A glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province By H.A. Rose Vol II/G
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Gabare (गबरे), Gaware (गवरे) (also called Mahron, from their principal village), a group of souie 300 families found in certain villages of the Kohi tract in the Indus Kohistan. They speak a dialect called Gowro and have a tradition that they originally cause from Rashung in Swat. — Biddulph'a Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, p. 10.
Gabhal (गभल), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gabir (गबीर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gabr (गबर), or, as they call themselves Narisati,* a small tribe found in a few villages in Chitral. Possibly the Gabrak of Babar's Memoirs, their language differs considerably from that of the Gabare of the Indus valley. The Chitralis speak of them as a bald race, and they certainly have scanty beards. Sir G. Robertson describes them as all Musalmans of the Sunni sect, who have a particular language of their own and are believed to have been anciently fire-worshippers.
The Gabr has no very distinctive appearance except that one occasionally sees a face like that of a pantomime Jew. There are one or two fair-visaged, well-looking men belonging to the better class, who would compare on equal terms with the similar class in Chitral : they, however, are the exception,
The remainder, both high and low, seem no better than the poor cultivator class in other parts of the Mehtar's dominions, and have a singularly furtive and mean look and manner. The women have a much better appearance. They dress in loose blue garments, which fall naturally into graceful folds. The head is covered with a blue skull-cap from which escape long plaits of hair, one over each shoulder, and two hanging down behind. White metal or bead neck and wrist ornaments contrast well with the dark blue material of their clothes. At a short distance these women are pleasing and picturesque.
The Ramgul Kafirs are also spoken of as Gabars or Gabarik, but they have no relationship with the Gabr.
Gadarah (गदारह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gadari (गाडरी), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gadaria (गडरिया), the shepherd and goatherd of Hindustan. Almost confined to the Jumna zone in the Punjab, the Gadaria has, even in that part of the Province, almost ceased to be distinctively a shepherd, as the cultivating classes themselves often pasture their own flocks, and has become rather a blanket weaver, being indeed as often called Kambalia as Gadaria. The Gadarias are Hindu almost without exception.
Gaddi (गद्दी), Gadi (गादी).— (i) The Muhammadan Gaddis of Delhi, Karnal and Ambala area tribe found apparently in the upper doab of the Jumna and Ganges. Closely resembling the Ghosi, they are perhaps like him a sub-division or offshoot of the Ahirs,† and are by hereditary occupation milkmen,
- * Fr. Nursut, one of tho so-called Gabr villages in the Kunar valley. It is also called Birkot, and by the Kafirs Satrgran, Nursnt being its Chitrali name. — The Kafiri of the Hindoo-Koosh, p. 265.
- † There is also a Gaddi tribe among the Sainis
[Page:256-271]
Rest of Gaddi to be addedGadger (गदगेर), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Gadgor (गदगोर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gadha (गधा) (?) shepherd, cowherd ; also called raivānri in Peshawar.
Gadhi (गधी) , a term of contempt said to be applied by Nihangs (Akālis) to those who smoke.
Gadhiok (ग़धिओक), a tribe small in numbers, but intelligent and enterprising, found in a few villages o£ the Central Salt Range. Their traditions assert that their ancestor Mahta Chandu Rai came from Mathra to Delhi and entered the Mughal service under Babar, who employed him with Raja Mal Janjua to drain the eastern Dhanni tract in the Salt Range. Gharka Kassar and Sidhar Manhas afterwards aided them to colonise the tract, and Babar granted Chandu Rai a percentage in the revenue of the Dhanni and other tracts in the Salt Range. Humayuu granted Kali or Kalik Das, son of Chandu Rai, a sanad * (dated 1554) of 30,000 tankas for the improvement of the Kahun tract and the family also received sanads from Akbar and Auraugzeb. In the latter's reign one branch of the tribe was converted to Islam, but most of its members are still Hindus. Gadhiok is said to be a corruption of gaddi-hok, on its ancestors having presented 31 gaddis at a hukai (the announcement of the presents brought at a wedding). The Gadhiok usually marry among themselves, but some intermarry with Khatris of the Bāri group, though never with Bunjahis. In neither case is widow marriage allowed. Their Brahmans are of the Nauli got and at a boy's munnan or head-shaving the father or head of the Family himself decapitates a goat with a sword and gives the head, feet and skin to the Naule parohits of the tribe, though they do not eat flesh and other Brahmans would not touch such offerings. The skin, etc., are sold. A similar observance is in vogue at the janeo investiture. Gadhioks eat flesh at weddings, a usage contrary to local Hindu custom. At the munnan of a first-born son the custom found among some other Khatris is followed and the mother flees to the house of a neighbour who plays the part of her parents. Her husband would bring her back again, and remarry her by the dukāja or 'second wedding ' which costs about half as much as the first. Gadhioks avoid touching weighing scales,† at least in theory, and also usury, but one or two families, not admitted to be descendants of Kali Das or true Gadhioks, have no such scruple. No Gadhiok will wash, set out on a journey or begin a new task on a Thursday — the day on which their ancestor left his original home. Hindu Gadhioks eat and drink with Khatris : Muhammadans with any Muhammadan save a Mochi or Musalli. The latter style them- selves Shaikh : while the Hindus generally use the title of Mahta, but the family of Dalwal is styled Diwan, Mulraj, one of its members having been governor of Hazara under the Sikhs. The samadh of Kali Das is a conspicuous object at Kallar Kahar. The Gadhioks have many habits, apparently in a down-country dialect, and now claim Rajput origin or status, but they are probably of Khatri extraction as their intermarriage with that caste shows.
Gadi (गादी) a Baloch clan (agricultural) found in Shahpur : see also under Gaṛṛi.
Gadun (गदून), or Jadun (जदून), as they are called indifferently, are a tribe of Pathans found in Hazara and in Attock. They claim descent from
- * This sanad contains a reference to the Bagh-i-Safa established at Kallar Kahār by Bābar and mentioned in his Memoirs.
- † Implying that retail trade is considered derogatory.
Sarhang, a great-grandson of Ghurguuslit, two of whose sons fled, they say, because of a blood feud to the mountains of Chach and Hazara. It is almost certain that the Jadun are not of Indian origin ; though it has been suggested that in their name is preserved the name of Jadu or Yadu, the founder of the Rajput Yadubansi dynasty, many of whose descendants migrated from Guzerat some 1, 100 years before Christ, and were afterwards supposed to be found in the hills of Kabul and Kandahar. They occupy all the south-eastern portion of the territory between the Peshawar and Hazara borders, and the southern slopes of Mahaban, having been assigned their present lands in the eastern Sama after Malik Ahmad and the Kashi chiefs of the Afghans had defeated the Dilazak. And when Jahangir finally crushed the Dilazāk, they spread up the Dor valley as high as Abbottabad. Early in the 18th century, on the expulsion of the Karlugh Turks by Saiyid Jalāl Bāba they appropriated the country about Dhamtaur ; find about a hundred years later they took the Bagra tract from the few remaining Dilazāk who held it, while shortly before the Sikhs took the country their Hassazai clan deprived the Karral of a portion of the Nilan valley. They are divided into three main clans, Salar, Mansur, and Hassanzai, of which the last is not represented among the trans-Indus Jadun and has lost all connection with the parent tribe, having even forgotten its old Pashtu language. Bellew made them a Gakkhar clan, but this appears to be quite incorrect. The true Pathans of Hazara call them mlātar or mercenaries, from the Pashtu equivalent for lakban or " one who girds his loins". In Hazara a Salar occupy the Rajoia plain ; the Mansur are found in Mangal and in and round Nawanshahr ; while the Haasanzaia reside in Dhamtaur and the adjacent villages, and in the Mangal and Bagra tracts. The two former tribes keep up a slight connection with the Pathans to the west of the Indus, and a few can still speak Pashtu. After they had obtained a footing to the east of the Indus, in Hazara, those three tribes elected a Hassanzai of Dhamtaur to the khān-ship, and his son succeeded him, but the chiefship is now in abeyance, though the family is still looked up to. In this part the Durrani rule was quite nominal and the Jaduns of Hazdra only paid them a horse, a falcon or two and a small sum of money as tribute.
Gadwar (गद्वार), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gag (गग), a Dogar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gagi (गगी) a Dogar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gagra (गागरा) , a small caste, for the most part Mussalman, and chiefly found in the central districts. They wander about catching and eating vermin, but their hereditary occupation is that of catching, keeping , and applying leeches ; and they are often called Jukera, from jonk, a 'leech.' They also make matting and generally work in grass and straw, and in some parts the coarse sacking used for bags for pack animals and similar purposes is said to be made almost entirely by them. The Muhammadan Gagras marry by nikah. They seem to fulfil some sort of functions at weddings, and are said to receive fees on those occasions. It is said that they worship Bala Shah, the Chuhra guru. Also called Gagri or Gegri and Jokharu.
Gagrah (गागरह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gagrel (गगरेल), a Muhammadan Nai converted from Hinduism, in Karnal.
Gakkhaṛ
Gakkhar (गक्खर/गक्खड़ ), an important Muhammadan tribe, found in Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Hazara. Regarding tho Gakkhars in the first-named district Mr. W. S. Talbot writes :—
" The Gakkhars, though not numerically important, are in other respects one of the most prominent tribes in the Jhelum district, and in social position amongst the Musalmans of the tract share with the Janjuas the honour of the first place : in popular estimation indeed they seem to rank a little higher than oven the Janjuas. They are almost entirely confined in this district to the Jhelum tahsil, where they hold the bulk of the Khuddar circle, with a good many villages in the Maidan: elsewhere they are found in any numbers only in the Rawalpindi and Hazara districts.
Origin, — Of the history and origin of this tribe much has been written : the earliest suggestion, that of General Court, that the name of the Gakkhars points to their descent from the Greeks, has not found later supporters : though it has now been adopted and improved upon by some of the present representatives of the tribe, who claim descent from Alexander himself ! Mr. A. Brandreth * adopted the local tradition, that the Gakkhars ' came from Persia through Kashmir,' which is still the claim of the majority of the Gakkhars themselves. The views of General Cunningham are set forth at length in his Arhaeeological Survey Reports, II, pp. 22 to 23, to which the curious must be referred for the detailed reasons on which he bases his conclusion, that the Gakkhars represent the ' savage Gargaridae ' of Dionysius the Geographer, (who wrote probably in the 4th Century A.D.), and are descendants of the great Yuechi Scythians, who entered India from the North-West in the early centuries of the Christian era. Sir Denzil Ibbetson† notices with approval Mr. Thomson's comment†† on Cunningham's theory; though the Turanian origin of the Gakkhars is highly probable, yet the rest of the theory is merely a plausible surmise. On the whole there seems to be little use in going beyond the sober narrative of Ferishta, 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.'
As already indicated, the story of most of the Gakkhars is that they are descended from Kaigohar or Kaigwar Shah, of the Kaiani§ family once 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 Punjab in company with Mahmud Ghaznavi early in the 11th Century: this story is rejected by Ibbetson,
- * Jhelumi Settlement Report, § 48.
- † Punjab Census Report, 1881. § 463.
- †† Jhelum Settlement Report.
- § It is not possible to obtain satisfactory information regarding this word. The city of Kayan was the capital of Kai Kayus, Kai Kubad, and Kai Khasru ; and some say that the Gakkhars call themselves Kayini because they claim descent from these three kings. Others say that the Mughals proper, and especially the Chughattas and Qizilbashes, are Kayanis ; and that the Gakkhars call themselves Kanani or Canaanites because they claim descent from Jacob and Joseph who lived in Canaan; and that it is this word which has been misread Kayani.
because on Ferishta's showing a Gakkhar army resisted Mahmud : and that it is at any rate certain that they held their present possessions long before the Muhammadan invasion of India : on the other side it will be of interest to notice briefly below tho contentions of the most prominent member of the tribe of the present time, the late Khan Bahadur Raja Jahandad Khan, E. A. C, who has made a most painstaking study of the original authorities : it must be noted, however, that, particularly in the exactness of the references to the authoritios cited by him, there is something wanting, owing to his omission to supply further information asked for : his views are as follows : —
All the historians before the time of Ferishta agree that the Khokhars, not the Gakkhars, killed Shahab-ud-din Ghori. Ferishta certainly confused those two tribes, in other cases : thus he frequently refers to Shekha and Jasrat as Gakkhar chiefs; there are no such names in the Gakkhar tree, whereas Shekha and Jasrat appear as father and son in the genealogy of the Khokhars : see tree given in the vernacular settlement report of the Gujrat district, by Mirza Azim Beg, 1865. (Tabaqāt-i-Akbari, pp. 18, 19, 127, 147 and 600; Rauzat-ut-Tāhirin, Elliot, I, p. 301; Muntakhib-ut-Tawārikh, p. 18; Ibn-i-Asir Elliot, II, p. 433; Tabaqāt-i-Nāsiri, pp. 123-4, etc.)
Ferishta's account of tho Gakkhars as a tribe of wild barbarians without either religion or morality, practising polyandry and infanticide, is a literal translation from the Arabic of, Ibn-i-Asir, an earlier historian, who was there, however, writing of the wild tribes in the hills to the west of Peshawar, and not of the Gakkhars : the chapter in Ibn-i-Asir immediately following deals with the murder of Shahāb-ud-din by the Gakkhars : hence perhaps the mistake ; or Ferishta may have borne a grudge against the Gakkhars, who are said by him to have maltreated an ancestor of his own named Hindu Shāh. (Ibn-i-Asir p. 82, Elliot, XII, Ferishta, p. 159). '
Gakkhaṛ Shāh, alias Kaigwār Shāh, is mentioned as one of the principal followers of Mahmud of Ghazni. (Iqbālnāma-i-Jahāngiri, p. 109; Akbar Nāma, p. 242).
The use of the Hindu title of " Raja," has been taken as evidence that the Gakkhar story of their origin is incorrect ; but up to comparatively recent times the Gakkhar chiefs used the title of Sultan. Some sanads of the Mughal emperors are cited, and other evidence, but the references need not be given, as it is certain that the title of Sultān was formerly used by this tribe.
In La Perron's History of the Pārsis,* p. 27, it is said that a migration of Persians to China, under a son of Yazdezard, took place in the 7th century : it is suggested that this was the occasion when the ancestors of the tribe settled in Tibet : an old M.S. pedigree-table produced shows a Sultan Yazdajar some 45 generations back.
An officer who knew tho Gakkhars well wrote of them : 'Some of their principal men are very gentlemanly in their bearing, and show unmistakably their high origin and breeding': another says : 'They are essentially the gentlemen and aristocracy of the (Rawalpindi) district: . . . Tho Gakkhars still bear many traces of their high descent in their bearing, and in the estimation in which they are held
- * Vol. I, Karaka, 1884, citing the Zend Avesta, I, cccxxxvi.
throughout the district, Mr. Thomson wrote of them: 'Physically the Gakkhars are not a large-limbed race, but they are compact, sinewy, and vigorous. They make capital soldiers, and it has been stated on good authority that they are the best light cavalry in Upper India. They are often proud and self-respecting, and sometimes exceedingly well-mannered.' All this does them no more than justice ; and to anyone who knows them well, the statement that as late as the 13th century they were wild barbarians, without religion or morality, is in itself almost incredible. Raja, Jahāndād Khān seems to have succeeded in tracing the libel to its origin : he shows also that they have sometimes been confused with the Khokhars;* but it cannot be said that his arguments in favour of their Persian origin are very convincing : in the matter of the assassination of Shahāb-ud-din Ghori, the historians who state that he was killed by the Gakkhars at Dhamiak in this district are supported by a strong local tradition.
Clans and Maṇḍis.--The Gakkhars have split into many branches, of which the most important in this district are the Admal, the Iskandral and the Bugial, who occupy most of the Khuddar circle : a smaller clan named Firozal hold a few villages close to Jhelum : and a still smaller branch, the Tulial (which is little esteemed, and with which the other clans do not intermarry), has four or five estates on the river near Dina. The clan-names are in all cases derived from those of the common ancestors : the principal seats or mother villages of each branch are called Mandis, of which there are six generally recognised in the Jhelum district : Sultānpur (Admal) ; Lehri and Bakrāla (Iskandrdral) ; Domeli, Padhri, and Baragowah (Bugial) : Bheth and Salihal, formerly flourishing mandis of the Bugiāl, are now decayed.
Character. — Regarding the character of the Gakkhars there is not much to add to what has already been said : pride of race is very strong in them, and though they make good soldiers, they are bad farmers : and where they have not fallen back on Government service, they are almost always in a most unprosperous condition, being much wanting in industry and thrift : their most unpleasing characteristic is their intense jealousy of one another, which leads to bitter feuds, and some-times to murder.
History. — The first settlement of the tribe in this district is generally admitted to be Abriām in Sultānpur, under the Lehri hills : thence they spread over the Khuddar, southwards towards the river, and as far as Landi Patti to the west, being constantly opposed by the Janjuas who were almost invariably defeated and ejected : in his first invasion of India Babar took the part of the Janjuas, and with them defeated Hati Khan, the great Gakkhar chief of Pharwala, but in a subsequent invasion made friends with the Gakkhars and procured from them an auxiliary force. When Babar's son, Humayun, was in A. D. 1542 ousted by Sher Shah, the principal Gakkhar chiefs took the side of the exile: to bridle their pride Sher Shah built the huge fort of Rohtas, about ten miles from Jhelum : and in the constant warfare that followed the Gakkhar country was terribly harried, but the tribe was never subdued, and on Humayun's return to power began to grow powerful.
- * See also an article in the Indian Antiquary, 1907 'The Khokhara and the Gakkhars in Punjab History' by H. A. Kose.I.C.S
Their subsequent history until the rise of "Sultan " Muqarrab Khan, about 1740 A. D., chiefly concerns other districts : he was an Admal chief of the Rawalpindi district; and claimed to rule the whole of the tract from Attock to the Chenab ; the Domeli Bugiāls however did not acknowledge his pretensions, and on his defeat by the Sikhs at Gujrat, they at once rebelled, captured Muqarrab Khan and murdered him. The usual internecine feuds then arose, and the different clans fell in turn an easy prey to the Sikhs, though the eastern hill Mandis were never thoroughly subdued, and were in constant rebellion until the beginning of the British rule: in 1849 the Gakkhars nearly all took the losing side, and therefore forfeited much of their possessions and dignities, falling on evil days, from which they have only extricated themselves by the readiness with which they have since taken employment under Government."*
In Hazara the Gakkhars have had a still more chequered history. Descended from Fateh Khan, founder of Khanpur, to whom the hills of Khanpur as well as those of the Karral and Dhund were entrusted by his grandfather Sultan Sarang Khan about the end of the 16th century, the Ghakkars could not keep the Karral and Dhund tribes under control during the decline of the Mughal dynasty. Under Durrani rule how-ever they were given charge of the lower parts of Hazara, their chief Sultan Jāfar Khan being famous for his uprightness. But Sirdar Hari Singh drove them from their lands and they were not reinstated till 1868-72, when they recovered almost the whole of the Khanpur tract.
Ga...
Gajja (गज्जा), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Gal (गल), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar and Multan.
Galbaha (गल्बाहा), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Galhar (गलहार), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Galwatrah (गल्वत्रह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gandapur (गन्दपुर) : A Pathan tribe of Ushtarani (Saiyid) extraction. Besides the original stock they include by affiliation some offshoots of the Shirani, the Mushezai section of the Ghurghushti Pathans, and the Ranizai section of the Yusufzai tribe. They hold the whole of the north-western part of trans-Indus Dera Ismail east of Tank and south of the Nila Koh ridge of the Salt Range, comprising an area of 460 square miles, abutting on the Sulaimans to the west ; and the town of Kulachi is their headquarters. They were originally a poor pawindah and pastoral tribe, but they now cultivate more largely than any other Dera Ismail Pathans. They reached the height of their prosperity about the middle of the 18th century, but lost their eastern possessions some seventy years later, they being confiscated by Nawab Muhammad Khan, the Saddozai governor of Leiah. They still engage in the pawindah traffic. They are lawless, brutal and uncivilized ; and their hereditary Khan has but little power. Mr. St. George Tucker thus described their sections:-—
" The Gandapurs profess to be all descended from one or two original ancestors, but there is no doubt, as in most similar cases, that other
- * Further information will be found in Mr. Brandreth's Jhelum Settlement Report, 1865, §5 55 to 58 ; Mr. Thomson's Settlement Report, 1883, §57; and in Punjab Government Selections, New series,No. XXIII, 1887.
tribes and families have been associated with them from time to time, who all claim now to be of the original stock. They are divided into six main divisions or nallahs (valleys*). Most of these nallaha have a single generic name, covering all the men of that nallah ; but there are also joint nallahs, in which two altogether distinct sections are combined, each having a generic name of its own. The hereditary chiefship rested at first with the Brahimzai nallah, but the Brahirazais having been very much weakened by losses in a fight against the Babars, the chiefship was transferred some 200 years ago to the Hamrānzai, who have retained it ever since. Azād Khan was the first Hamrānzai Khān. It was in his time that the Gandapurs seized Takwāra from the Driskhels. Kulāchi was soon afterwards settled by fugitive Baloch from Dera Fateh Khan, from whom it obtained its name. These eventually returned to their own country, and Kulāchi became the head town of the Gandapurs".
Gandhi (गंधी), a Jat tribe, which seems to be chiefly found in the same tract with the Māngat.
Gandhila (गंधीला), fem. -aṇ, a low vagrant tribe, said by Elliott to be "a few degrees more respectable than the Bawarias," though in the Punjab their positions are perhaps reversed. They wander about bare-headed and bare- footed, beg, work in grass and straw, catch quails, clean and sharpen knives and swords, cut wood, and generally do odd jobs. They are said to eat tortoises and vermin. They also keep donkeys, and even engage in trade in a small way. It is said that in some parts they lead about performing bears ; but this is doubtful. They have curious traditions which are reported from distant parts of the Province, regarding a king- dom which the tribe once possessed, and which they seem inclined to place beyond the Indus. They say they are under a vow not to wear shoes or turbans till th eir possessions are restored to them.
Gandu (गन्दु)', a small Jat clan found in Jind. It has bakhuās at Mādpur, and at these it worships its jatheras at weddings and on the Diwali.
Gandi (गांदी), one who extracts and sells otto (itr), whereas the atār makes 'arak' not itr.
Gandia (गंदिया), a tribe of Jats found in Dera Ghazi Khan. Like the Chandia Baloch they present offerings to the descendants of Shamji, though Muhammadans, and are also called Rang Rangia. See under Gosain and Chhabihwala.
Gang (गंग), a tribe which, like the Munds, is generally reckoned as Awan, though the leaders of the admittedly Awans do not allow the claim. It is surrounded by Awans on all sides and may be an affiliated clan (see Jhelum Gazetteer, 1904, p. 101).
Gangah (गंगाह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gango (गंगो), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gangushahi (गंगुशाही).— A Sikh sect, founded by Gangu or Gangadas, a Basi Khatri of Garhshankar. Sikh history relates that he presented four pice weight of gur — all his worldly wealth— to his Guru, Amardas, and was sent to preach in the hill country. He founded, a shrine at Daun near Kharar, and his great-grandson, Jowahir Singh, founded one of still greater fame at Khatkar Kalan in Jullundhar. Mahi Bhagat of
- * Cf. the thoks among the Meos.
Mahisar was another celebrated leader of this sect. The Gangushāhis possess Guru Amar Das' bed and having refused initiation from Guru Govind Singh were excommuoicated by him.*
Ganj (गंज), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ganj-Bakshi (गंज-बक्षी). — A Sikh sect, few in numbers, of which nothing is known,† except that Ganj-bakhsh was a faqir of Gurdaspur who received a blessing from Guru Amar Das††.
Ganwan (गंवान), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ganwanen (गंवानें), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ganwen (गंवेन), a Jat clan found in the centre of Shujabad tahsil, Multan district where they settled from Delhi in Mughal times.
Ganwari (गांवरी), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gar (गार) or Garh and Samal or Samil. — The two factions into which the Pathans and other tribes of the North-West Frontier were, and to some extent still are, divided. Many legends designed to explain the origin of these factions are current. When Raja, runs an old tradition, ruled in the modern North-West Frontier Province his wazir Gomal Governed Balochistan as far as Waziristan as his viceroy. Gomal had two nephews, Samal and Garh, between whom the country was divided. Hence Samal comprises the Spin and Tor gund tribes bordering- on Khost in Afghanistan, and the Zakka Khel, Aka Khel, Sih Pai, Qamrai the Tamam Khatak of Tirah, the Afridi country, and generally speaking all the tribes of the Kohat and Bannu districts. Gar or Garh comprises the Qamar Khel, Kuki Khel, Adi Khel, Aya Khel, and many villages of the Orakzai, Musazai, Mula Khel, Mushtai, Bazotai, Alisherzai, etc. According to Cockerell these factions are not now of much importance, having been superseded by the more rabid enmity between Sunni and Shia, but Major James writing in 1870 described the feud between them as still very strong and bitter and merely supplemented by that between the two sects. He assigned to the Samil half the Orakzai and Bangash, tne Mohmand, Malik-din Khel, Sipah (Sih Pai) and Kamr, with the Zakka, Aka and Adam Khels of the Afridis, and to the Gār the rest of the Orakzai and Bangash and the Khalil, with the Kuki and Qambar Khels of the Afridis. The tradition, accepted by Ibbetson, that the factions originated in the fratricidal enmity of the two sons of the ancestor of the Bangash, who were called Bun-kash or 'root-destroyers' on that account, derives support from tho fact that the two great branches of the Bangash are called Gari and Samilzai, but how the feud spread as far north as the Mohmands and Khalils does not appear.
Gara (गारा), Garra (गड़ड़ा), a term applied to any doghlā, or person whoso parents were of different castes, in the Hill States, especially to the issue of a Muhammadan Kajput by a wife of another caste. [? whether=:garr of Jammu] (2). A village of Gaur; Brahmans converted to Muhammadanism
- * Maclagan, § 97.
- † Murray's History of the Punjab, I, p. l2l.
in Gurgaon call themselves Gaur Shaikhs but are styled Gāṛā by their neighbours, and a proverb says :—
- Khet men jāṛā gānw meṇ Gāṛā,
Meaning - " As coarse grass tends to spread in tho field, so a Gāṛā tries to convert his fellows."
(3). In Karnal the descendant of a Rajput by a widow (of his owner any other caste) married by karewa is called Gāṛā.
Garalwal (गरलवाल ), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gardezi (गरदेज़ी ), a branch of the Husaini Sayyids, also called Baghdadi. They once owned a large part of the Sarai Sidhu tahsil of Multan. The Zaidis are an offshoot of the Gardezis. [See The Races of the N.-W. P. of India, Vol. I, p. 125).
Garei (गड़ेई), an Arian clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Garewal (गरेवाल ), an important Jat tribe in Ludhiana, which claims to be of sau or gentle status. Hindu Garewal are also found in Montgomery.
Garh (गढ़), a Baloch clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Garhar (गरहार), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Garhwi (गढ़वी), a non-Pathan tribe which with the Torwals holds the Swat Kohistan. The Garhwis speak a language of their own called Garhwi. See under Torwal.
Garno (गरनो), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Garri (गड़ड़ी), or Gadi (गाड़ी), a small class of milkmen and cultivators in Karnal, known as Gaddi in Delhi.
Garri (गाररी), a low caste of strolling actors and mountebanks, mostly Hindu who have their head-quarters in Jammu but are not infreqnently found in the Bajwat, or plain country under the Jammu hills, in Sialkot. According to Sir Dunlop Smith the Garris are perhaps hardly 'actors' or ' mountebanks,' but rather wandering minstrels like the Mirasis, only they do not keep to one place like the latter. They stroll about in very small bands and do not visit the Punjab proper. They generally visit the Rajput villages in the Sialkot and Zaffarwal tahsils about the time of the kharif harvest, very rarely at the rabi. They say they are Hindus, but their standing is low and their religious beliefs are hazy. They invariably have a zither-like instrument called a king. They speak the Dogar dialect, which the Jats do not understand, and their songs generally relate to a great ancestress, the recital of whose history is said to have a wonderful effect on the women. They occasionally dance to their own singing. They are not at all, criminal, and their women are fairly respectable. They marry within the tribe oly.
Gat (गत), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gatab (गतब), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gathwala (गठ्वाला) (from gatha, a burden). A Jat tribe, once carriers by trade. It holds 10 villages in tahsil Jind, whither they migrated from Hulana, a village in the Gohana tahsil of Rohtak. They have Bairagis as their jatheras.
Gathanah (गथानाह), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gaur (गौर), a variant of Gavr or Gabr, 'unbeliever' among the Baloch. The Gaur gave their name to the town of Gaurani (Dames' Popular Poetry of the Baloches, p. 163). Cf. also Gibari and Gabr.
Gaur (गौड़), a group of the Brahmans, confined almost entirely to the eastern districts, the Punjab Himalayas and the sub-montano as far west as Gujrat. The Gaurs are generally divided into two classes, adh- or pure Gaurs, and gattas who are of illegitimate descent. In the Delhi territory the latter class appears to be called Dharukra or Doghla. In Sirmur State the adh-Gaurs are said not to intermarry with the gattas. Tho adh-Gaur are themselves sub-divided into chiṭṭi and kali kanthi-walas, or 'wearers of white and black rosaries' a division which is undoubtedly sectarian. Trans-Giri in this State the highest section of the Brahmans (and apparently Gaurs) is the Pabuch which does not intermarry with the Bhats though its members may eat food cooked by Bhat girls, yet may not eat it if cooked by a Pabuch. On the other hand a Pabuch may not eat food cooked by a girl of his own section if she has been married to a Bhat. Tho Pabuch refrain from killing any animal and from eating flesh.
Tho Gaurs are divided into 36 sasans* or sections which appear to be exogamous, and every Brahman group similarly divided, as are the Dakauts, may be taken to be of Gaur origin. It is not at all improbable that tho Khandiwal Brahmans are also a branch of the Gaurs.†
The Tagas of Karnal are certainly Gaurs who have taken to cultivation, and 80 apparently are the criminal Tagus also.
The Gaurs of Hissar say they came originally from Bengal but more probably they came as parohits or family priests of the various immigrant tribes among whom they are settled.†† As elsewhere they are fed on the 13th day after death, but will not take offerings of black colour [kālā dān), nor those made at eclipses (grahn kā dān) or on a Saturday. They will however accept offerings not only from agricultural tribes but also from Khātis, Kumhars, Lohars, Nais, Bairagis and Jogis, though not from Chuhras or Chamars. The great majority of them have, like the Sarsut, adopted agriculture and are not directly engaged in religious functions. The Gaur is held in poculiarly low estimation by the people, apart from his religious status. Sec also Gautam.
Gaurwah (गौड़वाह) — (Gauṛai or Gaulai appears to be a synonym in Gurgaon)— -a term applied generally to any Rajputs, who have lost rank by practising karewa.§ In Delhi however they form a distinct clan, and through both they and the Chauhan permit widow remarriage, they are looked upon as a separate tribe. They are described as noisy and quarrelsome, but
- * The term sāsan means originally a grant of land and is still used in that sense in Chamba (Gazetteer-, p. 131), and in Mandi (Gazetteer; p. 20). The process by which the term sasan came to mean a section of a caste is obscure. The Brahmanical gotras are of course still preserved by the Gaur and appear to cross-divide the sasans. Both sasans and gotras are further sub divided into countless als. Thus the Gaur 'sub-tribe' (zāt or jāt) contains an al called Indauria, ' from Indaur' who are by gotra Bharadwaj and parohits of the Lohan Jats. The vagueness of the Brahmans in Gurgaon as to their als and gots is however astonishing : Gurgaon Settlement Rep., 1872-83, p. 32.
- † Hissar Gazetteer, 1904, p. 78.
- † Cf. the note on p. 310 imfra where it is pointed out that Guḍa=Thanesar.
- § Cf. Gāṛā.
sturdy in build, and clannish in disposition— in contrast to the Chauhan. In Gurgaon they are confined almost wholly to the Palwal tahsil; a few are Muhammadans, but the majority are Hindus.
Gautam (गौतम) (a), a zāt or group of Brahmans owning a few villages in Gurgaon, where they arc represented by a single got, the Maithal, which has 52 als: The Gautam appears to rank below the Gaur, for the latter will smoke from the same huqqa as a Gaur, but in smoking with a Gautam or Chaurasia will remove the mouthpiece and use his hand in its stead. Gaurs too will drink from a Gautam's brass vessel, but not from his earthenware, whereas, they say, a Gautam will drink from a Gaur's. But the Gautams deny this.
