Minor Dominant Tribes
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. |
Minor dominant tribes
The tribes or castes which I have included in Abstract No. 83 on the next page* are those which are, like the Jats and Rajputs, dominant in parts of the Panjab, but are not so numerous or 67. so widely spread as to rank with those great races. Indeed many of them are probably tribes rather than castes or races ; though in some cases their origin has been forgotten, while in others an obviously false origin has been invented. They are divided into four groups, the Karral, Gakkhar, Awan, and Khattar of the Salt-range Tract, the Khokhar, Kharral and Daudpotra of the Western Plains, and the Dogar, Ror, Taga, Meo and Khan zadah of the Eastern Plains ; wliile the Gujar, who is more widely distributed than the rest, comes last by himself. With the Western Plains group are included the Kathia, Hans, and Khagga, for whom I have no separate figures : indeed it will be apparent from a perusal of the following paragraphs that the figures for all these minor castes in the western half of the Province are exceedingly imperfect. Not only are the lax use of the word Jat and the ill defined nature of the line separating Jats from Rajputs already alluded to sources of great confusion, but many of these tribes have set up claims to an origin which shall connect them with the founder of the Mahomedan religion, or with some of the great Mahomedan conquerors.
Thus we find many of them returned or classed as Shekh, Mughal, or what
not ; and the figures of the Abstract alone are exceedingly misleading. I have
in each case endeavoured to separate the numbers thus returned, and to include
them under their proper caste headings ; and it is the figures thus given in the
text, and not those of the tables, that should be referred to. Even these are
not complete, for till we have the full detail of clans we cannot complete the
classification.
The ethnic grouping of the tribes discussed in this section is a subject which I had hoped to examine, but which lack of time compels me to pass by unnoticed. I will only note how the tendency on the frontier and throughout the Salt-range Tract is to claim Arab or Mughal, and in the rest of the Province to claim Rajput origin. The two groups of tribes which occupy the mountain country of the Salt-range and the great plateaus of the Western Plains are the most interesting sections of the Pan jab land-owning classes, need the most careful examination, and would reward it with the richest return.
The Karral (Caste No. 101)
The Karrals are returned for Hazara only ; and I have no information concerning them save what Major Wace gives in his Settlement Report of that district. He writes : The Karral country consists of the Nara ihiqah in the Abbottabad tahsil. The Karrals were formerly the subjects of the Gakkhars, from whom they emancipated them selves some two centuries ago. Originally Hindus, their conversion to Islam is of comparatively modern date. Thirty years ago their acquaintance with the Mahomedan faith was still slight ; and though they now know more of it, and are more careful to observe it, relics of their former Hindu faith are still observable in their social habits.
They are attached to their homes and their fields, which they cultivate simply and industriously. For the rest, their character is crafty and cowardly Major Wace further notes that the Karrals are identical in origin and character with the Dhunds. This would make the Karrals one of the Rajput tribes of the hills lying along the left bank of the Jahlam ; and I have been informed by a native officer that they claim Rajput origin. They are said too to have recently set up a claim to Kayani Mughal origin, in common with the Gakkhars ; or, as a variety, that their ancestor came from Kayan, but was a descendant of Alexander the Great ! But the strangest story of all is that a queen of the great Raja Rasalu of Panjab folklore had by a paramour of the scavenger class four sons, Seo, Teo, Gheo, and Kam, from whom are respectively descended the Sials, Tiwanas, Ghebas, and Karrals. They intermarry with Gakkhars, Saiyads, and Dhunds.
The Gakkhar (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.
The Awan (Caste No. 12) .- The Awans, with whom have been included all who returned themselves as Qutbshahi, are essentially a tribe of the Salt-rang;', where they once held independent possessions of very con siderable extent, and in the western and central portions of which they are still the dominant race. They extend along the whole length of the range from Jahlam to the Indus, and are found in great numbers throughout the whole country beyond it up to the foot of the Sulemans and the Safed Koh ; though in Trans-Indus Bannu they partly and in Dehra Ismail almost wholly disappear from our tables, being included in the term Jat which in those parts means not very much more than et catera. Thus we find among the Jats of our tables no fewer than 30,015 who returned Awan as their tribe and who should probably be classed as Awan, of whom the details are given in the margin.
The eastern limits of their position as a dominant tribe coincide approxi mately with the western border of the Chakwal and Pind Dadan Khan tahsils. They have also spread eastwards along the foot of the hills as far east as the Sutlej, and southwards down the river valley into Multan and Jhang. They formerly held all the plain country at foot of the western Salt-range, but have been gradually driven up into the hills by Pathans advancing from the Indus and Tiw.uias from the Jahalm.
