Ancestral Records

In News

• Recently, Indian Council of Historical Research has prepared to release records of people’s ancestors kept by genealogy priests

About

• Genealogy priests called Panda have been collecting records of families going back 15 to 20 generations, with details like place of origin, names, births, deaths, reason of death, place of residence, grants made to temples, caste, and clan. 
  • Genealogy is the study of ancestry
• Many Hindu families undertake a pilgrimage to religious places like Haridwar or Varanasi upon the death of a family member, where they also visit their family priest to register the death as well as other family developments.
• These  records can be a rich source to understand past famines, epidemics, migration, movement of people, as well as social history on how clans and communities were organised.
• The ICHR plans to help make these records available to researchers, scholars, and historians.

Source:TH