Gawar (गवार), see Gwar. Also a rustic, a clown, an ignorant person : fem. -ni. Punjabi Dicty., p. 375.
Gawaria (गवारिया), a small Jat got (? from gai, cow), found in tahsil Jind.
Gawasi (गवासी), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gazar (गाज़र)= Dhobi.
Gazdar (गजदार), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gazzi (गज्जी) a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Ge...
Gedri (गेदरी), see under Gidri.
Gegi (गेगी) a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Geglan (गेगलन), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gelan (गेलन) (1) a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan; (2) an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gelukpa (गेलुकपा), 'virtuous ones,' a Buddhist order founded about A.D. 1420 by Tsonkhapa, the first Grand Lama of: Gahldan, and now found chiefly in Tibet, where both the Dalai and Tashi Lamas belong to it. The monks are bound to celibacy, and certainly refrain from marriage, though in the years of their novitiate they are said to be by no means immaculate. Their outward mark is a yellow cap. The founder Tsonkhapa belonged to a school of reformers of whom Bromston (pron. Tomton) is the best known (cira. 1150). Bromston lived in the Ki monastery and the tradition of his residence there was preserved till the time of Csoma de Kosroes, about 1820, but it was lost during the Dogra War in 1842. Mr. Francke thinks that de Kosroes rightly identified Ki with the celebrated Hons of Rvasgengs (pron. Rareng). Bromston's name is preserved in Bromston-chu (Tointon-chu) and Brorastonsna, 'the stream and rock of Bromston' near Ki. He apparently founded the Kadempa sect in the Rareng monastery and either there or at Ki Tsonkhapa studied his works* and inaugurated a new reformation. His object was to restore the ancient Buddhist faith and purify it from Tantraism. His brethren were to be celibates and use no wine. He even attempted to restore the priestly garb of the ancient Indo-Buddhist church, and to this day the Gelukpa novices (yetshul) wear nothing but yellow, at least in Spiti : but Lamaism as usual proved too strong and though probably the dress of the whole community was yellow the distinctive colour
- * Tsongkhapa eliminated the rgiut, the Sanskrit Tantra from the Kagiur, whereas the Hingmapa still accept it.
is now red, but a fully initiated brother (gelang) still wears yellow in his cap and girdle, and on high festivals monks of high degree wear yellow silk coats underneath their red shawls. To some extent Tsonkhapa's reforms produced a higher moral standard, and the Gelukpas are in name celibate everywhere, though probably not proof against temptation in the polyandrous homes where their summers are spent. In Spiti they do not even profess to be teetotalers. The Ki, Lhao(t)pai Gonpa near Dankhar, and Tābo monasteries in Spiti belong to this order, and Ki keeps up an intimate connexion with Tibet, those of its monks who aspire to high rank being obliged to qualify at the dGuvai Khamszan monastery in Tashi Lunpo near Shigatze which is ruled by tho Panchan Lama, the acknowledged head of the order.
Gendas (गंडास), a small Jat tribe or got found in tahsils Sangrur and Dadri of Jind. Its name is said to be derived either from gandasa, an axe, or Gendwas, a village in tahsil Hissar.
Gh...
Ghag (घग), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Ghagas (घगस) a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghagrah (घगरह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghaghrel (घघरेल), a A woman who wears a petticoat, a respectable woman. But cf. Gagrel.
Ghai (घाई), Gahi (गाही), a caste of grass-cutters found in Kangra Proper and in Nurpur, where they also ply rafts and skins on the Beas. Apparently also called Ghasi.
Ghallu (घल्लू), a tribe found in the south-west corner of the Multan district since the Ain-i-Akbari was compiled. It is also numerous in the kārdāris of Bahawalpur and Ahmadpur of Bahawalpur State, as especially in the peshkāri of Uch. Its eponym was a Hindu Rath (Rajput), converted to Islam by Makhdum Jahaniān. From his seven sons sprang as many septs, viz., the Hanbirpotre, Ghanunpotre, Dipāl, Jhāubu, Kurpāl, Kanji and Gujj. The Ghallus in Bahawalpur are both land-owners and cultivators and their tenants and servants are the Gbulāms, once their slaves, a email tribe of unknown origin.
Ghalo (घलो), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghalo Kanjanarah (घलो-कंजनरह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghalowaknun (घलोवकनून), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghaman (घमन), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Ghaman (घमान), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Ghamar (घमार), -yār, -iār, fem. -āri, etc., Ghumar, fem. -i, -ni, see Kumhār.
Ghambye (घमब्ये), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Ghan (घन), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Ghanera (घनेरा), a clan (agricultural) found in Shahpur.
Ghanghas (घनघस), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar and Karnal. It is also found in Jind tahsil. Folk-etymology derives its name from the tale that its eponym once asked a smith for an axe, but got instead a ghan (sledge-hammer) which ho was told to shape into an axe by rubbing (ghisna) it.
Ghanghra (घंघरा), a Hindu Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Ghaniere (घनिएरे), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gharami (घरामी), a thatcher, a maker of lattice work. The Gharāmis form a small caste, probably distinct, from the Jhanwars, and work in grass, etc.
Gharatia (घराटिया), a miller, also Ghuṛ-.
Gharhana (घरहना) an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Ghariala (घरियाला), a moulder.
Ghariali (घड़ियाली)(a), fem. -an, one whose business it is to strike the hour on a gong (ghaṛiāl).
Gharsin (घर्सीन). in Pashto originally Kharsin, a tribe of Sayyids affiliated to the Minanas but, resident among the Ushtarana Shiranis. Its progenitor, surnamed the Gharshin,* belonged to the same family as the Sayyids of Uch, and it furnished more than one saint to the Afghans Malik Yar Parān, a contemporary of Ghiās-ud-din, Balban, was a Gharshin, and others are found near Kandahar, among the Kakar and Musā Khel Panni Pathans and in Uch and other places in Bahawalpur.
Gharwal (घरवाल), a tribe of Rajputs, found in the upper part of Kahuta, in Rawalpindi. They claim descent from one Pir Kala, a son of Raja, Mall (ancestor of the Janjuas). He married Kaho Rani when he came to those hills, and named the ilāqa in which he settled Kahru after her. Hence his descendants were called Kahrwal or Gharwal. The tribe is numerous and important, living in a picturesque country. The Dulal is a branch of this tribe.
Ghasi (घासी), fem. -ar : also Ghāssi, a grass-cutter, in Multan; the term is also used in the hills. Cf. ghasiārā, fem. -i, -aṇ, a grass-cutter. Neither appear to form distinct castes.
Ghattu (घट्टू), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Ghatwal (घटवाल), one of the Jat tribes of the South-East Punjab. They trace their origin from Garh Ghazni, and place that city in the Deccan and not in Afghanistan. They claim descent from Saroha Rajputs. Their head-quarters are at Ahulana in the Gohana tahsil of Rohtak, and they occupy the country between it and the Jumna, being numerous in the north of Delhi and to the south of Karnal. Ahulana is said to have been founded 22 generations ago, and gives its name to theHaulania faction. The Ghatwal are often called Malak, a title they are said to have obtained as follows : —
"In the old days of Rajput ascendancy the Rajputs would not allow Jats to cover their heads with a turban, nor to wear any red clothes, nor to put a crown (mor) on the head of their bridegroom, or a jewel(nat) in their women's noses. They also used to levy seignorial rights from virgin brides. Even to this day Rajputs will not allow inferior castes to wear red clothes or ample loin clothes in their villages. The Ghatwals obtained some successes over the Rajputs, especially over the Mandahars of the doah near Deoban and Manglaur, and over those of the Bagar near Kalanaur and Dadri, and removed the obnoxious pro-
- * The name is said to be derived from ghar, a mountain and shin, green or fruitful, because while residing about Bora and Peshin, two Sayyids, at the request of the herdsmen of the tribes, solicited divine aid to turn their bleak and rugged hills into grass-covered ranges.
hibitions. They thus acquired the title of malak (master) and a red turban as their distinguishing- mark ; and to this day a Jat with a red pagri is most probably a Ghatwal."
Mr. Fanshawe says that the title is a mere nickname conferred by a malik or chief called Rai Sāl ; yet in Rohtak they appear generally to be called malak rather than Ghatwal.* In Jind the Ghatwal reverence Bairagis as their jatheras. In Hissar the Brahmans of Depāl are their parohits to this day, because their ancestor rescued the only surviving woman of the tribe, after the Rajputs of Kalanaur had blown up all the rest of the Ghatwals, who had defeated them.
Ghaunrar (घौनरर), a sept of Rajputs, descended from Mian Bajokhar, son of Saugar Chand, 16th Raja of Kalhur.
Ghazlani (घजलानी), a Pathan clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gheba (घेबा), a tribe of Rajput status in the Attock district. Tradition makes the Gheba, Sial and Tiwana descendants of Gheo, Saino and Teno, the three sons of Rai Shankar Punwar.† The Sial and Tiwana appear to admit the relationship, and it is not at all impossible that this group of Rajput tribes may be of Punwar origin. The Gheba are said to have come to the Punjab some time after the Sial and Tiwana, and to have settled in the wild hilly country of Fatahjang and Pindigheb in Attock. Here they held their own against the Awans, Gakkhars, and neighbouring tribes till Ranjit Singh subdued them. The Jodra are said to have come from Jammu, or according to another story from Hindustan, whence also Colonel Cracroft says that the Gheba traditions trace that tribe, and to have held their present tract before the Gheba settled alongside of them.†† They now occupy the eastern half of the Pindigheb, and the Gheba the western half of the Fatahjang tahsil in Rawalpindi, the two tracts marching with each other. The Gheba is also said to be in reality a branch of the original Jodra tribe that quarrelled with the others, and took the name of Gheba which till then had been simply a title used in the tribe ; and the fact that the town of Pindigheb was built and is still held by the Jodra, and not by the Gheba, lends some support to the statement. The history of the Gheba family is told at pages 538 ff. of Sir Lepel Griffin's Punjab Chiefs'. Colonel Cracroft described the Gheba as " a fine, hardy race of men, full of fire and energy, not addicted to crime, though their readiness to resent insult or injury, real or imagined, or to join in hand-to-hand fights for their rights in land, and their feuds with the Jodra and Alpial are notorious."
Ghei (घेई), one who sells ghi : a section of the Khatris.
Ghetal-Panthi (घेतल-पंथी), -ia, one who has no religious guide, a bad man.
Gheye (घेये), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
- * There are in several parts of India, especially in Monghyr and its neighbourhood, tribes of low-class Rajputs called (Ghatwal, who hold or held assignments of revenue on condition of defending the ghāṭs or passes in the hills by which the hill tribes were wont to make predatory incursions into the plains below.
- † An amended genealogy is given at page 520 of Griffin's -Panjab Chiefs.
- ††: But Cracroft also noted that other tales assign to the Ghebas the same origin as the Kheoras, now cultivators in the tract.
Ghilzai (घिलजई), Ghalzai (घलजई), a tribe of the Matti branch of the Pathans, and till the rise of the Durrani power, the most famous of all the Afghan tribes. The official spelling of the name is Ghaleji at Kabul and Kandahar. They first rose into notice in the time of Mahmud Ghaznavi, whom they accompanied in his invasions of India. Not long afterwards they conquered the tract between Jalalabad and Kelāt-i-Ghilzai, and spread east and west over the country they now hold. In the beginning of the 18th century they revolted against their Persian rulers, established themselves under Mir Wais as independent rulers at Kandahar, and overran Persia. But a quarter of a century later they were reduced by Nadir Shāh, and their rule disappeared, to be succeeded not long after by that of the Durrani. They are of the same stock as the Isā
Khel and Lodi Pathans, as the following pedigree table shows :
- Qais-i-Abdur Rashid or Shaikh Bait.
- +
- Bibi Mato
- ↓
- Shah Husain, a Shansabani Tajik of Ghor.
- ↓
- Ghalzai + Ibrahim or Lodai.
- ↓
- ↓
Tradition derives the name Ghalzai from ghalzoe, the 'illicit (first-born) son' of Bibi Māto by Shāh-Husain, whom she afterwards married. Her descendants first dwelt in the Shilghar territory, south of Ghazni, but when the Ghalzai became numerous, they drove the Niāzis to the east-
ward, and the Andar branch of the Ghilzais still hold Shilghar. Other branches are the Hotak or Hotaki, Kharoti, Nasir or Nasiri, Sulimān Khān, Taraki and Tokli. Of these - the Kharoti and Nasir however
do not appear to be true Ghilzais, but to be descendants of one of the several Turk tribes located on the western frontiers of the Ghazni kingdom, towards the Afghanistan, by the Turk feudatories under the Samanis and the Turk Sultans of Ghazni. The Hotaki is the royal
clan, and from it sprang the Hāji, "Wais,* and the Sultans, Mahmud, Ashraf and Husain. The Ghilzai are found almost exclusively as nomads in the North-West Frontier Province and the Punjab, and form with the Lodi Pathans the bulk of the Pawindah folk.
Ghirth
Ghirth (घिर्थ). — The Ghirths fill much the same position in Kangra proper and the hills below it as do the Kanets in the parts to tho east. They correspond also to the Bahti in the eastern and the Chang in the western portion of the lower ranges. All three intermarry freely, and were considered by Sir James Lyall as identical. The Ghirths of Kangra and Hoshiarpur were thus described by Barnes : —
" My previous remarks (sec Rathi) will have introduced the reader to the Ghirths. They form a considerable item in the copulation of these hills, and in actual numbers exceed any other individual caste. With the Ghirths I have associated the few Jats that reside in this district, and the Changs, which is only another name for Ghirths, prevalent about Haripur and Nurpur. They amount altogether to 111,507 souls. The Ghirths are sub-divided into numerous sects. There is a common saying that there are 360 varieties of rice, and that the sub-divisions of the Ghirths are equally extensive, the analogy arising from the Ghirths being the usual cultivators of rice. The Ghirths predominate in the valleys of Palam, Kangra, and Rihlu. They are found again in the Hal Dun, or Haripur valley. These localities are the strongholds of the caste, although they are scattered elsewhere in every portion of the district, and generally possess the richest lands and the most open spots in the hills. The Ghirths belong to the Sudra division of Hindus, and this fact apparently accounts for the localities wherein they are found. The open valleys, although containing the finest lands, are also the only accessible portions of tho hills. The more relined castes preferred the advantages of privacy and seclusion, although accompanied by a sterner soil and diminished returns. They abandoned the fertile valleys to less fastidious classes, whose women were not ashamed to be seen nor to work in the fields, and the men were not degraded by being pressed as porters.
The Ghirths are a most indefatigable and hard-working race. Their fertile lands yield double crops, and they are incessantly employed during the whole year in the various processes of agriculture. In addition to the cultivation of their fields, the Ghirth women carry wood, vegetables, mangoes, milk and other products to the markets for sale ; many sit half the day wrangling with customers until their store is disposed of. The men are constantly seized for begar, or forced labour, to carry travellers' loads, or to assist in the various public buildings in course of construction. From these details it will be perceived that the Ghirths have no easy time of it, and their energies and powers of endurance must be most elastic to boar up against this incessant toil.
To look at their frames, they appear incapable of sustaining such fatigue. The men are short in stature, frequently disfigured by goitre (which equally affects both sexes), dark and sickly in complexion, and with little or no hair on their faces. Both men and women have coarse features, more resembling the Tartar physiognomy than any other type, and it is rare to see a handsome face, though sometimes the younger women may be called pretty. Both sexes are extremely addicted to spirituous drinks. Although industrious cultivators, they are very litigious and quarrelsome ; but their disputes seldom lead to blows ; and though intemperate they are still thrifty, — a Ghirth seldom waste? his substance in drink. In their dealings with one another they are honest and truthful, and altogether their character, though not so peaceable and manly as the Rathi, has many valuable and endearing traits. The Ghirths being Sudras do not wear the janeo or thread of caste. They take money for their daughters, but seldom exchange them, The younger brother takes his brother's widow ; if she leave his protection, he was entitled by the law of the country to her restitution, and under us he should at all events receive money compensation."
- * Mir Wais Hotaki gained possession of Kandahar in 1708-9 and on his death in 1720 was succeeded by his brother Abdul-Aziz, but he was speedily deposed and Mir Wais' elder son Shah Mahmud raised to power. He subdued Persia in 1722-23 and was there succeeded by his cousin Shah Ashraf, but this ruler was overthrown by Nadir Shah. Meanwhile Shah Husain, Mahmud's brother had become ruler of Kandahar and he not only refused Shah Ashraf an asylum, but had him put to death. Shah Husain reduced the Shal district and Fushang, which the Baloch chief Mihrab Khan had annexed, and caused Dera Ghazi Khan to be sacked by a detachment— a disaster from which Ghazi Khan's family never recovered.
The Ghirths are said to be of Rajput origin by mixed marriages or illegitimate intercourse. They are essentially gricultural, and the proverb says : — " As the rice bends in the ear the Ghirth lifts his head." Their social position is low. "You can no more make a saint of a Ghirth than expect chastity of a buffalo," and they practise widow marriage, for " You can't make a Ghirthni a widow, any more than you can turn a hill buffalo into a barren cow."
Folk etymology derives Ghirth from ghi, because Shiv made them out of ghi. In Hoshiarpur Ghirths are called Bahti.* In Hindustan they are called Kurmi. Chang is the Punjabi name, and Ghirth the Pahari word.
The Ghirths have few large sub-divisions. The eight largest are the Kandal, Bhardwaj, Pathari, Chhabru, Reru, Badial, Chhora, and Bhattu. Bhardwaj (a Brahtninical gotra), is also found as an al among the Brahmans of Chamba.† Chhabru is found only in Hoshiarpur, and Chhora and Bhattu only in Kangra. The others occur in both Districts. But the Ghirths say that they have a large number of als or septs — 360 in all. A great part of these are named after villages. Others are named after trades, occupations, etc., etc. A very few are possibly totemistic in origin.
Among these septs occur the following names :—
A. — Names of animals or plants : —
- (1) Dhare, fruit of the wild fig.
- (2) Ghora, horse.
- (3) Khunla, a kind of bird.
- (4) Gidar, jackal,
- (5) Gadohari, a kind of bird.
- (6) Garuri, 'an animal like a pig-'
B. — Names of occupations or nick -names : —
- (]) Surangiala, miner.
- (2) Nande, nandhi, dumb.
- (3) Mormar, peafowl-hunter.
- (4) Jokhnu, weighman,
- (5) Paniari, paniārd, water-man.
- (6) Masand, long-haired (said to be its meaning).
- (7) Lakria, woodman.
- (8) Ghora, jockey.
- (9) Hariala, born on the Rihāli or 3rd Bhadon.
- (10) Saini, vegetable-seller,
- (11) Hutla, stammerer.
- (12) Khangar, khansi, a cough.
- (13) Lahu, charred or burnt.
- (14) Topa, bought for a topa or 2 seers of grain.
- (15) Kumhar, potter.
- (16) Naul, neola.
- (17) Pathrala, founded by a leaf-seller (patta,leaf).
C. — Names of colours :—
- * Bauhtia appears to be a variant of Bahti. Possibly, this suggests, Bahti means simply 'ploughman.'
- † According to the account of the Ghirths compiled by the late Mr. A. H. Gunter, C.S., the Brahmanical-gotras are preserved but each comprises a number of als, e.g., the Kundal got(ra) includes the Chang, Sial, Thetar and Tholi zāts (= als), the Konsal got includes the Panihari, the Tul got the Pataku al, and the Kasab the Katti. The gots, it is distinctly stated, are named after common ancestors 'who were rishis.'
D. (1) Khera, founded by a woman whose child was born under a kher tree.
- (2) Banyanu, founded by a woman whose child was born under a ban or oak.
- (3) Daddā, founded by a woman whose child was born near a bamboo and laid on the tree.
- (4) Khunlā,, an animal of some kind. The name was given to a child as a token of affection. Hence his descendants are still called by the name.
- (5) Ladhdriā, from ladhār, a kind of tree.
- (6) Ghurl, a wild goat ; so called because its progenitor cried like one.
- (7) Khajurā, date-palm (cf. the Nagarkotia Brahman al of this name) ; so-called because its founder was born under a date-palm.
- (8) Khattā, from khattā a kind of tree : for a similar reason.
Other exogamous sections (gots) are Balaru, Banjara, Barol, Chakotra, Bhut, Dialu, Hangaria, Jalarich, Kaṭhe, Narotra, Panjla, Panyau, Panyaria, Sākṛe, Sial, Thimbu, Thirku, etc., all of unknown derivation.
In the Rajput hypergamous system the Ghirth does not rank very high for not till the seventh generation can his daughter become a queen (Satwin piṛhi Ghirthni ki dhi Rani hojāti), whereas the Rathi's daughter can attain to that position in four generations and even the Kanet's reaches it in five. But the Rajas could promote a Ghirth to be a Rathi, as Sir James Lyall records (Kangra Sett. Rep., § 73),
The following accounts of the Ghirth social observances are given as typical of the usages among all the Hindu castes of the Kangra Hills and not as peculiarly characteristic of the Ghirths. They resemble generally those in vogue among the Gaddis of Kangra, but the local variations appear to be endless. These are described in the foot-notes to the text below —
In betrothal the father, mother or uncle, if alive, will tell the youth to arrange to marry such and such a girl. If these are not alive, he chooses himself; otherwise he remains passive throughout the arrangements. The father then finds a go-between (rubāru) who goes to the girl's parents and makes the proposal to them. If they accept, a day is arranged for the ceremony of betrothal (natā). On this day the rubāru conducts the boy's father or other guardian (the boy does not go as a rule*) to the girl's house. He takes with him cream, dehi, in a
- * Provided the father has no infirmity rendering the son's assistance necessary, the son will not accompany him. He will generally accompany any other guardian. If the boy goes too, he is allowed to stay at the girl's parents' house if the Brahmans declare the occasion favourable, otherwise he must stay in some other house. The boy's Brahman may be one of the party. It makes a point of arriving during the particular watch of the particular day which the Brahman has found to be propitious. He leads the way in, followed by the father and next relative. The others stay in the enclosure outside. The things are put down and a rupee in silver and a half anna bit in copper are placed by the boy's father in the moveable shrine (called diwa dera) of Ganesh on the freshly plastered chaukah. At the same time the girl's parents put down a tray containing a little gur of
Ghirth (contd.).....
Ghogha (घोघा), a Mahtam clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Ghorewaha (घोरेवाहा), a tribe of Rajputs whose head-quarters are the Jullundhar district, of which they occupy the eastern corner, but they are found in smaller numbers in all the adjoining districts. To the west of them are the Manj, and to the north of them the Naru. They are almost all Musalman. They are Kachwaha Rajputs of the Gosal got, descendants of Kush, the second son of Rama. They say that Raja Man,* sixth in descent from Kush, had two sons, Kachwaha and Hawaha, and that they are of the lineage of Hawaha. The two brothers met Shahab-ud-din Ghori (!) with an offering of a horse, and received in return as large a territory as they could ride round in a day ; hence their name. The division of their country took place while they were yet Hindus, so that
- * Of Koṭ Kurman, now Udaipur !
their settlement in their present tract was probably an early one. The Ghorewaha of Rahon, who are still Hindus, would seem to have immigrated more lately than the rest of the tribe, as they trace their origin from Jaipur, and their genealogists still live in Kota and Bundi in Rajasthan. Mr. Barkley was disposed to put the Ghorewaha conquest of their present territory at some five centuries ago. In the time of Akbar their possessions would seem to have been more extensive than they are now.
In Hoshiarpur the Ghorewaha hold a bawani or group of 52 villages around Balachaur in tahsil Garhshankar ; near Balachaur they have adhered to Hinduism ; farther north, in the direction of Garhshankar, they are Musalmans, but they keep Hindu Brahmans and bards, to whom they give presents at deaths and marriages, and retain various other Hindu customs.
The descendants of Hawaha founded 9 chhat or principal villages and 12 makān (the latter are said to be derived from men of inferior position to those who founded chhat), and are also divided into 12 muhins named after 12 of the 13 sons of Uttam. The Ghorewāha also have tika villages, e. g., Bhaddi is the tika of the 12 Ghorewaha villages round it. Another account says the Ghorewaha presented a river horse (darydi ghora) to the ruler of the country and obtained the country in jāgir, whence their present name.†
The chhat in Hoshiarpur are four, viz., Garhshankar, Punām, Saroa, and Simli†† all in tahsil Garhshankar, the remaining 5 being in the Jullundhar district. There are two makāns, Samundra and Birampur in this tahsil.
The Ghorewaha Rajputs only avoid marriage in their own got and with a girl of the same locality (muhin). Muhammadan Ghorewahas have a further restriction, in that they will not take brides from a village in which daughters are given in marriage, but intermarriage within the village is not forbidden. The Ghorewahas of Garhshankar and Rahon are said to give daughters to Naru Rajputs. These, and the other chhats, take brides from, but do not give daughters to, makān villages.
Ghorgasht (घोरगश्त), Ghurghushti (घुरघुश्ती), one of the great branches of the Pathans, descended from Ismail, surnamed Ghorghasht, one of the three sons of Qais-i-Abd-ur-Rashid the Pathan. Ismail had three sons, Dānai [who had four sons, Kakar, Panai (Panni), Naghar and Dawai (Dawi)]. Mandu, and Bahai, the ancestor of the Bahi Afghans of Kandahar. The tribes descended from Danai are by far the most numerous and include many of the most powerful tribes of South-Eastern Afghanistan, Ghorgasht is said to mean 'leaping and jumping,' 'playing and romping' and to have been bestowed upon Ismail as a nickname.
Ghori (घोरी), a Mughal clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
- * For these chhat and makān compare the mandis and dheris among the Chibh Rajputs.
- † A variant, from Kapurthala, says that once a bippopotamus covered a mare. The progeny was presented to Akbar who rode round the land afterwards covered by 1,840 villages. He cast his spear and it fell at Silanwali.
- †† The Simli Ghorewaua do not give daughters to those of Garhshankar, the latter being descendants of the elder (tika) brother, Rup Chand.
Ghoria (घोरिया) or Ghwaria Khel (घवारिया-खेल), the Ghwari sept or branch of the Pathans. It comprised five tribes, the Mohmands, Khalils, Daudzais, Chamkanni and Zerani. It was the rival of the Khashi branch and its enmity drove the latter to abandon its old seats round Nushki and Ghara and seek refuge in the territory of the Gigiani Pathans near Kabuul. Uzbek inroads however and the breaking up of the Timuria dynasty of Khorasan drove the Ghwaria themselves to the northward, the Daudzais soliciting lands from the Khashis near Peshawar, while the Khalils and Mohmands obtained considerable power in that valley by allying themselves with Mirza Kamran who then held Kabul in fief under his brother Humayun. With his aid these two Ghwaria clans suddenly attacked the Dilazaks and wrested from them the lands they still held south of the Kabul river, about 1533-34. On Kamran's fall however their power declined and their defeat by the great Khashi confederation at Shaikh Tapur in 1549-50 crushed the power of the Ghwaria Khel for ever. For accounts of the Ghoria tribes see Khalil, etc., and under Para Chamkanni.
Ghosi (घोसी), fem. -an, a caste of people who work as grass-cutters and sell milk in the United Provinces ; but the name also appears to be applied indiscriminately to any low caste Purbia. The term is said to be only used in the Punjab for a Muhammadan cowherd or milkman, whether Gujar, Ahir or any other caste ; but there are Hindu Ghosis in Delhi who are gwalas or cowherds by calling and appear to be by origin Ahirs. It is said that Hindus will buy pure milk from a Musalman Ghosi, but will reject it if there is any suspicion of its having been watered by the latter, as they must not drink water at his hands ! The Ghosis are a purely pastoral group, at any rate in the Punjab. They are, however, sometimes butchers.
The Muhammadan Ghosis in Delhi are called Gaddi-Ghosis, and those of Delhi city have a curious legend that they were once invited by the disciples of a saint to rescue him from a Raja's tyranny. This they did, though only armed with sticks and clubs, and as their reward the saint gave them gowns and doshalas to wear, with green ānchals (veils) for their women, but the latter are no longer in fashion. Still the men continue to wear a pair of under-kurtas or shirts. The women do not use the lahnga and kurta or petticoat and shift like other Ghosi women. These Ghosis are strictly endogamous, and a woman of any other caste kept by a Ghosi is denied all social intercourse with the caste, and her partner is not directly invited to feasts or weddings, though he can attend them if other members of his family do so. As these Ghosis protected the saint's gaddi or seat they came to be called Gaddi-Ghosi. The Gaddi-Ghosis of Firozabad are also Muhammadans, though they claim to be Gaddis from Kangra, and they certainly have no intercourse with those of Delhi city. They observe parda and are generally strict Moslems.
Ghottu (घोट्टू), Ghotu (घोटू), a polisher or pounder.
Ghowal (घोवल), a sept of Rajputs, descended from Miān Sainki, son of Sangar Chand, 16th Rajd of Kahlur.
Ghug (घुग), Ghugiat (घुगियत), an agricultural class found in Shahpur.
Ghulam (ग़ुलाम). — These men are found in the Peshawar district under the name of Ghulām-khānazād,* and in Multan under that of Khanazad simply. The latter may, however, be an error for Khanzadah. The Peshawar clans are given as Turkhel Ghulām, and Malekhel. They are said to be descendants of captives in war who were made slaves (ghulnm), whence their name. They are still chiefly employed in domestic service, and are generally attached to their hereditary masters, though some of them have taken to shopkeeping and other occupations. In Peshawar the men are also called mrai and the women winza (concubine). In Bahawalpur the Ghulam are a small tribe, slaves of the Ghallus.
Ghumman (घुम्मन), Ghamman (घम्मान), a tribe of Jats, found in Sialkot. It claims descent from Malkir, second in descent from the Lunar Race, Raja Dalip of Delhi. Fifth in descent from him, Jodha had three sons, Harpal, Ranpal and Sanpal. The descendants of the two former are the Hajauli† Rajputs, while Sanpal had 22 sons, from whom are descended as many clans, including Ghumman, the youngest. Sanpal's wives were of various castes and so his children sank to Jat status. Their Brahmans are Bharwakirs, whom Muhammadans also consult. Ghumman came from Mukiala or Malhiana in the time of Firoz Shah, took service in Jammu, and founded the present tribe. At weddings they worship an idol made of grass and set within a square drawn in the corner of the house, and cut the goat's ear and the jand†† twig like the Sāhi Jats. They also propitiate their ancestors by pouring water over a goat's head so that he shakes it off. They are chiefly found in Sialkot, though they have spread somewhat, especially eastwards, and in that District they have a Sidh called Dulchi. In Jind their Sidh is called Dadu or Kala, and his samadh is at Nagra in Patiala. Beestings are offered to him on the 11th badi every month : offerings are also made at weddings.
Gi...
Giani (ज्ञानी), fem. -an, one possessed of knowledge, especially one versed in the traditional interpretation of the Sikh Granth.
Giaru (गिआरू), a sept or khel of Rajputs in the Simla Hills. To it belong the chiefs of Kot Khai, Kumharsain, Khaneti, Karangal and Delath. Said to be derived from Gaya,, whence it came. Also a sept of Brahmans of similar origin, founded by a Brahman who married a Hill Brahman's daughter.
Gibari (गिबरी), Gibari (गिबारी), Gabari (गबरी). — According to Raverty§ Gabar was a town in Bajaur and the Gibaris were the ruling race in that tract, speaking a dialect different from the other tribes. The Afghan historian describes the people with whom the Afghans first came in contact in those parts as speaking two dialects, the Gibari, spoken by that tribe, and the Dari, spoken by the Mutrawi and Mumiali.‖ The Gibari, with the two last- named tribes, were septs of the Shilmani. See also Gabare, Gabr and Gaur.
- * Muhammad Hayat Khan in his Haiyāt-i- Afghani states that the Qizilbash of Kabul are collectively known as Ghulam-khana, and possibly some of the Ghulam-khānazad may be Qizilbash.
- †Bajauli.
- †† But another account says they cut the ber instead of the jand.
- § Tabaqāt-i-Nasiri, p 1043-4. Gabr, fire-worshipper, is a different word.
