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<p>Created page with &quot; {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; |- |colspan=&quot;0&quot;|&lt;div style=&quot;font-size:100%&quot;&gt; This article is an extract from &lt;br/&gt; PANJAB CASTES &lt;br/&gt; SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. &lt;br...&quot;</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> |colspan=&quot;0&quot;|&lt;div style=&quot;font-size:100%&quot;&gt;<br /> This article is an extract from &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> PANJAB CASTES &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> Being a reprint of the chapter on &lt;br/&gt;<br /> The Races, Castes and Tribes of &lt;br/&gt;<br /> the People in the Report on the &lt;br/&gt;<br /> Census of the Panjab published &lt;br/&gt;<br /> in ''' 1883 ''' by the late Sir Denzil &lt;br/&gt;<br /> Ibbetson, KCSI &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> Lahore : &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, &lt;br/&gt;<br /> <br /> 1916. &lt;br/&gt;<br /> ''Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees ''&lt;br/&gt; <br /> ''with the contents of this article.''<br /> &lt;/div&gt;<br /> |} <br /> [[Category:India|G]]<br /> [[Category:Communities|G]]<br /> <br /> =Caste No. 8=<br /> <br /> The Gujars are the eighth largest caste <br /> in the Panjab, only the Jats, Rajputs, and Pathans among dominant castes, the <br /> mixed caste of Arains, and the Brahmans, Chamars, and Chuhras exceeding <br /> thcm in point of number. They are identified by General Cunningham with the <br /> Kushan or Yuehi or Tochari, a tribe of Eastern Tartars. About a century before <br /> Christ their Chief conquered Kabul and the Peshawar country ; while his son <br /> Hima Kadphises, so well known to the Panjab Numismatologist; extended his <br /> sway over the whole of Upper Pan jab and the banks of the Jamna as far down <br /> as Mathra and the Vindhyas, and his successor the no less familiar king <br /> Kanishka, the first Buddhist Indo-Seythian prince, annexed Kashmir to the <br /> kingdom of the Tochari. These Tochari or Kushan are the Kaspeinei of Ptolemy ; <br /> and in the middle of the second century of our lera, Kaspeira, Kasyapapura, or <br /> Multan, was one of their chief cities. Probably about the beginning of the <br /> 8rd century after Christ, the attacks of the White Huns recalled the last king <br /> of the united Yuchi to the west, and he left his son in charge of an independent <br /> province whose capital was fixed at Peshawar ; and from that tnne the Yuchi <br /> of Kabul are known as the Great Yuchi, and those of the Panjab as the Kator <br /> or Little Yuchi. Before the end of the 3rd century a portion of the Gujars <br /> had begun to move southwards down the Indus, and were shortly afterwards <br /> separated from their northern Ijrethren by Indo-Seythian wave from the north. <br /> In the middle of the .5th eentury there was a Gujar kingdom in south<br /> western Rajputana, whence they were driven by the Balas into Gujarat of the <br /> Bombay Presidency ; and about the end of the 9th century, Ala Khana the <br /> Gujar king of Jammu, ceded the present Gujar-des, corresponding very nearly <br /> with the the Gujrat district, to the king of Kashmir. The town of Gujrat is <br /> <br /> said to have bven built or restored hy All Kluin Gujar in the time of Akbar. <br /> The grounds for Gcnieral Cunningham's identitication will be found in full <br /> detail at pages 61 to 82 of Vol. N. of the Areltasological Reports. <br /> <br /> The present distribution of the Gujars in India is thus described by Gener<br /> al Cunning-ham : — <br /> <br /> At the present day tho Gujars are found in great number-; in every part of the North<br /> West of india from the indus to the Ganges, and from the Hazara monntains to the Peninsula of <br /> Gujrat. They are specially numerous along the bank-5 of the Upper Jamna, near Jagadri and <br /> Ruriya, and in the Saharanpur district, which during the last century was actually called <br /> Gujarat. To the east they occupy the petty State of Samptar in Bandelkhnnd, and one of the <br /> northern districts of Gwalior, which is still called Gujargar. They are found only in small bodies <br /> and much scattered through out Eastern rajputana and Gwalior; But they are more numerous in <br /> the Western States, and specially towards Gujarat, where they form a large part of the <br /> population. The Rajas of Rewilrl to the south of Dehli are Gujars. In the Southern Panjab <br /> they are thinly scattered, but their number.-) increase rapidly towards tho north, where they have <br /> given their name to several imporiant places, such as Gujarnwala in the Rcchna-Doab, Gujrat <br /> in the Cliaj Doab, and Gujar Khan in the Sindh Sagar Doab. They are numerous about Jahlam <br /> and Hassan Abdal, and throughout the Hazara districts ; and they are also found in considerable <br /> numbers in the Dardu districts of Chilas, Kohli, and Palas, to the cast of the Indus, and in the <br /> contiguous districts to the west of the river.<br /> <br /> In the Panjab they essentially belong to the lower ranges and sub-montane <br /> tracts ; and though they have spread down the Jamna in considerable numbers, <br /> they are almost confined to the riverain lowlands. In the higher mountains <br /> they are almost unknown.The fignres showing their distribution are given <br /> 166- in Abstract No. 83 at page 254*. Gujrat is still their stronghold, and in <br /> that district they form 13 1/2 per cent, of the total population. There alone <br /> have they retained their dominant position. Throughout the Salt-range <br /> Tract, and probably under the eastern hills also, they are the oldest inhabitants <br /> among the tribes now settled there ; but in the west the Gakkhars, Janjuas, <br /> and Pathans, and in the east the Rajputs have always been too strong* for <br /> them, and long ago deprived them of political importance. In the Peshawar <br /> district almost any herdsman is called a Gujar, and it may be that some of <br /> those who are thus returned are not true Gujars by race.^ But throughout <br /> the hill country of Jammu, Chibhal, and Hazara, and away in the Independent <br /> Territory lying to the north of Peshawar as far as the Swat river, true Gujar <br /> herdsmen are found in great numbers, all possessing a common speech, which <br /> is a Hindi dialect quite distinct from the Panjabi or Pashto current in those <br /> parts. Here they are a purely pastoral and almost nomad race, taking their <br /> herds up into the higher ranges in summer and descending with them into <br /> the valleys during the cold weather ; and it may be said that the Gujar is <br /> a cultivator only in the plains. Even there he is a bad cultivator, and more <br /> given to keeping cattle than to following the plough. <br /> <br /> It is Impossible without further investigation to fix the date of the Gujar <br /> colonization of the lower districts. They are almost exclusively Musalman<br /> except in the Jamna districts and Hushyarpur, and th'y must therefore <br /> have entered those districts before the conversion of the great mass of the caste. <br /> The Jalandhar Gujars date their conversion from the time of Aurangzeb, a <br /> very probable date. The Firozpur Gujars say that they came from Daranagar <br /> in the south of India, that they moved thence to Rania in Sirsa, and thence <br /> again to Firozpur via Kasur. The Musalman Gujars of all the eastern half <br /> <br /> On the other hand, Mr, Steedman is of opinion that the tigures for the Gujars of Eawal<br /> pindi are very much under the mark, and that many of them must have been returned as Jats, <br /> Rajputs, or perhaps even Mughals. <br /> <br /> of the Province still retain more of their Hindu customs than do the majority <br /> of their converted neighhours, their women, for instance, wearing petticoats <br /> instead of drawers, and red instead of blue. It is noticeable that Gujrat is <br /> to the Gujars what Bhatner and Bhattiana are to the Bhatti, a place to which <br /> there is a traditional tendency to refer their origin. <br /> <br /> The Gujaris a fine stalwart fellow, of precisely the same pliysical <br /> type as the Jat ; and the theory of aboriginal descent which has sometimes <br /> been propounded, is to my mind conclusively negatived by his cast of counten<br /> ance. He is of the same social standing as the Jat, or perhaps slightly in<br /> ferior ; but the two eat and drink in common without any scrapie and the proverb <br /> says : The Jat, Gujar, Ahir, and Gola are all four hail fellows well met.'