Dodai

Dodai (दोदाई) is a Baloch Jat tribe.

History

H.A. Rose tells us that Dodai (दोदई) were once an important Baloch tribe, but not now found under that name. Its most important representatives are the Mirrani of Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, and Jhang, and the most important clans of the Gurchani.

H.A. Rosementions in the History of Baloch that Like other Muhammadan races, the Baloch claim Arabian extraction, asserting that they are descended from Mir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet, and from a fairy (pari). They consistently place their first settlement in Halab (Aleppo), where they remained until, siding with the sons of Ali and taking part in the battle of Karbala, they were expelled by Yazid, the second of the Omayyad Caliphs, in 680 A.D. Thence they fled, first to Karman, and eventually

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[Page-43]: to Sistan where they wore hospitably received by Shams-ud-Din,^* ruler of that country. His successor, Badr-ud-Din, demanded, according to eastern usage, a bride from each of the 44 bolaks or clans of the Baloch. But the Baloch race had never yet paid tribute in this form to any ruler, and they sent therefore 44 boys dressed in girls' clothes and fled before the deception could be discovered. Badr-ud-Din sent the boys back but pursued the Baloch, who had fled south-eastwards, into Kech-Makran where he was defeated at their hands.

At this period Mir Jalal Khan, son of Jiand, was ruler of all the Baloch. He left four sons, Rind, Lashar, Hot and Korai from whom are descended the Rind, Lashari, Hot and Korai tribes ; and a son-in-law, Murad, from whom are descended the Jatoi^† or children of Jato, Jalal Khan's daughter. Unfortunately, however, certain tribes cannot be brought into any of these five, and in order to provide them with ancestors two more sons, Ali and Bulo, ancestor of the Buledhi, have had to be found for Jalal Khan. From Ali's two sons, Ghazan and Umar, are descended the Ghazani, Harris and the scattered Umranis.

Tradition avers that Jalal Khan had appointed Rind to the phagh or turban of chiefship, but that Hot refused to join him in creating the asrokh or memorial canopy to their father. 'Thereupon each performed that ceremony separately and thus there were five asrokhs in Kech.' But it is far more probable that five principal gatherings of clans were formed under well-known leaders, each of which became known by some nickname or epithet, such as rind "cheat," hot, "warrior," Lashari, " men of Lashar" and, later, Buledhi, " men of Boleda." To these other clans became in the course of time affiliated.

A typical example of an affiliated clan is afforded by the Dodai, a clan of Jat race whose origin is thus described : —

Doda^†† Sumra, expelled from Thatha by his brethren, escaped by swimming his mare across the Indus, and, half frozen, reached the hut of Salhe, a Rind. To revive him Salhe placed him under the blankets with his daughter Muaho, whom he eventually married. " For the woman's sake," says the proverb, " the man became a Baloch who had been a Jatt, a Jaghdal, a nobody; he dwelt at Harrand under the hills, and fate made him chief of all." Thus Doda; founded the great Dodai tribe of the Baloch, and Gorish, his son, founded the Gorshani or Gurchdni, now the principal tribe of Dodai origin. The great Mirrani tribe, which for 200 years gave chiefs to Dera Ghazi Khan, was also of Dodai origin.

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* According to Dames there was a Shams-ud-Din, independent malik of Sistan, who claimed descent from the Saffaris of Persia and who died in 1104 A.D. ;559 H.) or nearly 500 years after the Baloch migration from Aleppo. Badr-ud-Uin appears to be unknown to history.

† It is suggested that Jatoi or 'husband of a Jat woman,' just as bahnoi means ' husband of a sister,' although in Jatoi the 't' is soft.

†† Doda, a common name among the Sumras whose dynasty ruled Sindh until it was overthrown by the Sammas. About 1250 A.D. or before that year we find Baloch adventurers first allied with the Sodhas and Jharejas, and then supporting Doda IV, Sumra, Under Umar, his successor, the Baloches are found combining with the Sammas, Sodhas and Jatts, (Jharejas), but were eventually forced back to the hills without effecting any permanent lodgment in the plains.

References

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