Ever wondered what your surname says about who you are? For the Paudel community that everyday name holds nearly a millennium of migration, survival, and deep cultural identity.
17 June 2026 · 14 min read
Did you know that the surname you carry may hold nearly a thousand years of history?
We write our names every day. We introduce ourselves by our surname. But many of us rarely get the chance to ask a deeper question: where did this surname come from, how was it formed, and what kind of journey did it travel before reaching us?
In this article, we follow that question through the History of the Paudel surname. This is not only the story of a family name. It is a story of leaving home, protecting faith and family, building roots in new places, and receiving an identity through the everyday language of local people.
In Bamsawali's new series, "Surname Journey," we are exploring the roots of Nepali surnames: where they came from, how they formed, and what kinds of ancestors, places, and memories they carry. Our first journey begins with the Paudel surname, also written as Poudel, Paudyal, or Paudal.
History is not always a perfectly fixed science. Depending on place, source, and family branch, some names, dates, and sequences may differ. Based on the genealogies and references available, we are placing this story before you with care and respect.
Let us begin from the roots.
Today, Paudel families are spread across Nepal and around the world. But when we follow the roots of this lineage, the story takes us back to one of the Saptarishi: Sage Atri.
It is believed that Maharshi Atri, one of the mind-born sons of creator Brahma, is the gotra-founding sage of the Paudel lineage. The descendants and disciples of Atri established the Atreya lineage, and from the name of that sage, the gotra of the Paudels became Atreya.
Atri Rishi was not an ordinary figure. He is said to have composed the Atri Samhita of four hundred verses and the chaptered Atri Smriti, describing the duties of different social groups as well as the responsibilities of a king. His name is remembered with respect among the early teachers of Dharmashastra.
One meaningful detail is that Atri Rishi described five duties of a king:
Punishing the wicked
Protecting the good
Collecting the state treasury justly
Serving people without bias
Protecting the nation
In today's language, these sound like the foundations of good governance. To be connected with the tradition of a sage who thought this deeply thousands of years ago is itself a matter of quiet pride.
The word "Atreya" also carries a beautiful meaning. It is connected with being beyond the three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The Atreya gotra therefore links the Paudel lineage to a spiritual and philosophical memory older than the surname itself.
To understand the Atreya gotra, we also need to understand the idea of tripravar. The tripravar of the Paudels is traditionally considered to be Atreya, Archananasa, and Shyavashva. These names of powerful ancestors help identify the foundation of the clan. Why might such a system have been created? Most likely so that even after generations passed, families would not forget their roots. Even today, when we introduce someone as "the grandson of so-and-so" or "the son of so-and-so," we are continuing a very old way of remembering lineage.
Another interesting point is that the wider Atreya line does not include only Paudels. It is also connected with surnames such as Sigdel, Aryal, Dahal, Dulal, Duwadi, Bhatta, and Vajpayee. When we trace the Paudel surname, we do not find only one narrow line; we find a wide family tree with many branches.
That gives us a simple but powerful message. Many people who carry different surnames today, live in different places, and may not know one another, may still be branches of the same ancient root. Even when surnames differ, gotra can hold a memory of shared ancestry. That is why gotra carries such importance in our culture. It is not only a ritual word. It is a thread of ancestral memory.
Time passed. The Atreya lineage lived in Paudi, in the Tehri Garhwal region of present-day India.
But by around the twelfth century, circumstances changed. Due to increasing Mughal pressure and insecurity, the family line of Udaya Bhatta is believed to have left its ancestral place to protect dharma and family. Leaving home is never a small thing. To leave behind ancestral land, temples, memories, and the known world, and then step into uncertainty, must have carried deep pain.
After leaving home, families of the Atreya lineage spread to different places. Among them, the descendants of Udaya Bhatta are believed to have entered the then Doti kingdom through Paudi of Uttarkashi and reached Ajayameru. Over time, they moved through Bajhang, Kalikot, Jumla, and gradually toward the east.
This was not the journey of one person or one generation. It was a journey across generations. With every movement, a new chapter was added to the family memory.
In this journey, one important name appears: Vansharaj Bhatta.
Born in B.S. 1160 at the Ajayameru palace, the capital of Doti, Vansharaj Bhatta later joined the army of the Doti kingdom. According to the lineage account, he entered the army in B.S. 1178 on the advice of his maternal uncle Ganapati.
His ability soon became visible. Under his leadership, the Doti army attacked Jumla around B.S. 1186 and brought a large region up to Budhiganga of Achham under its control. In this way, Vansharaj himself became king, and Paudi of Bajhang was made the capital of the Jumla kingdom.
Notice how the name "Paudi" appears again. First, Paudi of Tehri Garhwal. Now, Paudi of Bajhang. This same word, Paudi, would later carry the seed of a surname, although no one at the time may have imagined it.