- ‖ Notes on Afghanistan, p. 27.,
Gidri (गिदरी), Gedri (गेदरी), doubtless from gidar, 'jackal'. Reputed immigrants from Hindustan and Bikaner, the Gidris are now found mainly in the Bahawalpur State. Closely resembling the Sansis of the Punjab Proper, who look down upon thera, the Gidris are split up into various camps, which are supposed to meet once a year in Sawan at Tulla Darya Khan in Khan Bela police-station in Bahawalpur. There all tribal disputes are settled, just as is done among the Sansis. The Gidris live by labour, but also make baskets, cages, fans, etc., and sometimes hawk knives and cheap jewellery for sale. Each camp has its own headman who exercises quasi-judicial authority in it. The women journey direct from one camping-place to the next, while the men go further afield in search of work. Nominally Hindus the Gidris will eat the flesh of any animal and are regarded as outcasts. The dead are buried without any obsequies. Marriage is always effected within the tribe, generally by exchange, but failing that a bride can be purchased for Rs. 15. No rites are observed save an announcement of the union before relatives. They speak a language of their own which is allied to the dialects of Bikāner and Jaisalmer. Gigiani, Gagiani, a Khashi Pathan tribe, descended from Mak, the third son of Khashai. According to one tradition Mak has two sons, Hotak and Jirak, and a daughter Gāgai or Gagai, whom he gave in marriage to a shepherd. As she had espoused a man of low degree her descendants styled themselves Gagiani. Another tradition makes their progenitor a foundling, who was adopted by Mukai, son of Khashai, and married to Gagai, a daughter of Tur, the Tarin. By her he had two sons, Hotak and Jirak, and from their seven sons are descended as many Gagiani clans. Mukai's own descendants are known as the Mukah Khel. Originally settled in territory near Kabul, the Gigianis, despite their alliance with the Muglials of Mirza Ulugh Beg, were over- thrown by the Yusufzai Pathans in the Ghwara Maigha,* near Kabul, Soon after they made an ineffectual attempt to establish themselves in Bajaur, and then besought the Yusufzais and Mandars to grant them lands in the Doaba in the Peshawar valley. Speedily, however, they intrigued against their benefactors and in 1519 also called in Babar to aid them against the Dilazaks, but their internal dissensions led him to suspect treachery and he left them to face the Dilazaks, by whom they were completely vanquished. Nevertheless in the great redistribution of Khashi territory which followed the overthrow of the Ghwaria Khel the Gigianis received half Bajaur, Ambar, Nawagai and Chharmang, in addition to the Doaba.
Gil
Gil (गिल), one of the largest and most important of the Jat tribes. Its main settlements are in the Lahore and Ferozepur divstricts ; but it is found all along the Bias and Upper Sutlej, and under the hills as far west as Sialkot. Gil its ancestor, and the father of Sher Gil,† was a Jat of Raghobansi descent who lived in the Ferozepur district ; he was a lineal
- * The Polluted plain.
- † The origin of the name Sher Gil is thus related : Pirthipat had no son and was advised take to wife a woman from a lower clan, so he espoused the daughter of a Bhular Jat. She bore him a son, but his three Rajput wives replaced him by a stone, and had him abandoned in a forest. But Pirthipat, when out hunting, found him with a lion and brought him home. As he was found in a marshy (gili) place he was named Sher Gil !
descendant; of Pirthipal, Raja of Garh Mithila and a Waria Rajput, by a Bhular Jat wife. The tribe rose to some importance under the Sikhs, and the history of its principal family is told at pages 352 ff of Griffin’s Panjab Chiefs.
Two pedigrees of Gil are given below. He had 12 sons who founded as many muhins : —
Sobhru, Jaj, Talocharu, Kesaria, Chhaj, Jiuna, Bahawara, Wadhan, Chheli, Mokha, Raji and Shahi.
Pedigree I: Ram Chandar → Kashab → Suraj → Hardit → Darya → Wani Pal → Kaur Pal → Udasi → Nayan → Jobir → Mathla → Manhaj → Karor → Rathi → Ajanat → Wanbhir → Pirthi Pat → Gil
Pedigree II :Suraj (Sun) → Marot → Widya → Wanipal → Kaulpal → Udasi → Nayan → Jobir → Manhela → Manhaj → Karor → Rathi → Ajanat → Wabhar → Pirthipat → Gil
The Gils worship their eponym on the Chet Chaudas at Rajiana, in Moga tahsil, where he has a temple. He also appears to be called Raja Pir and to be specially affected by the Wairsi Gils. In Jind their Jathera is Surat Ram, whose shrine is at Bajewala in Patiala and offerings to which are taken by Mirasis. In Ferozepur the tribe is said to affect Sakhi Sarwar and its men prefer to be called Dipa, Sarupa, etc., instead of Dip Singh, Sarup Singh, and so on, with the title of ‘Mian’ prefixed. At weddings they dig earth from the pond of Sakhi Sarwar near their home. They eschew jhatka meat, but will eat it if halal, like Muhammadans. When some of the tribe took to eating the flesh of animals killed in the Sikh fashion by jhatka, one lost his eyes, another found himself in jail, and so on, so they reverted to their former practice.
The Gil, like the Her and Sidhu Jats can intermarry in their maternal grandfather's got, contrary to the usual Hindu rule. A Gil bridegroom cuts a branch from the jand tree before setting out on his wedding journey.
Gilani (गिलानी), a Sayyid clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar and Montgomery ; see Jilani.
Gir (गीर), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Girwanh (गिर्वांह), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery. In Bahawalpur they are also called Garwunh and are found as land-owners and cultivators in the Bahawalpur and Ahmadpur Kārdāris with three septs, Attu, Jālap and Karer.
Gishkauri (गिश्कौरी), a Baloch tribe, now found scattered in Dera Ismail, Muzaffargarh and Montgomery ; also in Mekran. Apparently derived from Gishkaur, a torrent in the Boheda valley of Mekran. The Lashari sub-tuman has a Gishkauri sept and the Dombki a clan of that name. In Montgomery the Gishkauri is listed as an agricultural clan.
Go...
Godara (गोदारा), a prosperous clan of Jats, of the Shibgotra group, found in Hissar, where it owns large areas in Sirsa and Fatehabad tahsils. They trace their descent from Nimbuji, who founded a village near Bikaner, and say that as they could not agree upon one of their own clan as chieftain they asked the Raja of Jodhpur to give them one of his younger sons as their ruler, so he gave them Bika in whose honour Bikaner was founded. To this day, it is said, the raj-tilak is marked on the forehead of a new Raja of Bikaner by a Godara Jat, and not by the family priest.
Gohar (गोहड़), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gohra (गोहरा), a Jat tribe found in Jind tahsil. Its eponym is said to have been a Tur Rajput.
Goj (गोज), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gokha (गोखा), a Mahtam clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Golah (गोलह), a weaver, in Peshawar. There are Gola groups or classes among the Julahas, Kumhars, Nais and Suds.
Golera (गोलेरा), a tribe which gives its name to the tract in Rawalpindi so called. It is descended from its eponym, the third son of Qutb Shah, and in Sialkot has four branches, Golera, Kahambdrah, Dengla and Mandu.
I : Golera → Bindu → Tur → Dongla + Mandu
II : Golera → Bindu → Banjur → Bharahwia + Samduh + (Singi → Kahambirah)
According to Cracroft the Golera are Awans, a statement confirmed by their claim to descend from Qutb Shah.
Goleria (गोलेरिया), an offshoot of the great Rajput clan, the Katoch, bearing a territorial designation from Goler.
Golia (गोलिया) or Gawalia (गवालिया), a very curious tribe of Jats, only found in Rohtak and Karnal. They declare that they were originally Brahmans, who lost caste by inadvertently drinking liquor placed outside a distiller's house in large vessels (gol). The local Brahmans apparently admit the truth of this story. They now intermarry with Jats, but not with the Dagar or Sulanki ; for while they were Brahmans the latter were their clients, while when they first lost caste the former alone of all Jat tribes would give them their daughters to wife, and so have been adopted as quasi-brethren. They came from Indore to Rohtak some 30 generations ago.
Gondal (गोंदल), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Shahpur, Multan, and (? classed as Rajput) in Montgomery. They hold the upland known as the Gondal Bār, running up the centre of the tract between the Jhelum and Chenab. They are also numerous in the riverain on the right bank of the former river in the Jhelum district, and a few have spread eastward as far as the Ravi. They are said to be Chauhan Rajputs, but they are now of Jat status and intermarry with other Jat tribes. 'Physically they are a fine race, owing doubtless to the free and active life they lead, and the quantities of animal food they consume ; and if we except their inordinate passion for appropriating their neighbours' cattle, which in their estimation carries with it no moral taint, they must be pronounced free from vice.' They say their ancestor came from Naushahra in the south to Pakpattan, and was there converted by Baba Farid ; and if this be so they probably occupied their present abodes within the last six centuries.
Gondal (गोंदाल), a tribe of Muhammadan Jats in Gujrat which claims Chauhan Rajput origin. Its eponym came from the Deccan to visit the shrine of Bawa Farid and Pakpattan and embraced Islam.
Gopalak (गोपालक), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gopang (गोपांग) Gophang (गोफांग), one of the broken Baloch tribes of Dera Ghazi Khan. It lies scattered along the Indus and is also found in Muzaffargarh and on the Lower Indus and Sutlej in Bahawalpur and Multan.
Gopa Rai (गोपा राय), a tribe of Jats, claiming Solar Race origin and descent from its eponym through Millu who migrated from Amritsar to Sialkot. Also found in Muzaffargarh and Montgomery in which Districts they are classed as agricultural clans.
Gor (गोर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gorae (गोराए), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gorah (गोरह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Gorang (गोरंग) , a Gurkha clan (Nepalese) found in the Simla Hill States.
Goratah (गोरातह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Goraya (गोराया), a Jat tribe, said to be descended from the Sarolia family of Lunar Rajputs, and to have come to Gujranwala as a nomad and pastoral tribe from Sirsa. Another story is that they are descended from a Sombansi Rajput called Guraya whose grandson Mal came from the Lakki thal some 15 generations ago. A third tradition is that Rana, their founder, came from the Jammu hills in the time of the emperors. They are now found in Gujranwala, Sialkot and Gurdaspur. They own 31 villages in Gujranwala and are excellent cultivators, being one of the most prosperous tribes in the District. They have the same peculiar marriage customs as the Sahi Jats. In Sialkot they revere Pir Munda, round whose khāngāh a bridal pair walks seven times, and offerings are made to it. This is done both by Hindus and Muhammadans. They are said to be governed by the chundavand rule of inheritance. In Montgomery the Muhammadan Goraya appears as a Jat, Rajput and Arain clan (all three agricultural), and in Shahpur it is also classed as Jat (agricultural). The word goraya is said to be used for the nilgai (Porcax picta) in Central India. They are sometimes said to be a clan of the Dhillon tribe, but in Sialkot claim descent from Budh who had 20 sons, including Goraya.
Gori (गोरी), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Goria (गोरिया), a small Jat clan found in Nabha. It derives its name from Goran Singh, a Rajput, who settled at Alowal in Patiala and thus became a Jat.
Gorjiye (गोरजिये), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Gorkha (गोरखा). See Gurkha.
Goron (गोरोन), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gorsi (गोरसी), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
Gorwah (गोरवाह), a Jat clan (agricultural; found in Amritsar.
Gorye (गोरये), (1) an Arain clan (agricultural); (2) a Mughal clan (agricultural): both found in Amritsar.
Gosain (गोसाईं), a term even more vaguely used than 'Sanniasi Bairagi ' and very difficult to define in the Punjab. Roughly speaking, it denotes an ascetic of any order, but it further connotes that he is of some standing and influence. Strictly speaking, however, the Gosains form a distinct order, which differs both from the Bairagis and the Sanniasis, though they are often entitled Gosains, and often the Brahmans alone are considered privileged to be so styled. In Kangra the Gosains form a separate caste, as well as an order, and are known as Sanniasis or Dasnamis, because they are divided into ten schools. These were founded by the ten pupils of Shankar Acharj and the following scheme exhibits their spiritual descent and distribution*: —
- * From the dasnam of the Gosains : "Bhaktmal, Nawal Kishor, 1927, p. 77. But another account gives Rukhar and Dandi instead of Asram and Saraswati. It also states that the Rukhar is like an Acharj (Brahman) in that he receives gifts on the death of a Gosain. In the Brahmacharj asram, or stage the 'Gosain' dons the janeo or sacred thread of caste, in the second asram or degree he becomes a Gosain and puts it off again. In the third asram he becomes a paramhans, and in the fourth an Abdhut. The paramhans shaves his head and the abdhut generally lives naked. This is the order observed in the Sanyas Dharm. but now-a-days a Gosain merely besmears himself with ashes and goes forth as an abdhut. The true Gosain must not approach a fire and when he dies he is buried, not cremated.
These correspond with the ten pads of the Sanniasis, and the Gosain may be regarded as a semi-secularised offshoot of the Sanniāsi order. When the Muhammadan invasions began, says one account of the Sanniāsis, many of them fled to the hills of Kangra and Simla where they formed colonies. In some places they intermarried with Brahmans and took to cultivation, gradually amassing such wealth that the hill people, including their Rajas and Ranas, were in their debt and they controlled all the trade between the hills and the plains. In their practice of usury they were rapacious to an incredible degree, charging 24, 60 and even 72 per cent, a year, and making regular tours in state after each harvest, in spring and autumn, to collect their dues in kind. Once in debt to the Gosāins there was no escape for a debtor, and they preached the doctrine that the removal of a debtor's name from their books was an ill-omen to both parties. To the power of capital they added the influence of their own sanctity and though the Gurkha invasions broke up their domination they continued to exhaust the resources of the people in the Outer Sarāj tract of Kullu till quite recently. On the other hand the Gosains of Kangra, who are principally found in Nādaun and Jawālamukhi, were an enterprising and sagacious community engaged in wholesale trade. They monopolised the trade in opium and speculated in charas, wool and cloth. Their transactions extended to the Deccan and indeed over all India, but generally speaking, they are now impoverished and their brick- built ware-houses at Jawālamukhi are mostly in ruins. Most of the Kangra Gosains are of the Giri sub-order, and affix -gir to their names.
In theory the Gosains are celibate, and recruit by adopting chelas from pure castes who may be willing to dedicate their sons to them, but in practice marriage is usual. Those who marry are styled gharhari. Natural sons do not succeed unless adopted as chelas.
Widows are merely entitled to maintenance. Secular Gosains will not plaugh, but they do not wear any janeo, retain the choti and yet wear a pagri dyed with red ochre. The religious or matdari Gosains form fraternities and, though they do not marry, keep women. They are divided into akharas or small colleges each under a mahant who has supreme control of all its property, the disciples being; dependent on his bounty. A mahant designates his successor, and his selection is rarely disputed, but if he die without having named a successor the fraternity meets together and with the aid of other Gosains elects a new mahant. After his instnllation the late mahant’s property is distributed by him as he thinks fit, and this distribution, or bhandara as it is called, is rarely impugned. Like a Sanniasi the Gosain is buried, a cenotaph or samadh, dedicated to Mahadeo, being raised over him, as he is supposed at death to be re-united with the god. Initiation consists simply in the guru's cutting off the choti ; the head is then close shaved and the guru mantar read.
In Sirsa the Gosaina form a separate caste, originating in a sub-division of the Sanniasis which was founded by Shimbu Acharj. Every Gosain is given at initiation a name, which ends in gir, puri (the two most commonly found in this tract), tirath, asram, asan or nath, by his guru. Each of these sub-orders is endogamous, i.e., a gir may not marry a puri.* The Gosains are also said to have gots, and to be further divided into the gharbar or secular and the celibate who are either (1) matdari (whose dwelling, mat, is inside the village and who may engage in all worldly pursuits, but not marry), (2) āsandāri (whose house is on the outskirts of the village), or (3) abdhut, who wander about begging:, but may not beg for more than seven hours at one place. The abdhut carry with them a narial or cocoanut shell, and may only take in alms cooked grain which they must soak in water before they eat it. Nor may they halt more than three days at any place unless it be a tirath (place of pilgrimage) or during the rains. Gosāins are generally clad in garments dyed with geru.
In the south-west of the Punjab the priests of Shāmji and Lālji who are Khatris and found largely at Leia and Bhakkar, are called Gosāins. The Khatris and Aroras of the south-west are either disciples (sewaks) of these Gosains or Sikhs.† Other Gosans are those of Baddoke.
The Gosains appear to be correctly classed as a Vaishnava sect or rather order, though in the hills they affect Mahadeo and are mahants of temples of Shiva.
Gosal (गोसल), a small Jat clan which is found in Jind and has a Sidh, Bala, at Badrukhan, where offerings are made to his samadh.
Granthi (ग्रंथी), a reader of the Sikh Granth, an expounder thereof ; but cf. Giani.
Guda (गुदा), a tribe of Jats found in Kapurthala State, Sultanpur tahsil. Its tradition avers that it migrated from Delhi in the Mughal times.
- * The guru of the puris resides at Kharak, and that of the giris at Balak, both in Hisar. Hissar Gazetteer, 1904, p. 81.
- † Census Report, 1891, § 66, p. 127-8.
Gugera (गुगेरा), (1) one of the principal muhins or clans of the Sials in Jhang. It gave its name to the township of that name, once the head-quarters of the present Montgomery district and still of a tahsil; (2) also a Kharral clnn (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gujar
Gujar (गुजर), Gujjar, -ur, fem. -i. Dim. Gujareta, fem, -i, and Gujretra, fem. -i. A young Gujar. Derivatives are Gujral or Gujrehra, a dwelling-place of Gujars ; and Gujrat, the ' country or tract of the Gujars.' The District of Gujrat takes its name from the town of Gujrat, but the present town though a modern one stands on the site of an ancient city called Udanagri, the everlasting or fragrant township. Popular tradition assigns its foundation to Raja Bachan Pal, a Surajbansi Rajput who came from the Gangetic Doab, and attributes its restoration to Ali Khan, a Gujar, doubtless the historical Alakhana, Raja of Gurjara, who was defeated by Sangkara Varma between 883 and 901 A.D. Captain Mackenzie, however, recorded another tradition which assigned the restoration of Gujrat town to Rani Gujran, wife of Badr Sain, son of Raja Risalu of Sialkot who rebuilt it in Sambat 175 (A. D. 118). Both accounts agree in ascribing the refounding of the modern town to the time of Akbar. According to Stein, Shankara Varma of Kashmir, soon after his accession in 883 A. D., undertook an expedition to the south and south-west qf Kashmir and first invaded Gujaradesa, a tract certainly identifiable with the modern District of Gujrat, which lies between the Chenab and Jhelum.* At an earlier period, in the latter part of the 6th century, the Raja of Thanesar, Prabhakaravardhana, had also carried on a successful campaign against the Hun settlements in the north-west Punjab and the ' clans of Gurjara,† so that it would appear that a branch of the Gurjara race was firmly established in the modern Gnjrat before 600 A. D. ,††
The modern District of Gujrat, however, comprises the Herat or Jat pargana and the Gujrat or Gujar pargana. ,§ These parganas used to be divided into tappas and the tappas into tops, each top being under a chaudhri.
The modern District of Muzaffargarh also possesses a Gujrat on the Indus, in the riverain which runs parallel with the Dera Ghazi Khan district.
The present distribution of the Gujars in India is thus described by Sir Alexander Cunningham : —
" At the present day the Gujars are found in great numbers in every part of the North-West of India, from the Indus to the Ganges, and from the Hazara mountains to the Peninsula cf Gujarat. They are specially numerous along the banks of the Upper Jumna, near Jagadhri and Buriya, and in the Saharanpur district, which during the last century was actually called Gujarat. To the east they occupy the petty
- * Stein, Zur Geschichte der Cahis von Kabul (Festgruss an Rudolf von Roth, Stuttgart, 1893). See also Stein's Rajatarangini, p. 204, Vol. I.
- † V. Smith, Early Hist, of India, p 283.
- †† For the derivation of the word (Gujrat see Dr. Fleet's note in J. R. A. S., 1906, p. 459.
He derives it from Gujaratra, Prakrit Gujjaratta, the modern name of Guzerat being due to Alberuni's Guz(a)ia,t. Guujranwala means the 'Gujars' village,' Gujrat the 'Gujars' country,' a distinction overlooked in Baden-fowell's Indian Village Community.
- § Gujrat Gazetteer, 1892-93, p. 19. Cf. the Sett. Rep. of the Gujrat District, 1861, p. 3.
The term Herat is of uuknown origin, but it ppears to be also called the Jat atar.
State of Samptar in Bundelkhand, and one of the northern Districts of Gwalior, which is still called Gujargar. They are found only in small bodies and much scattered throughout Eastern Rajasthan and Gwalior; but they are more numerous its the western States, and specially towards Gujarat, where they form a large part of the population. The Rajas of Rewari to the south of Delhi are Gujars. In the Southern Punjab they are thinly scattered, bat their numbers increase rapidly towards the north, where they have given their name to several important places, such as Gujranwala in the Rechna Doab, Gujrat in the Chaj Doab, and Gujar Khan in the Sindh Sagar Doab. They are numerous about Jhelura and Hassan Abdal,* and throughout the Hazara district; and they are also found in considerable numbers in the Dardu districts of Chilas, Kohli, and Palas, to the east of the Indus, and in the contiguous districts to the west of the river."
In the Puniab they essentially belong to the lower ranges and sub-montane tracts ; and though they have spread down the Jumna in considerable numbers, they are almost confined to the riverain low-lands. In the higher mountains they are almost unknown. Gujrat is still their stronghold, and in that District they form 13.5 per cent, of the total population. There alone have they retained their dominant position. Throughout the Salt Range, and probably under the eastern hills also, they are the oldest inhabitants among the tribes now settled there; but in the west the (Gakkhars, Janjuns, and Pathans, and in the east the Rajputs have always been too strong for them, and long ago deprived them of political importance. In the Peshawar district almost any herdsman is called a Gujar, and it may be that some of those who are thus returned are not true Gujars by race. But throughout the hill country of Jammu, Chibhal, and Hazara, and away in the territory lying to the north of Peshawar as far as the Swat river, true Gujar herdsmen are found in great numbers, all possessing a common speech, which is a Hindi dialect quite distinct from the Panjabi or Pashto current in those parts. Here they are a purely pastoral and almost nomad race, taking their herds up into the higher ranges in summer and descending with them into the valleys during the cold weather ; and it may be said that the Gujar is a cultivator only in the plains. Even there he is a bad cultivator, and more given to keeping cattle than to following the plough. In Chitral also Gujars are found in the Shishi Kuh valley, vvliile the Bashgals (the Kafirs of the Bashgal valley are so styled by Chitralis) are described as curiously like the Gujars in the Punjab.†
It is impossible without further investigation to fix the date of the Gujar colonization of the lower districts. They are almost exclusively Musalman except in the Jumna Districts and Hoshiarpur, and they must therefore have entered those Districts before the conversion of the great mass of the caste. The Jullundhar Gujars date their conversion from the time of Aurangzeb, a very probable date. The Ferozepur Gujars say that they came from Daranagar in the south of India, that they moved thence to Rainia in Sirsa, and thence again to Ferozepur via, Kasur. The Musalman Gujars of all the eastern half of the Pro-
- * Hassan was himself a Gujar.
- † But Bashgali is essentially an Iranian dialect. Sec Sten Konow's Clarification of Bashgali, in J. R. E. S., 1911, p. 1.
vince still retain more of their Hindu customs than do the majority of their converted neighbours, their women, for instance, wearing petti-coats instead of drawers, (just as they do in Jullundhar also), and red instead of blue. In Jullundur the Gujar shoe is usually of a peculiar make, the upper leather covering little of the foot. It is noticeable that Gujrat, is to the Gujars what Bhatner and Bhattiana are to the Bhatti, a place to which there is a traditional tendency to refer their origin.
The Gujar is a fine stalwart fellow, of precisely the same physical type as the Jat ;* and the theory of aboriginal descent which has some-times been propounded, is to my mind conclusively negatived by his cast of countenance. He is of the same social standing as the Jat, or perhaps slightly inferior ; but the two eat and drink in common without any scruple, and the proverb says : "The Jat, Gujar, Ahir, and Gola are all four hail fellows well met." But he is far inferior in both personal character and repute to the Jat. He is lazy to a degree, and a wretched cultivator; his women, though not secluded, will not do field work save of the lightest kind ; while his fondness for cattle extends to those of other people. The difference between a Gujar and a Rajput cattle-thief was once explained to me thus by a Jat: "The Rajput will steal your buffalo. But he will not send his father to say he knows where it is and will get it back for Rs. 20, and then keep the Rs. 20 and the buffalo too. The Gujar will." The Gujars have been turbulent throughout the history of the Punjab, they were a constant thorn in the side of the Delhi emperors, and are still ever ready to take advantage of any loosening: of the bonds of discipline to attack and plunder their neighbours. Their character as expressed in the proverbial wisdom of the countryside is not a high one : " A desert is better than a Gujar : wherever you see a Gujar, hit him." Again : " The dog and the cat two, the Rangar and the Gujar two ; if it were not for these four, one might sleep with one's door open" : so " The dog, the monkey, and the Gujar change their minds at every step;" and "When all other castes are dead make friends with a Gujar." As Mr. Maconachie remarks: "Though the Gujar possesses two qualifications of a highlander, a hilly home and a constant desire for other people's cattle, he never seems to have had the love of fighting and the character for manly independence which distinguishes this class elsewhere. On the contrary he is generally a mean, sneaking, cowardly fellow; and I do not know that he improves much with the march of civilization, though of course there are exceptions ; men who have given up the traditions of the tribe so far as to recognize the advantage of being honest — generally."
Such is the Gujar of the Jumna Districts. † But further west his character would seem to be higher. Major Wace describes the Gujars
- * This description would appear to require some qualification. The Gujar of Kashmir is described as tall and gaunt, his forehead and his chin are narrow, his nose fine and slightly curved. The Gujar of the United Provinces is above the medium height, Well made and active, his face long and oval, and his features fine rather than coarse. Crooke describes him as ' a fairly typical Indo-Aryan.' J. R. A. S., 1907, p. 984. The Punjab Gujar might be well described in the above terms. As compared with the Jat he has better features, but is not of such a good type.
- † Sir J Wilson however, wrote : " The Gujar villages in Gurgaon have on the whole stood the late bad times better than those of almost other caste — better than the Jats, and almost as well as the Ahirs. Our Gurgaon Gujars are very little given to thieving, and I have rather a high opinion of them,"
of Hazaras " a simple all-enduring race, thrifty and industrious, with no ambition but to be left alone in peace with their cattle and fields "; and " many of them are fine men in every way." Mr. Thomson says that the Gujars of Jhelum are the best farmers in the District (perhaps not excessive praise in a District held by Gakkhars, Awans, and Rajputs), though the Maliar or Arain is a better market gardener; and that they are quiet and industrious, more likeable than (Salt Range) Jaas, but with few attractive qualities. Mr. Steedman gives a similar account of the Gujars of Rawalpindi, calling them "excellent cultivators." So the Gujars of Hoshiarpur are said to be " a quiet and well-behaved set." In Jullundhar Sir Richard Temple described them as " here as elsewhere of pastoral habits, but more industrious and less predatory than usual" ; and Mr, Barkley writes: "At present, after 30 years of British rule, they are probably as little given to crime as any other large class in the agricultural population. It is still generally true that they occupy themselves more with grazing than with agriculture ; but this is by no means invariably the case." But in Ferozepur again Mr. Brandreth describes them as " unwilling cultivators, and greatly addicted to thieving," and gives instances of their criminal propensities. Thus it would appear that the further the Gujar moves from his native hills, the more he deteriorates and the more unpleasant he makes himself to his neighbours. The following description of the Gujars of Kangra by Mr. Barnes is both graphic and interesting : —
“The Gujars of the hills are quite unlike the caste of the same designation in the plains. There they are known as an idle, worthless and thieving race, rejoicing in waste, and enemies to cultivation and improvement ; but above and below they are both addicted to pastoral habits. In the hills the Gujars are exclusively a pastoral tribe, — they cultivate scarcely at all. The Gaddis keep flocks of sheep and goats, and the Gujar's wealth consists of buffaloes. These people live in the skirts of the forests, and maintain their existence exclusively by the sale of the milk, ghi, and other produce of their herds. The men graze the cattle, and frequently lie out for weeks in the woods tending their herds. The women repair to the markets every morning with baskets on their heads, with little earthen pots filled with milk, butter-milk and ghi each of these pots containing the proportion required for a day's meal. During the hot weather the Gujars usually drive their herds to the upper range, where the buffaloes rejoice in the rich grass which the rains bring forth, and at the same time attain condition from the temperate climate and the immunity from venomous flies which torment their existence in the plains. The Gujars are a fine, manly race, with peculiar and handsome features. They are mild and inoffensive in manner, and in these hills are not distinguished by the bad pre-eminence which attaches to their race in the plains. They are never known to thieve. Their women are supposed to be not very scrupulous. Their habits of frequenting public markets and carrying about their stock for sale unaccompanied by their husbands undoubtedly expose them to great temptations ; and I am afraid the imputations against their character are too well founded. They are tall, well-grown women, and may be seen every morning entering the bazars of the hill towns, returning home about the afternoon with their baskets emptied
of their treasures. The Gujars are found all over the District. They abound particularly about Jwalamukhi, Tira, and Nadaun. There are some Hindu Gujars, especially towards Mandi ; but they are a small sect compared to the Musalmans."
“ It has been suggested," continued Sir Denzil Ibbetson, " and is I believe held by many, that Jats and Gujars, and perhaps Ahirs also, are all of one ethnic stock; and this because there is a close communion between them. It may be that they are the same in their far-distant origin. But I think that they must have either entered India at different times or settled in separate parts, and my reason for thinking so is precisely because they eat and smoke together. In the case of Jat and Rajput the reason for differentiation is obvious, the latter being of higher rank than the former. But the social standing of Jats, Gujars, and Ahirs being practically identical, I do not see why they should - ever have separated if they were once the same. It is however possible that, the Jats were the camel graziers and perhaps husband-men, the Gujars the cowherds of the hills, and the Ahirs the cowherds of the plains. If this be so, they afford a classification by occupation of the yeoman class, which fills up the gap between and is absolutely continuous with the similar classification of the castes above them as Brahmans, Banias, and Rajputs, and of the castes below them as Tarkhans, Chamars, and so forth. But we must know more of the early distribution of the tribes before we can have any opinion on the subject. I have noticed in the early historians a connection between the migrations and location of Gujars and Rajputs which has struck me as being more than accidental ; but the subject needs an immense deal of work upon it before it can be said to be even ready for drawing conclusions.*
A full history of the ancient Gurjaras and of the great Gurjara empire, the existence of which the late Mr. A. M. T. Jackson claimed to have established, f would be beyond the scope of this article, but the reader's attention may be directed to certain incidents in their history in the Punjab. According to Dr. Rudolf Hoernle the Tomaras (the modern Tunwar Rajputs) were a clan of the Gurjaras, and indeed their imperial or ruling clan. The Pehowa (Pehoa in the Karnal district) inscription records of a Tomara family that it was descended from a raja, Jaula, whose name recalls that of the Shahi Javuvla or Jahula and of the maharaja, Toramana Shahi Jauvla of the Kura inscription. Dr. Hoernle thinks it probable that the Kachwahas and Parihars, like the Tomaras, were all clans or divisions of a Javula tribe, claiming descent from Toramana, king of the White Huns or Ephthalites.J Mr. Bhandarkar has shown that the Solankis (Chaulakyas), Parihars
- * Mr. Wilson notes that the Gujars and the Bargujar tribe of Rajputs are often found together; and suggests that the latter may be to the Gujars what the Khanzadahs are to the Meos and what most Rajputs are to the Jats.
- † See his note in J. R. A. S. 1905, pp. 163-4, where he identifies the Gurjaras with the Gaudas (Gaurs-, now Brahmans) and points out that according to Alberuni (Sachau's Trans. i.,P- 310) Guda = Taneshar. The Gaur Brahmans were and indeed are parohits of the Hindu Gujars and still minister to some who are converts to Islam.
- †† J. R. A. S., 1905, pp. 1.4. It may further be noted that the Bar- or Bad-Gujar Rajputs are probably of Gujar descent.
