An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan/Wiki Editor note

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An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan

By Henry Walter Bellew

The Oriental University Institute, Woking, 1891

Jatland Wiki Editor note


About the Author

Henry Walter Bellew MRCP (1834–1892) was an Indian-born British medical officer and author. He was with the Bengal Army, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Medical Service, and went with Harry Burnett Lumsden on the 1857 mission to Afghanistan. He was in Mardan with the Corps of Guides in the 1860s, and was then in Peshawar as a civil surgeon. He was appointed political officer at Kabul. He became Surgeon-General of India, retiring in 1886. He wrote a number of books on contemporary India and Afghanistan, including the first grammar in English of Pashto.

Acknowledgment

An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan is a unique book by Henry Walter Bellew on the clans found in Afghanistan. It was Published by The Oriental University Institute, Woking, 1891. Jatland is very much thankful to H W Bellew for such a wonderful contribution to Jat History.

The inquiry commences with the account given by Herodotus of the nations in his time inhabiting the ancient Persian Empire, of which the region engaging our attention constituted the eastern portion. Author has briefly described many tribes now found in Afghanistan, whose names appear in the recitals of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat, or in the records of the Rajataringini.

Amongst the clans and sections of these existing tribes, bearing the names of the ancient nations, is found a variety of names evidently belonging to different races and nationalities the ethnic affinities of which afford an interesting subject for investigation.

Wiki format

This complete book has been digitized formated in Wiki format and uploaded on Jatland Wiki for further research and analysis of clans particularly Jat clans. The clans have been bulleted so as to make easily searchable.

On Jat Scythians relations

It is very useful book for Jat history as it contains large number of references to Jat Skythians and identifies many Jat clans which were so far not mentioned in any of history books. Here are given below paragraphs from the book with page number On Jat Scythians relations:

  • There are tribes, found in the areas of these ancient satrapies, and mentioned by Greek writers subsequently to the conquest by Alexander the Great, which bear names of a stamp different from the preceding, and clearly referable, some to Thrakian affinities, and others to Skythian. Amongst these last are classed, by the native Afghan genealogists, a number of tribes bearing Rajput names referable to the Saka Skythian races, of later arrival in India than the Naga Skythians above mentioned, but earlier than the Jata Skythians who dispossessed the Greeks of Baktriana, and swarmed into India at about the same period that other Jata hordes of their kindred surged westward into Europe, as Jutes, Goths, and Vandals, the Jit, Jat, and Mandan of our Indus valley tribes.[1]
  • Sagpa or Sogpa stands for Saka, Skythian. (p.45)
  • Baburi, or Barbari, inhabit Sarijangal and Lal districts, and the upper valley of the Hari Rud, and are reckoned at about twenty thousand families. They represent the Bebrikkoi of Strabo (Greog. vii. 3), a Thrakian tribe of Jata or Getai Skyths. (p.46)
  • Bisudi claim descent from the brothers Satuk Kamar and Satuk Sokpa. Of these names, Satuk is a Turki title of respect, equivalent to our " Mister", and corresponds with the Persian Khwajah, which means "gentleman," " merchant," etc. Kamar is the name of a Skythian tribe, which is not uncommon in Afghanistan, and appears to have been early incorporated with the Rajput of Saurashtra, where it was afterwards changed to Jetwa, according to Tod. (p.47)
  • Turklanri, are not of Afghan or Pathan descent, and comprise a mixture of Turk clans, settled principally in the Bajaur country and adjoining Kunar valley. They are included amongst Afghans from having adopted the Pukhto language and Pukhtim, or Pathan, nationality, conforming to the Pukhtunwali, and identifying themselves with the Pathan interests. They represent the Skythian invaders, who deprived the Greeks of Baktria, as mentioned by Strabo. (p.82)
  • These the Dalazak, who are said to be a Turk tribe in the following of Mahmud Ghaznavi, or of his father the celebrated Sabaktakin (but more likely a clan of the Jata Skythians, who dispossessed the Greeks), gradually forced out of the plain country up into the hills around, and mainly into the highlands of Swat and Boner, and the Khybar hills. (p.90)
  • Aman may stand for Awan, a tribe strongly represented on the opposite, or east, bank of the Indus, and of Scythic origin. (p.108)
  • The Tokhari appear to be the same people as the Tuchara or Tushara mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharat, and Harivansa (See Troyers' "Rajataringini," vol. ii. p. 321), and are reckoned an Indo-Skythic race of very ancient date, and allied to the Naga, who, it seems, were the earliest invaders of India from the north. (p.154])
  • Some of these clans and sections, especially all along the mountain ranges bordering upon the Indus, are at once recognisable by name as representatives of the posterity of nations of a remote antiquity in this part of Northern India and Central Asia, as recorded in Sanskrit writings, such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Harivamsa, Vishnu Purana, etc., and referable to aboriginal Indian races on the one hand and to early Skythic invaders, principally of the Naga race, on the other. Whilst in other parts of the country, chiefly in Balochistan, are found tribes whose names indicate affinity with the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian races. (Introductory remarks,p.5-6)
  • there are other tribes, found in the areas of these ancient satrapies, and mentioned by Greek writers subsequently to the conquest by Alexander the Great, which bear names of a stamp different from the preceding, and clearly referable, some to Thrakian affinities, and others to Skythian. Amongst these last are classed, by the native Afghan genealogists, a number of tribes bearing Rajput names referable to the Saka Skythian races, of later arrival in India than the Naga Skythians above mentioned, but earlier than the Jata Skythians who dispossessed the Greeks of Baktriana, and swarmed into India at about the