After becoming king, Vansharaj declared his son Shrivatsaraj as crown prince. During the expansion and division of the kingdom, his grandsons and great-grandsons spread in different directions: Jumla, Dailekh, Kalikot, and beyond.
Shrivatsaraj Bhatta, the eldest son of Vansharaj, was born in B.S. 1185 at the Ajayameru palace of Doti. During his time, the royal line of Paudi became stronger.
Around B.S. 1207, the combined forces of Paudi and Doti again attacked Jumla and reached up to Mugu Karnali. Later, the Naga-lineage king of Jumla chose treaty over war. He gave his daughter Shila in marriage to Crown Prince Shrivatsaraj and also handed over the territory west of Mugu Karnali. Through marriage and alliance, the state expanded, and the royal lineage of Paudi built a palace at Jhota.
Shrivatsaraj had several marriages, and his children spread in different directions. When he became old and weak, he handed over the responsibility of rule and left for Kashi in the spirit of vanaprastha. Remembering such a moment today feels striking: a ruler placing spiritual discipline above power.
Shrivatsaraj's son Shridev is believed to have been born around B.S. 1215 in the Jhota palace. From Shridev's descendants, we begin to see how different surnames could grow from a single ancestral root:
Dulal: One son, Gunadev Bhatta, migrated from Paudi to Satal of Dailekh, where he built a seven-storey house. His descendants later moved through Dullu toward the east and came to be called Dulal.
Duwadi / Duwali: Another son, Shrinath, settled in Duwada of Dailekh. His descendants came to be known as Duwadi or Duwali.
Vajpayee: One son, Prabhudatta, went to Ujjain for study, became a great scholar, and performed a Vajapeya yajna. From this, his line came to be called Vajpayee.
Bhatta: Krishnadatta, who stayed in Paudi to serve his parents, is linked with the Bhatta families of Doti, Bajhang, Dadeldhura, Baitadi, and Darchula.
This shows something very important. A surname is often a mark of migration, settlement, work, or local memory. Those who lived in Paudi became Paudel. Those who lived in Sigdi became Sigdel. Those who lived in Arji became Aryal. What may look like a simple surname today often carries geography, history, and human movement inside it.
Shridev's second son, Shrinanda, migrated from Paudi and settled in a place called Chilkhaya in the then Jumla region, now in Kalikot. Shrinanda, born around B.S. 1235 in the Jhota palace, had a son named Shriram.
Shriram, born in B.S. 1256, is regarded as the original ancestor of the Paudel and Paudyal lineages. Chilkhaya now falls in Tilagupha Municipality of Kalikot district. Although Shriram was born in Chilkhaya, he later migrated and lived in Hatsinja of Jumla.
Shrinanda also had another son, Shrihari, the younger brother of Shriram. Shrihari settled in Doha village of Kalikot, and his descendants came to be called Dahal. In other words, Paudel and Dahal, surnames that appear different today, are remembered in this lineage tradition as branches from the sons of the same father.
Shrinanda's family had come from Paudi village of Bajhang. Because of this, the local people of Chilkhaya began calling the family "Paudiwala", meaning "those who came from Paudi."
As time passed, the word Paudiwala changed in everyday speech. Gradually, it became Paudel and Paudyal.
This is worth pausing over. The Paudel surname was not created by a royal decree. It was not stamped by a court. It was born from the daily speech of neighbors, from a simple and affectionate way of identifying a family by where it had come from.
Think about that for a moment. Today, we treat surnames as formal identity: in documents, signatures, certificates, and family records. But the birth of this surname was deeply human. Someone said, "They are the people from Paudi," and over time that loving identification became a family name.
Perhaps this is the real meaning of a surname. It remembers where we came from, and it also remembers how others received us.
After Shriram, the Paudel family did not remain in one place. From Chilkhaya, the lineage spread through Dailekh, Pokhara, Kathmandu, and across Nepal.
This spread was not always easy. The stories of the Paudel ancestors of Paudi, Kanada, Sirata, and Netakatne contain many memories of struggle. One story from the Sirata line says that when a local king repeatedly caused trouble and sent soldiers to capture a Paudel ancestor, that ancestor became absorbed in Vedic practice and appeared only as a head reciting the Vedas. The saying connected with Sirati is remembered with this proud legend.
Whether such stories are literally true is a separate matter. But they show one thing clearly: our ancestors paid a high price to protect faith, learning, and identity.
During migration, Paudel ancestors moved from near Paudi to Kanada, and from there to Kulakatne of Sirata. In Sirata, it is said that the descendants of two brothers still remain in two households called Tallimau and Mallimau. A separate branch also grew in Netakatne, where the lineage expanded around the Brahmasthal. These village names may sound unfamiliar to many of us today, but within every name there is a home, a generation, and a memory.