(Pratiharas), Parmars (Paramaras) and Chauhans (Chahamanas or Chahuvanas), the four so-called Agnikula clans of Rajputs, were originally divisions of the Gurjaras, and to these Dr. Hoernle would thus add the Tomaras and Kachhwahas. The exact ethnic relation of the Gurjaras to the Huns is still very obscure, but as a working hypothesis Dr. Hoernle thinks that in the earlier part of the 6th century A.D. a great invasion of Central Asiatic peoples, Huns, Gurjaras and others, whose exact interrelation we do not know, took place. The first onset carried them as far as Gwalior, but it was checked by the emperor of Kannauj, and the main portion of these foreign hordes settled in Rajasthan and the Punjab, while the Chaulakyas turned south. In the north the invaders fused with the natives of the country and in the middle of the 7th century the Parihars emerged, an upgrowth followed by that the Parmars, Chauhans and imperial Gurjaras about 750 A.D. About 840 the Gurjara empire, with its capital at Kanauj, embraced nearly the whole of northern India, under Bhoja I, bat after his death it declined.*
Another problem of great interest in the history of Indian religions is the connection of the Gurjaras with the cult of the child Krishna of Mathura, as contrasted with that of the ancient Krishna of Dwaraka.† This cult was, almost beyond question, introduced into India by nomads from the north, very probably by the Gurjaras. No doubt the modern Gujars, even those who have retained their Hindu creeds, have lost all recollection of any special devotion to the cult of Krishna, and he is now prominent in the traditions of the Ahirs, but certain groups of the Ahirs appear to be of Gurjara origin. Among them we find the Nandbansi whose name reminds us of Nand Mihr, a legendary progenitor of the Gujars, and a Solanki (Chaulakya) got appears among the Jadubansi. If we may assume that these two great races, the Gujar and Ahir, once pastoral, and still largely so, are really identical, the theory that the cult of the child Krishna was introduced into India by the Gujars in general or more particularly by the Nandbansi and Gualbansi branches of the Ahirs becomes greatly strengthened. Like the Huns, the Gurjaras were originally sun-worshippers, but they have lost all traces of any special devotion to the cult of the Sun-god, and may have acquired some tincture of Christianity either from their neighbours in Central Asia or from their connection with Christians among the Huns. ††
Various origins are claimed by different Gujar clans. Thus in Gujrat the Chauhan claim descent from Rai Pithora of Delhi.
The Chhokar in Karnal say they are Chandarbansi and an offshoot of the Jadu Rajputs of Muzaffarnagar in the United Provinces. The Bhodwal, Kalsian and Rawul all claim to be Chandarbansi, the Kalsian being Chauhans and the Rawals Khokhar Rajputs by origin ; but the Chhaman say they are Surajbansi and Tunwars.
In Gurdaspur the Bhadana, Chhala, Kasana, Munin§ and Tur gots claim Rajput descent and the Banths and Bujars Jat extraction, while
- * Ibid. pp. 31.32, and p. 4.
- † See Krishna, Christianity and the Gujars, by Mr. J. Kennedy in J. R. A. S. 1907 p 975
- †† Ibid. p. 989.
- § From the Munnin Gajars some of the Bharais and Bazigars are said to have branched off.
the Chapras say they are Khatris by origin, and the Modis, Pathans. The Chhala got claims descent from Raja Som Bans, Raja, of Gahr Gajni in the Deccan, and its ancestor embraced Islam at Rahon in Jullundur, married a Gang Kasana girl and so became a Gujar. The Kasana declares itself descended from Kaja Kans, the Munin from Raja Indar Rai, and the Pandana from Raja Panda Rai.
The Paswal ascribe their foundation to Wajih Kalbi, a companion of the Prophet, who accompanied Ahutas, ruler of Yemen, when he conquered Kashmir. The Paswal originally settled in Sialkot but have spread into Gurdaspur.
The Hindu Rawat Mandan got is found in the Bawal nizamat of Nabha. It traces its descent to one Rawat who fell in love with a damsel, Gorsi, whom he only carried off after a great struggle. His mesalliance cost him his status as a Rajput and he became a Gujar. The got derives its name from him and from the number of heads (mandaji) which fell in the struggle for Gorsi. This got is numerous in Jaipur, where it keeps its women in parda and forbids widow remarriage, but this is allowed in Nabha. Formerly the Rawat Mandan did not roof their houses or put planks to their doorways, though they now do so. A child's first tonsure should be performed at the shrine of Swami Pun Das in Rewari tahsil.
The Chokar of Nabha, who appear to be distinct from the Chhokar, are Hindus and trace their descent from Sankat, a Chauhan Rajput of Sambhar in Jaipur, who was a great robber. Once on the road he forcibly espoused a beautiful girl whose kinsmen came to her aid, but Sankat sought help from Ban Deo and he and his comrades took the shapes of birds, and escaped. A barber too rang a wedding-bell in front of their pursuers, and they resolved to turn back. So the got of Sankat was called Chokar, ' one who misses,' and it still affects Ban Deo, holding the first tonsure of its children at his shrine in Jaipur, never burning cotton sticks for fuel and only using cotton after first offering it to Ban Deo.
In Nabha the Bhargar, Chaprana, Doi, Kasana, Kharana and Sardhana Gujars all vaguely claim Rajput origin, but unlike other Hindu Gujars they only avoid three gots in marriage, permitting it in the mother's father's got. They specially affect Devi and do not give the beestings of a cow or buffalo to any one till the Amawas, when they cook rice in the milk, place it on a spot plastered with cow-dung and then give it to their children. The Bhargar, like the Rawat Mandan, use no doors or roofs of timber, and ascribe this tabu to the fact that one of their women became a sati and a house raised in her honour was left incomplete.*
The Melu Gujars in Nabha are converts from Hinduism, but still avoid four gots in marriage. They do not build two hearths close together, or wear blue cloth. Their women wear gowns. This got never sell milk, lest the animal fall ill, but they may sell ghi.
The elements of the Gujars are not easy to describe. Local traditions, as has already been shown, vary as to the origins of many clans,
- * Or unroofed ? Apparently a hypaethral shrine is meant.
but the following addenda may be noted as to the clans descended from the various Rajput races ; —
- Chauhan origin is claimed by the Bhalesar, ‘sons of Bhallu,' Babarwal, Jhandar, Kalsian (in Karnal).
- Panwar descent is claimed by the Bahlot, Chhali, Phambhra, 'sons of Phamar’ and Paur*,
- Jadu (Chandarbansi) descent by the Chhokar (in Karnal),
- Janjua origin by the Barrah, Khokhar (Chandarbansi) by the Kawal (in Karnal), Manhas by the Dhinda,
- Sombansi by the Dhakkar,
- Surajbansi by the Saramdna, and
- Tur by the Chhaman (in Karnal).
Folk-etymology and legendary lore have been busily engaged in finding explanations of various clan names among the Gujars. Thus of the Barras, (a word meaning 'holy') it is said that their ancestor Fatihulla used to bring water from the river at Multan barefoot, for his spiritual guide's ablutions. One day the Pir saw that his disciple's foot had been pierced with thorns, so he gave him his shoes, but Fatihulla made them into a cap, as worthy to be so worn, and again his feet were pierced with thorns. The Pir seeing this blessed him and called him Barra.†
The Bharyar claim descent from Raja, Karn. The children of his descendant Raja Dhal always used to die and his physicians advised him to feed his next child on the milk of a she- wolf (bhairya), whence the name Bharyar. Buta embraced Islam in Babar's time and settled in Shahpur.
Of the Gajgahi section it is said that Wali, their ancestor, was a Khatana who wore a gajgah or horse's silver ornament, so his descendants are now called Gajgahi.
Of the Khatanas' origin one story is that one day Mor and Mohang, sons of Raja Bhans, came back from hunting and ate on a khat or bed. For this breach of social etiquette the Brahmans out casted them, saying they had become Muhammadans; so they adopted Islam and were nicknamed Khatana. Another legend makes the Khatanas descendants of Raja Jaspal and the Pandavas- Jaspal had extended his dominions from Thanesar to Jhelum and, when Sultan Mahmud Sabuktagin invaded Hindustan, Jaspal met him at Attock, but was defeated and slain. His son, Anandpal, ruled for two years at Lahore and then fled to Hindustan, leaving two sons, Khatana and Jaideo or Jagdeo, of whom the former ruled at Lahore and turned Muhammadan. Other Gujar clans also claim descent from Anandpal, and 'Sultan Mahmud assigned the Khatanas jagirs in Gujrat where they founded Shahpur, now a deserted mound near Chak Dina.
The Khatanas are not only a leading Gujar clan but have many off-shoots in the minor sections, such as the Gajgahis, Topas, Amranas, Awanas, Bhunds, Bukkans, Thilas, and the Jangal, Debar, Doi, and Lohsar clans.
Hindu Khatanas are also found in the Bawal nizamat of Nabha and there claim Tur Rajput origin, deriving their name from Khatu Nagar, a village in Jaipur. As followers of Bawa Mohan Das Bhadawaswala
- * One is tempted to connect his name with Porus.
- † No such word is traceable in the Panjabi Dicty. The term recalls the Bargujar Rajputs.
they abstain from flesh and wine. At weddings the Jat ceremonies are observed and on the departure of the bridegroom's party his father is beaten by the women of the bride's family.
The Topas are really Khatanas and when the Jats and Gujars were competing for the honour of giving the biggest contribution to Akbar's rebuilding of Gujrat town one Adam, a Khatana, paid a lakh and a quarter of rupees into the imperial treasury, measuring the money in a topa, whence his descendants are so named.
In Hazara the Terus say they are really Rajputs and descended from a raja who was so generous that when once a faqir to test him demanded his head he stooped so that the faqir might cut it off, which he did. Having thus proved his generosity the faqir replaced his head on his shoulders and prayed for his life to be restored to him. The clan name is derived from trer, a scar.
In Delhi certain Gujar clans claim descent from eponyms. Such are
- Budhana, descendants of Bhopal;
- Amlaota, from Ambapal,
- Bhotla, from Bharup ;
- Balian, from Baniapal ;
- Dhaidha, from Diptipal;
- Chinori, from Chhainpal;
- Nangri, from Naghpal, and
- Tanur, from Tonpal.
- Adhana: As to the Adhana, tradition says that Raja Ram Chand of the solar race had two sons, Lu and Kush. The latter was the progenitor of the Kachhwai Rajputs ; while Lu's son Ganwat had a son named Raja, who made a karao marriage and was nicknamed Gujar. He had two sons Adhe and Swahi. The latter died sonless, but Adhe founded the Adhana clan.
Organization. It is generally asserted that the real (asli) or original Gujars are the 2-1/2 sections, Gorsi, Kasana and the half tribe Burgat, so-called as descended from a slave mother.* Next to these rank the Khatanas who for a long period held sway in the Gujrat, in which tract, however, the 2-1/2 sections were the original settlers, the other sections having become affiliated to them in course of time, though not necessarily Gujars by origin. As an instance of this process of accretion the Gujars point to the Barras, of Hasilanwala, village in Gujrat, whose forebear Fati-ulla, a Janjua by birth, was deputed by one of the saints of Multan to colonise that tract. All Gujars give daughters to the Barras, but never receive them in return, and the Barras all rank as Mianas, except those of certain families which have forfeited their sanctity, and are designated Pir.†
In Hazara the 2-1/2 'real' sections do not appear to be recognised, but it is generally conceded that the Katharia, Hakla and Sarju sections are of Rajput origin, though this origin is also claimed by several others. Tradition avers that the Katharias once ruled a large part of
- * In Delhi the asli sections are said to be 3-1/2: Chechi, Nikadi, Gorsi, and Kasana (the half). And in Karnal the 2-1/2 sections are said to be the Gorsi, Chechi and Kasana (the half). But the Chechi are said, in Gujrat, to be by origin Khatanas, so that the accounts generally agree in representing the Gorsi, Kasana and Khatana as the 3 original Gujar clans. Several stories are told to explain their pre-eminence. Thus in Ludhiana it is said that Jagpal, Gorsi, and Abaya, Khatana, successfully resisted Raja Jag's father, Uda Dip, in a mock campaign for 3 years, while Nandu Lal, Bargat, gave in after a few months — hence his clan was called the half.
- † In the Jhelum Gazetteer the Bharras (sic) are said to be descendants of Shaikh Natha, of the Manikhiala family, who fled from his home after killing a kinsman, and died in the odour of sanctity.
the Punch valley, whence the Dogras expelled them, though their chiefs still hold large jagirs in that fief of Kashmir. Naturally the Katharias only take wives from Gujars of Rajput descent and only give brides to men of their own section.*
The Gujars are often said to have 84 clans or sections and in Ludhiana their Mirasis address them as Chaurasi got da diwa i. e., 'Light of the 84 clans' ; but other accounts assign them 101, 170 or even 388 sections.
Of these numerous clans none have any definite superiority over the rest, though a few have a vague local standing above their neighbours. Such are the Khobar, Rawal, Wape and Dhalak† in Karnal — because they abstain from flesh and liquor, whereas the Chhokar, Kalsan, Datyar, Dhosi and Rathi sections do not. Of regular classes there is hardly a trace, excepting the Mianas who form in Gujrat a semi-sacred class. They are descendants of men who have acquired a name for learning or sanctity and so their descendants cannot give wives to Gujars of less exalted rank. †† Indeed the leading Khatana family of Dinga used to consider it derogatory to give daughters to any Gujar at all and sought bridegroom in more exalted families, or failing them let their girls remain unwed. In Gujrat, the Gujars also possess a curious social organisation, being possessed of 84 darrs or lodges. § Originally the number was only 54 — distributed over the 7 tappas into which the tract was divided in Akbar's time, but 20 have been added from various families, and 5 assigned to the Gujars of Kala in Jhelum. To become a darr-wala or member requires money, influence and popularity. A candidate must first, at his son's wedding, obtain the consent of the existing darr-walas, which is not easily done, as there must be no ' black-balls,' and he must be on good terms with the leading men. Having been thus elected he must pay so much per darr to the mirasis. At present the rate is Rs. 11 per darr so he has to pay 84 x ll = Rs. 924, or nearly 60 guineas as entrance fee. His descendants remain darr-walas, but his agnates do not acquire the privilege. At a son's wedding in the family a darr-wala has to pay a fee of not less than 4 annas to each darr for its mirasi. The darr-walas do not as a rule give daughters in marriage to those who do not possess equal social standing. The real origin of this system does not appear to be known, but it has some resemblances to the Rajput chhat and makan, and perhaps more to the lodges of the Bara Sadat.
The social observances of the Gujars are ordinarily those of the other Hindus or Muhammadans, as the case may be, among whom they live, bat one or two special customs are to be noted.
In Delhi a child is betrothed in infancy by the barber and Brahman jointly, but he is not married till the age of 10 or 12. Prior to the wedding one or the other on the bride's part go to the boy's house with the lagan to discuss the arrangements for the wedding. Half the lik
- * P. N. Q. II, § 280
- † The Dhalaks of Keorak in tahsil Kaithal regard themselves as exalted in rank above the other Gujars in Karnal and used to give daughters to the Khoter and Chhokar Gujars east of the Jumna. Naturally this led to female infanticide in Keorak.
- †† In Ludhiana a few families also bear the title of Mian.
- § Lit, a door or threshold.
or duos are paid to both these functionaries at betrothal and the other half at the lagan, whereas Jats pay the whole at betrothal.
A day or two before the wedding madha worship is held, the beam of a plough being pitched before the house door with a little straw tied to its top. A large earthen jar with a smaller one full of water on top of it is also placed beside the beam, a red thread (kalawa) being fastened round the uppermost pot. Clearly this is a fertility charm, and the usage does not imply that the Gujars are devoted to agriculture.
In Hoshiarpur the Gujars have a curious custom at weddings. Money, called muddaji rupaiya or ' mudda at one rupee per soul,' is given by well-to-do Gujars on such an occasion to every Mirasi present, regardless of age or sex, and a pregnant Mirasian gets two rupees, one for each life. When a Gujar at a son's wedding gives this money to the Mirasis of certain specified Gujar gots it is called bhaji, and on the wedding of any boy of those specified gots the Mirasi of the Gujar who gave the original bhaji is entitled to a rupee. A Gujar who gives muddaji rupiya is held in high esteem socially and the Mirasis style him gharbhan ka data or 'one who is generous even to the child in the womb.'
The Gujars of Nakodar tahsil in Jullundhar have the following custom (called pindwalna) at marriages, a survival of marriage by capture. The young men of the bridegroom's party gallop round the village, so as to encircle it ; those of the bride's party endeavour to prevent this. If any one of the former succeeds in completing the circle, he is given a present by the bride's parents. Another custom is, for the girls of the bride or bridegroom's family to try and prevent one of their brothers-in-law from lighting the fire on which food for the marriage feast is to be cooked. If he succeeds, he is rewarded by a present of some article of dress. This custom is called jhalka-bhathi.*
In Gurdaspur the Muhammadan Gujars date their conversion from Hinduism to the time of Aurungzeb. They still observe Hindu rites, and on the birth of a son the women make an idol of cow-dung (govardhan), which is worshipped. The birth of a son is an expensive event, as besides the Qazi and Mirasi who are feed, the child's sister and paternal aunt get clothes and a she-buffalo or money, and the Gaur Brahman still visits some families as a parohit to bless the child's father by placing dab grass on his head. At a wedding too he observes this rite, but the chauka is made by a Mirasi. Herein the boy is seated on a basket before he dons his wedding garments and sets out for the bride's house. No Gujar is allowed to marry in his own got, but the Bhatia have given up this restriction, and generally Hindu customs are dying out among the Muhammadan sections.
