A glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province By H.A. Rose Vol II/J

From Jatland Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The full text of this book has been converted into Wiki format by Laxman Burdak
Go to Index of the book

A glossary of the Punjab Tribes and Castes

Tribes and Castes starting with - J

Ja...

[Page-339]

Jabar (जबर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jabli (जबली), a group of Sayyid families found near Kahror in Multan. So called from some mountain (jabl) in Arabia.

Jaboke (जबोके), (1) a Kharral clan and (2) a Muhammadan Jat clan (both agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jachak (जाचक), a beggar, an examiner, a prover,* from jach, guessing, an estimate, trial or skill. The word Jajak appears to be a corruption of Jachak.

Jad (जाड़), Jar, Zad or Zar, a group or class of Kaneta found in Kanawar and comprising many khels or septs. , But other Kanets do not form matrimonial alliances with them, because they are considered of low status.

Jadran (जद्रान ), Jandran (जन्द्रान), one of the sections of the Bala or Upper Bangash tribe of the Manqali Pathins settled in Kurram, on the borders of Khost.

Jadu (जादू ), Jadubansi (जदूबंसी), a Rajput tribe of Lunar race, who are called by Tod "the most illustrious of all the tribes of Ind." But the name has been almost overshadowed by Bhaati, the title of their dominant branch in modern times. They are returned chiefly from Delhi and the south of Patiala.

Jadun (जदून), see Gadun (गदुन). The form Jadun is clearly the later, audit is impossible to follow James†† in identifying the Jadun with the Jadu or Yadu Rajputs.

Jafir (जाफिर), a weak Pathan tribe, which holds the village of Drug in the pass of that name on the eastern slopes of the Sulaiman range. It is an offshoot of the Miana Pathans, being descended from Jafar, one of the thirteen sons of Mianai. With the Jafar are found the Rawani or Rahani sept, descended from a brother of Jafar. Jukes describes the Jafar Pathans as speaking Jatki or Western Punjabi:§ (2) a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jafirani (जाफिरानी ), a clan of the Bozdar Baloch.

Jaga (जागा), " awakener," see under Bhat, but cf. Jhanga.

Jaggel (जाग्गेल), a clan of the Khosa Baloch.

Jag (जग), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jagal (जगल ), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jaghdal (जघदाल), the Multani and Balochi term for a Jat.

Jaglan (जगलान), a tribe of Jats, found in Karnal. They are descended from Jagla, a Jat of Jaipur, whose shrine at Israna is worshipped by the whole thapa or group of 12 Jaglan villages which forms the barah of Naultha. Their ancestor is also worshipped at the village shrine called deh, which is always surrounded by kaim trees, and if a woman who has


* Panjabi Dicty., p. 463.
Jukes' Western Panjabi and Eng. Dicty., p. 103.
†† Peshawar Settlement Report, 1862, § 17.
§ Jukes' Western Panjdbi and En^, Dicty., p. iv.

[Page-340]
Jahānbar — Jain

married into a Jaglan family, passes a kaim tree, she always veils her face as if it were her older relative of her husband. In Jind the Jaglan are described as descendants of Jaga, founder of Jaglan in Hissar.

Jahanbar (जहाँबर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jahanbo (जहांबो ), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jahangiri (जहाँगीरी), a dynasty of Sultans who, according to Raverty, once ruled from Nangrahar to the Jhelum, but, by the time the Kheshi Pathans overran Swat, their sway did not extend far beyond the Indus on the east. The last Sultan of Swat and of the Gibari tribe was Awes, a son of Sultan Pakhal,* whose subjects, a Tajik race known as Dihkans or Dihgans, were expelled by the modern Swati Pathans from Swat. Sultan Awes retired northwards towards the sources of the Oxus and for several generations he and his descendants ruled therein as far as the frontier of Badakhshan after which they are suddenly lost sight of, but the rulers of Chitral, Shighnan and Wakhan may be their descendants, and like them, they claim descent from Alexander the Great. The Jahangiri also appears to survive as a sept of the Gibari.

Jahoja (जहोजा), a Purbia caste which keep milch cattle. It is Muhammadan in the United Provinces.

Jai (जय), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Shujabad tahsil, Multan district. Its eponym was a brother of Nun.

Jaikari (जैकारी) (a), a group of Rajputs, entitled to the salutation jai dia.

Jaikisheni (जैकिशेनी), see under Krishni.

Jain

Jain (जैन), a generic term for all who affect the Jain religion. It is now recognised that the Jain faith is older than Buddhism and that Buddha's doctrines were probably adaptations or developments of Jain tenets. A full account of the Jains and their tenets would be entirely beyond the scope of this article, and the following accounts of the Jains as a religious community, in part from the pea of Lala Jaswant Rai, a Jain of Hoshiarpur, are reproduced as giving, as far as possible in the words of a Jain, an account of their representatives in the Punjab.

" The Jains are so called as being the followers of the Jinas††, Arhata or Tirthankaras who were 24- in number, but they are also called Saraogis, a corrupt form of Sharawaka or 'disciple' (sewak). They are recruited from various groups of the Banias, such as the Aggarwal, Oswal, Shrimal and Khanderwal, the last three of whom are also called Bhabras — a corrupt form of Bhao-bhala (from bhao — motive and bhala — good) or 'those of good intent '. Their chief aim is to injure no living creature and to attain nirvana or peace. Among the Jains it is a strict rule that no flesh or intoxicant shall be touched.

As a religious community, the Jains are divided into two great sects, viz., the Swetambara and Digambara.

Swetambara — The Swetambaras worship idols, which are often adorned with gold and silver ornaments set with jewels, such as


* From whom Pakhli in Hazara derives its name. He was a descendant of a Sultan Bahram.
Raverty in his Trans, of the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri II, pp. 1043-4.
The word Jina is derived from the Sanskrit root ji— to conquer, hence Jain means ‘conqueror'.

[Page-341]
The Swetambara Jains

Mukta, Angia, etc. They have their eight sacred days, viz., the Pajusanas, beginning from the 12th badi to the 4th sudi (both days inclusive) in Bhadon, the 8th day being called Chhamachhri, the holiest day of the Jains. During those holy days, they spend much time in reading and listening to their scriptures, the Sutras, and much money in performing certain ceremonies in their temples and in saving the lives of living creatures. Daring these days a fast is kept ; some fasting for one day, some for 2, 3, 4 and some for all the eight days."

Mr. Fagan writes that the Swetambaras believe that a woman can attain salvation (mukti), while other Jains hold that she must first be born again as a man. In Hissar the principal caste which follows the Swetambara doctrine is the Oswal Bania.

The Swetambaras have ascetics who are thus initiated. A man who wishes to become an ascetic must first live for some time with an ascetic and become fully acquainted with the austerities which he will have to undergo. On an auspicious day the Saraogis of the neighbourhood are invited. The candidate is then first rubbed with baṭna* (barley flour, oil and turmeric), and then bathed. He is now dressed in handsome apparel, and, seated on an elephant, is carried in procession through the bazar to a Jain temple or such other place as may have been made beforehand to resemble a Jain temple. There his head is shaved, and his tutor or gura, after performing certain religious rites, gives him saffron clothes, the ugha or rajoharna (a kind of brushing stick), the munh patti, (a piece of cloth placed before the lips when speaking or reading), patras (wooden utensils) and a stick.

He accepts these things joyfully and makes the five following vows (pancha mahahratas) of the Jain monk : —

1. I take the vow not to destroy life (ahinsa).
2. I take the vow not to lie (asatya).
3. I take the vow not to take that which is not given (asteya).
4. I take the vow to abstain from sexual intercourse (brahmcharya).
5. I take the vow to renounce all interest in worldly things, especially to call nothing my own (aparigraha).

Thus he becomes a monk and is often styled a samhegi sadhu, A Sadhu has to walk barefoot ; to use no conveyance when travelling, to take no food or drink after sunset; to abstain from touching a female ; to refuse to accept uncooked vegetables, and only to eat certain of them if cooked ; to use wooden utensils ; never to prepare his own meals, but, always to beg food of his followers -and others ; always to drink boiled water; never to give an opinion on any worldly matter ; and never to possess a farthing. In short, he has to break off all connection with the world and lead the life of a strict hermit.

The chief aim of the sadhu is to liberate himself from the bondage of karma and thus obtain salvation.

In Hissar the priests of the Swetambaras are however called jati.


* As if he were a bridegroom.

[Page-342]
Dhundia Jains

The sadhu is in reality an ascetic of a different order to the jati and their practices vary in important points. Both orders admit females, widows as well as unmarried women. The main rules of the two orders are noted below : —


S.No. Sadhu Jatis
1. A sadhu must touch nothing feminine whether human or animal. If he do so inadvertently he must undergo certain rites of expiation and be re-initiated. Conversely, a sadhwi must touch nothing male. 1. The jatis have no such restrictions.
2. The sadhus have no proselytizing zeal and admit no disciple who is not desirous of entering the order. 2. The jatis are active in making converts and sometimes buy children of destitute parents making them disciples (chelas).
3. A sadhu must not touch coin, nor anything of metal or made of a combination of metals. All their ordinary utensils are of wood. 3. The jatis have no such rules.
4. The sadhus are itinerant monks, never halting at any place save to recover from fatigue, regain strength, or to preach to the people. 4. The jatis live permanently in upasana and do not regard itineration as a religious duty.
5. A sadhu must not use a razor or scissors and his hair therefore remains unshorn. The hair of the beard may however be broken, if it grow too long, but not more than twice a year. 5. The jatis have no such rule.
6. A sadhu may not wear shoes or ride. 6. The jatis may do both.
7. A sadhu may not travel by night. 7. This is permitted to a jati.
8. Sadhus and sadhwis travel together, lodge in the same house, and study together by night. 8. Among jatis the men and women have separate quarters (in the upasaras) .

The sadhus are admittedly superior in religious merit to the jatis, and if a jati meet a sadhu the former makes obeisance to the latter. A sadhu may however read the sutras with a learned jati.

In Bikaner the sadhus have three sects : — Dhundia, Samegi and Terapanthi.

Of the 84 sects or orders of the Jain priesthood or Samegi sadhus only four appear to be represented in Bahawalpur and these are the Kharatara, Tapa, Kanwala and Launka gachhas. There is an upasra or monastery of jati gurus or celibate priests of these orders at Maujgarh, and pilgrimages are also made to the upasras at Bikaner, Rani, Rajgarh, Sujangarh, Churu, Bidaspur, Sardarshahr and Rajal Desar in Bikaner State. Upasras are to be found at every locality where Oswals live in any numbers.

Dhundia. Alexander Kinloch Forbes writes in his Hindu Annals of the Province of Gujrat in Western India, that " this sect did not arise, it is said , before Sambat 1700 (A.D. 1664) They neither use temples nor worship idols, they do not believe in all the Jain Scriptures, but only in 32 scriptures and of even these in the text only. They disapprove of commentaries, etc., and condemn the learning of Sanskrit grammar.


* Feminine sadhwi, ; Jati is also the feminine form.

[Page-343]
The Digamhara Jains

They too have eight sacred days, pajusanas. The Dhundia ascetic is a disgusting object, he wears a screen of cloth, munh-patti, tied over his mouth, his body and clothes are filthy and covered with vermin. The Dhundia is also called sadhmargi or thanakhasi. He is initiated like a sambegi sadhu with some differences in certain rites. The Dhundias are divided into several sub-divisions such as Bais-tola, Jiva Panthi, Ajiva Panthi, Tera Panthi, etc.

These sub-divisions originated in this way :— The Lanka sub-division of the Swetambaras was split up into three gaddis or schools, viz., Nagari, Gujarati, and Uttaradhi (northern). Under the influence of 22 gurus the Nagari became a large sect, distinct from the Swetambara and indeed from all the other Jains. It became known as the Bais-tola and eventually Dhundia. This schism occurred in 1909 Sambat. In 1817 Sambat, however the Dhundias were in turn split up by the defection of the Terapanthi or "sect of the 13." It has had 5 gurus whose seat is Rajnagar in Bikaner.

The Bais-tola reverences the 32 Sutras of Mahavir which form the Jain scriptures, but the Terapanthis have a scripture of their own consisting of 52 slokas, They refuse to protect an animal from the attacks of another, but the Bais-tola rise to even that height of regard for life. The Terapanthis are on the whole more advanced, if more heterodox, than the Bais-tola.

Diqambaras. — The Digambaras worship naked idols and their monks are also naked. They also keep fasts and have eight sacred days, called athai, which occur every fourth month — in Asarha, Kartika and Phalgun of each year. They have besides ten sacred days (called the Das Lakshni), from Bhadon sudi 5th to 14th. Many of their tenets agree with those of the Swetambaras. They are divided into two divisions, Bis- Panthi and Tera-Panthi.

The Bispanthi reverence the 24 arhats, the Guru and the Shastras, while the Terapanthi deny that there is any guru save the Shastras themselves. "They clothe their idols, worship seated, burn lamps before them, but present no flowers or fresh fruit to them, holding it to be a sin to take away oven vegetable life, though they will eat vegetables if any one will give them ready cut and prepared for cooking, while the Bispanthi worship standing before naked idols, and refuse to burn lamps before them."

According to Professor Wilson they both deny the supremacy of a guru and dispense with the ministrations of Brahmans, and according to the same authority the Bispanthis are the orthodox Digambaras, while the Terapanthis are dissenters. The Bispanthis are the more orthodox, and they are divided into four sub-sects — Nandi, Sen, Singh, and Bir — called after the names of their Rishis. The Terapanthi appear to be far the more numerous of the two.

The Jains in Hissar are thus described by Mr. P. J. Fagan : - "The Jains appear to revere the gods of the Hindu pantheon, but reject the divine origin of the Vedas. Their supreme deity is Nirankar, corresponding apparently with the Hindu Narain, but their

[Page-344]
The Jain sects

immediate objects of reverence and worship are the 24 arhats or saints who have obtained final union [mukti] with Nirankar. They do not appear to reverence or feed the Brahmans, but they have sadhus or priests of their own, and their pun on meritorious conduct consists to a large extent in worshipping Nirankar and in feeding the sadhus. They do not wear the janeo or sacred thread, they have a certain amount of reverence for the cow ; bathing is not considered any part of their worship, nor do they appear to reverence the Ling, the symbol of Siva. Their scriptures consist of the 32 Sutras written by Mahavir, the last arhat. The leading principle of conduct inculcated by their religion is abstention not alone from taking human life but from causing harm to any kind of living creature (jiv) ."

Mr. Fagan describes the Jains as " divided into two main sections Mandirpanthi (or Pujari) and Dhundia-panthi, the former being successors and representatives of the original Jains while the latter are a schismatic offshoot. The Mandirpanthis are again sub-divided into ‘Swetarabaras and Digambara’ the ancient sects, of which the former are the ' white-clothed ' and the latter the ‘sky-clad ' or naked, though they also wear tawny clothes. " The Swetambaras” to quote from the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, are somewhat less strict in their observances than the Digambaras : their ascetics will feed after sunset, are said to use wine, and will eat out of a dish and from the hands of any Hindu : whereas a Digarabara devotee must have his food placed in his hand by another of the faith. Various stories are current as to the origin of the two sects. One account relates how in the time of Chandra Gupta a famine fell upon the country of Ujjain, and how a part of the Jains there consented to accept clothes, without which they were not allowed to enter into the city to beg for alms, while the other section emigrated southwards rather than abandon the nakedness which had till then been the common rule of the faith. But the older and better account is that of the 23rd and 24th arhats, Parasnath and Mahavir, who were probably real persons and the actual founders of the Jain religion : the former wore clothes, while the latter did not, and the disciples of each adopted the example of their leaders."

'The least punctilious of the Jains are sometimes known by their name of Margi: they follow the path (marg) of the Jains in some particulars, such as in their scrupulous regard for animal life, but in other respects revere Brahmans and follow the greater number of Hindu prevalent practices. The word Margi, however, is also used as an euphemism for Bam-margi — those who follow the left-hand path.

The History of the Jain Sects.

The Jains, as a body, have a remarkably complete historical and religious literature which has been, or is being, thoroughly studied by German scholars. Unfortunately the results are hardly yet available in a form intelligible to any but specialists. Further, the Digambara tenets, which are of great interest, are also contained in an extensive literature, but as their pandits preserve the old-world hostility to printing, little has as yet been published regarding them.

[Page-345]
The Jain pontiffs

To make clear what follows it should be noted that the 42 semi-divine Jinas, whose series ends with Mahavira, Mahabir, ('the great hero'), were succeeded by a line of human teachers, called suris ,a term we may translate by 'pontiff.' Of those the first was, according to one sect (that of the Kharatara gachha), Mahavira himself, and his first disciple was Gotama (Buddha), who did not however succeed him, Sudharman becoming the second pontiff. The other sect, the Tapa gachha, regards Sudharman as the first pontiff. Both these sects trace, though with some differences, the pontifical succession down to Uddhyotana, who founded the 84 gachhas* of the Jain ( ? caste) which still exist, and was 38th in succession from Mahavira.

After the time of Uddhyotana there are two distinct lines of pontiffs. One, reverenced by the Kharatara gachha, is a succession of pontiffs who all (with the exception of Abhayadeva who was a leper) bear the title of Jina. The other, accepted by the Tapa gachhas, boars various titles, and was founded by Jagach Chandra, 44th in succession, according to the Tapa gachha records, from Sudharman. These two historical gachhas or sects of the Jains have apparently been lost sight of in the maze of sects and orders into which the community has become divided in more recent times.

