It was this time when the growth of Jainism was in full swing. Sujankunwar also baptised himself in Jainism and started opposing yagnyas. Not heeding the advice of the priests he proceeded with his 72 Umraons towards east. Seeing the priests performing yagnya Sujankunwar asked his Umraons to disturb it. For this deed of theirs the priests made them all in statues. On hearing the news Khadgal Sen along with his queens killed themselves. Wife of Sujankunwar Chandrawati, along with the wives of all the Umraons went to the place where their husbands were made into statues. They pleaded with the priests to reconvert their husbands to live form. The priests showed their inability to take back the curse. They, however, advised these women to pray with Lord Shiva and Parvatiji for bringing these statues back to life. Lord Shiva and Parvatiji were impressed by the prayers and gave life to all the statues. They were also asked to leave their Kshatriya tradition and convert to Vaisyas.
The priests on whose curse the Umraons were made into statues were Parashar (Pareek), Dadhichi (Dahiya), Gautam (Gurjar Gaud), Khandik (Khandelwal), Sukumarg (Sukuwal) and Sarsur (Sarswat).
The priests asked the Lord as to how their yagnyas would materialise and who will save them from the plunderers. The Lord asked them that each of the six priests should take 12 Umraons as their disciples and these Umraons will keep on giving you alms. The descendent of these 72 Vaisya families will always be with you to take care.
From then these 72 families were called Maheshwaris taking the name from
Lord Mahesh or Lord Shiva. These 72 families with their surnames (khaps) formed
the primary Maheshwari list of surnames. Later their were subdivisions and
from amongst these 72 surnames their were more sub-surnames (up-khaps). It
was in this way that with the blessing of Lord Mahesh the formation of Maheshwaris
was done on the ninth day of the Jaishtha month. Later 5 more families from
the Kshatriyas joined the Maheshwaris.
