- published: 08 Sep 2015
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Mehta is a Khatri Punjabi surname that means 'chief' or 'great' from Sanskrit mahita, which comes from mah- 'to praise or magnify'. In Gujarati it has also come to mean ‘teacher’ and ‘accountant’, probably because teachers and accountants were respectfully so addressed in Gujarat.
Mehta is also a Marwari surname and they are both Hindu and Jains. Also some of them use prefix Singh before their surname and most are found in Rajasthan, such as Veer Singh Mehta, a notable Indian neurosurgeon.
Mehtas in Punjab and Himachal, were usually heads of villages assigned by the King. In recent years, people have dropped their original surnames and taken up "Mehta" as their surname which was a title given to the head of their family.
People from Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are also called Mehta. Mehtas can belong to Hinduism or Jainism and speak either Punjabi, Pahari, Hindi or Gujurati.
An unrelated use of Mehta is in Bihar and Jharkhand where Koiris and Kurmis use Mahto and its variant Mehta.
Notable individuals with this surname include: