Map of Halar in Gujarati or English

Around 1535, a small group of Oshwals of Vagad District suddenly left Kutch and moved to Saurashtra. There are two stories as to why this happened. One, a real story and the other a fictional one.The legendary story is very interesting. It is said that Oshwals of Kankoth of Vagad District, after holding a feast in memory of a death, discarded the left over ghee. As it happened, one of the Prince's horses slipped in this discarded ghee and injured itself. The Prince filed a complaint with his father, the King. Fearing retaliation, some of the participants of this feast left the village in the dark of the night and moved to Saurashtra.

However, the historical fact is that in the 16th century AD, two brothers, Jam Hamirji and Jam Rawal of Jareja Rajput family ruled the Kutch. As a result of internal conflict, Jam Rawal assassinated Jam Hamirji and seized the properties. Hamirji's heirs with the help of their friends defeated Jam Rawal, who than fled with his followers, some of whom were Oshwals of Vagad District, crossed the desert of Kutch and established a settlement around city of Khamhaliya of Halar district, naming it the capital. Later on, the settlement spread eastwards and a new capital was founded which was named after Jam Rawal as Jam Nagar. To this day, the Oshwal settlements still exists in the 52 villages between these two cities, though the number of villages with Oshwal settlements now may be as high as 80. That is why we are known as Halari Oshwals. The mother tongue still remains Kutchi. Those who stayed back are called Kutchi Oshwals. By profession, our ancestors were mostly farmers and traders, some were moneylenders and a few were even hired hands.

A census of the Oshwals in India was undertaken in 2001. The map of Halar, in English, has been redrwan to show the villages and Jamnagar where our Oshwal brethren are still living. Many have left villages to settle in Jamnagar, Mumbai, Bangalore, other parts of India. Many have migrated to Africa, UK, the Americas, Australia, other parts of Asia. Details of the census will be publishd on this website very soon. 2001 Census

Majority of the Oshwals are followers of Jain religion. Approximately 1% is follower of Swami Narayan religion; most of these come from same village of Dewalia and were probably converted in mid 19th century. Oshwals are divided into a number of groups by Atak or Nukhs (surnames)