same period that other Jata hordes of their kindred surged westward into Europe, as Jutes, Goths, and Vandals, the Jit, Jat, and Mandan of our Indus valley tribes. (Introductory remarks,p.6)

  • Greek language was commonly spoken along the Indus, say in the sixth generation, or nearly a hundred and eighty years after the overthrow of the Greek dominion in our Afghanistan by the Jata. (Introductory remarks,p.15)
  • Moreover, it is to be borne in mind, that although the Jata deprived the Greeks of the paramount authority and kingly rule, the Greek was by no means thereby effaced, nor at once degraded by the conquest of the barbarian. (Introductory remarks,p.15)
  • The Greeks were dispossessed of Baktria, and deprived

of their rule in Afghanistan by the Jata — the Goths of Asia— whose tribes are largely represented in the population of the north-eastern parts of the country, and all along the Indus valley. But before proceeding to notice these later arrivals, we may here conveniently refer to the tribal constituents of the population of ancient Ariana prior to the Alexandrian conquest, or at the period immediately preceding that great event. From the records quoted in our "Inquiry" it appears that the western portion of that region was inhabited by Persian tribes, amongst whom had intruded at a comparatively recent date at that period — the middle of the fifth century before Christ, when Herodotus wrote — various hordes of the nomadic Skythians, called Saka, Sakai (Saxons), by the Persians and Greeks respectively. (Introductory remarks,p.16)

  • Greeks who ruled this country as its conquerors and naturalized citizens for a period of two hundred years ; from 330 B.C., when Alexander took possession of the country, to 126 B.C., when his successors here were deprived of the government by the barbarian Jata. (Introductory remarks,p.21)

Jat Clans

I have put info of each Jat clan in Afghanistan on its page on Jatland Wiki with reference to this book.

  • Jaki is apparently the Hindu Jat Jakhar (p.14)
  • Abu, Ajari, Ali, Calandar, Changa, Janki, Pala, Peh,Shadi (p.14)
  • Aka is the name of a Naga/Jat tribe (p.16)
  • Maku stands for Makwahana, a very ancient Indian tribe, neither Rajput nor Jat by descent, but reckoned amongst the Rajput along with the Jat as adopted tribes ; a clan, perhaps, of the Saka Scythians.
  • Nani may stand for Nau Naga, a Jat clan. (p.17)
  • Sali stands for Salaklain, Jat. (p.25)
  • Na and Najo are apparently the same and stand for the Nau Naga, Jat. (p.25)
  • Dedi is for Dehta, Jat (p.27)
  • Khodo or Khudo, a section commonly met with in one or other of these forms, and is a Jata tribe, the same people as the Tschoudi of Esthonia in Russia (p.28)
  • Ako and Aka stand for the Aga Jat. (p.31)
  • Pughman from a Jat tribe called Pogh (p.34)
  • Bala Nasar for Bala, Brahman, and Nasar, Jat. (p.45)
  • Baghra for Bagri Jat. (p.45)
  • Nasari for Nasar, Jat. (p.45)
  • Assakenoi (perhaps the Rajput Aswaka or Assaka, the tribe perhaps of the above- mentioned Assagetes, which name may stand for Assa Jat of the Assa tribe of the Jat nation. (p.69)
  • The great mass of the ancient Gandhari, together with their neighbours the Isapi, in the adjacent Sama, or " Plain," between the Swat, Kabul, and Indus rivers, were deported by the Yuechi, Getai, or Jata to the valley of the Tarnak river, and there settled about its banks in the fifth century of our era, at the time that they carried the begging-pot of Buddha from Peshawar to Kandahar . (p.71)
  • We do find among the present inhabitants of this Yusufzi country certain tribes and clans bearing names which are more easily referable to a Greek source than to any other ; unless, indeed, the Geta or Jata tribes, by whom the Greeks were dispossessed, also bore names resembling, or the same as, those of the Greeks. The tribal names Aka, Ali, Bai, Juna or Jana, Yunus, etc., though now supposed to be of the Jat race, may have been adopted by that people from the Greeks with whom they mixed, and whose language their kings adopted upon their coins. If the Baraki before mentioned are the representatives of the Libyan Barkai Greek, and the source whence sprung the modern Barak or Barakzi of the Durani Afghan, and the Barak of the Khattak Pathan, then we need not be staggered by the appearance of Greek Akhai in the Aka Pathan and Aga Jat his co-partner in the soil ; of Greek Aioli in the Pathan Ali or Aali ; of Greek Boioi in the Rajput or Pathan Bai ; of Greek Ionoi in the Rajput and Pathan Juna and Yunus. With these invading Geta, or Jata, of whom a principal division was called Mand (the Goth, or Jute, and Wend, of Europe),
  • In the part of Afghanistan we are now considering these were the Goei and the Geougen Tatar Hun who, as De Guigne tells us, leaving their ancient seats in the extreme east of Tartary, to the north of China, sent large hordes westward at an early period before the Christian era. These hordes, after centuries of wanderings and warfare on the ample ground of Northern Asia, gradually drifted southwards and west-wards to the great Shamo or Gobi desert (perhaps so called after the Goei or Gavi), where joining the Yuechi or Getai, who had preceded them from the same regions in the far east (and possibly at the outset from the Northern American continent), they advanced westward along both sides of the Celestial Mountains (Tien Shan of the Chinese, Kailas of the Brahman), through the Ayghur Kashghar and Jatta Zunghar, and invaded the populous, civilized, and rich countries at the sources of the Syhon and the Gyhon (Sir and Amu Jaxartes and Oxus) where the Greeks held the sway. Whilst the Yuechi and the Geougen (the Jata and the Gujar) advanced into the south and south-east, the Goei (modern Gavi or Kabi) apparently, for the most part, remained to the north of Hindu Kush ; the only trace of them by that name now found in Afghanistan is in the Gavi Hazarah about Bamian and Ghorbund, though there are sections of Kabi and Kaba in several of the Afghan tribes along the Indus border ; the name also appears amongst the clans of the Pramara Agnikula Rajput, having been probably adopted and incorporated into that tribe at an early period. Of the Jata and Gujar great populations throughout the Indus valley, and all over Northern India, attest the completeness of the hold they took of the country ; the Jata, or Jat, mainly as agricultural settlers, the Gujar largely as a pastoral people. Both are fine, manly, stalwart, and brave races. (p.75)
  • Aka may stand for Akhai, Greek, or Aga, Jat, and more probably is the Naga clan of that name. (p.78)
  • Mada is a Jat tribe (p.79)
  • Bangi is a Jat tribe, the same as the Bangi Sikh. (p.79)
  • She and Ya are Jat (p.80)
  • Mada is a Jat tribe (p.87)
  • They are in three divisions, — Hasan, Jawaki, and Gali, which are collectively styled Katori ; so that the whole of the Adam-khel are Katori, which is the name of a celebrated Jata tribe. (p.91)
  • Sangu may be the tribe of the Sangarius to whom Hephaistion gave the charge of the city he took from Astes (of the Hasto-khel of the Jawaki Afridi), as related in a preceding page. (p.96)
  • Mandu we have frequently met before ; they are part of the great Mand tribe of the Jata, and of the same origin as the Wend of Europe. (p.96)
  • Ayo is perhaps a Jat tribe. (p.101)
  • Tokar for Thakur Jat (p.102)
  • Bangash may be a branch of the Bangi division of the Khattak to be next noticed, and of the same stock as the Bangi division of the Sikh nation, and of Jata descent. (p.105)
  • Ako is the same as Aka, and stands for either Akha, Greek, or for Aga, Jat, or, more exactly perhaps, is the Aka Naga tribe, of very ancient date in these parts. (p.108)
  • Barak stands for the Baraki, the Barkai of Herodotus, no such name appearing among the Rajput or Indian tribes, nor amongst the Turk tribes in these parts. (p.108)
  • Zakar for Jakhar, Hindu tribe of Indian desert. (p.112)
  • Marhel may stand for Maholi, Rahtor, or for Hela, Jat, and Maru, Rahtor, together (p.115)
  • Poti is the name of a district in Afghanistan (Tarnak valley), and of a district (Potwar) in the north of Panjab, so called perhaps from a Jat tribe of that name. (p.119)
  • Mangi is for Man-ki, "of Man." (p.120)
  • Ashangi for Ashyag Hindu tribe of the great desert of Jesalmer. (p.120)
  • Nanak for Nanwag Rajput, or Nau Naga Jat. (p.120)
  • Abu may represent the ancient Abi, a Scythian tribe mentioned by Homer, I believe, or else the district in Rajwara (Mount Abu), whence they originally came. (p.130)
  • Hadi stands for Hodi, Jat (p.131)
  • Bangi is a Jat tribe (p.133)
  • Dalal is a Jat tribe. (p.135)
  • Ababakar, frequently met before, together with Aba and Abi, may stand for the ancient Abioi of Strabo, a Scythian tribe. (p.138)
  • Katar, or Kator, is the same people as the Katoran or Katorman, who established a Turk dynasty which ruled contemporaneously in two branches at Kabul and Peshawar respectively, from the beginning of the fifth to the latter part of the ninth century, when, after losing much of their power and territory to the Tuar Rajput kings of Delhi, they were finally overthrown by them and the Ghaznavis. Under the rule of the Kator Yuechi (Getai or Jata) Buddhism was the religion of the country, but during the century or so of Tuar Rajput sovereignty, Brahminism was the dominant religion, till the Hindu was finally dispossessed by Sabaktagin, who founded the Ghaznavi Turk dynasty. The Shah Katori of Kashkar and Chitral, who, as above suggested, represent the Sakarauloi of Strabo, are the same people as the Katar of Kafiristan, the name of which country was formerly Kator ; at least in the time of Tamerlane, the beginning of the fifteenth century. (p.146)
  • Dangarik of Ashret and Kalkatak districts are Indian Jat (p.147)
  • Major Biddulph says that the Burishki (Khajuna of Dr. Leitner) is believed to be of the Turanian family ; in this connection it would be worth while to compare it with the language spoken by the Kachin of Manipur and the Assam frontier, who are supposed to descend from the Pandu through Arjuna, though it is more likely that they are — together with our Kachin or Khachin of Afghanistan — really Naga. The aboriginal inhabitants of Kashmir and the mountainous country to its north were of the Naga race, and the name may survive in the above modern Nagar district. (p.152)
  • The Wardak are not Afghan nor Pathan by descent, nor Ghilzi, nor Hazara, nor Turk, nor Mughal ; by some they are reckoned Tajik, by others they are called Shekh, whilst themselves pretend descent from the Arab Curesh. They speak the Pukhto, but in a corrupt dialect mixed with many foreign words, which may perhaps come from the Vardoj language. (p.154)
  • The Kator, or kindred tribe with the Tokhari, was the most powerful and important of the Jata, Geta, or Yuechi, who overthrew the Greeks of Baktria. The Kator established an independent kingdom, which extended over the whole of the Indus valley from the Himalaya to Balochistan and Sind, and from Kabul and Ghazni to the borders of the Indian desert and Lahore. Their kings were all Buddhists, and their rule lasted from the second century before to the ninth century after Christ, when they were displaced at Kabul by a Brahmin dynasty. The Katar are now found by that name in Afghanistan only in the Chitral valleyand the adjoining districts of Kafiristan ; to the to the east of the Indus they are found in several parts of the Rawalpindi and Jhelam districts. (p.155)
  • The Utoi are represented by the modern Ut and Utman, before described ; their ancient seat was probably along the course of the Helmand about Bost (ancient Abeste of Ptolemy), Girishk and Zamindawar. Perhaps the Otak, or Hotaki (Hat, Hot, Ut) of Kalati Ghilzi may be offshoots from the ancient Uti. (p.157)
  • The Achakzi, as before stated, of all the Afghan tribes are noted for their turbulence and barbarity ; and the Sanskrit name Achi-ho-lada, or Achi-holara, of the Rajataringini expresses this character for it means " The turbulent Achi." Tod, in his enumeration of the Hindu tribes of the Indian desert, mentions the Ashyag, a name which may stand for the Sanskrit Achi, and is evidently the source of the Afghan Achak, whom we have noticed above among the Durani clans. The Luni of Sibi and the borders of Shal and Peshin are clearly the same as the Lavanya of the Rajataringini, and derive orginally from the banks of the Luni river of Rajwara. (p.167)
  • Jot for Jat, or Jāt (p.168)
  • Jadgal, or Jatgal, is Jat ; it is curious to note the use of the affix -gal and -gali here in the southern extreme of eastern Afghanistan, just as amongst the Kafir tribes in the extreme north of this frontier, as in the Waega, Beragal, Bashgal, etc., before noticed ; the Jadgal are also called Jagdal by a transposition of syllables and confusion or corruption of consonants, not at all uncommon in Balochistan; and it is probable that the places in Afghanistan called Jagdalak in Jalalabad district of Kabul, and Jaldak in Kalati Ghilzi of Kandahar, may indicate former tenancy by the Jat, a race widely spread over northern India, where it constitutes the main ethnic element of the population, in Punjab specially. (p.182)
  • Jakar is for Jakhar, Hindu tribe of the Indian desert, reckoned among the Jat. (p.183)
  • Morka for Mohor, Hindu tribe of Indian desert. (p.185)
  • Takar for Thakur Jat (p.185)
  • Hel is Jat. (p.186)
  • Alexandrian Greek conquerors, and later Turk and Mughal invaders, commonly designated Tatar ; though the Tatar proper belongs to a much earlier period, being mentioned in the Mahabharat as the Tittar, along with various tribes of Turk race. (Introductory remarks,p.6)
  • Afghan Aka uniformly represents the Aka tribe of the Naga, anciently the dominant race in Northern India, and largely figuring in the Sanskrit writings. (Introductory remarks,p.14)
  • The Mykoi. I have supposed to be represented in Afghanistan by the Maku, though probably they are better represented in Persia — along with the Uti, also — by the Muki. (Introductory remarks,p.23)
  • The clans and sections called Juna or Yona, Javana or Yavana by the Hindus, and Yunus by the Musalmans, representing the Ionoi, or Ionians (Introductory remarks,p.23)

