History and origin

The word nayak means a head of a regiment. This word is derived from the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 senanayaka, which means head of a regiment. The community trace there descent from the Vaghela

Vaghela dynasty

The Vaghela dynasty was a short-lived Indian Rajput dynasty who ruled Gujarat at the second half of the 13th century.-History:The Vaghelas were a branch and feudatories of the Solanki dynasty, who ruled Gujarat from the 10th to the 13th centuries. The Solanki went into decline in the thirteenth...

 Rajput

Rajput

A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

s who converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in the 12th Century. They established a number of petty states in Saurashtra. The community have been Sunni Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s for the last eight centuries, and are now fairly orthodox. They perceive themselves to be Muslim Rajputs.

Present circumstances

The community are now found mainly in Saurashtra and the Banaskantha District

Banaskantha district

Banaskantha is one among the twenty-six districts of the Gujarat state of India. The administrative headquarters of the district is at Palanpur which is also its largest city...

. They are endogamous, but do intermarry with the Pathan

Pathans of Gujarat

Gujarati Pathans are a group of Pathans. At various times in history, large number of Pashtuns have settled in the region of Gujarat in western India. They now form a distinct community of Gujarati speaking Muslims...

, Malik and Molesalam Rajput

Molesalam Rajput

The Molesalam are a Muslim Rajput community found in the state of Gujarat in India. They also refer to themselves as Molesalam Thakur and sometimes Molesalam Girasia.-History and origin:...

community. The community are now mainly small to medium sized cultivators. They have an caste association, the Nayak Jamaat.