| Sunar/Sonar | |
|---|---|
| Religions | Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam[1] |
| Region | India |
The Sunar (alternately, Swarnkar, Soni, Sonar, Sonkar) is a caste in India.The Sunar community work as traders of gold or as goldsmiths.[2] The community is primarily Hindu, Sikhism, Muslim and found all over India. Muslim are OBC in Haryana and Hindus are Scheduled Castes.[3]
The term ‘’Swarnkar may derive from the Sanskrit suvarna kār, "worker in gold".[4]
The Swarnkar are still involved in their traditional occupation, that is being goldsmiths. There is however a steady process in taking up other occupations, and the community in Haryana and Punjab as whole is fairly successful, having produced several professionals.[5]
The Sunars are divided into a large number of territorial and non-territorial groupings called alla. Some of the major alla are the Jhankhad, Santanpuriya, Lal sultaniya, Dekhalantiya, Mundaha, Bhigahiya, kulthiya, Parajiya, Samuhiya, Chilliya, Katiliya Kalidarwa, Naubastwal, Berehele, Gedehiya, Shahpuriya, Mathureke Paliya, Katkaria and Nimkheriya, Vaibhaha. Each lineage is associated with a particular area. To which its ancestors belonged to. The Sunars use Soni, Swarnkar, Verma, Wadichar, Saraf, Shah, Sonik, Singh etc. as their surnames. In Gujarat and Rajasthan, the community is also known as Soni.[7] In Haryana, the Sunars are often known as Swarnkar, Soni, Suri and Verma, are their common surname.[8] In Sindh they are called Sonaro, In Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Mair community work as goldsmiths.
Sunar (Sunar in the Nepal census) Sunar surname is used by khas of Nepal . And also use by subgroup within the broader social group of Madheshi Other Caste.[9] At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, 64,335 people (0.2% of the population of Nepal) were Sunar.
In most of the states the Sunar are Hindu. But in Punjab and Delhi, they follow either Sikhism or Hinduism. In Jammu and Kashmir, the Sunar are referred to as Sanur and are mostly Muslims.
The Swarnkars, in that age of material splendour, enjoyed a higher social status in the stratified social set-up. Later on, when the professional guilds came to be identified as the sub-castes , the goldsmith community was inducted to the Vaishya caste