The origin of the Digambara and Swetambara sects is very obscure. According to one account the former sect was founded by Nataputta Nirgrantha (or Nigantha), who has been identified with Mahabir himself. Indeed it has been held that Mahabir only reformed an ancient order of naked ascetics. According to the Kharatara records the Digambaras arose in the time of the 18th pontiff, Chandra, whereas the Tapa gachha account is that the name of the Nirgrantha sect was changed to Kotika gachha as early as the time of the 9th pontiff. It thus seems likely that the Digambaras represent an older phase of belief than even Jainism itself, but, however this may be, it is certain that in the time of Bhadrabahu, the 27th in succession from Gotama, the Digambaras and Swetambaras had finally separated. The Digambaras forthwith split up into various sects or rather orders under the following pontiffs†† : —

Digambara Pontififs ....Date of accession

Bhadrabahu II ...Sambat 4
Guptigupta... Sambat 26
Maghanandin.... Sambat 36
Jinachandra... Sambat 40
Kundakunda... Sambat 49
The Digambara orders.

The successor of Guptigupta founded the great order of the Nandi Sangha, sakha, or school, which from its importance appears to have overshadowed the three minor orders founded by his other disciples


* These include the Khandewal, Agarwal, Srimal, Vanswal or Oswal 'gots' or gachhas according to Wilson; Religious Sects of the Hindus, p. 345.
Probably as re-incarnations of the Jinas or arhats. The Tapa gachhas by denying to their pontiffs that title may signify their rejection of the doctrine that they re-incarnaton the arhats.
†† Ind. Ant. XX (1891), p. 341 and XX, p. 570.

[Page-346]
Later Jain sects

and which is, it would seem, often regarded as coxtensive with the whole Digambara sect. These four orders were thus designated (as pictured):

Four orders of Digambara sect

The Digambaras insist strongly on the essential unity in matters of doctrine and observance between all four orders, whose members alone can consecrate images. Collectively these four orders appear to be known as the Saraswati gachha, though perhaps that term is in strictness only a synonym of the Nandi Sangha. So too they appear to be called Kundakundanwaya, or ' the line of Kundakunda,' their fifth pontiff. In some obscure way the three minor orders would seem to be subordinate to the chief order, the Nandi Sangha, as they all four owe allegiance, it appears, to the same pontiffs.

Later sects.

Subsequent to the rise of these four orders or sakhas, there arose four other sanghas, viz., the Mula, Kashtha, Mathura and Goppa Sangha. But Mula Sangha means literally 'the Original Communion’ and the term is also used of the whole Jain community and of the Digambaras before they split up into sects.

Still later there arose various panthis, such as the Visa-panthi, Tera-panthi, Gumana, and Pota-Panthis, i.e. those who worship a book pustaka) in lieu of an image. And again it is said that, in Sambat 1709, Lavaji of the Lumpaka sect,§ together with one Dharmadasa, a cotton-printer, founded the mouth-covering Dhundakas. These divided into 22 sections (presumably the Bais-tola), one of which was called Dhanaji. Dhana's disciple was Budhara, and the latter’s disciple Raghunathji, whose disciple Bhishma founded the Terapanthis or Mukhabandhas (mouth-coverers). Whether these sects are confined to the Digambaras or not it is impossible to say.

But even these do not exhaust the list of sects. The Kharatara gachha records enumerate ten gachhabhedas, the last of which was founded as late as Sambat 1700, but whether these still exist or not is not known. Indeed we do not know if they are sects or orders, or


* Parijata is the name of the celestial tree, and also of the coral tree (erythina indica ).
The 'powerful' order.
†† Strictly speaking then these titles are confined to the Nandi order.
§Indian Antiquary, 1892, p. 72.

[Page-347]
Jain tenets

merely theological schools. The Tapa gachhas also have various divisions, such as tho Vrihad- or Vada- (Vata-) gachha, so called because Uddyotana consecrated Sarvedevasari, or according to some, 8 suris, under a large fig-tree (vata).

The Jain tenets.

The Jain Jinas, Tirthankaras or Arhantas wore 24 in number, each having his separate chinha or cognizance and being distinguished by the colour of his complexion. Images of one or more Arhantas figure in every Jain temple. Thus Risahha-Natha or Adinatha has as his cognizance the elephant, Sambhava has the horse, Sumati the curlew, and Other Arhantas the lotus, the swastika (doubtless a sun-symbol), the moon, a crocodile, the srivatsa (like a four-leaved shamrock in shape), a rhinoceros, a buffalo, a tortoise, or a boar. Parasva-Natha's cognizance was the hooded snake, (shesha-phani), and that of Mahavira, the last of the Jinas, a lion. These two latter, with Risabha-Natha, are the most widely worshipped, and next to them come Santi (the antelope), and Nemi (the blue water-hly). To what primeval cults these jinas may point one can hardly conjecture.

It is easy to point to the resemblances between Buddhism and Jainism. Apart from mere religious phraseology, which tends to be the same in every religion, Buddha was often called Jina, ' the victorious': his death was the nirvana: both Buddhists and Jains also employ the swastika or satya as a sacred symbol : the Buddhists also have or had a Digambara or order of naked ascetics. Further the Jains indicate South Bihar as the scene of the life and labours of nearly all their Tirthankaras, as it was of Buddha's, and Mahavira is said to have died at Pawa, to which place also Buddha's death is assigned. The colossal statues of the Jains also resemble those of the Buddhists.*

The Jain ritual is exceedingly complicated, but it has few features of interest. Their places of pilgrimage are five m number, viz., Satrunjaya, Parasnath, in Bihar, Mount Abu, Girnar, and Chandragiri in the Himalayas. The oldest Jain remains are probably at Girnar, a hill also sacred to Buddhists and Hindus. Their holy seasons appear to be peculiar to themselves, but the observance of the rainy season as a sacred period of the year is also characteristic of Buddhism.t

It is not at all easy to say in what points the Jain doctrines diverge from those of the Hindus, but apparently the chief differences are that the Jains repudiate the Vedas, and disavow the authority of the Brahmans. In other words, they represent an element of Hinduism which never submitted to, or at an early period revolted from, the quasi-social supremacy of the Brahman caste, and in this they have much in common with the Buddhists and Sikhs. They also resemble the latter in having a line of spiritual teachers whom they reverence to the more or less complete exclusion of the Brahmans.


* Indian Antiquary, 1873, pp. 14, 134, 354, Ib. 1884, p. 191.
Indian Antiquary, XJ, 1882, p. 247, and IX, I880, p. 100.

[Page-348]
The Jains as a caste

The Jain sutras. The Jains hold that their religious books or sutras were 84 in number. About 1,500 years ago the whole of India was visited by a famine which lasted for full 12 years, and during that period 30 sutras were lost, only 45 being preserved.

No Jain in Bahawalpur will reveal the name of a sutra because, he says, he cannot accurately pronounce it, and mispronunciation of its name would bring upon him the wrath of the gods. This, however, is an excuse, and the truth is that an orthodox Jain is reluctant to tell an outsider the names of his sacred books. The sutras are believed to be written in Magdhi Bhaka (or Bhasha), the language presumably of the Magadha empire. The Jains believe that Magdhi was spoken by the god Indra.

It is also a tenet of the Jain faith that 8,400,000 (84 lakhs) jiws or invisible and visible germs exist in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms and in surg, narq, etc., according to the details given below : —

Details of (84 lakhs) jiws

Perhaps the above tenets anticipate the modern science of bacteriology.

The Jain caste

How far the Jains constitute a true caste it is not possible to say, for the community appears to be organized on two distinct but concurrent principles, one based on natural descent and so on caste, the other sectarian, i.e., on the beliefs of the different sub-sects within the sect. Hence arise cross-divisions which have yet to be elucidated. For example, the Nandi Sangha*or order is also called the Nandi Amnaya, but amnaya means simply kula or family, so that Nandi Amnaya means the ' generations of Nandi.' Gachha (with which gana is said to be synonymous) is used indifferently for the religious sects or orders, and for the natural groups within the caste, there being 84 gachhas or gots, i. e. families or races, of the Jains. Whether these are in any way connected with the spiritual gachhas or not cannot be definitely stated.


  • This was a matam or mat, (monastery), founded by the Lekhaka Lunka, in Sambat 1508, and from this mat the Veshadharas took their rise.

[Page-349]
Jairami — Jakhar

It is curious, if Mr. Fagan's classification be correct, that the Swetambara and Dhundia sects intermarry, at least in Bahawalpur (where apparently the Digambara do not intermarry with the other two sects). The Jain teachings strongly reprobates polygamy and in consequence monogamy is practised by the Bhabras generally, e. g., in Sialkot, while in Ferozepur they disallow polygamy under pain of exclusion from the caste. On the other hand, Jainism has little effect on social observances for at weddings in the latter District the Jain Bania (Aggarwal) bride-groom mounts a she-donkey, after putting a red cloth on her and feeding her with gram. He then mounts a mare, according to the usual Hindu custom. The donkey-ride is a form of Sitla worship.

Ja...

Jairami (जैरामी), 'followers of one Jairam,' a sect whose founder was also known as Baba Kurewala or Bhangewala, which would point to a low origin.

Jaisak (जेसक), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Jaiswara (जैसवारा), a Purbia caste. In the United Provinces a Jaiswara, section is found in many castes, such as the Chamar, Dhanak, Kalal, Kurmi, Teli, Bania and Rajput. The name is supposed to be derived from the town of Jais in Oudh. The Jaiswara of the Punjab cantonments is probably a Chamar, and many of them are grooms or grass-cutters, though a few take service as bearers.

Jaj (जज), (1) a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery : (2) a Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jajah (जजाह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jajak (जाजक), the term for a Hindu nai in the Rawalpindi Division, and the Derajat, according to Sir Denzil Ibbetson. But in Multani the word is said to mean ' priest' and to be the same as Jachak, and in Dera Ghazi Khan the Jajik is a sewer of shrouds. The Jajik is certainly distinct from the Jhanga.

Jaji (जाजी ), a tribe now ranking as Pathan, and claiming descent from Khugiani, son of Kakai, but perhaps of Awan stock. The Durrani Afghans, however, admit that the Khugiani are akin to them. The Jaji lie west of the Turis on the western border of Kurram, holding the Iriab valley west of the Paiwar pass. One of their sections, the Uji Khel, holds Maidan, a large village in the valley of that name, and another section is the Shumu Khel. The Jajis are now at bitter feud with the Turis.

Jajjah (जज्जाह) (and) Jathol (जथोल ), a tribe of Jats, found in Sialkot. They claim Solar Rajput origin and say that their ancestor, Jam, migrated from Multan. His two sons Jaj and Jathol founded villages in the Pasrur tahsil of Sialkot. Their mirasis are Posla, their Brahmans Badhar and their nais Khokhar by got. According to the Customary Law of Sialkot the Jajjah is distinct from the Jathaul.

Jajohan (जजोहन), a Jat or Rajput clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jakhar (जाखड़). — A tribe of Deswali Jats, claiming Rajput (Chauhan or Udhi) descent. Jaku, their eponym, migrated from Bikaner to Jhajjar in Rohtak. A Raja of Dwarka had a bow which Jaku failed to bend, in spite of

[Page-350]
Jakhar — Jalap

the promised reward. In shame he left his native land and settled in Bikaner. The legend clearly points to the loss of military status by the Jakhars. Of the same stock are the Sangwan, Piru, and Kadian Jats. The Jakhar are almost confined to Gurgaon and the adjoining Jhajjar tahsil of Rohtak. They also own a large village in Hansi.

Jakhar (जाखर), a Muhammadan Jat or Rajput clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery, where they appear also as a clan of the Bhatti Rajputs.

Jakho (जखो), a Dogar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jalabke (जालबके), a sept of Kharrals, which like the Piroke is of supposed Chuhra descent. Both are hence called Chuhrere. The legend goes that Sandal the famous Chuhra dacoit who gave his name to the Sandal Bar, demanded a Kharral bride as his fee for allowing them to graze in that tract. But the Kharrals blew up Sandal and his followers and took the Chuhril women as their booty.

Jalair (जलाईर), ' a well-known Mughal tribe’ according to Raverty. Not apparently represented among the modern Mughals in the Punjab.

Jalalani (जलालानी), a clan of the Bozdar Baloch.

Jalali (जलाली), one of the regular Muhammadan orders, founded by Sayyid Jalal-ud-din, a pupil of Bahawal Haqq, the Sohrwardi saint of Multan, and a native of Bukhara whose shrine is at Uch in Bahawalpur. This teacher was himself a strict follower of the Law, but his followers, who call themselves Jalalis, are in many ways backsliders. They pay little attention to prayer. A candidate for admission to the order shaves completely his head, face, and body, burns his clothes and is branded on his right shoulder.

Jalap (जालप), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur and in Jhelum. In the latter District they were classed by Thomson with the Lallas and Phaphras as a "semi-Jat tribe," while Brandreth referred to them as being, like the Khokhars, a "quasi-Rajput tribe," who helped to oust the Janjuas from the Pind Dadan Khan plain. They are the predominant tribe in the " Jalap ilaqa," the rich well tract between the river and the hills east of Pind Dadan Khan, and in position and influence are one of the principal tribes of that tahsil, though their numbers at e small and they actually own little more than 25 square miles of land : this is their only seat in Jhelum, and they are not known to hold land in any other district, except to some small extent on the opposite side of the river.

They say that they were originally Khokhar Rajputs, who took the name of their eponym, Jalap, who became a famous Pir, and was buried at Ramdiani in the Shahpur district, where they then dwelt, and where they still go to do reverence at his tomb : they moved to their present location in the time of Sidharan, who was several generations in descent from Jalap, Another account states that in the time of the emperor Shah Jahan they were established on the banks of the Chenab, when one of their chiefs was asked by Shah Jahan to give him a daughter in marriage, as other Rajputs had done : the Jalap agreed, but the brotherhood disapproved of his action, and when he came home to fetch his daughter, set upon him and killed him. Shah Jahan sent an army to punish them, and being driven from their homes they crossed the

[Page-351]
Jalapke — Jammun

Jhelum, and after many fights with the Janjuas established themselves where they are now found. A third version, given by the detractors of the tribe, is that in the time of the Janjua Rajas of Nandana, a fisherman was casting his net in the river, which was then close under the hills, and drew out a box containing; a small boy : the child was taken to the Raja, who called him Jalap, because he was found in a net (jal), and made over to him as his inheritance the lands along the river: according to this account the Jalaps are really Machhis.

These fables throw little light on their real origin. Their neighbours do not admit their claim to be considered Rajputs ; and in social standing they stand much below the tribes locally supposed to be of Rajput descent, though on the other hand they rank considerably above the Jats. There is no striking difference between them and the surrounding- tribes either in physique, appearance or manners : as agriculturists they are fair : of martial spirit they have shown but little in recent times, and very few of them are in the army, which may be as they say, because they mostly have large holdings, and can well afford to live at home ; and it is certain that without fighting qualities they could not have established and maintained themselves in the most valuable tract in the District, against the Janjuas and others: there is no bar to their enlistment and there are some signs that they may in future betake themselves to military service more freely than in the past. Their customs are those of the tract generally, but they maintain relations with Brahmans as parohits : and various common Hindu customs are observed by them at marriages. Their marriages are mostly inter se ; but they take girls from the Khiwa, Kallas and Bharat, to whom they do not however give their daughters: in marriages with the Janjuas and Khokhars on the contrary they give daughters but do not receive them. Widow remarriage is very rare amongst them.

Jalapke (जलपके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery ; doubtless the same as the Jalabke.

Jali (जाली), a tribe of Jats, found in Jind. Kalu, their Jathera, has a math at Lahawara in Patiala. They offer him 1-1/4 man of sweet cakes (puṛas) at weddings, and these are taken by a Brahman.

Jallad (जल्लाद), fr. the Arabi, jild, 'skin'; a flogger or executioner. It was applied to the Kanjars in Ambala who were employed as executioners at the Delhi court, and in the south-west Punjab is a common term for a sweeper (see Chuhra). Cf. the derivation of Kurtana; 'whipper.'

Jaloke (जलोके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jalozai (जलोजई), a tribe of doubtful origin, affiliated to the Turi branch of the Khattak Pathans.

Jalwani (जलवानी), a small Pathan tribe lying, with the Haripal, to the south of the Shirani.

Jam (जाम), a Sindhi title, meaning chief or headman. When borne by the head men of a Punjab tribe it usually points to a Sindhi origin, i. e., to its migration from Sindh or the valley of the Indus. In former times Sindh denoted that river valley as far north as the modern Mianwali.

Jammun (जम्मुन), (1) a Rajput and (2) a Muhammadan Kamboh clan (both agricultural) found in Montgomery. Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

[Page-352]
Jamogi — Jamwal

Jamogi (जमोगी), an al of the Kanets which derives its name from Jamog, a village in Dhami, and is one of the chief tribes in that State. (See Bathmanu.)

Jamra (जामरा), a Jat tribe, of notably fine physique, found in Dera Ghazi Khan district. Probably aboriginal or immigrants from the eastward.

Jamun (जामुन), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jamwal (जमवाल), a Hindu Rajput clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery : and also in Sialkot where two accounts of their origin are current.

According to their mirasis they are of Solar Race descent, and their ancestor Agnigar migrated from Ajudhia to the Rechna Doab. His son Jammu defeated one Raja Chanda Rihas and founded the town of Jammu, whence their name, Jamwal. One of the chiefs, however, by name Milhan Minhas, took to agriculture and founded the Manhas tribe.

The pedigree of Deo dynasty of Sialkot

The other account is that Bhara Datt, migrating from Ajudhia to Kashmir, returned and settled at the place where Mankot now stands. His descendant Jammu founded an independent state of that name, and fourth in descent from him reigned Jograj circa 474 Sambat. From him descended the Deo dynasty of Sialkot, whose pedigree is thus given : —

Raja Ram Deo, 11th in descent from Jograj. → Sajji Deo. → Narsingh Deo. → Jodh Deo. → Jhagar Deo. → The Minhas.

In Hoshiarpur the Rajputs rank as a sept of the 1st grade.

[Page-353]
Jan — Janjua

Jan (जन), a wild and lawless tribe dwelling in the southern part of the Bari Doab, and famous marauders: Panjabi Dicty. P. 475. Probably the same as tho Jun.

Jandani ( जन्दानी), a clan of the Khosa Baloch.

