View source for Biloches: Advance into the Panjab

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This article is an extract from <br/>

PANJAB CASTES <br/>

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br/>

Being a reprint of the chapter on <br/>
The Races, Castes and Tribes of <br/>
the People in the Report on the <br/>
Census of the Panjab published <br/>
in ''' 1883 ''' by the late Sir Denzil <br/>
Ibbetson, KCSI <br/>

Lahore : <br/>

Printed  by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, <br/>

1916. <br/>
''Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees ''<br/> 
''with the contents of this article.''
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[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Communities|B]]

=Advance into the Panjab=

The Biloches had thus 
spread as far north as the Bolan ; but apparently they had not yet encroached 
upon the Suleman range which lay to the east of them, and which was held 
bv Pathans, while a Jat population occupied the valley of the Indus and the 
country between the Sulemans and the river. But about the middle of the 
15th century, the Turks or Mughals under their Arghun leader invaded 
Kachhi and Sindh, and twice took Sibi, in 1-1.79 and in 1511 A.D. About 
the same time the Brahoi, a tribe beheved to be of Dravidian origin,* and 
who appear to have followed in their tracks, drove the the Biloch out of the 
fertile valley of Kelat and established a supremacy over their northern tribes. 
Yielding to the pressure thus put upon them, the Kelat tribes moved east
wards into the lower Sulemans^ driving the Pathans before them along the 

' Shoran is probably another reading of Sara wan, the country between Quetta and Kelat ; 
Gaudava is on the northern frontier of Mudh, south-east of Sarawan ; Sevi and Dhadon are 
doubtless other forms of Sibi and Dadar, north of Gandava and south-cast of Quetta. 

-This name should fix the date of the coute^t; but 1 have been unable to identify the 
sovuruigu in question, who is also described as Sultau Shah Husen, King of Persia. Mir Chakar 
lived in the time of Humayun, about the middle of the I6th century ; but it is probable that these 
events took place at least two centuries earher. Mir Chakar and Mir Gwahram are renowned in 
Biloch story as the national heroes, and it is not unnatural that any great event should be referred 
to them. 

3 When the name apphes to a tract, the tract may have been called after the tribe ; but where 
the name belongs to a mountain, river, or other natural feature, the converse seems more 
probable. 

4 It is thought probable by some that the Brahoi language will be found, when we learn more 
about it, to be Iranian and not Uravidian. 

s One account postpones the occupatiou of the lower Sulemans by Biloches to the expedition 
with Humayun to be mentioned presently. It is trae that about the time of Humayun's conquest 
of India the Pathans of the Derah Is mail frontier were at their weakest, as will be explained 
when those tribes come under discussion. But it is also true that there is a tendency to refer all 
past events to the time of any famous incident, such as the mareh to Dehli with Humayun. 

Range while the Bilocbos from Sindh began to spread tap the Indus. Many 
of these latter took serviee with the Langali rulers of Multun and were granted 
lands along- the river ; and about 1480 A. D. Ismail Klian and Fatah Khan, 
the two sons of Malik Sohrab Khan and Ghuzi Kbau, son of Haji Khan, 
all Dodai Biloohes and of Rind extraction, founded the three Derahs which 
still bear their names, overcame the Lodis of Sitpur_, and established themselves 
as independent rulers of the lower Derajat and Muzaffargarh, which position 
they and their descendants maintained for nearly 300 years.

Thus the 
Southern Biloches gradually spread up the valleys of the Indus, Chanab, and 
Satluj ; while the Derah Ghazi tribes came down from their hills into the 
pachhad or sub-montane tract, displacing a Jat population and driving them 
down to the river, where they still form an important element of the popula
tion even in tracts owned by Biloches. In 1555 a large body of Biloches 
accompanied Humayun, whom they had previously harassed in his retreat, in 
his victorious re-entry into India, under the leadership of Mir Chakar, the 
great Rind hero of Biloch stoiy. They are said to have consisted chiefly of 
Laghari, Drishak, Gopang, and Jatoi. Mir Chakar eventually settled in 
Montgomery, where a considerable tract, still partly held by Biloches, was 
granted to him by the grateful sovereign, and died and was buried at Satgarh 
in that district. It is probable that many of the Biloch settlements in the 
eastern districts of the Province sprang from Humayuns attendants. 

The tribal organisation of the Biloches now covers the whole of our 
southern frontier as far north as the boundary between the two Derahs, 
being confined for the most part to the hills and the land immediately 
under them, but stretching east to the Indus in the neighbourhood of 
Rajanpur. There is also a large Biloch element throughout the river lands 
of the Indus in both the Derahs, more especially in the southern and 
northern portion of Derah Ghazi and just above the Derah Ismail border ; 
while in Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh they form a large proportion of 
the whole population, and they hold considerable areas on the satluj in 
Multan, to the north of the Ravi in Montgomery, on the right bank 

Of the Chanab and along the Jahlam in Jhang, and on the latter river in 
Shahpur. But outside the Derah Ghazi Khan district, and indeed along the 
greater part of the river border of that district, the Biloch settlers own no 
allegiance to any tribal Chief, are altogether external to the political organisa
tion of the nation, and do not hold that dominant position among their 
neighbours which is enjoyed by the organised tribes of Derah Ghazi. Many 
of them have been settled in their present holdings within comparatively 
recent times or, to use the words of Mr. Tucker, have acquired them as 
cultivating proprietors, rather than as a military caste which ruled the country 
but left the occupation of the land to the Jats.'Figures showing the dis

♦ P 38-9 tribution of the Biloches will be found in Abstract No. 65, page 191.*