It is said that in the villages of Sirata, Netakatne, and Kanada in Bajhang alone, there are around three hundred Paudel families. From those roots, the lineage spread through Dailekh, Jajarkot, Pokhara, Kathmandu, and many other parts of Nepal. Through migration abroad, Paudel descendants are now also found in different countries around the world.
Imagine it for a moment: a journey that began from Paudi in Tehri Garhwal almost a thousand years ago has now reached so many countries, cities, and homes. Many people you may never have met may still be branches of the same ancestral tree.
The Paudel lineage has given Nepal several important figures who provided leadership and direction in different periods.
Pandit Ranganath Paudel: Became Prime Minister of Nepal in B.S. 1894. His journey was not easy. Because of palace conspiracies, his father Pandit Vajranath was humiliated and expelled. Ranganath went to Kashi for study, understood statecraft, and received the title "Mahamaho-padhyaya". His text Raj Vidhan Sar is still studied today for its principles of governance.
Mahakavi Lekhnath Paudyal: One of the major pillars of Nepali literature. His masterful writing taught generations the depth of language, meter, and philosophical feeling.
Ramchandra Paudel: The current President of Nepal is also a proud descendant of this lineage.
But it is also important to remember something else. The pride of the Paudel lineage does not belong only to famous figures. Every Paudel who worked the fields, raised children, preserved tradition, protected family memory, and quietly lived a life of dharma is also part of this thousand-year story. Famous names brighten history, but ordinary people keep history alive.
By this point, one word has appeared again and again: banshawali, or genealogy.
The word itself is meaningful. Formed from "vansha" and "awali," it refers to the ordered record of the descendants of a lineage, from the original ancestor to the present generation. Human beings are unique because we can ask a fundamental question: Who am I?
From that question begins the search for genealogy.
Who were my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather? Where did they live? What did they do? How far has our family tree spread? When these questions lead us to write names in sequence, the result is a genealogy.
Why is it needed? Because with time, people migrate. Places, climates, and local accents change. When that happens, a family's unique identity can become difficult to preserve. A banshawali helps a family say: our ancestors were these people, we came from this place, and our clan tradition looks like this.
The entire story of the Paudel surname has reached us because generations preserved this memory.
After reading this long journey, one natural question arises: how did all of this reach us? The answer is simple. Some people wrote it down, remembered it, and passed it on.
From Pandit Vidyapati to Hari Prasad Paudel, Kashiram Sharma, and many other researchers, different individuals collected genealogical material across different periods. If they had not done that work, we may not have had this rich story today.
But the truth is that these old genealogies are scattered. The older generation is passing away. The memories held by grandparents — village names, ancestral achievements, details of kul devata, and migration routes — can slowly disappear if they are not dynamically logged.
One lineage researcher wrote, "The process of searching never ends." The thread that connects us to our roots is invisible, but it can also be fragile. If we do not tie it today, it may break tomorrow.
Take Action: Sit with the elders in your family this week. Ask them: where did our ancestors come from? Who is our kul devata? Which branch of the family do we belong to? Whatever you learn, write it down. One line you write today can help tomorrow's generation recognize its identity.
The story of the Paudel surname — the long journey from Paudi to Paudel — does not end here. Every family has its own branch. Every branch has its own story.
In the past, banshawali records were written on palm leaves, handwritten manuscripts, or family notebooks prone to damage by time, fire, or climate. Today, we have a modern way to protect them: digital preservation. Once a family record is safely preserved digitally, it becomes permanent, allowing descendants from anywhere in the world to access it.
At Bamsawali, we are trying to make this work seamless: to preserve your family genealogy digitally, map generations of relationships in an interactive family tree, and connect the next generation with its roots.
Share this article with your family members, and keep following the "Surname Journey" series for more stories like this.
Your surname also carries a story. Let us write that story together.
According to genealogical traditions, the surname is linked with Paudi village. The family that came from Paudi was called "Paudiwala" by local neighbors, which gradually evolved into Paudel or Paudyal.
Paudels are traditionally associated with the Atreya gotra, connected with Sage Atri. The tripravar is generally remembered as Atreya, Archananasa, and Shyavashva.
Yes. Paudel and Poudel are simply alternate spellings of the same surname, representing different transliterations of the same Nepali word into English.
Yes. In almost all historical genealogical accounts, Paudel and Paudyal are treated as linguistic variations of the exact same lineage, both arising from the original "Paudiwala" identity.
Important geographical anchors include Paudi of Tehri Garhwal, Ajayameru of Doti, Paudi of Bajhang, Jhota, Chilkhaya of Kalikot, Hatsinja of Jumla, Sirata, Netakatne, Kanada, Dailekh, Pokhara, and Kathmandu.
According to lineage tradition, yes. Paudel and Dahal descend from the two sons of the same father, Shrinanda making them branches of the same ancestral root, though they carry different surnames today.
Preserving banshawali ensures that your specific family branch, historical migration path, and ancestral lineage are never lost to time, giving future generations a clear map of their identity.
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