Jandapur ( जन्दापुर), see Gandapur.

Jandi (जांदी), a Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jandrake (जन्द्रके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jandra (जान्द्रा), 'cotton-clad,' a term applied to the Hindus of the plain as opposed to those of the hills, e. g., the Gaddis, who wear wool. (Kangra).

Jandran (जन्द्रण), (1) an Arain, (2) a Muhammadan Jat clan (both agricultural) found in Montgomery, and (3) an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Janer (जनेड़), a tribe of Jats, found in Kapurthala, whither it migrated from the east, beyond the Jumna.

Jangal (जंगल), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jangali (जंगाली), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jangla (जांगला), a Jat clan (agricultural) settled in Multan from Jhang in Mughal times.

Jangli (जांगली), a generic name for the nomads of the Sandal Bar. The term is of recent origin : see Hithari.

Jani (जानी), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Janikhel (जनिखेल), see under Utmanzai.

Janil (जाणील), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Janjua

Janjua (जंजुआ ), a Rajput tribe found, though not in large numbers, through out the eastern Salt Range, their head-quarters, in the south-west Punjab including Bahawalpur,* in Hoshiarpur and Amritsar. The Janjua once held almost the whole of the Salt Range tract, but were gradually dispossessed by the Gakkhars in the north and by the Awans in the west, and they now hold only the central and eastern parts of the Range as tribal territory, which is exactly what they held at the time of Babar's invasion. They still occupy a social position in this tract which is second only to that of the Gakkhars, and are always addressed as Raja. Various origins have been ascribed to the Janjua.

According to Babar the hill of Jud was held by two tribes of common descent, the Jud and Janjuhah. The Janjuhah were old enemies of the Gakkhars. Babar records that a headman among them receives the title of Rai (the same purely Hindu title was used by the Khokhars and Gakkhars), while the younger brothers and sons of a Rai were styled Malik.

According to a modern account Raja Mal, Rathor, had six sons : Wirial and Jodha, whose descendants intermarry, their settlements being contiguous ; while those of the other four, Khakha, Tarnoli, Dabochar and Kala, do not. Disputes between the brothers led to their dispersion and disintegration, so that the septs regard themselves as distinct tribes. Moreover many adopted various handicrafts, so that


* Where they are said to be a clan of the Gakkhars.
E. H. I. IV, pp. 232, 231-5. Nearly all traces of the Jud, as a tribe, have disappeared, but see under Jodh.

[Page-354]
The Janjua pedigrees

Janjua gots are now found among the Telis, Lohars, Tarkhana and even Musallis : and the Ghumnian, Ganjial, Bhakrial, Nathial, Banth, Basoya and other Jats are of Janjua descent.

The four younger septs are each endogamous, and it is considered discreditable to marry outside the sept. Widow remarriage is strictly prohibited. Their observances are the same as those of the Chibhs, The following pedigree (pictured) comes from the mirasi of the tribe :—

The Janjua Pedigree


Another pedigree* makes them descendants of Jaipal who opposed Mahmud of Ghazni at Nandana 900 years ago. Babar certainly describes them as rulers, from old times, of the Salt Range hills and of the tract between Nilab and Bhera. He also describes Malik Hast, Janjua, as hakim of the ils and uluses in the neighbourhood of the Sohan. As rulers the Jud and Janjuha ruled according to fixed customs, not arbitrarily, realizing a shah-rukhi (2-1/2 rupees) yearly on every head of cattle and seven shah-rukhis on a marriage.


* Jhelum Gazetteer. 1904, p. 93.
Shah Rukh was a son of Timur and succeeded to his father's empire in 1404-05, A. D. The fact that his coins were in use among the Janjua points either to their having been tributary to him or to the inclusion of the Salt Range in his dominions. The latter conclusion is the more probable.

[Page-355]
The Janjuas

Mr. Thomson's account of the tribe in Jhelum, which follows, is not contradicted on any material point by the present day Janjuas : —

" At some uncertain period, then, some clans of Rahtor Rajputs, emigrating from Jodhpur, occupied the uplands of the Salt Range. The leader of this movement according to the common account, was Raja Mal ; but this chieftain is a little mythical, and any large action of doubtful origin is apt to be fathered upon him. The Rajputs first seated themselves at Malot in the west Salt Range. This place, although picturesque, is so inaccessible and unfruitful, that it must have been chosen for safety more than convenience. From here the Rajputs extended their supremacy over the uplands of Jhangar and Kahun and the plain country near Girjakh and Darapur. In these regions they were rather settlers than conquerors. They not only ruled, but to a great extent occupied also. It seems very doubtful whether their real territories ever extended much further, but their traditions certainly point to a former lordship over the western upland of Vanhar, and over much of the present tahsils of Tallagang and Chakwal. If Babar's account be read with attention, it will be seen that he represents the Janjuas as confined to the hills, and ruling over various subject tribes who cultivated the plains. This account serves to explain the utter extirpation that has befallen the Janjuas in the Vunhar and elsewhere. If we conceive them as holding detached forts in the midst of a foreign population which gradually grew hostile, then this extirpation can easily be understood. This also serves, to explain how one or two villages of peasant Janjuas have escaped, while all the Chiefs and Rajas round about have perished. The vague accounts of the people seem to point to some such history as this, and not to any great racial or tribal war.

The Janjuas were long the predominant race in the centre and west of the District. Raja Mal is said to have reigned in the days of Mahmud of Ghazni, and his authority was probably more or less recognised from Rawalpindi to the Jhelum. When Mahmud invaded India the Janjuas opposed him, were defeated, and fled to the jungles. Mahmud followed them up, and succeeded in capturing Raja Mal himself. The Raja was released on condition that he and his tribe should embrace Islam. When this conversion took place, the janju, or caste-thread was broken, and the neophytes have been called Janjuas ever since.*

Raja Mal is said to have left five sons. Three of these settled in Rawalpindi or Hazara. Two, Wir and Jodh, remained in Jhelum. They speedily divided their possessions. Wir took the west, and Jodh the eastern share. Choya Saidan Shah was the boundary between them. Wir's descendants are now represented by the Janjuas of Malot and the Kahun ilaqa. Their chief seat is at Dilwal. Jodh's descendants have split into many branches. A general supremacy was long exercised by the Sultans of Makhiala in Jhangar. But the chiefs of Kusak and Baghanwala soon became practically independent, as did also those of Dilur, Karangli, and Girjakh, whose descendants are now either extinct or much decayed. The plain ilaqa of Darapur and Chakri seems to have broken oil from the main stock even earlier than the others. This passion for separatism is fatal to any large authority. The feuds to which it gave rise, joined with an endless Gakkhar war, and the establishment of new and strenuous races beyond the mountains brought the Janjua dominion to destruction. The Dhani country, called Maluki Dhan after the great Raja, and the forts in Tallagang and the Vunhar seem to have been all lost not long after the time of Babar. But in the centre and east Salt Range and round Darapur the Janjua supremacy remained undisputed until the advent of the Sikhs. And the rich Salt mines at Khewra and Makrach must have always made this territory important. The Sikhs conquered the whole country piecemeal. Ranjit Singh himself besieged and captured Makhiala and Kusak, Most of the influential chiefs received jagirs but were ousted from their old properties.

The Janjuas are physically a well-looking race. Their hands and feet in particular are often much smaller and more finely shaped than those of their neighbours. They largely engage in military service, where they prefer the cavalry to the infantry. They are poor farmers, and bad men of business. They are careless of details, and apt to be passionate when opposed. Too often they fix their hopes on impossible objects. As landlords they are not exacting with submissive tenants. They are willing to sacrifice something to retain even the poor parodies of feudal respect which time has not destroyed. Their manners are


* The Janjuas themselves now reject this story, which is not in itself very plausible : they say the name of the tribe is derived from that of one of their forefathers. Janjuha, who in most of the genealogies comes eight or nine generations before Raja Mal. It is moreover

improbable that the general conversion of the Janjuas took place 900 years ago ; it is likely enough that Mahmud made converts, and that these reverted as soon as his back was turned: but the Junjua village pedigree tables nearly all agree in introducing Muhammadan names only about 15 generations back, which would point to their general conversion about the middle of the 15th century. Cracroft however noted that the Janjuas in Rawalpindi still continued to feast Brahmans, etc., at weddings.

[Page-356]
Janjuhan-Jaria

often good. They have a large share of vanity which is generally rather amusing than offensive. They are at the same time self-respecting, and not without a certain kind of pride, and are eminently a people with whom slight interludes of emotional government are likely to be useful."

In Hoshiarpur the Janjuas are fairly numerous to the north-east of Dasuya.* The Bihals of Badla are said to be an al or sub-division of the Janjua which takes its name from the village of Beata in tappa Kamahi. Bah means a settlement, and the Janjua villages seem often to begin with Bah. The Janjuas in this District say they migrated from Hastinapura to Garh Makhrala in Rawalpindi or Jhelum, and thence, to escape Muhammadan oppression to Badla under Raja Sahj Pal, 8th in descent from Raja Jodh. His son Pahar Singh held 132 villages round Badla. They claim to be Ranas of the Dogars, and the head of the family is installed t with the common ceremony of the tika under a banian tree at Barnar or Bah Ata, though Badla (Bar- or Boharwala) also claims the honour, amidst the assembled Dogars of Mehr Bhatoh, a village near Badla, who present a horse and shawl, while the Bihals pay a nazar of Re. 1 or Rs. 2 each. They are said to only give daughters to Dadwals, who are 1st grade Rajputs, and to take them from Barangwals, Laddus, and Ghorewahas, who are in the 3rd grade.

The Badlial is another Janjua sept, deriving its name from Badla, the ancient Rajput tika. Badla is now in ruins and its rand's family is extinct, but the sept has made one of its members their rand and presents nazarana, etc., to him as usual. Still, as he has not been installed or made a tilakdhari, his ranaship does not count for much.

Janjuhan (जन्जुहां), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Janjunha (जन्जुन्हा), an Arain clan (agricultural) found, in Montgomery.

Janoha (जनोहा) (doubtless Janjua).— A Rajput sept, an offshoot of the Bhattis whose ancestor Johad (? Judh) came to Garh Makhila in Akbar’s reign and founded Nurpur Janoha in Kapurthala.

Jansan (जनसन), a Muhammadan Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Janwas (जनवास), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jar (जाड़), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jara (जारा), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Jarah (जराह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jaria (जरिया), a sept of Jats found in Jind. In that state fire gots of Jats derive their names from as many parts of the beri tree, viz. :

(i) Rangi, from the rang, or bark of the beri tree used for dyeing,
(ii) Jaria, from jar, the root,
(iii) Beria, from ber, the fruit,
(iv) Jhari, or seedlings, and
(v) Khichar, or bud.

These five gots may however intermarry and are, collectively, called Jaria, which is also said to be derived from jora and to mean ' twin.'


* The Pahri of Kuhi is a branch of the Janjuas which has taken to karewa and so lost status, so that Janjuas and clans of equal or higher grade do not intermarry with them.
The formalities at the accession of a new Sultan of Makhiala are somewhat similar; 7, 9, 11 or 13 days after his predecessor's death the principal men of the tract are feasted ; in the afternoon they assemble at a rock behind the Sultan's house and the family Brahman puts the tika on his forehead. The Sultan then appoints wazir and four diwans.

[Page-357]
Jarial — Jat

Jarial (जरियाल), a clan of Hindu Rajputs found in Hoshiarpur in greatest numbers in the north-east of Dasuya tahsil. Also a clan of agricultural Brahmans in the Rajgiri taluka of Hamirpur tahsil in Kangra. They rank in the 2nd grade in both castes.

Jarola (जरोला), (1] an agricultural clan found in Shahpur, (2) a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jarrah (जर्राह), a surgeon and dentist who is almost always a nai.

Jarsodh (जरसोध), Balochi : a washer man, fr.jar clothes, shodhagh to wash.

Jarwar (जरवार), a clan of the Khosa Baloch.

Jasgam (जसगम), a clan of Muhammadan Rajputs, found in the Muree hills. Like the Dhunds and Khatrils they claim descent from Manaf, an ancestor of the Prophet, and got possession of the tract they now occupy under Gakkhar rule, when one Zuhair, a descendant of the Prophet, came from Arabia and settled near Kahuta.

Jasial (जसियाल), a clan of Hindu Rajputs, of Salamia status, found in Hoshiarpur.

Jaspal (जसपाल), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Jasra (जसरा), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Jasrotia (जसरोटिया), a Rajput clan, an offshoot of the Jamwal. It derives its name from Jasrota and is of Jaikaria status.

Jaswara (जसवारा), see Jaiswara.

Jastar (जसटार), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jaswal (जसवाल), an offshoot of the Katoch, the great Rajput clan which gave rulers to the kingdom of Trigarta. It derives its name from (or possibly gives its name to) the Jaswan Dun of Hoshiarpur, and at its original seat, Bhir Jaswan, are remains of buildings, wells and fountains which attest its former power. It still ranks high, being of Jaikaria status. In 1596 the Jasuwalas were described as ' Zamindars with an army ' and gave some trouble to the imperial authorities.*

Jat

Jat (जाट), fem. Jatni (जाटनी), dim. Jateta (जटेटा ), fem, -i, the child of a Jat. The form Jat is used in the South-East Punjab. In the Central Punjab Jatt fem. Jatti, is usual. Another dim. Jatungara (जटुंगड़ा), a Jatt's child, is used contemptuously. In the south-west of the Province the Multani and Balochi term for a Jat is Jagdal (जगदाल), and Jat (जत) (with the soft t) is used to denote a camel-driver, as in Upper Sindh, where jat now means a rearer of camels or a shepherd, in opposition to a husbandman.

The Jats in History.

Fragmentary notices of the Jats occur in the Muhammadan historians of India, as will be seen from the fallowing excerpts from Elliot's History of India.

Ibn Khurdadba, writing ante 912 A. D., gives the distance from the frontier of Kirman to Mansura as 80 parasangs, and adds :—

"This route passes through the country of the Zats (Jats) who keep watch over it." E. H. I., I. p. 14,

:* Elliot's Hist, of India, VI, p. 129.

[Page-358]
The Jats in history

According to the author of the Mujmual-ut-Tawarikh* the Jats and Meds were reputed descendants of Ham. They both dwelt in Sind†† and on (the banks of) the Bahar river, and the Jats were subject to the Meds whose oppression drove them across the Pahan river. The Jats were, however, accustomed to the use of boats and were thus able to cross the river and raid the Meds, who were owners of sheep. Eventually the Jats reduced the Med power and ravaged their country. A Jat chief, however, induced both tribes to lay aside their differences and send a deputation of chiefs to wait on King Dajushan (Duryodhana), son of Dahrāt (Dhritarashtra), and beg him to nominate a king, whom both tribes would obey. Accordingly the emperor Dajushan appointed Dassāl (Duhsala), his sister, and wife of the powerful king Jandrāt (Jayadratha), to rule over the Jats and Meds. As the country possessed no Brahmans, she wrote to her brother for aid, and he sent her 30,000 from Hindustan. Her capital was Askaland. A small portion of the country she made over to the Jats under their chief, Judrat.§

Chach, the Brahman usurper of Sind, humiliated the Jats and Lohanas. He compelled them to agree to carry only sham swords-

to wear no under-garments of shawl, velvet or silk, and only silken outer- garments, provided they were red or black in colour
to put no saddles on their horses
to keep their heads and feet uncovered
to take their dogs with them when they went out
to furnish guides and spies and carry firewood for the royal kitchen.

Of the Lohana, i. e. Lakha and Samma, who were apparently Jats, it is said that the same rules were applied to them and that they knew no distinction of great and small. ** Muhammad bin Qasim maintained these regulations, declaring that the Jats resembled the savages of Persia and the mountains. He also fixed their tribute.†††

The Bheti Thakurs and Jats of Ghazni, who had submitted and entered the Arab service, garrisoned Sāgara and the island of Bait,*** the time of Muhammad bin Qasim, c. 712 A. D.

The Jats, like the Baloch, the Sammas and the Sodhas, revolted against Umar,§§ but they were soon reduced to submission, ante 1300 A. D.

In 834 A. D., and again in 835 Ajif bin Isa was sent against the Jats, whose chief was Muhammad bin Usman‖‖ and commander Samlu. Ajif defeated them in a seven months' campaign, and took 27,000 of them, including women and children with 12,000 fighting men to


* Written circa 1126 A. D.
† 'By the Arabs, ' the writer interpolates, ' the Hindus are called Jats.'
†† Sind = the valley of the Indus from the modern Mianwali down to the mouths of the river.
§ E. H. I., I, pp. 103-5.
‖ His usurpation dates from 631, A.D.
¶ E. H. I., I, p. 151.
** Ib. p. 187.
††† Ib. p. 188.
*** E. H. I., I. p. 167. This can hardly be the modern Ghazni. It can only be the Garh Ghazni or Ghajni of modern Jat legend, as it lay apparently on the Indus.
§§ Or Unnar- : E. H. I., I, pp. 220-1.
‖‖ E. H. I.,II, p. 247.

[Page-359]
The Jats in history

Baghdad, whence they were transported to the northern frontier and soon perished, exterminated in a Byzantine raid. The seats of these Jats lay on the roads of Hajar, which they had seized.

Amran, the Barmecide governor of the Indian frontier, marched to Kikan (कीकान)* against the Jats whom he defeated and subjugated. There he founded Al-Baiza, the 'white city', which he garrisoned, and thence proceeded to Multan and Kandabil. The latter city stood on a hill and was hold by Muhammad, son of Khalil, whom Amran slew. He then made war on the Meds, but summoned the Jats to Alrur (अलरुर), where he sealed their hands, took from them the Jizya or poll-tax and ordered that every man of them should bring with him a dog when he waited on him. He then again attacked the Meds, having with him the chief men of the Jats. Amran was appointed in 836 A. D. to be governor of Sindh.

