Nagarthpet (Nagarthapete / Nagarta pete)

The eastern half of the historic pete and, per Rice (1897), one of the two 'comprehensive divisions' of Bangalore town: 'the Dodda-pete (High-street)... separates the two comprehensive divisions of Deshada pete on the west from Nagarta pete on the east.' It was also Division V of the Bangalore City Municipality in 1894. The account of Kempe Gowda I's layout records that 'Streets of Doddapete, Chikkapete, Nagartha-pete were for marketing of general merchandise', and the Bengaluru Pete source records Nagarthpete (with Chikkapete) as the textile-trade market. The name is from the NAGARTHA (Nagarta) trading caste, not from the Telugu Komati/Arya Vysya: the Nagartha article states 'The Nagartha or Nagarta are Vaishya as per Hindu caste of south India of merchants or agriculturalists', divided into Vaishnava (Namadhari) and Lingadhari branches, citing L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, The Mysore Tribes and Castes (1928), p. 403. Rice's Vol. I confirms the Nagarta 'claim to be Vaisyas' alongside the Komati, that they 'are dealers in bullion, cloth, cotton, drugs and grain, but do not cultivate the ground or follow any handicraft trade', that their three sects do not intermarry or eat together, and that the Nagarta sub-section actually named 'Vaisya' (2,971) was 'most numerous in Bangalore and Kolar Districts'. The 1876 Mysore and Coorg gazetteer likewise counts 'Nagarta or Bheri' among Vaisyas. Rice's Vol. I also places the Nagartas, with the Panchalas, 'at the head of the left-hand faction' of the right-hand/left-hand caste division, while the Banajigas led the right hand - a fault line that produced the Gubbi riots (see Gubbi). Genealogical caution: a Nagartha ancestor from Nagarthpet is a Kannada Vaishya, a distinct community from Telugu Arya Vysya, though the two shared the same market streets.