In Gujrat the customs of the Muhammadan Gujars are in general similar to those of the Muhammadan Jats, but after a birth on the dhawan day, when the- mother bathes and leaves the place of her confinement, a Brahman comes and makes a square (chauka), on which a diwa made of ata (flour) is lighted. Big rotis too are cooked, each a topa in weight, and given to the menials. The Brahman also gets a ---
- * But this custom is not confined to the Gujars. It exists among the Meuns also.
topa of ata. In respectable families halwa is cooked as well, but it is eaten only by persons of the same "bone," i. e., of the same got. Married daughters cannot eat this halwa because they have left the got, or section. If a son's wife is away at "her parents' house her share is sent her, but none of her parents' family can eat it.
Milni is not observed at a marriage by the Gujrat Gujars, but they observe the dawa, or 'imitation ' instead. Before the wedding procession leaves the bridegroom's house, the Mirasi of the bride's family goes to see what the numbers of the procession will be and so on. He gets a present and returns, after which the wedding procession starts for the bride's house. The Gujars also have a darr or custom of payment to the Mirasis of particular families, but it is done only by those families, not by all Gujars, whereas the Jats have their rathachari which may be done by any one who chooses. The darr has already been described. Some three or four weeks before the wedding the gala ceremony is also observed. Gala means a handful of grain which is put into the chaki (mill). The gala marks the commencement of the wedding and is celebrated, after the women of the biradri have assembled, by grinding five paropis of grain and putting the ata into a pitcher round which mauli thread has been tied. Amongst Hindus this mauli is first tied not only to the pitcher but to the chaki, pestle and mortar, chhaj, etc., as well, and then the ata and other articles required for the wedding are got together.
As a caste the Hindu Gujars appear to have no special cults, though in Gurgaon they fervently celebrate the Gordhan festival, but it is a Hindu, not a special Gujar, fete. In Hissar Bhairon or Khetrpal, as a village deity, is their chief object of worship. The tradition is that he was born of a virgin. His chief shrine is at Ahror (near Rewari in Gurgaon) where many of the Hissar Gujars attend a great festival held in his honour in February.
The Muhammadan Gujars of Hazara have a curious legend which recalls those of Dris, the Prophet, and of Hazrat Ghaus of the Chihltan mountain near Quetta.* Their ancestor Nand Mihr, they relate, used to serve the Prophet and once gave him a draught of water while at prayer. The Prophet promised to fulfil his every wish and Nand Mihr asked that his wife might bear him children, so the Prophet gave him a charm (tawiz) for her to eat, but she did not eat it. This occurred thirty-nine times, and when the Prophet gave Nand the fortieth charm he made his wife eat them all at once. In due course she bore him forty children, but finding that he could not support them all Nand Mihr turned thirty-nine of them adrift. They prospered and built a house into which they would not admit their unnatural father, so he on the Prophet's advice, surrendered to them his remaining son also. Descendants of these forty sons are said to be found in other parts of the Punjab and Kashmir but not in Hazara itself, save as immigrants.
By occupation the Gujars are essentially a pastoral race, so much so that in the Gojra (? Gujrat) something like a regular siapa is observed on the death of a buffalo, the women mourning for it almost as if for a
- * See Dames' Popular Poetry of the Baloches, p. 169, and Masson's Travels London 1844, II, p, 85.
human being. A. similar custom is noted in Attock, in which District the women may often be seen with veiled faces weeping over the death of a milch buffalo.
In Hoshiarpur Gujar women are in great request as wet-nurses and dwellers in towns frequently put out children to nurse with them for a year or more in order that they may grow up strong. Some Gujars will not allow their women to go into the towns with milk, and regard themselves as superior to those who allow this practice, refusing them their daughters in marriage. The freedom of Gujar women in this respect has given rise to a general idea that they are immoral.
In dress the Gujars are not distinguished by any marked peculiarities. In Gurgaon it is said that the Gujri dresses like a Kanjri, which reminds one of the proverb :
- Zamin ba yak sal hanjar shawad,
- Gujar be yak nukta Kanjar shawad,
"In one year land becomes waste, By one dot 'Gujar' becomes ' Kanjar' "*
and probably is just as near the truth. In Karnal the women weave chausi, both fine (dhotar) and coarse (garha), of cotton, and it is usually dyed blue or red, and then printed. In Nabha they are said not to wear gold ornaments.
The Gujars in Bahawalpur have a hereditary representative (paghand) who presides at weddings and funerals, but he exercises no powers and receives no fees.
The dialect of the Gajars is Gujari or Gojari. It has strong affinities with the language of Jaipur and is akin to Rajasthani. Gujari is spoken by the Himalayan Gujars, including those of the Siwalik in Hoshiarpur, but elsewhere the Gujars generally speak the dialects of the people amongst whom they dwell, †
Gu...
Gujarati (गुजराती), or Bias (ब्यास), are described by Sir Denzil Ibbetson as Brahmans who came from Gujarat in Sindh, are in some respects the highest class of all Brahmans ; they are always fed first ; and they bless a Gaur when they meet him, while they will not eat ordinary bread from his hands. They are fed on the 12th day after death, and the Gaurs will not eat on the 13th day if this has not been done. But they take inauspicious offerings. To them appertain especially the Rahu offerings made at an eclipse. They will not take oil, sesame, goats, or green or dirty clothes; but will take old clothes if washed, buffaloes, and satnaja. They also take a special offering to Rahu made by a sick person, who puts gold in qhi, looks at his face in it, and gives it to a Gujarati, or who weighs himself against satnaja and makes an offering of the grain, A buffalo which has been possessed by a devil to that degree that he has got on to the top of a house (no difficult feat in a village), or a foal dropped in the month of Sawan, or a buffalo calf in Magh, are given to the Gujarati as being unlucky. No Gaur would take them. At every harvest the Gujarati takes a small allowance (seori) of grain from the threshing floor, just as does the Gaur." The divisions of the Gujarati are described on pp. 140-1 supra. ---
- * Hoshiarpur S. R., 1885, p. 54,
- † Census Report, India, 1903, p. 335.
Gujjral (गुज्जराल), a Muhammadan Jat tribe found in Gujrat, and descended from a boy who was suckled by a Gujar foster-mother. It settled in Gujrat in the time of Auragzeb.
Gulabdasi (a) (गुलाबदासी), a Sikh sect, or rather order, founded by one Gulab Das, an Udasi of Chattha or Chattianwala near Kasur. Its doctrines may be described as Epicurean in tendency, though the accounts given of them vary as to the precise tenets of the sect. One story is that they disbelieve in the existence of God, and only revere living priests of their own persuasion. Gulab Das, though originally an Udasi, is said to have fallen under the influence of one Hira Das, a sadh of Kasur, and about 70 years ago he discarded a faqir's nudity for ordinary raiment, proclaiming that he had had a vision which convinced him that he had no religious superior, that pilgrimages were waste of time and temples not possessed of any sanctity. Mr. Maclngan says that the real founder of the sect was an Udasi named Pritam Das who received some slight at a Kumbh bathing festival on the Gauges and so started a new sect. His principal disciple was Gulab Das, a Sikh Jat, who had been a ghorchara or trooper in Maharaja Sher Singh's army and joined the new sect on the collapse of the Sikh monarchy. He compiled the scripture called Updes Bilas, and it is his tomb at Chattianwala which is resorted to by his disciples. Mr. Maclagan added : —
"The Gulabdasis have thrown over asceticism and have proceeded to the other extreme. They originally held that all that was visible in the universe was God, and that there was no other. It is said that Gulab Das declared himself to be Brahm and many of his disciples believe themselves to be God ; and, properly speaking, their faith is that man is of the same substance as the deity, and will be absorbed in him, but for the most part they are looked on by their neighbours as deuving the existence of God altogether. They do not believe in a personal future life, and dispense with the veneration of saints and with pilgrimages and religious ceremonies of all kinds. Pleasure alone is their aim ; and renouncing all higher objects they seek only for the gratification of the senses, for costly dress and tobacco, wine and women, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They are scrupulously neat in their attire and engage in all worldly pursuits, some of them being men of considerable wealth. They are said to have an especial abhorrence for lying, and there is certainly little or no hypocrisy in their tenets. In appearance they vary ; some always wear white clothes ; others preserve the Udasi dress ; others are clothed like the Nirmalas; and others are distinguished by being always shaved. They are of course greatly distrusted and, to some extent, despised by their co-religionists, and their numbers are said to be on the decrease. The Gulabdasis are returned mainly from Lahore and Jullundhar.* They admit any caste to the sect, but the different castes admitted do not eat with each other or intermarry."
Gulab Das abolished the kes or Sikh fashion of wearing the Lair, allowed his followers to smoke and only acknowledged such passages
- * They are also found in Amritsar and Ferozepore and have dehras in Ambala and Karnal.
of the Granth as accorded with his own views. The Gulabdasis do not frequent the ordinary fairs, but have a large gathering of their own, which lasts six days, during; the Holi. The author of the Panjabi Dictionary says that Gulab Das inclined on the whole towards pantheism.
Gulahira (गुलहिरा), fem. -i, a vagabond.
Gulam (गुलाम), see Ghulam.
Gulerah (गुलेरह), see Golera.
Gulhari (गुलहरी), Gulharia, a section of the Aroras, a man of that section, Panjabi Didy., p. 410).
Gumhar (गुमहार), see Kumhar.
Gumrani (गुमरानी), a clan of Pathans found in the Nowshera tahsil of Peshawar.
Gundi-Nawazan (गुंडी-नवाज़न), the 'white' party in the Marwat plain of Bannu ; see under Spin. The ‘black ' or Tor party is known as the Gundi-Abezar.
Gunjial (गुनजियाल), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.
Guraha (गुराहा), a tribe of Jats who were originally Rajputs. They claim to have acquired their lands from Nawab Ghazi Khan to whom they presented a valuable horse, and he gave them as much land as they could compass in a day and a night ' : (Panjabi Dicty., p. 415).
Gurbuz (गुरबुज़), an unimportant Pathan tribe, which accompanied the Wazir in their movements, and once occupied the hills between their Mahsud and Darveah Khel brethren, where they disputed the possession of the Ghabbar peak with the Bitanni. They have now returned to their original seat west of the Khost range and north of the Dawari, who hold the trans-border banks of the Tochi river.
Gurchani (गुरचानी), an organized Baloch tuman, own the Mari and Dragal hills, and their boundary extends further into the mountains than that of any other of the tribes subject to us; while their territory does not extend much to the east of the Sulaimans. They are divided into eleven clans, of which the chief are the Durkani, Shekani Lashari (a sub-tuman), Pitafi, Jisatkani, and Sabzani. The last four are true Baloch and the last three Rinds ;* the remainder of the tribe being said to have descended from Gorish, a grandson of Raja Bhimsen of Haidarabad, who was adopted by the Baloch and married among them. He is said to have accompanied Humayun to Delhi, and on his return to have collected a Baloch following and ejected the Pathan holders from the present Gurchani holdings. It is not impossible that a considerable number of the Lashari clan, who are not too proud of their affiliation to the Gurchani, may have returned themselves as Lashari simply, and so have been included in the Lashari tribe. The whole of the Durkani and about half of the Lashari live beyond our border, and are not subject to us save through their connection with the tribe. The
- * Dames' account is different. He says that the principal part of the tribe is Dodai, the Syahphad Durkani being Rinds, and the Pitafi, Jogani and Chang are probably partly Rinds : while the Lasharis (except the Gahols and Bhands) and the Jistkinis are Lasharis ; and the suhrianis and Holawanis are Bulethis.
Gurdali-Gutka
latter is the most turbulent of all the clans, and they and the Pitafi used to rival the Khosa tribe in lawlessness of conduct. They were given fresh lands prior to 1881 and gradually settled down. They are only found in Dera Ghazi, and have their head-quarters at Lalgarh, near Harrand, in the District. There is also a Gurchani clan among the Lunds of Sori.
Gurdali (गुरदली), a Baloch clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gurke (गुरके), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gurkha (गुरखा). — The ruling and military race of Nepal, only found in the Punjab as members of our Gurkha regiments. The Gurkha invasion will be found described in the Sirmur Gazetteer, pp. 16 — 18, the Simla Gazetteer, and the Kangra Settlement Report, by Sir James Lyali, § 82, but it left practically no traces on the ethnic elements of the Punjab Himalayas. The Gurkhas are of mixed Aryan and Mongolian blood. An interesting account of them will be found in Hodgson's Essays, and their organisation which in some respects closely reproduces phenomena found in the Hindu castes of the Punjab, is described in Vansittart's work.
Gurmang (गुरमंग). — An insignificant class of criminals found in the Rawalpindi district, where some of them are registered as criminals.
Gurmani (गुरमानी), a Baloch tribe scattered through Deras Ghazi and Ismail Khan and Muzaffargarh.
Gurra (गुर्रा) or Chamarwa (चमरवा). — The Brahmans who minister to the Chamars, Aheris, and other outcasts. They are not recognized as Brahmans by the other classes; and though they wear the sacred thread it is perhaps possible that their claim to Brahman origin is unfounded. Yet on the whole it seems most probable that they are true Brahmans by descent, but have fallen from their high position. They are often called Chamarwa sadhs.
Gurun (गुरुं), a Hindu Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
Gurzmar (गुर्जमार) or Rufai (रुफाई). — One of the irregular Muhammadan orders, said to have been founded by one Sayyid Ahmad Kabir. It is so called from the fact that its members excite the compassion of the public by beating their breasts with studded maces (gurz). They also carry about iron chains which they handle when red-hot, and knives and daggers and needles which they thrust through their flesh. The author of the Qanun-i-Islam (a book relating to Southern India) gives some details of their powers : " they level blows at their backs with their swords, thrust a spit through their sides or into their eyes, both of which they take out and put in again ; or cut out their tongues which, on being replaced in their months, reunite. Nay, they even sever the head from the body and glue them together again with saliva," and so on, ad nauseam.
Gutka (गुटका), a small sept, some 60 souls in number, of the Bhall section of the Jats found in Hadiara, a village in Lahore. They are descendants of one Gurbakhsh Singh, a Sikh Jat who earned the nickname of Gutka (" a collection of all that is bad ") by his thieving propensities not long before the British conquest of the Punjab. He owned little land, and poverty compelled his descendants to continue his career of crime.
Gy...
Gyani (ज्ञानी), one possessing divine knowledge, a sage, from gyan, divine knowledge or religious meditation ; among the Sikhs a traditional interpreter of the Granth.
Gyazhingpa (ग्याजहिंग्पा), see Chahzang.
Gw...
Gwala (ग्वाला), an occupational term for a Hindu cowherd and shepherd. In the Punjab a Hindu milkman, butter-maker and cowherd is called a gwala and is generally by caste an Ahir* ; but if a Muhammadan, he would be called a ghosi and is often a Gujar by tribe. The Ahir gwalas of the Punjab used to buy milk largely of the ghosis for butter-making, of which they had the monopoly. Till the Mutiny the ghosis were simply milk-sellers, but alter it they took to butter-making also. Hindus will buy milk of a Hindu gwala, or a Muhammadan ghosi, but not of the latter if water has been mixed with the milk, as the water would defile them. When gwalas purchage milk of Muhammadan ghosis to make butter they are supposed to see the cow milked.
Gwar† (ग्वार), Gwaria (ग्वारिया), a nomad caste of Hindus, low in the social scale, and said to be broken-down Banjaras who having lost their cattle and other property have taken to wicker work and lead a gipsy existence. But other accounts make them an offshoot of the Sansis or Nats. They also make sirki or screens of reed and set millstones. In Hissar popular legend makes them descendants of a Bhil woman by a Rajput, and in this District they are settled in Hansi and Bhiwani tahsils, engaged in ordinary labour as well as mat-making, and described as intermarrying with Banjaras. They are confined to the south-east Districts of the Punjab.
- * For the Gwa1bans of the Ahirs see under Ahir.
- † Possibly Gawar, q.v.