The Tuhfat-u'l-Kiram appears to assign to the Jats and Biloches the same descent, from Muhammad, son of Hārun, governor of Makran, who was himself descended from the Amir Hamza, an Arab, by a fairy.††

The Jats of Jud, which we must take to mean the Salt Range, were, according to the later Muhammadan historians, the object of Mahmud's 17th and last expedition into India in 1026 A.D. It is however hardly possible that Mahmud conducted a naval campaign in or near the Salt Range, and the expedition probably never took place. It is moreover exceedingly doubtfnl whether the Salt Range was then occupied by Jats at all.§

Jats, under Tilak, hunted down Ahmad, the rebel governor of Multan, in 1034 A. D., until he perished on the Mihran of Sind. For this they received 100,000 dirhams as reward. The Jats were still Hindus.

After the defeat of Rai Pithaura in 1192, and the capture of Delhi by Muhammad of Ghor, Jatwan raised the standard of national resistance to Muhammadan aggression at Hansi, but was defeated on the borders of the Bagar by Qutb-ud-din Ibak who then took Hansi. It is apparently not certain that Jatwan was a Jat leader. Firishta says Jatwan was a dependent of the Rai of Nahrwala in Guzerat.

In November 1398 Timur marched through the jungle from Ahruni in Karnal to Tohana, through a tract which he found inhabited by Jats, Musulmans only in name, and without equals in theft and high-way robbery: they plundered caravans on the road and were a terror to Musulmans and travellers. On Timur's approach the Jats had abandoned the village (Tohana) and fled to their sugarcane fields, valleys, and jungles, but Timur pursued them, apparently after


* Or Kaikan, 'which was in the occupation of the Jats': E. H. I., I, p. 449.
E. H. I., I, p. 128 : cf. App. pp. 449-50
†† E. H. I., I, p. 336.
§ E. H. I., II, p. 477.
E.H. I., II, p. 133.
T. N., pp. 516-7.

[Page-360]

The Jats in history

a contest in which the Jats had held their own, and put 2,000 of the demon-like Jats to the sword.*

About 1530 the Sultan Muhammad ibn Tughliq had to suppress the Birahas, Mandahars, Jats, Bhat(ti)s, and Manhis (Minas), who had formed mandals round Sunam and Samana, withheld tribute and plundered the roads.

"In the country between Nilab and Bhera, " wrote Babar, "but distinct from the tribes of Jud and Janjuhah, and adjacent to the Kashmir hills are the Jats, Gujars, and many others of similar tribes, who build villages, and settle on every hillock and in every valley. Their hakim was of the Gakkhar race, and their government resembled that of the Jud and Janjuhah".††

" Every time," adds Babar, "that I have entered Hindustan, the Jats and Gujars have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from their hills and wilds, in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes." They had committed great depredations, and their districts now yielded little revenue. After the rest of the country had been subdued these tribes began their old practices again, and plundered the Turki garrison on its way from Sialkot to Babar's camp. Babar had two or three of the offenders cut in pieces.§ Like the Bhukial and other tribes the Jats were dependents of the Gakkhars. Fath Khan, Jat of Kot Kapura devastated the whole Lakhi Jangal and kept the high roads from Lahore to Delhi in a ferment in Sher Shah's time.

The Tārikh-i'Tāhiri describes the tribes of the Baloch and Nahmrui (? Brahui), of the Jokiya** and Jat, as settled on the hills adjoining the Lakki mountain, which extend to Kich and Makran††† in the time of Akbar. The Muntakhab-u'l-Lubab describes the Sikhs as principally Jats and Khatris.***

The Jats of the south-east Punjab formed politically a part of the Bhartpur principality during the decay of the Mughal empire of Delhi. Occasionally a single village would plunder an imperial baggage-train, §§ but the tribes, as a whole, looked to Bhartpur as their capital. The Nawab Safdar Jang employed Suraj Mal, and he obtained the whole of the Mewat, up to the neighbourhood of Delhi, besides the province of Agra.


* E. H. I.. III, pp. 428-9, 492-3.
† E. H. I., III, p. 245.
†† E. H.I. IV, p. 234.
§ E. H. I., IV, p. 240.
‖ E. H. I., V, p. 278.
¶ It is very doubtful if Kapura is right. The Tārikh-i-Sher-Shāhi has "Fath Khan Jat had been in rebellion in Kayula, and in the time of the Mughals had plundered the whole country as far as Panipat. E. H. I., IV, p. 398.
** Possibly a misprint for Johiya.
††† Ib. p. 286.
*** E. H. I.. VII, pp. 413, 425.
§§ As when the Jats of Mitrol, between Kodal and Palwal, plundered the Amir-ul.Umara's baggage in 1738— the 19th year of Muhammad Shah. The Jat plunderers were popularly called the Ram-dal, a name which appears to connote the semi-religious character of the revolt against the Muhammadan domination : E. H. I., VIII, pp. 55 and 137.
[Page-361]
The Jats
The Jats of Bharatpur
Bajja Singh of Sinsini, between Dig and Kumher
1.Churaman (→ Mohkam Singh) + 2.Badan Singh (founder of Bharatpur, died 1760-1 A.D.)+ 3.Raja Ram
↓ From Badan Singh
Suraj Mal.
1.Jawahar Singh (died 1768) + 2.Ratan Singh. (→Kehri Singh alias Ranjit Singh son of Suraj Mal, died 1806.) + 3.Nawal Singh. + 4.Bhawani Singh
Pedigree of Bharatpur Jat rulers

The following account of the Jats in the Punjab is largely a reproduction of the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson's account of them in the Punjab Census Report, 1883.* He prefaced his account by observing that the line separating Jats, Rajputs and certain other castes (tribes) is almost impossible of definition. More especially is this true of the whole of the Western Punjab, where the term for one of 'gentle' birth is sahu, especially in the Salt Range, and where the land-owning and cultivating classes are organised on a tribal basis, so that stress is always laid on a man's triboe or clan and not on his status or 'caste.' As we go further east the people begin to use the caste terms, Rajput and Jat, more freely, but in the vaguest possible way, so that a Muhammadan Jat tribe in Gujranwala or Gujrat will appear now as Rajput and a decade later as Jat, or vice versa, or half the tribe will return itself as Rajput and the other half as Jat, as caprice dictates. Along the Jammu border, and beyond it into Gurdaspur, the Rajputs and Jats are well defined, the former being confined to tho hills, the latter to the plains, as Sir Louis Dane has pointed out,††so rigidly that one is almost tempted to suspect that there is something in the physical nature of the plains which militates against the formation of an aristocracy. Within tho hills the Rajputs have their own social gradations. In the plains the Jats also are tending to develop social distinctions which will be noticed later on. In the Central Punjab tho Jat is fairly well defined as a caste, though he is not absolutely endogamous, as marriages with women of inferior castes may be deprecated but are not invalid. Even in the eastern districts such marriages are tolerated, but in the true Jat Country which centres round Rohtak they are probably much rarer than in Karnal, Ambala or tho central districts, broadly speaking, the Jat is a Musalman in the Western Districts, a Sikh in the Centre, and a Hindu in the South-East. but there are many exceptions to this rule. In the Sikh Districts it is a brother's duty, as well as his privilege, to espouse


* Reprinted as Punjub Ethnology.
Jats and Rajputs, as observed by Sir Denzil Ibbetson, together constitute about three-tenths of the total population of the Punjab, and include the great mass of the dominant land-owning tribes in the cis-Indus portion of the Province. Their political is even greater than their numerical importance; while they afford to the ethnologist infinite matter for inquiry and consideration. Their customs are in the main Hindu, though in the Western Plains and the Salt Range Tract the restrictions upon intermarriage have, in many cases, come to be based upon considerations of social standing only. But even here the marriage ceremony and other social customs retain tho clear impress of Indian origin.
Gurdaspur Gazetteer.
[Page-362]
Origins

his deceased brother's wife. In the south-east the practice of widow remarriage differentiates the Hindu Jat from the Rajput, but it is not universal even among the Jats, for in Gurgaon some Jat families disallow it and others which allow it do not permit it with the husband's relations.* In other words, as we go eastwards orthodox Brahmanical ideas come into play.

Jat Origins

Perhaps no question connected with the ethnology of the Punjab peoples has been so much discussed as the origin of the so-called Jat 'race'. It is not intended here to reproduce any of the arguments adduced. They will be found in detail in the Archeological Survey Reports, II, pp. 51 to (31 ; in Tod's Rajasthan, I, pp. 52 to 75 and 96 to 101 (Madras reprint, 1880} ; in Elphinstone's History of India, pp. 250 to 253 ; and in Elliot's Races of the N.-W. P., I, pp. 130 to 137. Suffice it to say that both Sir Alexander Cunningham and Colonel Tod agreed in considering the Jats to be of Indo-Scythian stock. The former identified them with the Zanthi of Strabo and the Jatii of Pliny and Ptolemy; and held that they probably entered the Punjab from their home on the Oxus very shortly after the Meds or Mands, who also were Indo-Scythians, and who moved into the Punjab about a century before Christ. The Jats seem to have first occupied the Indus valley as far down as Sindh, whither the Meds followed them about the beginning of the present era. But before the earliest Muhammadan invasion the Jats had spread into the Punjab Proper, where they were firmly established in the beginning of the 11th century. By the time of Babar the Jats of the Salt Range had been subdued by the Gakkhars, Awans, and Janjuas, while as early as the 7th century the Jats and Meds of Sindh were ruled by a Brahman dynasty. Tod classed the Jats as one of the great Rajput tribes, and extended his identification with the Getae to both races ; but here Cunningham differed from him, holding the Rajputs to belong to the original Aryan stock, and the Jats to a later wave of immigrants from the north-west, probably of Scythian race.

'It may be' continued Sir Denzil Ibbetson 'that the original Rajput and the original Jat entered India at different periods in its history, though to my mind the term Rajput is an occupational rather than an ethnological expression. But if they do originally represent two separate waves of immigration, it is at least exceedingly probable, both from their almost identical physique and facial character and from the close communion which has always existed between them, that they belong to one and the same ethnic stock; while, whether this be so or not, it is almost certain that they have been for many centuries and still are so intermingled and so blended into one people, that it is practically impossible to distinguish them as separate wholes. It is indeed more than probable that the process of fusion has not ended here, and that the people who thus in the main resulted from the blending of the Jat and the Rajput, if these two ever were distinct, is by no means free from foreign elements. We have seen how the Pathan people have assimilated Sayyids, Turks and Moghals, and how


  • Punjab Customary Law, II, (Gurgaon), p. 1324.

[Page-363]
Jat origins

It was sufficient for a Jat tribe to retain its political independence and organisation in order to be admitted into the Baloch nation ; we know bow a character for sanctity and social exclusiveness combined will in a few generations make a Quresh or a Sayjid; and it is almost certain that the joint Jat-Raput stock contains not a few tribes of aboriginal descent, though it is probably in the main Aryo-Scythian, if Scythian be not Aryan. The Man, Her, and Bhullar Jats are known as asli or original Jats because they claim no Rajput ancestry, but are supposed to be descended from the hair (jat) of the aboriginal god Siva ; the Jats of the south-eastern districts divide themselves into two sections, Shivgotri or of the family of Siva,* and Kasabgotri who claim connection with the Rajputs; and the names of the ancestor Bar of the Shivgotris and of his son Barbara, are the very words which the ancient Brahmans give us as the marks of the Barbarian aborigines. Many of the Jat tribes of the Punjab have customs which apparently point to non-Aryan origin, and a rich and almost virgin field for investigation is here open to the ethnologist.

In other words, the Shivgotri Jats of the south-east like the Man, Her and Bhullar, are unassuming tribes which do not lay claim to descent from a once dominant or ruling clan, whereas nearly all the other Jat clans arrogate to themselves Rajput ancestry, meaning thereby that once upon a time they, or some representatives of the clan, were sovereign or semi-independent chieftains acknowledging no raja but their own head.


* We may regard Shiva here as the earth-god and the Shivaotri as autochthones. In Hissar, where they are few in numbers, they say that their forefather was created from the matted hair of Shiva, who consequently was named Jat Budhra. Regarding their origin there is no historical account. But tradition tells that one of the clan, named Barh, became , master of a large portion of Bikaner ; where, at first he created a village which he called after his name ; and thereafter went and resided at Jhansal, where his descendants live to this day, and which ilaqa belongs to them. He had 12 sons: — Punia. Dhania, Chachrik, Bali, Burbura, Sulukhun, Chiria, Chandia, Khok, Dunaj, Liter, and Kakkar. From these sprang 12 sub-divisions. (Khok is also a Gil muhin. Punia was ancestor of the Punnu). The descendants of the first were most in number, and had the largest possessions. They owned the country round Jhansal which was called the Punia ilaqa and which is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari. Marriages among members of this clan cannot, according to their custom, be formed amongst themselves ; i. e, they must intermarry with the Kasabgotri. The latter are in reality degenerate Rajputs, and call themselves Kasabgotris after Kasab, son of Brahma.
Mr. H. Davidson in the following passage clearly went too far : —
" It is not generally known that the Jat race is entirely of Rajput origin (?). A Rajput marrying the widow of a deceased brother loses caste as a Rajput; the ancestors of all the Jat families were thus Rujputs, who had taken to wife the widows of their deceased brethren, who had died without male heirs. The Phulkian family, if questioned as to their Rajput descent, being now to all intents and purposes Jats, would state this to have been the manner of the transition. I myself have the fact from one of the most intelligent members of the family. The headmen of more than one Jat village of different gots, or clans, have likewise given me the same information, and I am convinced of its general truth. The sub-division of (or) gots among the Jats is endless, and I have been at some pains to trace the circumstance, which constitutes the origin of each got. The result is entirely confirmatory of the above account of the general origin of the race. The Rajput ancestor, who ceased to be a Rajput, furnishes the name of the got, not usually directly from his own name, but from some surname he had acquired, as the 'toothless', 'the fair' or from circumstance attending his family, or the birth of his sons. A very powerful got is styled 'the hay-stack ' from the fact of his wife having been suddenly confined near one; in some cases the name of the village he or his sons founded gave the name of the got which derives its ancestry from him. One got never intermarries within itself, one got marrying with another got. Much has been written on the peculiar meaning of the (See:Wiki editor note)

[Page-364]
Rajputs and Jats
Are the Jats and Rajputs distinct ?

' But ' continued Sir Denzil, whether Jats and Rajputs were or were not originally distinct, and whatever aboriginal elements may have been affiliated to their society, I think that the two now form a common stock, the distinction between Jat and Rajput being social rather than ethnic. I believe that those families of that common stock whom the tide of fortune has raised to political importance have become Rajputs almost by mere virtue of their rise : and that their descendants have retained the title and its privileges on the condition, strictly enforced, of observing the rules by which the higher are distinguished from the lower castes in the Hindu scale of precedence; of preserving their purity of blood by refusing to marry with families of inferior social rank, of rigidly abstaining from widow marriage, and of refraining from degrading occupations. Those who transgressed these rules have fallen from their high position and ceased to be Rajputs ; while such families as, attaining a dominant position in their territory, began to affect social exclusiveness and to observe the rules have become not only Rajas, but also Rajputs or " sons of Raja." For the last seven centuries the process of elevation at least has been almost at a standstill. Under the Delhi emperors king-making was practically impossible. Under the Sikhs the Rajput was over-shadowed by the Jat, who resented his assumption of superiority and his refusal to join him on equal terms in the ranks of the Khalsa, deliberately persecuted him wherever and whenever he had the power, and preferred his title of Jat Sikh to that of the proudest Rajput. On the frontier the dominance of Pathans and Baloches and the general prevalence of Muhammadan feelings and ideas placed recent Indian origin at a discount, and led the leading families who belonged to neither of these two races to claim connection, not with the Kshatriyas of the Sanskrit classes, but with the Mughal conquerors of India or the Qureshi cousins of the Prophet; insomuch that even admittedly Rajput tribes of famous ancestry, such as the Khokhar have begun to follow the example. But in the hills, where Rajput dynasties with genealogies perhaps more ancient and unbroken than can be shown by any other royal families in the world retained their independence till yesterday, and where many of them still enjoy as great social authority as ever, the twin processes of degradation from and elevation to Rajput rank are still to be seen in operation. The Raja is there the fountain not only of honour but also of caste, which is the same thing in India.' And Sir James Lyall wrote : —

“Till lately the limits of castes do not seem to have been so immutably fixed in the hills as in the plains. The Raja was the fountain of honour, and could do much as he liked. I have heard old men quote instances within their memory in which a Raja promoted a word zamindar, in different parts of India. Here the use of the word is very peculiar. Those, generally, who derive their livelihood directly from the soil, are not called zamindars but kasans. On approaching a village, and asking what people live in it, if any other race but Jats live in it the name of the race will be given in reply. But if the population are Jats, the reply will be ' zamindars live there' zamindar log baste ; in fact the word zamindar is here only applied to the Jats." This last remark, Sir Donald McLeod noted, applied equally almost throughout the Punjab, even where the Jats have been converted to Islam. Ludhiana Sett. Rep., 1859, pp. 28-29. The 'hay-stack' got is said to be the Garewal (?).

[Page-365]
Jats as degraded Rajputs

Ghirth to be a Rathi, and a Thakur to be a Rajput, for service done or money given ; and at the present day the power of admitting back into caste fellowship persons put under a ban for some grave act of defilement, is a source of income to the Jagirdar-Rajas. I believe that Mr. Campbell, afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, has asserted that there is no such thing as a distinct Rajput slock ; that in former times before caste distinctions had become crystallized, any tribe or family whose ancestor or head rose to royal rank became in time Rajput. This is certainly the conclusion to which many facts point with regard to the Rajput families of this district, viz., Kotlehr and Bangahal, are said to be Brahmans by original stock. Mr. Barnes says that in Kangra the son of a Rajput by a low-caste woman takes place as a Rathi : in Saraj and other places in the interior of the hills I have met families calling themselves Rajputs, and growing into general acceptance as Rajputs, in their own country at least, whose only claim to the title was that their grandfather was the offspring of a Kannetni by a foreign Brahman. On the border line in the Himalayas, between Tibet and India proper, any one can observe caste growing before his eyes ; the noble is changing into a Rajput, the priest into a Brahman, the peasant into a Jat, and so on down to the bottom of the scale. The same process was, I believe, more or less in force in Kangra Proper down to a period not very remote from to-day.”

A very similar process has been going on among the Jats. The Golia Jats were certainly by origin Brahmans and the Langrial were Charans.

And in the plains countless traditions say that the son of a Rajput by a Jat, Gujar, Ror or other wife of low degree became Jats (?). (See:Wiki editor note)

But in the plains, as in the hills, a Rajput can lose his status and sink in the social scale by allowing the practise of kareva, and numerous Jat traditions point to the adoption of that custom as having degraded a blue-blooded Rajput family to Jat or yeoman status.

As Sir Denzil Ibbetson wrote : —

“The reverse process of degradation from Rajput to lower rank is too common to require proof of its existence, which will be found if needed together with further instances of elevation, in the section which treats of the Rajputs and kindred castes. In the eastern districts, where Brahmanism is stronger than in any other part of the Punjab, and Delhi too near to allow of families rising to political independence, it; is probable that no elevation to the rank of Raiput has taken place within recent times. But many Rajput families have ceased to be Rajputs. Setting aside the general tradition of the Punjab Jats to the effect that their ancestors were Rajputs who married Jats or began to practise widow-marriage, we have the Gaurwa Rajputs of Gurgaon and Delhi, who have indeed retained the title of Rajput because the caste feeling is too strong in those parts and the change in their customs too recent for it yet to have died out, but who have, for all purposes of equality, communion, or intermarriage, ceased to be Rajputs since they took to the practice of karewa ; we have the Sahnsars of Hoshiarpur who were Rajputs within the last two or three generations, but have ceased to be so because they grow vegetables like the Arain ; in Karnal we have Rajputs who within the living generation have ceased to be Rajputs and become Shaikhs, because poverty and loss of land forced them to weaving as an occupation ; while the Delhi Chauhan, within the shadow of the city where their ancestors once ruled and let the Indian armies in their last struggle with the Musalman invaders, have lost their caste by yielding to the temptations of karewa. In the Sikh tract, as I have said, the Jat is content to be a Jat, and has never since the rise of Sikh power wished to be any tiling else. In the Western Plains the freedom of marriage allowed by Islam has superseded caste restrictions, and social rank is measured by the tribe rather than by the larger unit of caste. But even there, families who were a few

[Page-366]
The Jat’s status

generations ago reputed Jats have now risen by social exclusiveness to be recognised as Rajputs and families who were lately known as Rajputs have sunk till they are now classed with Jats (?) ; while the great ruling tribes, the Sial, the Gondal, the Tiwana are commonly spoken of as Rajputs, and their smaller brethren as Jats. The same tribe even is Rajput in one district and Jat in another, according to its position among the local tribes. In the Salt Range the dominant tribes, the Janjua, Manhas and the like, are Rajputs when they are not Mughals or Arabs; while all agricultural tribes of Indian origin who cannot establish their title to Rajput rank are Jats. Finally, on the frontier the Pathan and Baloch have overshadowed Jat and Rajput alike; and Bhatti, Punwar, Tunwar, all the proudest tribes of Rajasthan, are included in the name and have sunk to the level of Jat, for there can be no Rajputs where there are no Rajas or traditions of Rajas.

I know that the views herein set forth will be held heretical and profane by many, and that they ought to be supported by a greater wealth of instance than I have produced in the following pages. But I have no time to marshal my facts ; I have indeed no time to record more than a small proportion of them ; and all I can now attempt is to state the conclusion to which my enquiries have led me, and to hope to deal with the subject in more detail on some future occasion.'

These conclusions are confirmed by facts observed with regard to other so-called castes, such as the Gaddis, Gujars, Kanets, Meos, and others too numerous to mention. The term Jat may now connote a caste in the ordinary acceptance of the term, but whatever its derivation may be, it came to signify, in contradistinction to Rajput, a yeoman cultivator, usually owner of land, and in modern parlance Jat-zamindar is the usual description of himself which a Jat will give.

As Sir Denzil Ibbetson said : —

The position of the Jat in the Punjab.

'The Jat is in every respect the most important of the Punjab peoples. In point of numbers he surpasses the Rajput, who comes next to him, in the proportion of nearly three to one. Politically he ruled the Punjab till the Khalsa yielded to our arms. Ethnologically he is the peculiar and most prominent product of the plains of the five rivers. And from an economical and administrative point of view he is the husbandman, the peasant, the revenue-payer par excellence of the Province. His manners do not bear the impress of generations of wild freedom which marks the races of our frontier mountains. But he is more honest, more industrious, more sturdy, and no less manly than they. Sturdy independence indeed and patient vigorous labour are his strongest characteristics. The Jat is of all the Punjab races the most impatient of tribal or communal control, and the one which asserts the freedom of the individual most strongly. In tracts where, as in Rohtak, the Jat tribes have the field to themselves, and are compelled, in default of rival castes as enemies, to fall back upon each other for somebody to quarrel with, the tribal ties are strong. But as a rule a Jat is a man who does what seems right in his own eyes and sometimes what seems wrong also, and will not be said nay by any man. I do not mean however that he is turbulent : as a rule he is very far from being so. He is independent and he is self-willed; but he is reasonable,

[Page-367]
Jat characteristics

peaceably inclined if left alone, and not difficult to manage. He is usually content to cultivate his fields and pay his revenue in peace and quietness if people will let him do so; though when he does go wrong he "takes to anything from gambling to murder, with perhaps a preference for stealing other peoples wives and cattle." As usual the proverbial wisdom of the villages describes him very fairly, though perhaps somewhat too severely :

" The soil, fodder, clothes, hemp, grass fibre, and silk, those six are best beaten ; and the seventh is the Jat. "
"A Jat, a Bhat, a caterpillar, and a widow woman, these four are best hungry. If they eat their fill they do harm."
"The Jat, like a wound, is better when bound."

In agriculture the Jat is pre-eminent. The market-gardening castes, the Arain, the Mali, the Saini, are perhaps more skillful cultivators on a small scale ; but they cannot rival the Jat as landowners and yeoman cultivators. The Jat calls himself zamindar or "husbandman" as often as Jat, and his women and children alike work with him in the fields :

" The Jat's baby has a plough handle for a plaything."
" The Jat stood on his corn heap and said to the king's elephant-drivers — ' Will you sell those little donkeys ? "

Socially, the Jat occupies a position which is shared by the Ror, the Gujar, and the Ahir, all four eating and smoking together. He is of course far below the Rajput, from the simple fact that he practises widow-marriage. The Jat father is made to say, in the rhyming proverbs of the country side —

'Come my daughter and be married, if this husband dies there are plenty more.'

But among the widow-marrying castes he stands first.

The Bania with his sacred thread, his strict Hinduism, and his twice-born standing, looks down on the Jat as a Sudra. But the Jat looks down upon the Bania as a cowardly spiritless money-grubber, and society in general agrees with the Jat. The Khatri, who is far superior to the Bania in manliness and vigour, probably takes precedence of the Jat. But among the races or tribes of purely Hindu origin, I think that the Jat stands next after the Brahman, the Rajput, and the Khatri.

There are, however, Jats and Jats. I shall here do nothing more than briefly indicate the broad distinctions. The Jat of the Sikh tracts is of course the typical Jat of the Punjab, and he it is whom I have described above. The Jat of the south-eastern districts differs little from him save in religion ; though on the Bikaner border the puny Bagri Jat, immigrant from his rainless prairies where he has been held in bondage for centuries, and ignorant of cultivation save in its rudest form, contrasts strongly with the stalwart and independent husbandman of the Malwa. On the lower Indus the word Jat is applied generically to a congeries of tribes, Jats proper, Rajputs, lower castes, and mongrels, who have no points in common save their Muhammadan religion, their agricultural occupation, and their subordinate position. In the great western grazing grounds it is, as I have said, impossible to draw any sure line between Jat and Rajput, the latter term being commonly applied to those tribes who have attained political supremacy, while the people whom they have subdued or driven by dispossession of their territory to live a semi- nomad life in the central steppes are more often classed as Jats; and the state of things in the Salt Range is very similar. Indeed the word Jat is the Punjabi term for a grazier or herdsman ; though Mr.

[Page-368]
The Jat elements

E. O'Brien said that in Jatki, Jat, the cultivator, is spelt with a hard and Jat, the herdsman or camel grazier, with a soft t. Thus the word Jat in Rohtak or Amritsar means a great deal; in Muzaffargarh or Bannu it means nothing at all, or rather perhaps it means a great deal more than any single word can afford to mean if it is to be of any practical use ; and the two classes respectively indicated by the term in these two parts of the Province must not be too readily confounded.'

The Jat elements.

The traditions of some of the more important Jat tribes as to their origin are summed up below, but it must be confessed that these traditions are not only hazy but often inconsistent and not infrequently contradicted by legends current among the same tribe in another locality.

  • Other Jat tribes have more specific claims to Rajput ancestry.
  • And in many cases the Jat tribe can point to the Rajput tribe from which it sprang. For example,

Similarly, in Gujrat the Muhammadan Jat tribes claim very diverse origins. Thus

  • Quraish descent is claimed by the Jam.

* But one tradition makes them Lunar.
Bains is one of the 36 royal families of Rajputs, but was believed by Tod to be Suryabansi.
†† Also claim Lunar descent.

[Page-369]
The Jat localisation
Multani, Nijjra, Hunjar and Hatian;
Distribution of the Jats.

Beyond the Punjab, Jats are chiefly found in Sindh where they form the mass of the population; in Bikaner, Jaisalmer, and Marwar, where they probably equal in numbers all the Rajput races put together, and along the upper valleys of the Ganges and Jumna, from Bareli, Farrukhabad, and Gwalior upwards.

Distribution of Jat population

In the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province they are especially numerous in the central Sikh districts and States, in the south-eastern districts, and in the Derajat. Under and among the hills and in the Rawalpindi division Rajputs take their place, while on the frontier, both upper and lower, they are almost wholly confined to the cis-Indus tracts and the immediate Indus riverain on both sides of the stream.

The Jats of the Indus are probably still in the country which they have occupied ever since their first entry into India, though they have been driven back from the foot of the Sulaimans on to the river by the advance of the Pathan and the Baloch. The Jats of the Western Plains have almost without exception come up the river valleys from Sindh or Western Rajasthan. The Jats of the western and central submontane have also in part come by the same route ; but some of them retain a traditional connection with Ghazni, which perhaps refers to the ancient Gajnipur, the site of the modern Rawalpindi, while many of them trace their origin from the Jammu Hills.

The Jats of the central and eastern Punjab have also in many cases come up the Sutlej valley ; but many of them have moved from Bikaner straight into the Malwa, while the great central plains of the Malwa itself are probably the original home of many of the Jat tribes of the Sikh tract. The Jats of the south-eastern districts and the Jumna zone have for the most part worked up the Jumna valley from the direction of Bharatpur, with which some of them still retain a traditional connection ; though some few have moved in eastwards from Bikaner and the Malwa. The Bharatpur Jats are themselves said to be immigrants who left the banks of the Indus in the time of Aurangzeb.

Whether the Jats of the great plains are really as late immigrants as they represent, or whether their story is merely founded upon a wish to show recent connection with the country of the Rajputs, I cannot say. The whole question is one in which we are still exceedingly ignorant, and which would richly repay detailed investigation.

The Jat migrations.

A noteworthy feature of the Jat traditions is their insistence on the recent advent of nearly every Jat tribe into the Punjab, or at least into its present seats. Probably the only tract in the Punjab in which the Jat has been well established from a period anterior to the first Muhammadan invasion is the Rohtak

[Page-370]
Jat migrations

territory. If the history of the various tribes in Multan be investigated it will be found that there is scarcely a single important tribe now found in the District which has not immigrated within the last 500 or 600 years. The whole population in Multan has for many centuries been in a state of constant flux, and it is of very little use trying to discover who the original inhabitants were even in the pre-Muhammadan times The Khaks, Pandas, Pahors and Sahus in Kabirwala tahsil, the Dhudhis in Mailsi, and the Kharas, north of Multan, are reputed vaguely to have been converted to Islam in the Multan district during the 13th century, but the traditions cannot be trusted. When the Ain-i-Akbari was compiled the Sahus, Sandas, Marrals, Tahims, Ghallus, Channars, Joiyas, Utheras and Khichis were settled in or near their present seats, and tradition assigns many tribal immigrations to Akbar's time.* The same might be said with much truth of almost every Jat settlemont throughout the Punjab plains. If we except the Nol and Bhangu in Jhang, the Hinjra in Gujranwala and a few other clans, tradition almost always makes a Jat tribe a comparatively recent settler in the Punjab. In Dera Ismail Khan, where the term Jat is applied to Sials, Awans and a host of petty tribes of miscellaneous origin, the lower portion of the District was probably occupied by a few scattered tribes of pastoral Jats before the 15th century. Early in that century all tradition goes to show that an immigration of Siyars, China, Khokhars, etc., set in from Multan and Bahawalpur.

Passing up tho Indus these Jat tribes gradually occupied the country on the edge of the Midawdli Thal and then crossed the Indus. East of that river the Jats and Sayyids maintained a dominant position, in spite of the somewhat later Baloch immigration which was of the nature of a military occupation rather than a permanent colonisation, and the whole of the Kachi or riverain on the east bank of the Indus was divided in blocks among the Jats, a strip of the Thal or steppe being attached to each block, Jat tribes settled also in the Thal itself, notably the Chinas and Bhidwal, the latter a good fighting tribe. The China tract stretched right across the Thal. The modern District of Dera Ismail Khan was settled in much the same way by the Jats, but the Baloch also occupied it as cultivating proprietors, leaving the actual occupation however to the Jats. Early in the 19th century Sarwar Khan of Tank located large numbers of Jats in the south-east of the present Tank tahsil and this settlement gave the tract its name of the Jāt-ātar. Jats however appear to have been settled in the modern Nutkani Baloch country prior to that period, and to have formed its original population.

The migrations of the Jats into Kapurthala also illustrate the history of the population of the Punjab.


* See Mr. E. D. Maclagan's interesting sketch of the tribal immigrations in the Multan Gatetteer, 1901-02, pp. 144-5.
† There is also a Jatatar in Gujrat— see p. 306 swpra. It appears to be identical with the Herat, which may derive its name from the Her Jats, though a local tradition derives it from Herat in Afghanistan. It is curious that the Jats give their name to no other tracts.

[Page-371]
Jat cults
Basrai and Daulat ; while
from beyond the east of the Jumna came the Nijhar and Janer ; and
from Saharanpur, theDhillon : while the
  • Baich say they came from the Ganges. The
  • Faddah have a tradition that they came from Ghazni.

The cults of the Jat tribes.

The Jats of the Punjab cannot be said to have any distinctive tribal cults. When Muhammadans or Sikhs they follow the teachings of their creeds with varying degrees of strictness. When Hindus they are very often Sultanis or followers of the popular and wide-spread cult of Sakhi Sarwar Sultan. In the south-east many are Bishnois. The Shib-gotri Jats do not form a sectarian group. The only distinctive Jat cults are tribal, and even in their case the sidh or sati, Jogi, Gosain or Bairigi, whoso shrine is affected by the tribe, is doubtless worshipped by people of other tribes in the locality. For detailed accounts of these tribal cults reference must be made to the separate articles on the various Jat tribes in these volumes, but a few general notes may be recorded here. It will be observed that these customs are not as distinctive of the Jats of Sialkot as Sir Denzil Ibbetson thought.* Parallels to them will also be found among the Khatris, and it is very doubtful whether they can be held to indicate aboriginal descent.

Jathera. — Among the Hindu and Sikh Jats, especially in the north- central and central Districts, a form of ancestor-worship, called jathera, is common. It is the custom of many clans, or of a group of villages of one clan, for the bridegroom at his wedding (biāh or shādi) to proceed to a spot set aside to commemorate some ancestor who was either a shahid (martyr) or a man of some note. This spot is marked by a mound of earth, or it may be a pakka shrine. The bridegroom bows his head to the spot and walks round it, after which offerings are made both to the Brahman and the Lāgi. If the mound is of earth, he throws a handful of earth upon it. The name given to the jathera may be, and generally is, that of an ancestor who was influential, the founder of the tribe, or who was a shahid.

Jandi katna or Jandiān, the cutting of a twig of the jand tree.— The bridegroom, before setting out for the marriage, cuts with a sword or talwar a twig from a jand tree anywhere in the vicinity. He then makes offerings to Brahmans. This ceremony ensures the success of his marriage.

In those parts of the Gurgaon District which adjoin the Jaipur, Alwar and Nabha States it is customary to fix a small wooden bird on the outer door of the bride's house, and before the bridegroom is welcomed by the women standing there he is required to strike it with his stick. This ensures the happiness of the marriage. The rite is reminiscent of the old Tar Pariksha or test of the bride. The bird is made of jand wood. This is almost the only trace of any jandiān ceremony in the southern Punjab.††


* Ibbetson, § 421.
† The menial who is entitled to receive dues (lag) at weddings, etc.
†† In Hissar the jandian rite is rare, though that of Jathera is said to be almost universal. But in that District the observances are local, rather the tribal and the Bagri Jats do not perform the jandian in Hisar though they would observe it in the Bagar, where it is general.

[Page-372]
The Chhatra rite

The janḍiān rite is very common in the central Punjab,* but it assumes slightly different forms. Thus among the Hans Jats of Ludhiana the bride-groom's uncle or elder brother cuts the tree with an axe or sword and the bridal pair play with the twigs, chhiṭian, the boy first striking the girl seven times with them, and she then doing the same to him. Worship is then offered to a Brahman and after that the house-walls are marked with rice-flour. The pair solemnly prostrate themselves, worship Sakhi Sarwar and give the offerings made to him to a Bharai. The Daleo, Aulakh, Pammar, Basi, Dulat, Boparai, and Bal, have the same usage as regards the chhiṭian, but among the Gurum Jats the boy himself cuts the tree and both he and his bride 'worship chhatras.' But the Lat do not cut the jandi at all.