<br /> But he is far inferior in both personal character and repute to the Jat. He is lazy <br /> to a degree, and a wretched cultivator ; his women, though not secluded, will <br /> not do field-work save of the lightest kind ; while his foiulness for cattle ex<br /> tends to those of other people. The dnference between a Gujar and a Rajput <br /> cattle-thief was once explained to me thus by a Jat : The Rajput will steal <br /> your buffalo. But he will not send his father to say he knows where it is <br /> and will get it back for Rs. 20, and then keep the Rs. 20 and the buffalo too. <br /> The Gujar will. The Gujars have been turbulent throughout the history of <br /> the Panjab, they were a constant thorn in the side of the Dehli Emperors, <br /> and are still ever ready to take advantage of any loosening of the <br /> bonds of discipline to attack and plunder their neighbours. Their character <br /> as expressed in the proverbial wisdom of the countryside is not a high <br /> one : A desert is better than a Gujar : wherever you see a Gujar, hit <br /> him.Again : The dog and the cat two, the Raugar and the Gujar <br /> two ; if it were not for these four one might sleep with one's door <br /> open :so The dog, the monkey, and the Gujur change their minds <br /> at every step ; and When all other castes are dead make friends with a <br /> Gujar.As Mr. Maconachie remarks : '^ Though the Gujar possesses two <br /> qualifications of a highlander, a hilly home and a constant desire for <br /> *' other people's cattle, he never seems to have had the love of fighting and <br /> the character for manly independence which distinguishes this class elsewhere. <br /> On the contrary he is generally a mean sneaking cowardy fellow ; and I <br /> do not know that he improves much with the mareh of civilization, though <br /> of course there are exceptions ; men who have given up the traditions of <br /> the tribe so far as to recognize the advantage of being honest — <br /> generally.<br /> <br /> Such is the Gujar of the Jamma districts. But further west his <br /> character would seem to be higher. Major Wace describes the Gujars of <br /> Hazara as a simple all-enduring race, thrifty and industrious, with no <br /> ambition but to be left alone in peace with their cattle and fields ; and <br /> many of them are fine men in every way.Mr. Thomson says that <br /> the Gujars of Jahlam are the best farmers in t he district (pcrliaps not exces <br /> sive praise in a district held by Gakkhars, Awans, and Rajputs), though <br /> the Maliar or Arain is a better market gardener ; and that they are <br /> quiet and industrious, more likeable than (Salt-range) Jats, but with few <br /> attractive qualities. Mr. Steedman gives a similar account of the Gujars of <br /> <br /> ^ Mr. Wilson, however, writes : The Gujar villages in Gurgaon have on the whole stood <br /> the late bad times better than those of almost otner caste — better than the Jats, and almost as <br /> well as the Anirs. Our Gurgaou Gujars are very little given to thieving, and I have rather <br /> a high opinion of them.<br /> <br /> Rawalpindi, calling them excellent cultivators.'So the Gujars of Hushyar<br /> pnr are said to be a (quiet and well-behaved set.''In Jalandhar Sir <br /> Richard Temple describes them as here as elsewhere of pastoral habits, but <br /> more industrious and less predatory than usual ;and Mr. Barkley writes : <br /> At present, after thirty years of British rule, they are probably as little <br /> given to crime as any other large class in the agricultural population. It is <br /> still generally true that they occupy themselves more with grazing than <br /> with agriculture ; but this is by no means invariably the case.'But in <br /> Firozpur again Mr. Brandreth describes them as unwilling cultivators, and <br /> greatly addicted to thieving,and gives instances of their criminal pro<br /> pensities. Thus it would appear that the further the Gujar moves from his <br /> native hills, the more he deteriorates and the more unpleasant he makes him<br /> self to his neighbours. The following description of the Gujars of Kangra <br /> by Mr. Barnes is both graphic and interesting : — <br /> <br /> The Gujars of the caste of the same designation in the plain-;. <br /> There they are known as an idle, worthless and thieving race, rejoicing in waste, and enemies to <br /> cultivation