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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|G]]
[[Category:Communities|G]]


=Caste No. 68= 

The Gakkhars are the ancient rulers 
of the northern portion of the cis-Indus Salt-range Tract, just as are the 
Awans and Janjuas of the southern portion of the same tract ; and it appears 
probable that they at one time overran Kashmir, even if they did not found a 
dynasty there. Their own story is that they are descended from Kaigohar 
of the Kayani family then reigning in Ispahan ; that they conquered Kashmir 
and Tibet and ruled those countries for many generations, but were eventually 
driven back to Kabul, whence they entered the Panjab in company with 
Mahmud Ghaznavi early in the 11th century. This last is certainly untrue, 
for Ferishtah relates that in 1008 Mahmud was attacked by a Gakkhar army 
in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. Sir Lepel Griffin thinks that they were emigrauts from Khorasan who settled in the Panjab not later than 300 
A.D., and points out that, like the Persians and unlike the other tribes of 
the neighbourhood, they are still Shiahs. It is at any rate certain that they 
held their present possessions long before the Mabomedan invasion of India. 
Ferishtah writes of them during Muhammad Ghoris invasion in 1206 
A.D. :— 

During the residence of Muhammad Ghori at Lahore on this occasion, the Ghakkars who 
inhabit the country along the lanks of the Nrlab up to the foot of the mountains of Siwalik, 
exercised unheard of cruelties on the Muhammadans and cut off' the couimimication between the 
provinces of Peshawar and Multan. These Ghakkars were a race of wild barbarians, without 
either religion or morality. It was  a custom among them as soon as a female child was born, to 
carry her to the door of the house and there proclaim aloud, holding the child in one hand and a 
knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her otherwise she was im
mediately to be put to death. By this means they had more men than women which occasioned 
the custom of having several husbands to one wife. When this wife was visited by one of her 
husbands she left a mark at the door, which being observed by any of the other husbands, he with
drew till the signal was taken away. This barbarous people continued to make incursions on the 
Muhammadans till in the latter end of this king's reign their chieftain was converted to the true 
faith while a captive. A great part of these mountaineers, having very little notion of any 
religion, were easily induced to adopt the tenets of the true faith ; at the same time most of the 
infidels who inhabited the mountains between Gliazni and the Indus were also converted, some 
by force and others by persuasion, and at the present day (1609 A.D.) they continue to profess 
the faith of Islam. Briggs' feristab , i, 183ff 

The Gahkhars however did not hesitate to assassinate Muhammad Ghori 
on his return from Lahore. 

General Cunningham identifies the Gakkhars with the Gargaridse of 
Dionysius, and holds them to be descendants of the great Yueti or Takhari 
Scythians of the Abar tribe, who moved from Hyrkania to Abryan on the 
Jahlam under either Darius Hystaspes (circa 500 B.C.), or still earher under 
one of the Scytho-Parthian Kings. The whole origin and early history of 
the tribe will be found discussed at pages 22 to 33, Vol. II of the Arehaeolo
gical Reports, and at pages 574 to 581 of Griflin's ranjdh Chiefs; while 
much information as to their early history is given in Brandreth's Settle
ment Report of the Jahlam District. As Mr. Thomson says : The 
Turanian origin of the Gakkhars is highly probable ; but the rest of the 
theory is merely a plausible surmise. On the whole there seems little use in 
going beyond the sober narrative of Ferishtah, who represents the Gakkhars 
as a brave and savage race, living mostly in the hills, with little or no religion, 
and much given to polyandry and infanticide. They have now, in 
apparent imitation of the Awans, set up a claim to Mughal origin ; and 
many of the Rawalpindi Gakkhars returned themselves as Mughals, while 
I am told that some of the Gakkhars of Chakwal entered themselves as 
Rajputs. 

At present the Gakkhars are practically confined to the Rawal
pindi, Jahlam, and Hazara Districts, where they are found all aloug the 
plateaus at the foot of the lower Himalayas, from the Jahlam to Haripur 
in Hazara. To the figures given in Table VIII-A should be added 1,543 
persons who returned themselves in Rawalpindi as Mughal Gakkhar, and 
perhaps 4,549 others who returned themselves as Mughal Kayani, of whom 
3,861 were in Rawalpindi, 592 in Jahlam, and 93 in Kohat. This would 
raise the total number of Gakkhars to 31,881, of whom about half are in 
Rawalpindi. They are described by Mr. Thomson as compact, sinewy, and 
vigorous, but not large boned ; making capital soldiers and the best light 
cavalry in Upper India ; proud and self-respecting, but not first-class agriculturists ; with no contempt for labour, since many work as coohes on 
the railway ; but preferring service in the army or police. 

Their race feeling 
is strong, and a rule of inheritance disfavours Gakkhars of the half-blood. 
Colonel Craeroft notes that they refuse to give their daughters in marriage 
to any other elass except Saiyads, that they keep their women very strictly 
secluded, and marry only among the higher Rjijputs, and among them only 
when they eannot find a suitable match among themselves. Some of their 
principal men are very gentlemanly in their bearing, and show unmistake
ably their high origin and breeding. They still cling to their traditions 
and, though the Sikhs reduced them to the most abject poverty, are looked up to in the district as men of high rank and 
position, and in times of commotion they would 
assuredly take the lead one way or the other. 
Thus the character of the savage Gargars seems to have been softened and improved by 
time. The Gakkhars do not seem always to 
have returned their clans, which are very well 
marked. I give in the margin the figures for 
a few of the largest. Their local distribution 
in the Jahlam District is fully described in Mr. Thomson's Settlement Report. 

See[[The Awan ]]