Asati is a merchant community in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India.
It is said that the Asatis originally hailed from a village near Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and later shifted to the area around Damoh in Madhya Pradesh. They subsequently migrated throughout the Bundelkhand region.A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY DIGAMBAR JAIN MYSTIC AND HIS FOLLOWERS,Taraj Svami and the Taraj Svami Panth, John E. Cort, Studies in Jaina history and culture: disputes and dialogues, Taylor & Francis, 25 May 2006, p.h 302
History In some texts the name is given as Asahati or Asaiti, but the community is mainly referred to as Asati.
Navalshah Chanderia, who wrote Vardhamana Purana in 1768 AD at Khataura, included the Asati community among the eleven merchant communities that are partly Jain.Shri Vardhaman Purana, Ed. Pannalal Jain Sahityacharya, 1942, p.417, गृहपति आठारम तिहि शाख, उनविन्शति में नेमा भाख वीसम नैत असैटी लहे पल्लिवार इकवीसम कहे || पोरवार बाइसौं धार ढढतवाल तेईस निहार चौवीसम माहेश्वरवार इतने लौं कछु जैन लगार || Russel and Hiralal in 1916 also mention a minority being Jain.[The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India, by Russell, R. V. and R.B. Hiralal 1916, London : Macmillan and Co., limited, p. 142] Brahmachari Sitalprasad, in his introduction to an edition of the Mamala Pahuda (Taranpanthi Jain text) wrote that one of his used manuscripts was copied in an Asahati temple in 1624. The Taran Panth is followed by members of six communities in Bundelkhand, Asati being one of them. But note that all Asatis do not follow Jainism, and most of them follow Hinduism.
The community celebrates an annual Asati Diwas, on Sharada Purnima every year. अखिल भारतीय असाटी महासभा की बैठक में लिए गए महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय, Dainik Bhaskar, Mar 13, 2018
Notable figures Ganeshprasad Varni, one of the foundational figures of the modern North-Indian Digambar intellectual tradition during early 20th century was born into an Asati family.The universe as audience: metaphor and community among the Jains of North India, Ravindra K. Jain, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1999, Page 51महात्मा गांधी की तरह थे गणेश प्रसाद वर्णी, Nai Dunia, 13 Sep 2017
See also Gahoi Golapurva
References