Jat Baloch sections

Jat Baloch sections are (p.186) : —

Abra. Aslamya. Bangal. Bangi. Dalal. Desi. Dhe. Gatwara. Haura. Hel. Hodi. Jagdal. Jakhar. Jatoi. Kalhora. Khandya. Khokhar. Kori. Machi. Manjha. Nau Naga. Pachhada. Palal. Pasrar. Thakuraili. Thenwa. Wadera, etc. Of these,

Rajput clans

He writes for many clans in Rajput tribe but we find them in Jat clan list also. Some clans mentioned as Merchantile Rajputs are not found in Rajputs but are in Jat clans as on today. Others clans mentioned by Bellew are are Muslim, Pathan, Khatri etc. clans.

Rajput now comprise a great many sub-divisions, the names of which do not appear in the early genealogies of the race, as given in Tod's " Annals of Rajasthan," it would seem that they have from time to time adopted and incorporated with their own tribes many others, of perhaps kindred origin, with which they came into contact in ancient times, subsequent to Alexander's conquest of Ariana. I have prepared a classified list of Rajput tribes and their subdivisions for reference in connection with this inquiry, which will be found at the end of this paper. It will serve as a guide to distinguish the tribes coming into Ariana from the eastward from those entering the country from the west and the north, and to distinguish both classes from the tribes inhabiting the country prior and up to the period of the Makedonian conquest. (p.10)

Jat history connections

  • Cyrus — whose mother was called Mandane (Mandana ; perhaps a princess of the Mandan tribe), and said to be a Mede, and whose father was called Cambyses (Kamhohji ; probably a chieftain of the Kamboh tribe). (p.6)

Afghan terms

Under this chapter are given the Afghan terms with equivalent English meaning and language in bracket if not afghan as appeared in the book. If the word belongs Persian, Turki etc language it is also marked. this will help in understanding the meaning of clans and their origin.

Missing pages

Some pages of the missing in Online book. These have been put ?


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