Their story is that they are descended from Qutb Shah of Ghazni, him self a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, but by a wife other than the Prophet's daughter, who came from Hirat about 1035 A.D. and settled in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. Thence they spread along the Salt-range, forming independent clans by whom the Chief of Kalabagh was acknowledged as the head of the tribe. Mr. Brandreth is of opinion that they are more probably descendants of the Bactrian Greeks driven south from Balkh by Tartar hordes, and turning from Hirat to India, and that they entered the Panjab not more than some 250 years ago as a conquering army under leaders of their own, and dispossessed the Janjua Rajputs of the Salt-range country. General Cunningham, on the other hand, is inclined to identify them with the Jud, whom Babar mentions as being descended from the same ancestor as the Janjuas and occupying the western Salt-range at the time of his invasion, and who were so called from the old name of Mount. Sakesar which is still the tribal centre of the Awan race. He would make both the Awans and the Janjuas Anuwan or descendants of Anu ; and thinks it probable that they held the plateaus which he north of the Salt-range at the time of the Indo-Scythian invasion which drove them southwards to take refuge in the mountains. [ArehcBological Reports, Vol. II, page 17ff Babar describes the Jud and Janjuas as having been from of old the lords of the Salt-range and of the plain country at its foot between the Indus and the Jahlam, and mentions that their minor Chiefs were called Malik, a title still used by the headmen of those parts. The Jalandhar Awans state that they came into that district as followers of one of the early Emperors of Dehli who brought them with him from the Salt-range ; and it is not impossible that they may have accompanied the forces of Babar. Many of them were in former times in the imperial service at Dehli, keeping up at the same time their connection with their Jalandhar homes. It is almost certain that Mr. Brandreths theory is incorrect. The Awans have been almost the sole occupants of the Mianwali Salt-range Tract for the last 600 years. Mr. Thomson considers the whole question in sections 73-74 of his Jahlam Settle ment Report, and adduces many strong reasons in support of his conclusion that the Awans are a Jat race who came through the passes west of Derah Ismail Khan and spread northwards to the country near Sakesar, a conclusion towards which some of the traditions of Derah Ismail Khsm also are said to point. I may add that some of the Awans of Gujrat are said to trace their origin from Sindh. Major Wace also is inclined to give the Awans a Jat origin. In the genealogical tree of the Kalabagh family which used to be the chief family of the tribe, in which tree their descent is traced from .Qutb Shah, Several Hindu names, such as Rai Harkaran, occur immediately below the name of Qutb Shah. The Awans still employ Hindu Brahmans as family priests.
Mr. Thomsoii describes the Awans as frank and pleasing in their manners, but vindictive, violent, and given to faction ; strong and broad shouldered, but not tall ; strenuous but slovenly cultivators ; and essentially a peasant race. Colonel Davies thinks scareely more favourably of them. He writes : The Awans are a brave high-spirited race but withal exceeding ly indolent . In point of cliaracter there is little in them to admire ; headstrong and irascible to an unusual degree, and prone to keeping alive old feuds, they are constantly in hot water ; their quarrels leading to affrays and their affrays not unfrequently ending in bloodshed. As a set-off against this it must be allowed that their manners are frank and engaging, and although they cannot boast of the truthfulness of other hill tribes, they are remarkably free from crime. Mr. Steedman says : The Awans hold a high, but not the highest place among the tribes of the Rawalpindi District. As a rule they do not give their daughters in marriage to other tribes, and the children of a low-caste woman by an Awan are not considered true Awans. In Jahhiin their position would scareely seem to be so high as in Rawalpindi, as Mr. Thomson describes them as distinctly belonging to the zamindar or peasant class, as opposed to the Gakkhars and .Tanjuas who are Sahu or gentry. The history of the Awans is sketched by Sir Lepel Griffin at pages 570// of his
Panjab Chiefs. The Awans have returned sub-divisions figures for some in the margin.
few large give the very I of the largest
Of the Khokhar 5,663 are in Rawalpindi,
2,362 in Jahlam, 3,949 in
Shahpur, 2,438 in Bannu, and
3,301 in Hazara ; while of the
Khattar 10,916 are in Rawal
pindi. These men are probably really Khattars and Khokhars rather than
Awans, but have returned themselves thus in pursuance of the tradition of all
the three tribes having a common origin.
