Answer to the ancestral conundrum

Walking on the narrow lanes of Haridwar, on the banks of the River Ganga, the various ‘kothis' which provide sanctuary to many ‘pundits’ are also the store house of valuable information that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The ‘family tree registers’ which are in the possession of these ‘pundits’ have the information about the ancestors of almost every community and every caste that fall under those communities. Strictly adhering to the Hindu religion, the most fascinating aspect of these registers is that they are completely hand-written and are massive in their size. Unlike the normal registers, these are thick with a long vertical side and a short horizontal one. There is also one reason that make these registers appalling and that is, any new entry into the register is done only when a family brings the remains of another recently deceased family member. 

“We have records of almost every caste in your community, you just tell us your caste and we shall find you the names and the address of your ancestors” said Harish Sharma, an apprentice of a known pundit there. When asked about the year from which they have the record, he said that even he was not sure about it. But when I tracked the names of my own ancestors, he had only checked less than one-fourth of the register and had already made me note the names of my ancestors whose remains were brought there in the 1930s. Due to a paucity of time, he asked me to wait for another day to further track the roots my family down. 

In the current era of computers it won’t be a big deal to form a database of such registers and allow the public access to them online but that would take the essence out of this practice which has been going on for ages now and should not go obsolete for a long time from now. For the people falling under this religion, this archaic system can find the answers to their ancestral conundrums.