The name ANAVAL is Skanolpuran is found as Anadipur, Anaditirth. It is derived from sanskrit word An + aver (un + our) = Non other, the best.
The Anavils, a Brahmin caste of Gujarat, hail from the Surat district of South Gujarat. They have a population of about one hundred thousand persons. Many of them are agriculturalists in villages while some have taken to teaching, administrative and other professional jobs.
Anaval is the native place of Anavils. It is said that Lord Rama performed Yagna with once a vast & beautiful capital unfirling the flag of its glory till distant lands. At one time learned, pious, brave Anavil Brahmins used to reverberate its environment with Vedmantras and the legend says that Lord Rama got Anaval constructed by Vishwakarma.
Once a flourishing city, today at Anaval, one would see remains of old dilapidated houses and a fort. The city itself expanded to 9-10 miles. The Anaval Vibhav is best described by the poet Vallabh as - Big doors, lattices, verandahs, niches, corridors, massive gates. Even today one would see the ruined shapes of buried remnants of houses and Tulsi Kyara in the bushes of Gangadia that tell volumes about the past of ANAVAL.
Anavils left the city in 1152 B.C. and spread over the whole of south Gujarat (Vapi to Tapi). Every Anavil has an ancestral village to which they belong to.
Present Anaval is about 30-35 kilometers south of Mahuwa, Gujarat, which is about 35-40 km east of Bilimora. It can be reached by narrow guage train or by State Transport buses from VALSAD, NAVSARI & SURAT etc.
Today a high concentration of Anavils is found in villages around Surat, Billimora,Valsad, Navasari, Pardi, Vapi and Udvada. Some of the popular Anavil villages are Deladva, Palsana, Tukwada, Uantdi, Bhadeli, Umarwadi, Bhattar, Amalsad, Katargam, Umarsadi, Sonwada, Orwad, Abrama etc,. A pictorial map of Anavil concentration is given below:
More than sixty percent of the total number of Anavils, have migrated to cities such as Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Calcutta and also to such foreign countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, USA, Canada, UK, Burma, and a number of African countries.