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Life of
Jivraj
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| Not much is known about the early years of the life of Jivraj Champshi, who was born in the village of Babra India. Most of the information available is for the last fifteen years of the life of Jivraj, it has been estimated that he lived till the age of ninety eight. His eldest brother was Virji the first born. Although Virji was married he had no children. Then his brother Noormohamed was born next, and again though married he had no children and was also very sick. He stayed in his own house, and the family of Esmail, the eldest son of Jivraj, stayed with Noormohamed and his wife and helped look after him. He needed drugs like opium to breathe and to be mobile, and these drugs were provided by the District Commissioner of Babra for Noormohamed. The next Champshi child to be born was a woman called Amarbai, who married at a young age and left to live in the nearby larger town of Amreli. Only one child of Amarbai came to Africa, but some of her grandchildren came to Canada. Jivraj was the next child to be born and thus the only male offspring to have had children. Finally Ladubai was born, and everyone remembers her as a jolly and mischievous young woman, who was still laughing in her old age when she died in her sleep at the age of one hundred and two. She was the fourth wife of her husband Poonja, and was the only wife who gave him any children. A few of the grandchildren of Ladubai came to Africa, and from Africa a few of her great grandchildren moved onto North America and Europe. Her family was not as large as that of Jivraj Though. Child bearing seems to have been the main activity for women in that time. As the village of Babra is a large cotton growing area, most of the men were involved in that activity. |
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Jivraj was born an Ismaili, as it was considered his forefathers must have converted from being Hindu Lohanas sometime between the 12th and 15th century. Jivraj was of medium build and good height, and healthy throughout his life. He survived the plague that killed many people in the early 1900's in the state of Gujarat. He lived in a large house of eight rooms, of which he occupied three for himself, as his wife Jakalbai had passed away many years earlier. Three rooms were occupied by his son Shariff and his family. His other sons had left for Africa and his son Manji had died at an early age, maybe from tuberculosis. His daughters were all married and living elsewhere in Babra, Amreli or Pune. Only one daughter stayed with him and this was Sakina, who was married to Jivan Poonja Jiwani, a nephew of Jivraj. Jivan was the child of his sister Ladubai. Sakina when she became a widow she moved to Kenya and was the one who provided much of the information for the first Jivraj family tree. It seems Jivraj was very fond of his nephew Jivan as they had similar interest and enjoyed spending their time in their small hobby farms and gardens, which were usually five to ten acres in size. The size of the village of Babra was quite large and spread out along the main road connecting the town of Rajkot and larger town of Surat, which was closer to Mumbai. The town had a population of ten thousand people of which four hundred were Ismailis in the early 1900's. The family of Jivraj had a General Store on the main road of Babra, and this was managed by his son Shariff Jivraj. The son of Shariff, Abdul Shariff Jivraj and the children of Esmail Jivraj would all be working at the store. |
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A typical day in the life of Jivraj
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Jivraj would usually wake at two a.m. in the early morning, and carrying a lantern would walk through the village of Babra waking Ismailis to come for morning prayers to Jamatkhana. He would then proceed to open the Jamatkhana doors and make the pre-prayer preparations before the rest of the congregation arrived. After the morning prayer service Jivraj would return to his house to have some breakfast. He would then mount his white stallion horse, he was very fond of horses since childhood, and proceed to his hobby garden to collect vegetables to deliver to the General Store. Usually after spending sometime in the village, he would return to his house to meet many people from Babra and surrounding towns and villages. The main reason these people came to meet him was that he was well known as a Healer. Jivraj would place his fingers on the wrist of a person or on the area of illness, and by feeling the pulse and blood flow of the person he was able to determine what was ailing the person and recommend the correct medicine or herbs that should be taken to recover from the illness. Jivraj never charged for his services or for the medication or herbs, the herbs he usually grew in his garden and combined them to form naturopathic medications. It was not known if Jivraj ever studied medicine or naturopathy of any kind, but he always informed that his ability to diagnose an illness with the use of his fingers was a gift from Allah.
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As for the properties of Jivraj. The last person to have lived in the house and continued the General Store business was Abdul Shariff Jivraj. When he moved to Kenya, during the beginning of the partition problems of India. He locked up all the properties and left; these were subsequently claimed by the Indian Government and demolished and sold as smaller plots to other people. The house of Noormohamed Champshi, became the property of Esmail Jivraj, which then passed on to his sons and was sold by them.
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All the information presented above is from knowledge and memories of persons still alive or who have passed away, and where ever possible I have tried to match the information of two people. Hence, as to the accuracy of the research findings presented here, one has to decide for themselves, as I am in no way responsible for the authenticity. But, if you would like to provide further information this is always welcome.
Website Creator Alnoor Haiderali Ramji Jivraj
E-mail alnoor.ramji@Jivraj.org