Our ancestral history shows our footprints extended up to Africa and deep into Persian Gulf. Zimbabwe an African country has a small province Ehlanzeni District Municipality with a sea port called as Komati Port. Historians conclude this got its name because of the early habitants and migration from India. The earliest record of human occupation is in the form of San rock paintings. They got the Red ochre used for their paintings at Dumaneni and probably used this site as long ago as 30'000 to 45'000 years ago.

Some have speculated that some stone terraced walls, religious icons and grave sites found in the area have similarities with Hindu designs. Also, the name of the broader area, Komati, is similar to Indian caste name of the Setty or Komati, which is the trading (Vysya) caste (Arya Vysya) of the of Indian Hindu caste system. If this is true, it means that Indian travelers must have visited the area many centuries ago.

Note that northern Indians traded as widely as with Iran and China as long ago as 200BC. Around 1000BC even the Chinese traded along the East African coast. It is thus quite possible that there were indeed Indian settlers in this area.

(Some of the text was extracted from the Free Wikipedia)

According to information from Dr. Gupta E-mail guptasris@gmail.com

1) Vysya Dharma Prakasika, 1890 says it clearly that Arya Vysyas are strict vegetarian and who ever doesn't follow vegetarianism should be excommunicated from the caste. Even now Arya Vysyas are the single most caste denomination that is strictly vegetarian.
 
2) Arya Vysyas are Komatis but not all Komatis are Arya Vysyas. Arya Vysyas are only those who belong to the 102 gotras and who have Aryan origin. This is what has caused us to name ourselves as Arya Vysyas in the early 1900 and keep ourselves apart from the rest of the Komatis (Kalinga, Beri etc).
 
3)We never stepped on Africa and if you find such literature anywhere online or in books, please take it from your fellow AryaVysya that it is concocted and corrupted. We do not have anything to do with Komatis or the word Komati in Africa. There have been several concocted and false theories to put us on the Africa map so that there could be some confusion as to where our origin is from.
 
4) Shetty and shettelu belong to Karnataka and they are low castes in Karnataka and they are not Arya Vysyas or Komatis. Likewise Chetty and Chettiar are not Arya Vysyas. Only "Settis or Settys" are true Arya Vysyas. Please be careful with Shetty and Setti.  Even some of the kapu community members use the Setti title.
 
5) Arya Vysyas are not Dravidian. Please note that "Komatis or Arya Vysyas as renamed later are proud Dravidians with comparatively dark complexion who take great pride in their Telugu language and speak it in other states as well.". Please visit histories of other castes. Other castes have always tried to portray themselves as Aryans because Dravidians are considered Rakshashas. We are higher caste and we are Aryan. Please take out the word Dravidian from our history.
 
6)  Vysyas follow the Vasavi Puranas and employ Brahmins with no distinctions for their rituals. Sri Vasavi Kanyaka Parameswari Devi is the Goddess or Kula Devata of Arya Vysyas.

A large number of Komatis are said to have originally lived and still live in large numbers on the banks of the Gomati River. So the people who lived on the banks are called as Gomati, corrupted in Telugu as Komati, when these trading people moved south, their Dravidian brothers intermarried with their woman and dravidianised them and even to this day Sanskrit languages are not spoken by them and they speak the adopted language of their neighbors. The Dravidians could not speak Sanskrit and hence addressed them as Komati in a corrupted way."
"They are also called as Guptas, Chettiar, Setty and Chetty. "****
 
Please delete it, it has been written by a hacker and a vandalizer. We are Aryan in origin. Please visit articles on Castes like Kapu, Kamma, Reddy, Brahmin etc. They have written there history with Aryan origin in mind. We have not taken care of our article and that's why people have written ill about us.

