Djat
| Author: Laxman Burdak, IFS (R). |
Djats is the term used for Jats in the ancient Arab world.[1] Djat or Dyat was a popular nomenclature of the Jats who were ethnologically said to be tall, well-built and sturdy with a comparatively dark complexion. [2]
Variants
Origin
Hukum Singh Panwar writes that the term Djat had to undergo plethoric transformations in its orthography and pronunciation in different climes and countries according to the phonemes of their local dialects and languages at different times, We may repeat how, in addition to phonemes, the hard and soft sound of 'T', and the use of D as prefix in Jat made it into "Djat".[3]
History
According to Hukum Singh Panwar[4] the Muslim accounts of the Middle East relating to the early centuries of the Christian era and the contemporary Greek and Roman classical sources furnish us with more of its variations in the Middle East and European countries. In Arabia, Iraq and Syria Djat or Dyat was a popular nomenclature of the Jats who were ethnologically said
The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations: End of page 339
to be tall, well-built and sturdy with a comparatively dark complexion. Djat, a name given to the Jartas30 ,(who may be the Jartikas of yore, also called Zaratoi31 or Geratae32. Djat was the name given by the Arabs to the Middle Indo-Aryans of the Panjab and Sindh), and is thougt to be of post-Sanskritic Indic origin33. It is significant that Djat and Zutt were written as one compound word, "Djat-Zut" to represent them as one and the same people. We are informed that a Djat-Zutt physician, who was well-versed in witch-craft, treated Hazarat Mohammad's wife, Aisha, when she fell seriously ill. [5]
The author (Hukum Singh Panwar) was informed by Col. Dr. L. C. Kajla that when the personal physician of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and other doctors failed to cure the then Education Minister of India who suffered from some throat ailment, he was called on to examine the Maulana and was successful in treating him. On inquiry by Maulana he came to know that Kajla is a Jat of Village Soldha in distt.: Rohtak (Haryana), the Maulana spontaneously remarked that "a Jat physician successfully treated Aisha, the wife of Hazrat Mohammad also".
Our well supported investigations, have shown already , that the Jats migrated or were forced to migrate to the Middle East, where from, through Greece and Egypt during fifth and sixth centuries A.D. and even much earlier, they spread as far away as Sweden and the Baltic countries35. While passing through France and the Netherlands they carried with them their Middle Eastern appellations to the countries of their destination and these names, then, underwent further changes. The Swedes called them Thjoth36, a slightly modified version of Djat, in old French and Norse. Those who en route, settled down in the Netherlands were known as the Jutes and gave one of the Islands, Jutland, their name. No less remarkable is the fact that these Jutes, the earliest settlers in Cantware (Kent) in England37 after conquering it in early fifth century A.D. were also described as Djat38 . The Oxford English Dictionary (1977 ed.) gives a very faithful account of the variants available in the old languages of the north-western European countries. In old English the were known as Juti, in early medieval Latin as Jutae, Juti (in plural) and Geta, in Icelandic as Jota and in Jutland, Denmark etc. as Jut as well as Jotar39.
The Djat tribes that entered Germany and the Baltic region through the Greece and Turkey retained more or less the then Latin version of their name.
32. Majumdar, RC., Class. Accts. of Ind., p. 345.
33. Ency. of Islam, Vol. II, p. 488. Westphal and Westphal, op. cit., pp. 12-13. MJ. De. GoeJe, Memoirs Sur les migrations das Tsiganes a travers Asia, p. 13-17; Lelden, 1903, q. by Westphal and Westphal, op.cit.., pp. 12; f.n., 6 and 7; David Mac Ritchie, op.cit., p. 77. Oxford Eng. Dic. Vol. V, p. 645.
34. Ency. of Islam, Vol. II, p. 489. The author was informed by Col. Dr. L. C. Kajla that when the personal physician of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and other doctors failed to cure the then Education Minister of India who suffered from some throat ailment, he was called on to examine the Maulana and was successful in treating him. On inquiry by Maulana he came to know that Kajla is a Jat of V. Soldha in distt.: Rohtak (Jhajjar now) (Haryana), the Maulana spontaneously remarked that "a Jat physician successfully treated Aisha, the wife of Hazrat Mohammad also".
35. Mac Ritchie, op.cit. Westphal and Westphal, op.cit., pp. 41-48.
36. Oxford Dic., (1977, p. 1167.
37. Carter, E.H. and Mears, RAF.; His. of Brit., Oxf. Clarendon Pres, 1937 pp. 28-29. H.G. Wells, Outline of His., p. 57. .
38. Oxford Eng. Dic., Vol. V, p. 645.
39. Oxf. Dic. (1977), p. 588, Green and Gardner, q. by Ujagar Singh Mahil, Ant., of Jat Race., pp. 12-13.
Distribution
References
- ↑ Strange, G. Le.; Eastern Caliphate, 1966, London, pp. 244 331. Westphal-Hellbusch Sigrid and Heinz Westphal; Zur Geschichte und Kultur der Jat, 1968, Berlin, p. 12.
- ↑ Hukum Singh Panwar, The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/Jat-Its variants, pp.339-340
- ↑ The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/Epilogue, p.384
- ↑ The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/Jat-Its variants, pp.339-340
- ↑ Ency. of Islam, Vol. II, p. 489.
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