Parwar (Jain community)

Parwar, or Paravāra (Hindi: परवार, Sanskrit: 𑀧𑁅𑀭𑀧𑀝𑁆𑀝, romanized: Paravāra) is a major Jain community in Bundelkhand, which is an area of central North India largely in Madhya Pradesh, but also includes the two districts of Lalitpur and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. Apart from these, Nagpur district of Maharashtra also has a very large Parwar community. There is an area in Itwari of Nagpur known as Parwarpura that has a large number of Parwari homes and shops. Most Nagpuri Parwaris have migrated from Sagar, Deori, and other small villages of the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Parwar exclusively follow the Digambara movement.

Traditionally, the Parwars have practiced endogamy. There are twelve gotras in the community and each has twelve moor "lineages". A marriage within the same gotra or lineage is not allowed. Traditionally, a marriage within any of the eight branches (the moor of a boy or girl, mother's family, father's mother's family, etc) was not permitted, and ttus the community was termed ashtashakha.

A number of Jain scholars have belonged to this community, including Taran Svami, the founder of Taran Panth and the Bhattarakas of Chanderi. Rajneesh, the founder of the notorious new religious movement called the Rajneesh movement, was born in the Samaiya section of this community.

Sumerchand Diwakar, Nathuram Premi, Hiralal Jain, Mahendrakumar Nyayacarya, Phulacandra Shastri, Hiralal Jain, Balacandra Shastri, Jaganmohanlal Shastri, Devakinandan Nayak, Swami Satyabhakta (1899–1998), and many other illustrious scholars of Jainism were born in the Parwar community.