7) In the "Vasavi History" section please edit
***"They approached their Kula guru (family Teacher) Bhaskara Acharya also a Komati who was well versed in shastras and by virtue of his profession was treated as a Komati Brahman. He advised them to perform Puthra Kamesti Yaga, which Dasharatha had observed."***
Bhaskaracharya was a Brahmin and he was our guru. He was not a Komati. It is written clearly in our Vysya Dharma Prakasika, 1890. People from a particular caste have tried to shun their guru from our caste and hence have hacked our history and called Bhaskara as Komati but he was a Brahmin.

According to Wikipedia

Arya Vysya is a trading community of the South Indian Hindu Caste System. Arya Vysyas are called Setti, Shetty, Shettulu, Komati or Komatlu cumulatively. Setty is also used as an honorific title by traders of several other castes. Hence any one with a suffix surname of Setty doesn’t mean they belong to Komati caste. During the early 19th century Komatis registered themselves as Arya Vysyas with help from madras presidency which distinguished them from the other castes for reasons of identity and matrimonial clarity. This should not be confused as a racial term but only bestowing honor on account of wealth and social mobility. Komatis or Arya Vysyas as renamed later are proud Dravidians with comparatively dark complexion who take great pride in their Telugu language and speak it in other states as well. Arya Vysyas are located in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Orissa. The people of this caste were mainly into business and trade and now have diversified doing many occupations. The Komatis have established monopolies in trading activities in south India, by virtue of their birth, thus becoming south India’s corporate and business class.

Many Arya Vysyas are vegetarians. Vysyas follow the Vasavi Puranas and employ Brahmins with no distinctions for their rituals. Sri Vasavi Kanyaka Parameswari Devi is the Goddess or Kula Devata of Arya Vysyas.

A large number of Komatis are said to have originally lived and still live in large numbers on the banks of the Gomati River. So the people who lived on the banks are called as Gomati, corrupted in Telugu as Komati, when these trading people moved south, their Dravidian brothers intermarried with their woman and dravidianised them and even to this day Sanskrit languages are not spoken by them and they speak the adopted language of their neighbors. The Dravidians could not speak Sanskrit and hence addressed them as Komati in a corrupted way.

Between 1921 & 1931, the Viceroy of Madras Presidency had implemented a commission which helped the people in their community to register their community with changes in the name if any. The Telugu linguistic Vysya Association (1905) registered their community as Arya Vysyas.

Caste wise Arya Vysya Population in India is 22,952,000

In all there are about 80 groups of Vysyas in Komati Kula or Komati Group in India. They are

In south India Vysyas are called Arya Vysyas. They are also called as Guptas, Chettiar, Setty and Chetty. This Arya Vysyas are 102 Gotras Vysyas who jumped into the fire-pit along with Vasavi Kanyaka Parameshwari Devi.

Most Arya Vysya's of Andhra Pradesh are vegetarians. Orthodox Vysyas follow the rituals as prescribed in Vasavi puranas as Brahmins. Sri Vasavi Kanyaka Parameswari Devi is the Goddess or Kula Devatha of Arya Vysya's.

Vysyas keep off furious, proud, and quarrel. They mostly concentrate on welfare programs for the society with their soul. With their Divinity they also proved and positioned as first in the world. Vysyas placed in first by building the Temples, doing HOMAAS AND YAGAAS.

Even though Vysyas are only permitted to trading activities, but they are encouraging education by developing more educational institutes for the society. This proves their love and effection towards education. King Sri Harsha was ruler of vysyas had built Nalanda University and Library, which were most popular in his kingdom.

Patriotic people had used Peace and Patience as their weapons to get independence for the Indians. Vysyas are pride to say that Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi was also belongs to Vysya who released Indians from Britishers, Amarajeevi. Sri.Potti. SriRamulu who struggled a lot for the formation of AP is also belonged to Vysyas. Recently General Mayer Kariyappa who fought against Pakistan also belonged to Vysya. Similarly many vysyas are proved themselves by serving to the Society which was marked by outstanding performance, demonstrated effective leadership, prolonged and committed service, devotion, enthusiasm and faithfulness.

Vysyas got great history because they pursued loyality, trust, devotion, education, morale and customs-values.