Sarah

Sarah (सरै) or Sarai (सराई) is Jat Gotra in Punjab, India and in Pakistan. Sarah clan is found in Afghanistan. It is also found in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh.

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Saramgha = Sarangae (Pliny.vi.18)

• Sarang = Sarangae (Pliny.vi.18)

• Sarai= Sarangae (Pliny.vi.18) (Pliny.vi.18)

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions Nations situated around the Hyrcanian Sea.... Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the Chorasmii,¹³ the Candari,¹⁴ the Attasini, the Paricani, the Sarangæ, the Marotiani, the Aorsi,¹⁵ the Gaëli, by the Greek writers called Cadusii,¹⁶ the Matiani, the city of Heraclea,¹⁷ which was founded by Alexander, but was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Achaïs; the Derbices also,¹⁸ through the middle of whose territory the river Oxus¹⁹ runs, after rising in Lake Oxus,²⁰

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13 An extensive tribe of 'Sogdiana, now represented by the district of Khawarezm, in the desert country of Khiva.

14 A tribe in the north-western part of Sogdiana. They appear to have been situate to the east of the district of Khawarezm. It has been suggested that they derived their name from the Sanscrit Gandharas, a tribe beyond the Indus.

15 The chief seat of the Aorsi, who appear to have been a numerous and powerful people both of Europe and Asia, was in the country between the Tanais, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the Caucasus. It seems doubtful, however, whether it is these people who are alluded to in the present passage.

16 These would almost seem to be a different people from those mentioned in c. 15 of the present Book, as dwelling in Atropatene. The present appears to have been a tribe of Sogdiana.

17 Strabo mentions a town of this name, which he places, together with Apamea, in the direction of Rhagæ. If Pliny has observed anything like order in his recital of nations and places, the Heraclea here mentioned cannot be that spoken of by Strabo, but must have been distant nearly 1000 miles from it.

18 This was a tribe, apparently of Scythian origin, settled in Margiana, on the left bank of the Oxus. Strabo says that they worshipped the earth, and forbore to sacrifice or slay any female; but that they put to death their fellow-creatures as soon as they had passed their seventieth year, it being the privilege of the next of kin to eat the flesh of the deceased person. The aged women, however, they used to strangle, and then consign them to the earth.

19 The modern Jihoun or Amou. It now flows into the Sea of Aral, but the ancients universally speak of it as running into the Caspian; and there are still existing distinct traces of a channel extending in a southwesterly direction from the sea of Aral to the Caspian, by which at least a portion, and probably the whole of the waters of the Oxus found their way. into the Caspian; and not improbably the Sea of Aral itself was connected with the Caspian by this channel.

20 Most probably under this name he means the Sea of Aral.

History

According to H.A. Rose Kalhora (कलहोरा) or Sarai, originally a Jat tribe, also known as Dodai Lati, which gave a dynasty to Sind and is still represented in Dera Ghazi Khan. Its ancestors were darweshes or religious mendicants who followed the tenets of the Sayyid Muliammad, the Junpuri, a noted teacher, and one of them, Harmus, espoused a daughter of the Abara Jats of Sind, receiving a grant of land as her dower.

The name Sarai or Serai is borne by the notable Kalhora family of Hajipur in the Jampur tahsil of Dera Ghazi Khan. For an account of it reference must be made to the Dera Ghazi Khan Gazetteer, pp. 91 — 94, but it should be noted that the statement therein made that the Daudpotras are descended from Jam Junjar and therefore akin to the Kalhorasis repudiated by the Abbassi or Daudpotra tribe, though it was accepted by Raverty.

Distribution in Punjab

This clan is mainly to be found in areas around Anahadgarh and Karmgarh and it claims to have founded the villages of Kalanwali in Sirsa and Kaleke near Dhanaula. A Jat last name who also claim descent from Bhattis, although there is doubt about this…since the Central Asian town of Sarai-Birke was famous even up to 1300-1400’s where the Chengis Khans entered. Found chiefly in Sialkot and Gurdaspur though also other areas such as Jullundar. Some of them say they are related to Sandhus.

According to B S Dhillon the population of Sarai clan in Jalandhar district is 3,000.

Sarai have a population of 5,574 in Amritsar.

In Firozpur district the Sarai population is 12,900.

Sarah or Sarai (सराई) population in Patiala district 19,800

Distribution in Madhya Pradesh

Villages in Indore district

Badgonda

Distribution in Pakistan

Sarai - The Sarai claim Bhatti ancestry. They are found throughout central Punjab, mainly in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sargodha, Shaikhupura and Faisalabad districts.

References

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