Birthday of legendary king Agrasen; celebrated by Agrawal community

Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti celebrates the birth of the legendary king Agrasen, founder of the city of Agroha in present-day Haryana and revered ancestor of the Agrawal and Agrahari communities. It falls on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada, the first day of Sharad Navratri. According to tradition Agrasen was a Suryavanshi king of the Kshatriya line in the late Dwapara age, a devotee of Goddess Mahalakshmi, whose blessing he won through austerity. He performed eighteen great yajnas, and from the eighteen rishis who presided over them came the eighteen gotras of the Agrawal community. Moved by the suffering of the animal offered in a sacrifice, he is said to have forbidden animal sacrifice in his kingdom and embraced ahimsa. His most celebrated principle was Ek Eent, Ek Rupaya: every family newly settling in Agroha received one brick and one coin from each existing household, so that each newcomer had a house and capital to begin a trade — an early vision of cooperative welfare and socialism. The day is celebrated with shobha yatras, community feasts, blood-donation camps, and worship at Agroha Dham.

No fast is prescribed for the Jayanti; many community members are also keeping the Navratri fast.