Mathurs:
Mathurs are one of the twelve sub castes of Kayashta caste from North India. Kayasthas are believed to be the descendents of Chitragupta[1]. They practice family exogamy and caste endogamy preferring marriage outside Kul or Gotra (extended family) but within their caste and even the sub caste. Mostly all the other sub castes married within each other but not the Mathurs. Mathurs marry Mathurs. This is perhaps the main reason for their strong sense of “biradari” (community). Of course there are now many exceptions of “love marriages” outside the community. So in an ideal and pure Mathur family, there are no non-Mathur genes.

Mathurs live mostly in Rajasthan, UP, parts of MP and Delhi. Traditionally, they are bookkeepers by profession – being descendants of Chitragupta, the bookkeeper of the Gods. Mathurs have mostly been accountants, lawyers, diwans, ministers, secretaries etc. in the emperor’s court, the British government and then the state departments of the government of India.

Dilliwale Mathur:
One of the traditional conceits of the Mathurs of Delhi is that they consider themselves the highest form of a high species – perhaps less flamboyant than the Mathurs once based in Lahore, but infinitely more refined as speakers of a tongue untainted by Punjabi; a cut above those in Rajasthan, who servilely served provincial rulers and said hukum; somewhat similar to members of the community in Agra and Lucknow, but free of the small-town smugness of urban U.P. The Mathurs of Delhi also considered themselves Dilliwallahs par excellence, forgetting that the city is now barely aware of them. Notes Ravi Dayal in a nostalgic paper for the Indian-Seminar (http://www.india-seminar.com/)

Unlike most people who inhabit the city today, Mathurs can and do (as RD notes above), proudly call themselves “Dilliwalas”. Mathurs are one of the earliest inhabitants of Delhi. They came to work at the Mughal Courts and later took jobs in the British Government.
The whole biradari lived in Sheher, spread over many mohallas and gallis from Nai Sarak to Haus Khazi and Chel Puri to Darya Ganj. The Mathurs were a prominent community in the walled city. This well knit community followed common practices, such as sending the boys to Anglo Sanskrit School or Commercial School in Daryaganj and Nai Sarak respectively and the girls to Indraprastha School near Jama Masjid.

Early in the 20th century some Mathurs from these mohallas colonized spacious houses with large gardens in the Civil Lines area. Many of them were lawyers, some became civil servants, others taught Urdu and Persian in colleges, and some concentrated on enjoying good food and music. Qudsia Bagh and the Jumna across Bela (now Ring) Road were relished hangouts.[2]

Later some Mathur families were persuaded by the early developers of New Delhi to move to the new city. They clustered around Connaught Place, on Barakhamba and Curzon (now Kasturba Gandhi) Roads, and areas like Babur Road and Hanuman Road. All retained strong connections with their kin in ‘Sheher’ and the Civil Lines, and all the major shopping – whether for clothes, jewellery, spices, paan, tin boxes, books and stationery – was still done in the Old City.

By the late seventies and early eighties there were fewer Mathurs left in the old city. While some were persuaded by the early developers to move to the new city, others relocated to the government quarters allotted to them. Those left were no longer happy to be stuck in the gallis anymore. “Things were changing too fast…we had no option but to move out…there was practically no space in the our old house to accommodate so many people” explains Yogeshwer Dayal Mathur who moved out of Sheher in the early Eighties to live with his brother in a government bungalow at Mahabat Khan Raod near Tilak Bridge. They left for various reasons. “It wasn’t like the old times anymore” Yogeshwar Dayal Mathur often rues when reminiscing the old city life. The connections that the biradrai maintained with Sheher were now breaking. For a better life, cleaner toilets, place for children to play or other such reasons, the Mathurs moved out of their houses in the Sheher. But there were also many reasons why they did not want to leave and the strong cultural ties with the walled city was one of them.

Mathurs have a strong sense of community culture. They also have many things quite peculiar to their culture, like, language, food (drinking) and music. And they could be very particular about maintaining their typical way of life. The emphasis in life was to eat well and drink well. A crucial reason why Mathurs didn’t want to leave “Sheher” was because they thought “sheher ki raunak” was could not be recreated anywhere. They did not want to let go of the social security that the bhaichara the biradari provided.

When Shree Ganesh Group Housing Society (a cooperative housing society) was formed by the Mathurs who were jointly moving out of the old city, it was the possibility of retaining the old “raunak” that eventually made the venture take off.

 [1] Chitragupta is a Hindu god assigned with the task of keeping complete records of actions of human beings on the earth, and upon their death, deciding as regards sending them to the heaven or the hell, depending on their actions on the earth. Chitragupta Maharaj (Chitragupta the King) is the patron deity of Kayasthas. Source: Wikepedia Online Encyclopedia.

[2] Ravi Dayal/India Seminar/Issue-515, July 2005/www.india-seminar.com