Chhatra. — In connection with the observance, common at Hindu weddings, of the tika, there is a curious custom called the chhatra (ram) or chhedna (to bore — the ram's ear). In this a ram is hired, 8 paisa (Nanak-shahi) being paid to its owner. The bridegroom cuts off a small piece of its ear and rubs this piece on the cut till the blood flows. He then places the piece in the centre of a chapati, with some rice and, smearing his thumb with the mixture, imprints a tika or mark with it on his forehead. The chapati is then offered at a shrine, food is distributed and the Lāgis each receive at least 14 paisa (Nanak-shahi). In some cases the ram or goat is also sacrificed.

Among the Jats of the south-eastern Punjab the chhatra rite, involving as it does animal sacrifice, is unknown. This is clearly due to Jain influences. It is very rare in the central Districts too, and is said to be unknown in Jullundhar, but in Ludhiana it is not uncommon for the bridegroom's forehead to be marked with blood from a goat's ear, e. g. among the Chela, Bhangu and some others.

Not only do these usages vary among different tribes, some not observing them at all while others perform one or two or all of them, but a given tribe may have varying usages in different localities.

Thus the Bhulars' cult of Kalanjar has already been described at p. 108 supra, but they are also said to have a jathera called Pir Yar Bhurawla a revered ancestor who performed a miracle by turning a blanket into a sheep, and to this day the Bhular will not wear, sit or sleep on a striped blanket. Their Sidh Kalenjar or Kalangar is also called Kalandra, and he has a tomb at Mari in Patiala where the first milk of a cow is offered to him on the 8th badi of the month. A Bhular too can only build a house after offering him two bricks. The Bhular also avoid the use of ak fuel.

The Chahil as noted on p. 146 supra affect a Jogi Pir, but he is also said to have been their jathera. He was killed in a fight with theBhatti Rajputs at a place in Patiala, but his body remained on his horse and continued to smite the foe after his head had fallen, so a shrine was built to him on the spot where he fell and it also contains


* But it is said to be unknown in Jullundhar.
† Apparently the Bhura sidh of the Sialkot Bhulars. Bhura means a striped blanket of light brown with black stripes, or black with white stripes, and the Bhura are also said to be a division of the Jats. Bhura also means brown, Panjabi; Dicty., p. 146. Clearly there is either a pun in the name or Bhura was the original name of the tribe.
[Page-373]
Jathera worship

the tombs of his hawk, dog and horse. It lies in a grove, and the milk of a cow or the grain of a harvest are never used without offering first fruits to this pir. The fact that the pir is called or named Jogi points to a Shaiva origin for the cult.

The Chima again are said to be served by Jogis, and not by Brahmans. They perform Jathera and chhatra as follows : — Eight or ten days before a marriage rice is cooked and taken to the spot dedicated to their ancestor ; from one to five goats are also taken thither and washed and a lamp is lighted. One of the goats' ears is then cut, and the brotherhood mark their foreheads with blood (chhatra). The goat is killed for food, but the immediate relatives of the bride do not eat of its flesh, which is divided among the others ; the rice, however, is distributed to all.

The Deo have their jathera at a place close to some pool or tank where on certain occasions, such as a wedding, they congregate. The Brahman marks each man's forehead as he comes out of the pool with blood from the goat's ear : this is done to the bridegroom also. The bread at the feast is divided, 9 loaves to every bachelor and 18 to every married man.

As already noted, on p. 236 supra, the Dhariwal have a jathera and also a sidh, called Bhai or Bhoi. The latter was slain by robbers. A Brahman, a Mirasi, a Chuhra and a black dog were with him at the time. The Brahman fled, but the others remained, and so Mirasia receive his offerings, and at certain ceremonies a black dog is fed first. The Sidh's tomb is at Lalowala in Patiala and his fair is held on the Nimani Ikadshi.

The Dhillon appear to have several jatheras, Gaggowahna being mentioned in addition to those described on p. 238 supra. No particulars of these are forthcoming. But the fact that Dhillon was Raja Karn's grandson is commemorated in the following tale : — Karn used to give away 30 sers of gold every day after his bath but before his food. After his death the deity rewarded him with gold, but allowed him no food, so he begged to be allowed to return to the world where he set aside 15 days in each year for the feeding of Brahmans. He was then allowed to return to the celestial regions and given food.*

Other jatheras are Baba Alho, of the Garewals, Raja Ram of the Gils, Rajput [sic] of the Khaira, Sidhsan, of the Randhawas, Tilkara, of the Sidhus and Kala Mihr of the Sidhus.

The Dhindsa have a sidh, of unrecorded name, at a place in Patiala and offer milk, etc., to his samadh on the 6th sudi of each month. The


* The Dhillons have the following kabit or saying — Sat Jindki bahin, Dhillon kadh kosatti nahin, meaning that a Dhillon will always perform what he has promised.
† Among the genuine Jats, or those who can look back to a Rajput origin, it is not uncommon to find a great veneration paid to the thehs or mounds which in bygone days were the sites of their first location. They are marked by a few scattered tombs or a grove of trees, or have since been selected by some shriveled faqir as the place suitable for a solitary life. With the Jats, it is also curious to which the reverence they pay to the jand tree, which is often introduced into these places of worship. The Rajputs are more lofty in their religion, and more rigorous in their discharge of it."— Prinsep's Sialkot Sett. Rep., p. 27.
[Page-374]
Tribal vs. Village deities

Gil sidh is named Surat Ram and only gets a goat and a handful of gur at weddings, an offering which is taken by Mirasis. The Gandi have a sati whose mat or shrine is in Patiala.

Jatheras are also commonly worshipped in the central Districts, but the rites vary. Thus in Ludhiana nearly every Jat tribe has a jathera though his name is rarely preserved, and a very common fond of worship to him is to dig earth from a tank at weddings in his honour. Thus Tulla, the Basis' jathera, who has a niat or shrine, is commemorated in this way and earth is also dug on the Diwali night. The Sarapiya and Sodi Jats also dig earth to their unnamed jatheras— and the Daula, Dhad, Sangra and many others do the same. The Dhanesar have a special custom, for after the jandi has been cut, water is poured over a goat's head, and if he shivers the ancestors are believed to have blessed the pair. The goat is then set free. The Ghanghas in this District appear to have no jathera but make offerings, which are taken by Sikhs, to the samadh of Akal Das, their ancestor, at Jandiala in Amritsar, where an annual fair is held.

Thus the jathera rite is essentially a tribal, not a village, institution and this is strikingly brought out by the fact that in villages composed of several tribes each tribe will have its own jathera. Thus in Kang, in Jullundhar, the Kang Jats have no jathera, but they have one at Dhauli Mambli in Garhshankar tahsil, and say he was a refugee from Muhammadan oppression. The Mors of Kang have their jathera at Khankhana, the Birks theirs at Birk, the Rakkars theirs at Rakkar, the Jhalli theirs at Dhamot in Ludhiana. But the jathera is often a sati, and the Her in Jullundhar have a sati's shrine at Kala Majra in Rupar tahsil. And it is not necessarily the progenitor of the clan, or even the founder of a village who is worshipped, but any prominent member of it who may be chosen as its jathera. Thus among the Dhillon of Mahrampur it is not Gola, its founder, who is worshipped, but Phalla, his descendant and a man of some note. And at Garcha the Garcha Jats worship Adhiana, a spot in the village named after Adi, one of their ancestors who was an ascetic. The place now forms a grove from which fuel may be gathered by Brahmans, but no wood may be cut by Jats under penalty of sickness or disaster. When the jathera is at any distance it is sufficient to turn towards it at a wedding and it is only visited at long intervals.

In marked contrast to the tribal jathera is the village bhumia of the south-eastern Punjab. There, when a new colony or village is founded in the south-east Punjab the first thing to be done before houses are actually built is to raise a mound of earth on a spot near the proposed village and plant a jand tree on it. Houses are then built. The first man who dies in the village, whether he be a Brahman, a Jat or a Chamar, is burnt or buried on this mound, and on it is built a masonry shrine which is named after him. The fortunate man is deified as the Bhumia or earth-god, and worshipped by Hindus of all classes in the village, being looked upon as its sole guardian deity. At weddings the bride-groom before starting to the bride's village resorts to this shrine and makes offerings to him. If an ox is stolen, a house is broken into, or pestilence breaks out, if crops fail or the rainfall is scanty, if locusts

[Page-375]
Jat divisions

visit the village or any other calamity befall, Bhumia's shrine is the first place to which the Jats resort for divine help.

Such faith is placed in this deity that in the event of plague the villagers will not vacate their houses without consulting the Bhumia.

Instances of Jats accepting votive offerings appear to be very rare, but Jats, not Brahmans, take the offerings made in cash or kind at the shrine of Sitla Devi at Gurgaon.

The divisions of the Jats.

The Jats of the south-east Punjab have two territorial divisions:

1. Deswali from des, the plain or country, and
2. Bagri, from the bagar or upland in Bikaner.

The Deswali claim to be superior to the latter, but it is often difficult to say to which group a tribe belongs. Thus the Bhainiwal claim to be Deswali, but they are really Bagri as are probably the Chahals — whose connection with the legend of Guga is consistent with their immigration from the Bagar.

The Jats of the south-east have also two other divisions,

1. Shibgotra and
2. Kashib-gotra.

The former are also called asl or real Jats and confess that their progenitor sprang from Shiva's matted hair and was so called jat bhadra. They have 12 gots, which are descended from the 12 sons of Barh, who conquered a large part of Bikaner. His descendants are chiefly sprung from Punia and they held the country round Jhansal.

These 12 gots are —

1. Punia.
2. Dhanian.
3. Chhacharik.
4. Bali.
5. Barbra.
6. Solahan.
7- Chiria.
8. Chandia.
9. Khokha.
10. Dhanaj.
11. Letar.
12. Kakar.

At weddings the Brahman at the sakha or announcement gives out their gotra as Kashib-gotra — not Shib-gotra. These 12 gots are said not to form exogamous groups, but only to marry with the Kashib-gotra* who claim Rajput descent. The Shib-gotras must, however


*Original Rajput clan. Jat tribes derived from it.
Tunwar ... Palania, Bachhi, Nain, Malian, Lanba. Khatgar, Karb, Jataasra, Dhand, Bhado, Kharwal, Dhaka; Sokhira, Banchiri, Malu, Rohil. Sakan, Berwal and Naru.
Chauhan ... Bhakar, Khonga, Lakhlan, Sawanch, Sohu, Chahal, Ghel, Rao, Nahra, Pankhal, Luni, Jaglan, Bhanniwal
[Page-376]
Jat totems

form exogamous sections, though it may be that, as a general rule, they give daughters to the Kashib-gotra. The term Shib-gotra clearly implies some disparagement, but the Punia were once an important tribe because there used to be six cantons of Jats on the borders of Hariana and Bikaner, and of these four, viz., Punia, Kassua,* Sheoran and Godara consisted of 360 villages each. The Bagri Jats have certain sections which might appear totemistic, but very rarely is any reverence paid to the totem. Such are :—

Karir, a tree,
Kohar, a hatchet,
Waihri, a young heifer,
Bandar, monkey,
Gidar, jackal ; also
Kataria, sword, and
Gandasia, axe,
Pipla, pipal, and
Jandia, jand tree, all in tahsil Hansi. The
Jaria and others are said to be named from parts of the ber tree, but Jaria itself is also explained as meaning 'descended from twins, ‘Jora,' and they are said to be an offshoot of the Gathwal.
Mor is so called because a peacock protected their ancestor from a snake. :Pankhal, peacock’s feather, is so called because a Dohan Jat girl had been given in marriage to one Tetha, a Rajput of Musham. The couple disagreed and Tetha aided by the royal forces attacked the tribe and only those who had placed peacock’s feathers on their heads were spared.
Jun is said to mean louse, and
Goraya, blue cow or nilgai.††

Legha, Janawa, Bedwal, Mahlu, Wiha, Mehran, Raparia, Bhariwas, Bohla, Mor, Sinhmar, Mahil, Goyat, Lohan, Sheoran* Lobhawat, Somaddhar, Dohan, Hela, Lohach, Rampuria, Sedhu, Hoda, Samin, Rojia, Bhana alias Chotia, Bhattu, Rar and Lomadh.
Bhatti ... Lahar, Sara, Bharon, Makar, Mond, Kohar, Saharan, Isharwal, Khetalan, Jatai, Khodma, Bloda, Batho and Dhokia.
Saroya ... Kalerawan, Bhore, Hinjrawan, Saroya, Kajla, Ghanghas, Sarawat, Sori, Khot and Balra.
Punwar ... Kharwan, Pachar, Loh-Chab and Mohan.
Khokhar ... Bohla and Khokhar.
Joiya ... Pasal, Mondhla, Khichar, Jani, Machra, Kachroya, Sor and Joiya.
Rathor ... Dullah and Gawarna.
Gahlot ... Godara.
Puniar ... Sonda and Tarar.
Lal ... Jaria.
Ude ... Jakhar.
Kachhwai ... Dhondwal.
Kinchi ... Khichar.
* The Kassua cannot be traced.
† Elliot's Races of the North-Western Provinces, II, p. 55.
†† Certain villages in Hissar derive their names from a tradition that a giant was killed and each of his limbs gave a name to the place where it fell, e.g. : —
1. Sarsud = where the giant's sar (head) fell.
2. Balak = where the giant's bāl (hair) fell.
3. Palra = where the giant's pab (foot) fell.
4. Bichpari = where the giant's middle part (bich-ka-hissa) body fell.
5. Kanwa = where the giant's kan (ear) fell.
6. Hathwa = where the giant's hath (hand) fell.
7. Jeura = where the giant's jewar (ornament) fell.
[Page-377]
Jatāla-Jathiāna
Social distinctions among the Jats

Among the Jats the only* social distinctions are the well-known 'Akbari' or Darbāri makāns — 35 in number according to the usual account. But in Amritsar the Akbari is only the highest of a series of four grades, the Aurangzebi (or those admitted to this rank in the time of Aurangzeb), Khalsāi (or those admitted in Sikh times) and Angrezi (or those admitted since British rule began) being the other three, and no less than 150 villages, all generally speaking in the Manjha, now claim Darbāri status. There is also a Shahjahdni grade, the Sansi Jats, of Raja Sansi, having been admitted in the reign of Shah Jahan.

The origin of the Akbari group is thus described. When the emperor Akbar took in marriage the daughter of Mihr Mitha, a Jat, of the Manjha, 35 of the principal Jat, and 36 of the leading Rajput families countenanced the marriage and sent representatives to Delhi. Three of those Jat families are still found in Hoshiarpur, and are called the Dhaighar Akbari, as they comprise the Bains Jats†† of Māhilpur, the Lahotas of Garhdiwala and the Khungas of Budhipind, which latter is styled the 'half' family, so that the three families are called the 2-1/2 (dhāighar). The Akbari Jats follow some of the higher castes in not allowing remarriage of widows, and in practising darbāra, which is a custom of giving vails at weddings to the mirrāsis of other Akbari families. Their parohits also place the janeo on them at their marriages, removing it a few days afterwards. Below the Akbari (according to the Hoshiarpur account) is the Darbāri grade, descendants of those who gave daughters to the emperor Jahāngir. Thus some of the Man Jats are Darbāris, and they will only marry with Darbaris as a rule. But they will accept brides from Jats of grades below the Darbari provided the dower (dahej) is sufficiently large.

As regards Gurdaspur, Sir Louis Dane wrote : — " Some of the better gots of Hindu Jats or those living in celebrated villages or nāmas will not give their daughters to men of gots considered socially inferior, and the restriction often gave rise to female infanticide, as eligible husbands were scarce."

Jatala (जटाला), (1) an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery and Amritsar, (2) a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jatatir (जटातिर ), a Jat clan found in Sialkot.

Jathedar (जथेदार), a Sikh title. Lit. one who keeps the jaṭ or uncut matted hair of a faqir and so a strict Sikh as opposed to the Munna Sikh who shaves. See also under Jogi.

Jathiana (जथियाना), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.


* Mr. J. R. Drummond indeed observed :— " There can be no question that the Randhawas, who are still Thakurs in their native homes, I believe, in Rajasthan, are at the head of the hypergamous scale among those Jats who have a more or less distinctly Rajput origin, such as the Gil, Sindhu, Sidhu-Barar (or Variar), Pannu and the like." Unfortunately no one seems able to say what the hypergamous scale among the Jat gots is, and several informants explicitly say that there is none.
† The Mihr Mitha who figures in the tradition of the Dhariwals must be intended. It is hardly necessary to say that neither Akbar nor Jahangir ever took a Jat bride.
†† The Bains Jat have a Bāra or group of 12 villages near Mahilpur, but the possession of a bāra does not appear to make the Gil, Sanghe or Pote Jats Akbari though they too possess baras. The Man too have a bara, but some of them are only Darbaii and not all of them have that standing.

[Page-378]
Jathol-Jatu

Jathol (जठोल), a small Jat clan found in Sialkot, and in Amritsar (where it is classed as agricultural). Its jathera, Baba Amar Singh, has a khangah of masonry, to which offerings are made at weddings.

Jatiana (जटियाना ), a clan of the Sials.

Jatkatta (जतकत्ता), from jat = wool or the hair of the body ; and katta — spinning : a weaver (Gujrat Sett. Rep., Mackenzie, § 53).

Jatke (जतके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jatle (जतले), a Gujar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jatoi (जतोई), (1) an agricultural clan found in Shahpur ; (2) one of the original main sections of the Baloch, but not now an organised tribe. Found wherever the Balocli have spread. In Montgomery it is classed as agricultural. In the Chenab Colony it is the most numerous of the Baloch tribes.

