The Narasinganavar family is a patriarchal Joint j family of about 206 individuals who are residing together in the village of Lokur in the Dharwad district of Karnataka. All the individuals in the family share a common ancestry and this family is ‘recognized as one of the largest undivided families in the world.

The family spans across five generations. Bhimanna Jinapa Narasinganavar is the part of the family. For India’s largest joint family, balancing the family is a forbidding task. The Narsingnavar family finds that expenditure on its 206 members always seems to be more than its income.

Patriarch Narsingnavar (72), who has been handling money matters of this jumbo family for the past 30 years, says “We believe family finances could be the biggest source of discontent. In their wisdom and sincerity, the elders gave me this job. Whatever I do well be in the interest of the family.

Agriculture is the main occupation for this family. It owns 270 acres of cultivable land, the annual 1 income is Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh depending on the monsoon and market. Its annual expenditure of around Rs 10 lakh is largely on farm labour and agriculture machinery.

While the family’s requirement of food grains, vegetables and milk are met by its own efforts, it spends a substantial amount on provisions, clothes, medicines, soap and tea. If there’s resource crunch, the earning members contribute to the common kitty and Bheemanna keeps a meticulous record of the transactions.

Weddings are performed every eight or ten years with several marriages being solemnised at the same time. The family’s only source of entertainment is TV.