Bhapa

Bhapa Sikh refers to Sikhs who usually indulge in trading/business occupations.

Many ill-informed people usually use the term Bhapa and Khatri interchangeably. This is a major misconception among many people. Bhape Sikhs belong to the third varna/class of traders and merchants. They are also refereed to as Baniya, which in a sense is the Hindi word for a Bhapa. Khatri is a Punjabi word for Hindi/Sankrit word Kshatriya which literally means warrior. Rajputs are also derived from Khatris. Many bhapa gots/surnames have gotten mixed up with that of khatris. The reason being that Khatris took to business in Punjab unlike in Rajathan(another province in Bharat(India)), where the khatris(Rajputs) preserved the warrior tradition during the middle ages and defended India valiantly from foreign invasions. Due to this sharing of the same occupation, many bhape also started calling themselves khatris in order to boast of their military background. This has led to many ill-informed people, mainly jatts and tarkkhans(Both of whom belong to lowest caste or the shudra caste) to call Kshatriya/Khatria as bhape.

All of our 10 Satgurus belonged to Hindu warrior races or Kshatriya. Even though most of their parents were involved in trading, they did not belong to the Vaish class or the caste of traders and merchants. Their clans were as follows: BEDI, TREHAAN(BAWA), BHALLA AND SODHI.