Jatowal (जटोवाल), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jatu (जाटू), a Rajput tribe, said to be a Tunwar clan who once held almost the whole of Hissar, and are still most numerous in that District and the neighbouring portions of Rohtak and Jind. When the great Chauhan Bisaldeo overthrew Anangpal II, the Tunwar king of Delhi, the Tunwars were driven from Delhi to Jalopattan in the Sheikhawatti country north of Jaipur and there Dul Ram, a descendant of Anangpal, ruled. His son Jairat extended the Tunwar dominion to Bagar in Jaipur and the tract is still called the Tunwarwati. In fact the Tunwar of Hariana are said to have been divided into three clans named after and descended from, three brothers, Jatu, Raghu and Satraula, of which clans Jatu was by far the largest and most important, and once ruled from Bhiwani to Agroha. They are the hereditary enemies of the Punwar of Rohtak, and at length the sandhills of Mahm were fixed upon as the boundary between them, and are still known as Jatu Punwar ka daula or the Jatu-Punwar boundary. In Karnal, however, the Jatu describe themselves as Chauhan also.

Jairat (जैरात), the Tunwar, had a son, Jatu, (so-called because he had hair, jata, on him at the time of his birth) by a Sankla Rajputni, and his son migrated to Sirsa where he married Palat Devi, daughter of Kanwarpal, a Siroha Rajput and sister of the mother of the great Guga Pir. Kanwarpal made the tract about Hansi over to his son-in-law and the latter sent for his brothers Raghu and Satraula from Jilopattan to share it with him. Jatu's sons, Sidh and Harpal, founded Rajli and Gurana villages, and on the overthrow of the Chauhan Rai Pithaura by the Muhammadans the Jatus extended their power over Agroha, Hansi, Hissar and Bhiwani, their boast being that they once ruled 1,440 kheras or settlements. Amrata also seized 40 villages in the Kanaud (Mohindargarh) ilaqa of Patiala. The three brothers, Jatu, Raghu and Satraula divided the pargana of Hansi into three tappas, each named after one of themselves. Umr Singh, one of their descendants took Tosham, and after him that ilaqa was named the Umrain tappa, while that of Bhiwani was called the Bachwau lappa, after one Bacho, a Jatu. At Siwani Jatu's descendants bore the title of Rai, those of Talwandi Rana that of Rana, while those at Kulheri were called Chaudhri. In


191. Baba Jowahir Singh, a Sikh saint, has numerous followers in the north-eastern Punjab, amongst both Hindus and Sikhs. Their number now registered is, however, mach smaller than that returned in 1891 (as shown in the margia). Baba Jowahir Singh was the grandson of Ganga Da's, one of the disciples of Amar Das, the 3rd Sikh Guru. There is a temple at Khatkar Kalan in the Julandhar District, dedicated to his name and a pond in the Ajmergarh Parganah of the Patiala State is held sacred to his memory. This pond known as Joharji is said to be of great sanctity and the story related by the followers of Baba Jowahir Singh at this place is somewhat different to that noted by Mr. Maclagan in paragraph 97 of the Punjab Census Report, 1891. This place is supposed to be associated with the death of Sarwan at the hands of Dasharatha, father of Rama. The particular spot where the tragedy is believed to have been enacted is marked to the south-east of the Joharji. The pond lies in the centre, encircled by two streams, one named Kaushalya (after Rama's mother) which flows in the natural course from north to south, and the other called Kekai (name of Rama's step-mother) folio which an abnormal course from south to north. The unnatural course of the latter stream is ascribed to the perverse attitude taken up by Kekai, the queen of Dasharatha, in connection with the exile of Rama. King Dasharatha, they say, had a palace on the ridge with abodes for the Ranis. The pond was subsequently possessed by a man-eating Rakshasa (demon) named Mahiya. Baba Jowahir Singh killed him by his Yoga power and rid the place of his oppression. The Phauri (wooden instrument for removing litter) with which he struck the demon is preserved in the temple built by the late Maharaja Narendra Singh of Patiala. But Mahiya is said to have prayed to the Baba Sahib for a blessing, and this was granted, the Baba assuring him that all the pilgrims would worship him (the demon) as well. All pilgrims, therefore, after making their obeisance at the temple of Baba Jowahir Singh, offer a goat in the name of Mahiya. The place where Mahiya died is also marked.

[Page-379]
Jaun — Jewatha

1857 the people at once revived all their ancient titles, but the descendants of Harpal, a son of Jatu, remained loyal, the descendants of Sadh, another of Jatu's sons, having rebelled.

The Jatus, Raghus and Satraulas do not, it is said, intermarry. The Jatus are nearly half Hindus, the rest being Muhammadans. The Jatus appear to give their name to Jatusana in Gurgaon.

Jaun (जून), a tribe of Jats descended from an eponym, who was a Jat, of Hinjraon descent.

Jaund (जौंद), an agricultural clan found in Shahpur.

Jaura (जौरा), (1) a Hindu and Muhammadan Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery, (2) a Khokhar clan (agricultural] found in Shahpur.

Jausan (जौसन), (1) a Hindu Kamboh clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery ; (2) a Khatri got.

Jawa (जवा), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jawaki (जवकी), a well-known sept of the Adam Khel Afridis, dwelling in the range between Kohat and Peshawar. In Kohat they hold Upper Gandiali and Togh.

Jawia (जविया), a tribe of Jats, immigrants from Sirsa but found in Sialkot. They claim kinship with the Bhattis, but now intermarry with Jats.

Je...

Jethal (जेथल), a small clan, found only in the Jhelum Thal between the river of that name and the Lilla estates. It claims Bhatti Rajput descent, but its pedigree is traced to Bhutta who some 12 or 14 generations ago married the sister of Ghorian king's wife. The king, however, drove Bhutta with his 21 sons into the Bar, whence Jethal crossed the Jhelum and settled at Ratta Pind, now a mound near Kandwal. They also say they were settled at Neh of Sayyid Jalal in Bahawalpur which points to descent from the Bhuttas of Multan. They usually intermarry among themselves, but occasionally with the Lillas. Omitting the mixture of Hindu and Musalman names which appears in the earlier part of their pedigree table, it is given as follows : —

Raja Panwar. → Gandar. → Salangi. → Viran. → Bhutta. → Jethal (and 20 others, including Langah, Bhatti, Kharral and Harral). → Akki. → 1. Sarang. (11th generation now in Jethal) 2. Mela. 3. Kah. (10th generation in Kahana) 4. Wasawi. (12th generation in Dhudhi and Musiana.)

Note- The first four names appear in the tree or the Bhuttas.

Jetozai (जेतोजई), a Pathan clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery. Jewatha (जेवाथा), a sept of the Silhuria Rajputs, found in Sialkot.

[Page-380]
Jhahel-Jhajhar

Jh...

Jhabel (झबेल) (or as they are called in the Ain-i-Akbari Chhabel), a fishing tribe found in the Multan and Muzaffargarh districts, and in Jullundhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur. Closely resembling the Kebals and Mors the Jhabels in Muzaffargarh once had the reputation of being cannibals. They live mainly by fishing and gathering pabbans (seeds of the water-lily), say they came from Sindh and of all the tribes in the District alone speak Sindhi. They also enjoy the title of Jam. Many have now taken to agriculture and all are reckoned good Muhammadans. They are fond of growing samuka,* a grain sown in the mud left by the rivers. In Gurdaspur they say they came from the south, and that their ancestors were sportsmen, a Bhatti, founder of their Katre got, a Naru, from whom sprang their Nareh and Bhugge gots, and so on. They fell into poverty and took to selling game. These Jhabels do not intermarry with those on the Indus and Sutlej, but only with those on the north bank of the latter river. Some are cultivators and even own land. Others are shikaris, but some are boatmen and they look down on those who are and refuse to marry with them. The Jhabels of Jullundur have the same usages as the Meuns and other fisher-folk of that District. Some of them, owing to want of employment as boatmen have left their villages for the towns and taken to tailoring, weaving, well-sinking, chaukiddri, and small posts in Government service.

The Jhabels also preserve the Jhulka custom. The large fire needed for cooking the eatables required at a wedding must be lighted by a son-in-law of the family, but when he attempts to bring a blazing bundle (jhulka) of wood, etc., and put it under the furnace, he is met by all the females of the family and has to run the gauntlet, as they try to stop his progress with pitchers full of water, bricks, dust, and sticks. This game is played so seriously that the women's dresses often catch fire and they, as well as the son-in-law, are seriously hurt. When he finally succeeds in lighting the fire, the son-in-law gets a turban and a rupee, or more if the family is well-to-do. This usage is occasionally observed among Arains, Dogars, and Gujars too, but it is falling out of fashion.

Like the Meuns the Jhabels will not give the milk or curds of an animal which has recently calved to any one, not even to a son-in-law, outside the family. After 10 or 20 days rice is cooked in the milk and it is given to maulavis or to beggars. It can then be given away to anybody. The Jhabels are good Muhammadans, but revere Khwaja Pir or Khwaja Khizr, the god of water, and offer porridge to him in lucky quantities at least once a year. It is taken to the river or a well and after some prayers distributed there or in the village to all who are present.

Jhad (झड), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jhaik (झाईक), a sept of Kanets which derives its name from Jhalri in Rawin pargana of Jubbal and supplies hereditary wazirs to that State. At one time these wazirs virtually ruled Jubbal.

Jhajhar (झाझर), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.


* Ophismenus frumentaceus.

[Page-381]
Jhakar—Jhinwar

Jhakar (झाकर) ,a Jat clan (agriculfcural) found in Shujabad tahsil, Multan District.

Jhakkar (झाक्कर), son of Jai and eponym of a tribe in Multan : see Nun.

Jhalan (झलन), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jhalli (झल्ली), a small clan of Jats in Ambala. The word is said to mean " mad."

Jhaman (झामन ), Chhaman, a man, apparently a Chuhra, who fulfils the functions of a Brahman at a Chuhra wedding and conducts the eevtn pheras at it: (Sirmur).

Jhamat (झमत), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan and Montgomery. See Jhummat.

Jhanda (झंडा), a Mahtam clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jhandir (झंदिर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar and Multan.

Jhandir (झंदीर), a semi-sacred tribe of Muhammadans said to be of Qureshi origin like the Nekokara. Though they do not openly profess to be religious directors, there is a certain odour of sanctity about the tribe. Most of them can read and write, and they are " particularly free from ill deeds of every description." They own land in the extreme south of the Jhang District and are also found in the Mailsi tahsil of Multan. They are said to have been the standard-bearers of one of the great saints, whence their name.

Jhando (झंदो), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jhanduana (झंदुआना), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jhanjote (झंजोते), an Arain clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jhara (झरा), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jhari (झरी), a sept of Jats in Jind : see under Jaria.

Jhatta (झत्ता), a section of the Mirasis, from one of whose families Jahangir (they assert) took Nur Jahan, who was a Mirasan, and so it got the title of jhatta.

Jhawari (झावरी), a Rajput clan (agricultural) found in Shahpur.

Jhedu (झेदु ), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jhinwar (झीन्वर), Jhiwar. The Jhinwar,* also called Kahar in the east, and Mahra, where a Hindu, in the centre of the Province, is the carrier, water-man, fisherman and basket-maker of the east of the Punjab. He carries palanquins and all such burdens as are borne by a yoke on the shoulders ; and he specially is concerned with water, insomuch that the cultivation of waternuts and the netting of water fowl are for the most part in his hands, and he is the well-sinker of the Province. He is a true village menial, receiving customary dues and performing customary service. In this capacity he supplies all the baskets needed by the cultivator, and brink's water to the men in the fields at harvest time, to the houses where the women are secluded, and at weddings and other similar occasions. His


* Or Jhir, fem. Jhiri, in Kangra, where the Jhir is a water- earner.
Mahra seems to be a title of respect, just as a Bhishti is often addressed as Jamadar. But in Jind at least the Mahra is a palanquin-bearer and the Saqqa is a water-carrier! Mahar is a synonym for "chief" in the south-west of the Province. When employed as a waterman the Jhinwar is often called Panihara. The carriage of burdens slung from a bangi or yoke seems to be almost unknown in the west of the Punjab.
[Page-382] to [Page-386]
To be Expanded
[Page-387]
Jhonjah—Jodh

Jhonjah (झोंजाह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jhoon (झून), see under Pacheda.

Jhor (झोर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan and Amritsar.

Jhotah (झोटा), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jhujh (झुझ), (1) an agricultural clan found in Shahpur; (2) a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jhullan (झुल्लन), an agricultural tribe found in Bahawalpur. They claim descent from Rai Gajun, and pay dan or nazar to their chief. The Drighs are said to be akin to the Jhullar, but others say they are a Bhatti sept.

Jhummat (झुम्मत), a Rajput clan (agricultural) found in Shahpur.

Jhumriala (झुमरीयाला), lit. " family servant," a term applied in Chamba, to any tenant who rents land in cash or kind,

Jhunjh (झुंझ), a tribe in Bahawalpur which claims to be a branch of the Janjuhas though others say they are Bhattis. They have three septs : Gasura, Ghakhkhar and Tanwari.

Ji...

Jildi (जिल्दी), see under Ulama.

Jindeke (जिन्देके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jindwali (जिन्दवाली), a sept of Rajputs descended from Manak Chand, son of Sangar Chand, 16th Raja of Kahlur.

Jistkani (जिस्त्कानी), formerly a powerful tribe in the Sindh Sagar Doab, with head-quarters at Mankera and still numerous there. They take brides from the Lasharis, of whom they arc believed 1o be a branch. Found also as a clan in the Gurchani and Drishak tribes. Mackenzie calls them Jaskani and says they have 10 septs.*

Jo...

Jo (जो ), (1) vulg. Thakur. — A title applied in Lahul to the noble families which rank with the Nonos of Spiti and the old ruling family of Ladakh. The Jos of Barthog in Lahul frequently marry princesses of that family, a privilege bestowed on them because, when the Kullu Rajas attempted to wrench Lahul from Ladakh, they remained true to their allegiance. Like the Nonos of Spiti the Jos of Lahul cannot always find husbands for their own daughters, and so some of the minor Jo families have begun to sell their girls to ordinary Kanet families in the Kullu valley, the climate of which is very trying in summer to ladies born and bred in Lahul. On the other hand, the Jos have begun to marry Kullu women.

(2) a Jat sept without whose nominal leave the Mair chaudhris of Kot Khilan in Jhelum cannot give a girl in marriage.

Jocho (जोचो), fem. Jo-Jo, Tib., the son-in-law of a high-class family, in Spiti : see Chahzang.

Jodh (जोढ़), see under Janjua. The Jud of Babar's time, the Jodh still hold a few villages in the Chakwal tahsil of Jhelum and claim Janjua descent.


* Jaskani, Sargani, Murani, Shahani,Mandrani, Momdani, Kandani, Lashkarani, Kupchani and Mallian : Capt. Hector Mackenzie, Leiaand Bukker Sect. Rep., 1865, p. 23, For their history sec under Mirrani.
[Page-388]
Jodha — Jogi

Jodha (जोधा), Jodah, a Dogar clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jodhra (जोधरा), Jodra (जोदरा), a Rajput tribe of the Attock District, where it holds the south-east of Pindigheb tahsil, owning a little less than a third of its cultivated area and paying more than a third of its revenue.

It is said to have come from Jammu or, according to another story, from Hindustan and to have held its present tract before the Gheba settled alongside of them. The Jodhras’ eponym was, they say, converted by Mahmud of Ghazni, yet they still retain traces of Hindu customs in their festivals and ceremonies. They appear to have come to the District about the end of the 16th century, and possessed themselves of the Soan and Sil ilaqas which, with much of Tallagang tahsil, they ruled from Pindi Gheb.* They found Awans in possession of the soil and retained them as tenants. Malik Aulia Khan was the first Jodhra Malik of any importance known to history. Under the Mughals he held Pindi Gheb, Tallagang and parts of Chakwal and Fatehjang tahsils as revenue assignee and he probably it was who overran Tallagang. The Sikhs found the Jodhra power at its zenith, but it rapidly decayed owing to the secession of important branches of the tribe and the rise of the Ghebas. The tradition that the Gheba is really a branch of the Jodhra is supported by the fact that the town of Pindi Gheb is held by the Jodhra, not by the Gheba. Cracroft described them as " fine spirited fellows who delight in field sports, have horses and hawks, are often brawlers, and are ever ready to turn out and fight out their grievances, formerly with swords, and now with the more humble weapons of sticks and stones." The Maliks of Pindi Gheb are the leading Jodhra family.

Jodsi (जोदसी), see Jotsi (जोतसी). Jodsi is the form used in Lahul, where the jodsis or astrologers hold a little land rent-free, called mpo-zing, and could not apparently now be evicted, however inefficient. The beds or physicians hold man-zing land on a similar tenure. Cf. Hensi and Lohar.

Jogi (जोगी); fem. Jogi. J — A devotee, a performer of jog. The Yoga system of philosophy, as established by Patanjali, taught the means whereby the human soul might attain complete union with the Supreme Being. The modern Jogi, speaking generally, claims to have attained that union and to be, therefore, a part of the Supreme ^ and, as such, invested with powers of control over the material universe. The history of the deve-


* Settling originally on the north bank of the Sil the Jodhras founded Pindi Gheb, then called Dirahti. Later they moved their colony to the south bank of the Sil. Pindi Gheb was also named Pindi Malika-i-Shahryar and Pindi Malika-i-Aulia, the village of the royal princess or queen of the saints, according to Raverty.
† For a detailed account of the Jodhra families see the Attock Gazetteer, 1907, pp. 78-81.
†† Jogini is a female demon, created by Durgi, a witch or sorceress : see Piatt's s. v. The Yoginis or sorceresses of Hindu mythology may be of a modification of the Yakshinis or Dryads of Buddhist iconography.— Grunwedel, Buddhist Art in India, p. 111, The jogini is a sprite common in modern Punjab folklore, especially in the Hills. Thus in Kullu besides the devtas there are other beings who must from time to time be propitiated, but who do not generally possess temples. The woods and waterfalls and hill-tops are peopled by jognis, female spirits of a malignant nature, the gray moss which floats from the branches of firs and oaks in the higher forests is " the jognis" hair. The jogni of Chul, a peak of tho Jalori ridge, sends hail to destroy the crops if the people of the villages below fail on an appointed day to make a pilgrimage to the peak and sacrifice sheep.
§ Pandit Hari Kishen Kaul dissents from this view and would say : — " Some of the modern Jogis claim supernatural prowess, acquired by practising austerities or by black magic." The point of the observation in the text is that the practice of austerities or religious exercises confers, directly or indirectly, dominion over the material universe.

