rocks, in spite of the scorching sun, his feet were still cool. Sure enough that could mean there was water beneath the rocks.

From the next day, he started writing his book during the day and digging the rock bed in the evening. The progress on his well was much slower, but eventually he was able to break open the rock bed and sure enough water started gushing out from beneath. His task to find water for irrigation was successful.

Ram's land was ready for farming. He now needed money to buy seeds and supplies. He went to a Sudra asking for a loan. In the meantime, word about this rebel Brahman kid taking up a Vaisya job of farming had spread in the town. In that strictly caste-based society, this was frowned upon. The money lender knew who Ram was and told him that since Ram had breached the norms of the caste system, he could not lend him money. For that matter, he informed that no other Sudra in the neighboring towns would lend him money either.

Ram was disappointed that he was not able to continue farming. He decided to travel to other towns and villages to gather more input for his book by studying how farming was done in those places. As he headed up North, he came across people who spoke a different language called Hindi. Since he had learnt Sanskrit, which was the root of most Indian languages, he picked up Hindi without much effort.

One of the villages he arrived at was under severe drought. There had been no rain for the past two years and most of the ground water had been exhausted. Farmers were leaving the town as practicing agriculture in that village was not viable any more. He went to the village elders and explained where he was from and requested a meeting to address the people of the village. They convened a meeting of the Panchayat and let him address the gathered villagers. Ram explained that he owned a tract of land suitable for farming and all he needed was grains to seed the crops and a helping hand to grow and harvest the same. One of the farmers agreed to go with Ram and came forward with his bullock cart and stash of grain seeds.

Ram came back to his hometown with the village farmer where they were able to cultivate the crops and harvest the produce. It was indeed a bumper harvest that there was excess produce to donate to the temple. News of his success spread across the neighboring towns and villages like wildfire.

The villager from the North was so impressed and moved by the tenacity of this young man who in spite of all odds against him was never unfazed and achieved his objective. Since Ram belonged to a sub-caste called Iyenkar, and G in Hindi is the equivalent of Mister in English, fondly nicknamed Ram as KarGi. That became the name my great grandfather came to be known henceforth.