and improvement ; but above and below they are both addicted to pastoral habits. In <br /> the hills the Gujars are exclusively a pastoral tribe, — they cultivate scareely at all. The Gadis keep <br /> flocks of sheep and goats and the Gujar'a wealth consists of buffaloes. These people live in the <br /> skirts of the forests, and maintain their existence exclusively by the sale of the milk, ghee, and <br /> other produce of their herds. The men graze the cattle, and frequently lie out for weeks in the <br /> woods tending their herds. The women repair to the markets every morning with baskets on their <br /> heads, with little earthen pots filled with milk, butter-milk and ghee, each of these pots <br /> containing the proportion required for a day's meal. During the hot weather the Gujars usually <br /> drive their herds to the upper range, where the buffaloes rejoice in the rich gi-a-s which the <br /> rains bring forth, and at the same time attain condition from the temperate climate and the <br /> immunity from venomous flies which torment their existence in the plains. The Gujars are a fine, <br /> manly race, with peculiar and handsome features. They are mild and inoffensive in manner, and <br /> in these hills are not distinguislied by the bad pre-eminence which attaches to their race in the <br /> plains. They are never known to thieve. Their women are supposed to be not very scrupulous. <br /> Their habits of frequenting public markets and carrying about their stock for sale unaccompanied <br /> by their husbands undoubtedly expose them to great temptations ; and I am afraid the imputa<br /> tions agahist their character are too well founded. They are tall, well-grown women, and may be <br /> seen every morning entering the bazaars of the hill towns, returning home about the afternoon <br /> with their baskets emptied of their treasures. The Gujars are found all over the district. They <br /> abound particularly about Jowala Mukhi, Tira, and Nadaun. There are some Hindu Gujars <br /> especially towards Mandi; but they are a small sect, compared to the Musalmans.<br /> <br /> It has been suggested, and is I believe held by many, that Jats and <br /> Gujars, and perhaps Ahirs also, are all of one ethnic stock ; and this because <br /> there is a close communion between them. It may be that they are the same <br /> in their far-distant origin. But I think that they must have either entered <br /> India at different times or settled in separate parts, and my reason for thinking <br /> so is precisely because they eat and smoke together. In the case of Jat and <br /> Rajput the reason for differentiation is obvious, the latter being of lngher rank <br /> than the former. But the social standing of Jats, Gujars, and Ahirs being <br /> practically identical, I do not see why they should ever have separated if they <br /> were once the same. It is, however, possible that the Jats were the camel <br /> graziers and perhaps husbandmen, the Gujars the cowherds of the hills, and <br /> the Ahirs the cowherds of the plains. If this be so, they afford a classifica<br /> tion by occupatiou of the yeoman class, which fills up the gap between and <br /> is absolutely continuous with the similar classification of the castes above them <br /> as Brahmans, Banyas, and Rajputs, and of the castes below them as Tarkhans, <br /> Chamars, and so forth. But we must know more of the early distribution of <br /> the tribes before we can have any opinion on the subject. I have noticed in <br /> the early historians a connection between the migrations and location of Gujars <br /> and Rajpnts which has struck me as being more than accidental ; but the <br /> ==Gujar Tribes==<br /> <br /> The Gujar tribes and clans appear to be very <br /> numerous, and apparently new local sub-divisions have sprung up in many <br /> places. Still the distribution of the main tribes for which I give figures on <br /> <br /> the opposite page in Abstract No. 84 is far more general than is tbe case with <br /> other castes of equal importance. The figures only include 47 per cent, of the ^'• <br /> Gujars of the Province; but they comprise 69 per cent, of those of Gujrat, and <br /> probably include most of the great original tribes. The Khatana and Chechi <br /> far surpass the others in number.</div>

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