Porwad

Porwal (also known as Porvad and Porwal) are mainly Hindus or Jain community that originated in southern Rajasthan, India. Ancient inscriptions written in Sanskrit refer to the community as Pragvata.

They originated from a region east of ancient Shrimal. Today numerically they rank behind the Oswal and Shrimal Jains from the same region. However, in antiquity, they appear to have been more numerous and among the wealthiest.

Many Jain temples were built by the Porwals, including:

The Porwad community became divided into several regional communities including the Sorathia (in Saurashtra), the Kapol, the Jangad Porwad, and the Porwad found in the Nimad region of Madhya Pradesh. Some of the groups became a part of the Oswal or Navnat communities.

Both Jain traditions, Svetambara and Digambar, are represented among different sections of the Porwad community. The historian H. L. Jain has suggested that Krisha, the patron of Muni Srichandra, a Digambara monk, belonged to the same Ninanvaya clan as Vimala who built the Vimala Vasahi temple at Abu. Thus the one branch of the family followed Swetamabra tradition, while other followed Digambara tradition. This suggests the harmonious coexistence to the two Jain traditions in that region.