[Page-389]
The term Jogi

lopment of the modern Jogi out of the ancient professors of Yoga is as fascinating as it is obscure, but it would be entirely beyond the scope of this article, the object of which is to give a matter-of-fact account of the actual beliefs and customs of the latter-day Jogi.

The term Jogi may be said to include two very distinct classes of persons. First are the Jogis proper, a regular religious order of Hindus, which includes both the Aughar Jogis and the Kanphatta Jogi ascetics who are followers of Gorakh Nath and priests and worshippers of Shiva.* These men are fully as respectable as the Bairagis, Gosains, and other religious orders. They are all Hindus, but the gharishti or secular Jogi, even if a Hindu, appears to be commonly called Rawal and makes a living by begging, telling fortunes, singing and the like. Another synonym for the Hindu Jogi is Nath. The second class is that miscellaneous assortment of low-caste faqirs and fortune-tellers, both Hindu and Musalman but chiefly Musalman, who are commonly known as Jogis. Every rascally beggar who pretends to be able to tell fortunes, or to practise astrological and necromantic arts in however small a degree, buys himself a drum and calls himself, and is called by others, a Jogi. These men include all the Musalmans, and probably a part of the Hindus of the eastern districts, who style themselves Jogis. They are a thoroughly vagabond set, and wander about the country beating a drum and begging, practising surgery and physic in a small way, writing charms, telling fortunes, and practising exorcism and divination ; or, settling in the villages, eke out their earnings from these occupations by the offerings made at the local shrines of the malevolent godlings or of the Sayads and other Musalman saints; for the Jogi is so impure that he will eat the offerings made at any shrine. These people, or at least the Musalman section of them, are called in the centre of the Punjab Rawals, or sometimes Jogi-Rawals, from the Arabic rammal, a diviner, which again is derived from ramal, "sand," with which the Arab magicians divine.++ The Jogi-Rawals of Kathiawar are said to be exercisers of evil spirits, and to worship a deity called Korial. In Sialkot the Jogis pretend to avert storms from the ripening crops by plunging a drawn sword into the field or a knife into a mound, sacrificing goats, and accepting suitable offerings. Mr. Benton wrote: — “The Jogi is a favourite character in Hindustani fiction. He there appears as a jolly playful character of a simple disposition, who enjoys the fullest liberty and conducts himself in the most eccentric fashion under the cloak of religion without being called in question," The Jogis used to be at deadly feud with the saniasis and 500 of the former were once defeated by two or three hundred Saniasis. Akbar witnessed the fight and sent soldiers smeared with ashes to assist the Saniasis who at length defeated the Jogis. §


* It might be more correct to say Bhairava, not Shiva.
† This was Sir Denzil Ibbetson's view, but the Gharishti or Grihasti Jogi is now accurately described as distinct from the Jogi Rawal. The latter may be by origin a Jogi, but he is a degenerate arid has now no connection with the Jogis properly so called.
†† The derivation of Rawal from ramal appears quite untenable. The word Rawal is used as a title in Rajasthan. It means ' lord ' or ' ruler ' and is thus merely a synonym of nath, but appears to be specially affected by Jogis of the Nag-nagin panth, see imfra p. 390.
§ E. U. I., V, p. 318.
[Page-390] to [Page-410] To be Added
[Page-410]

Johal- Johiya Johal (जोहल), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Johar (जोहर), a Hindu family of Talagang in Jhelum.

Joiya

Joiya (जोइया). The Joiya is one of the 36 royal races of Rajputs, and is described in the ancient chronicles as "lords of the Jangal-des," a tract which comprehended Hariana, Bhattiana, Bhatner, and Nagor. They also held, in common with the Dehia with whom their name is always coupled, the banks of the Indus and Sutlej near their confluence. Some seven centuries" ago they were apparently driven out of the Indus tract and partly subjugated in the Bagar country by the Bhatti; and in the middle of the 16th century they were expelled from the Joiya canton of Bikaner by the Rathor rulers for attempting to regain their independence. Tod remarks that "the Rajputs carried fire and sword into this country, of which they made a desert. Ever since it has

[Page-411]
Joiy a traditions

remained desolate, and the very name of Joiya is lost, though the vestiges of considerable towns bear testimony to a remote antiquity." The Joiya, however, have not disappeared. They still hold all the banks of the Sutlej from the Wattu border nearly as far down as its confluence with the Indus, though the Bhattis turned them out of Kahror, and they lost their semi-independence when their possessions formed a part of the Bahawalpur State ; they hold a tract in Bikaner on the bed of the old Ghaggar just below Bhatner, their ancient seat; and they are found in no inconsiderable numbers on the middle Sutlej of Lahore and Ferozepur and on the lower Indus of the Derajat and Muzaffargarh, about a third of their whole number being returned as Jats. The Multan bar is known to this day as the Joiya bar. General Cunningham says flint they are to be found in some numbers in the Salt Range or mountains of Jud, and identifies them with the Jodia or Yodia, the warrior class of India in Panini's time (450 B.C.), and indeed our figures show some 2,700 Joiya in Shahpur. But Panini's Jodia would perhaps more probably be the modern Gheba, whose original tribal name is said to be Jodra, and Gheba a mere title. The Joiya of the Sutlej and of Hissar trace their origin from Bhatner, and have a curious tradition, current apparently from Hissar to Montgomery, to the effect that they cannot trace their Rajput descent in the male line. The Hissar Joiya make themselves descendants in the female line of Sejaor Sameja, who accompanied the eponymous ancestor of the Bhatti from Muttra to Bhatner. This probably means that the Joiyas claim Yadu ancestry. The Montgomery Joiya have it that a lineal descendant of Benjamin, Joseph's brother, came to Bikaner, married a Raja's daughter, begot their ancestor, and then disappeared as faqir. The tradition is perhaps suggested by the word joi, meaning "wife." The Montgomery Joiya say that they left Bikaner in the middle of the 14th century and settled in Bahawalpur, where they became allies of the Langah dynasty of Multan, but were subjugated by the Daudpotra in the time of Nadir Shah.

The Multan Joiya say that they went from Bikaner to Sindh and thence to Multan. This is probably due to the fact of their old possessions on the Indus having died out of the tribal memory, and been replaced by their later holdings in Bikaner. They are described by Captan Elphiustone as “of smaller stature than the great Ravi tribes, and considered inferior to them in regard of the qualities in which the latter especially pride themselves, namely bravery and skill in cattle-stealing. They possess large herds of cattle and are bad cultivators."

The Mahars are a small tribe on the Sutlej opposite Fazilka, and are said to be descended from Mahar, a " brother of the Joiya. They are said to be quarrelsome, silly, thievish, fond of cattle, and to care little for agricultural pursuits."

In Bahawalpur the mirasis of the Joiyas have compiled for their a pedigree-table which makes them and the Mahars Quraishis by origin and descended from Iyas, a descendant of Mahmud of Ghazni. But the mirasis of each sept of the Joiyas give a different pedigree above Iyas, a fact which tends to show that the Joiyas were in their origin a confederation of warrior clans.

The Lakhwera sept and others recount the following tale. They say that Iyas, son of Bakr, came to Chuharhar (now Anupgarh), the capital of Raja Chuhar Sameja, in the guise of a faqir, and married Nal, the Raja's eldest daughter,* by whom he became the father of Joiya in 400 H. Joiya was brought up in the house of his mother's father as a Hindu.


* Pal and Sal being the other two.

[Page-412]
The Joiya septs

though his father was a Muhammadan and had married Nal by nikah and so Joiya's children, Jabbu, Isung, Bisung, Nisung, and Sahan Pal, received Hindu names. From the youngest (apparently) of these sons the Joiyas claim descent.* The Joiyas as a tribe regard Ali Khan, Lakhwera, ra'is of Shahr Farid as their chief, and his influence extends over the Joiyas in Multan. A Joiya who has committed theft will not deny the fact before this chief.

The Lakhwera, Bhadera, Ghazi Khanana, Kulhera, Daulatana, Kamera and Mangher septs and a few others, observe the vinayak ceremony. This consists in slaughtering two rams (ghattas) and making a pulao (with rice cooked in ghi) of the flesh. This is given in charity in the name of their ancestor Allahditta who single-handed resisted a party of 50 Baloch who tried to raid the cattle he was tending in the Cholistan. Allahditta was killed, but his bravery is commemorated in the winaik and his tomb in the Taj-Sarwar is greatly frequented by the tribe. Lunan's name is also mentioned in the winaik, because he fell in this tight with Lahr Joiya, a descendant of Jai Sung at Kharbara in Bikaner, where his tomb still exists. The descendants of the Joiyas shown in the pedigree-table from Bansi upwards observe only the winaik of Lunan, not that of Allahditta.

The Joiyas are brave, but, like the Wattus, addicted to theft. The Lakhwera sept is the highest in the social scale and has a great reputation for courage. The tribe is devoted to horses and buffaloes. No Joiya considers it derogatory to plough with his own hands, but if a man gives up agriculture and takes to trade or handicraft the Joiyas cease to enter into any kind of relationship with him. Sahn Pal is said to have coined his own money at Bhatner, a proof that he exercised sovereign power. Bawa Farid-ud-Din, Shakarganj, converted Lunan, Ber and Wisul to Islam and blessed Lunan, saying " Lunan, dunan, chaunan" i.e., "may Lunan's posterity multiply." These three brothers wrested the fortress of Bhatinda from the Slave Kings of Delhi and ruled its territory, with Sirsa and Bhatner, independently.

Lakhkho, son of Lunan, headed a confederation of the Joiyas, Bhattis, Rathors and Waryas against the Vikas, or Bikas, the founders of Bikaner, whose territory they devastated until their king, Raja Ajras, gave his daughter Kesar in marriage to Lakhkho, and from that time onwards the Hindu Rajputs of Bikaner gave daughters to the Muhammadan Joiyas as an established custom up to within the last 50 years, when the practice ceased.

After Lakhkho, Salim Khan rose to power in the time of Aurangzeb. He founded a Salimgarh which he gave to Pir Shauq Shah, whence it became called Mari Shauq Shah, and founded a second Salimgarh, which was however destroyed by Aurangzeb's orders, but on its ruins his son Farid Khan I founded Shahr Farid in Bahawalpur. After the downfall of the Mughal empire the Lakhwera chiefs continued for some time to pay tribute at Multan and Nawab Wall Muhammad Khan Khakwani, its governor, married a Joiya girl, Ihsan Bibi, and thus secured their adherence, which enabled him to find a refuge among the Admera and Saldera Joiyas when the Mahrattas took possession of Multan in 1757 A. D. After this the Joiyas under Farid Khan II revolted against Salih Muhanmaad Khan, whom the Mahrattas had appointed governor of Multan, and plundered his territory, but in 1172 A. D., when Ahmad Shah, Abdali, had expelled the Mahrattas from Multan he re-appointed Wali Muhammad Khan to its governorship and to him the Joiyas submitted. Under the emperor Zaman Khan, however, the Joiyas again rose in rebellion and at the instance of the governor of Multan Nawab Mubarak Khan of Bahawalpur annexed the territory of Farid Khan II.

The Joiya septs are very numerous, 46 being enumerated as principal septs alone. Of these the more important are the Lakhwera, Daulatana, Bhadera Nihal-ka, Ghazi-Khanana, Jalwana, which has a sub-sept called Bhaon, their ancestor having been designated Nekokara-Bhai or the " virtuous brother " by Abdulla Jahanian. Most of the Joiya septs are eponymous, their names ending in -ka and sometimes in -era.

The following septs are found in Montgomery (where they are classed as Rajput agriculturists) : — Akoke, Bahlana, Bhatti, Firozke, Bassanke,


* This table is printed in full in the Bahawalpur Gazetteer, p. 46.
† Joiyas are divided into a large number of "naks" : (i) Lakhwera. (ii) Mahmudera, Kamrana, Madera (all three equal), (iii) Jalwana and Daulatana. The grading of the tribe in the social scale is as above. They intermarry, as a rule, only among themselves, but a nak of one grade will not give daughters to a nak of a lower grade, though the former will take from the latter. :In the time of Akbar they were the predominate tribe of the Mailsi and Lodhran tahsils, and then, or soon after, four brothers, Jagan, Mangan, Luddan and Lai colonised the country round Luddan, and were followed by fresh bands from across the Sutlei. Multan Gr., 1902, p. 139.
[Page-413]
Jojah — Julaha

Jamlera, Jhandeke, Jugeke, Lakhuke, Langaheke, Luleke, Mihruke, Momeke, Panjera, Ranoke, Sahuke, Sanatheke and Shalbazi : and in Multan Sabul and Salhuka, and Saldera, but the latter are in this District classed as Jats. Indeed both in Montgomery and in Multan the Joijas as a tribe appear to rank both as Jats and Rajputs. In Amritsar they are classed as Rajputs and in Shahpur as Jats. In Montgomery the Kharrals and Hindu Kambohs each possess a Joiya (agricultural) clan.

Jojah (जोजाह ), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jokharu (जोखारू), a leech or leech-applier : see Gagra.

Jolah (जोलाह), a weaver, rope-maker, etc. : the jolahs in Yusafzai form a trade-guild, rather than a caste like the Julaha.

Joldaha (जोलदहा), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jomar (जोमर), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jondah (जोंदाह), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Jopo (जोपो), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.

Jorye (जोडये), (1) an Arain, (2) a Kamboh clan (both agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Josan (जोसन), (1) a Jat clan (agricultnral) found in Multan, (2) an Arain and (3) a Kamboh clan (both agricultural) found in Amritsar.

Josi (जोसी), Joshi (जोशी), a sub-division of Brahmana, apparently meaning astronomer (Jotasi).

Jotasi (जोतसी), -shi an astronomer or astrologer, from jotas (Sanskr. jyotisha, astrology). The Lahula form jodhsi, q. v., and in Spiti the choba is the hereditary astrologer. Josi or Joshi is apparently a derivative.

Ju...

Jud (जूद), a tribe, now almost extinct, which with the Janjua are described by Babar as holding half the Salt Range which was called the Koh-i-Jud after them. See under Jodh.

Juhan (जुहान), an Awan tribe said to be descended from Pusu and Hamir, the two sons of Jahan, son of Qutb Shah, found in Sialkot.

Julaha (जुलाहा), fem, -i, syn. safed-baf. The weavers proper, of which the Julaha, as he is called in the east, and the Paoli as he is called in the villages of the west, is the type, are an exceedingly numerous and important artisan, class, more especially in the western Districts where no weaving is done by the leather-working or scavenger castes. It is very possible that the Julaha, is of aboriginal extraction. Indeed Sir James Wilson who had, in the old Sirsa district, unequalled opportunities of comparing different sections of the people, is of opinion that the Julahas and Chamars are probably the same by origin, the distinction between them having arisen from divergence of occupation. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that the present position of the two is widely dissimilar. The Jnlaha does not work in impure leather, he eats no carrion, he touches no carcases, and he is recognised by both Hindu and Musalman as a fellow-believer and admitted to religious equality. In a word, the Chamar is a menial, the Julaha an artisan. The real fact seems to be that the word Julaha, from the Persian julah, a ball

[Page-414]
Julaha groups

of thread, the equivalent Hindi term being Tanti, is the name of the highest occupation ordinarily open to the outcast section of the community. Thus we find Koli-Julahas, Chamar-Julahas, Mochi-Julahas, Ramdasi-Julahas, and so forth : and it is probable that after a few generations these men drop the prefix which denotes their low origin, and become Julahas pure and simple. The weaver appears to be called Golah in Peshawar and Kasbi in Hazara.

The Julaha proper is scantily represented in the south-east Punjab, where his place is taken by the Koli* or Chamar-Julaha and Dhanak ; and he is hardly known in the Derajat, where probably the Jat does most of the weaving, in the rest of the Province he constitutes some 3 to 4 per cent, of the total population. He is generally a Hindu in Kangra and Delhi, and often Hindu in Karnal, Ambala, and Hoshiarpur; but on the whole some 92 per cent, of the Julahas are Musalman. Sikhs are few in number.

The Julaha confines himself almost wholly to weaving. He is not a true village menial, being paid by the piece and not by customary dues. He is perhaps the most troublesome of the artisan classes. Like the shoe-maker of Europe, he follows a wholly sedentary occupation, and in the towns at least is one of the most turbulent classes of the community. There is a proverbial saying : " How should a weaver be patient ?" Indeed the contrast between the low social standing and the obtrusive pretentiousness of the class is often used to point a proverb :

" A weaver by trade, and his name is Fatah Khan (‘victorious chief').”
" Lord preserve us! The weaver is going out hunting!"
" Himself a weaver, and he has a Saiyad for his servant !
" " What ! Pathans the bond servants of weavers ! " and so forth.

The Julaha sub-divisions are exceedingly numerous, but the names of most of the larger ones are taken from dominant land-owning tribes. Some of the largest are: —

  • Bhattis who are very widely distributed;
  • Khokhars chiefly found west of Lahore ;
  • Janjuas and Awans in the Rawalpindi division;
  • Sindhus in the Central Punjab, and the
  • Jaryals in Kangra. The
  • Kabirbansi are found in Ambala and Kangra, and apparently this word has become a true tribal naroe and now includes Musalmau Julahas. It is derived from the great Bhagat Kabir of Benares who was himself a Julaha, and whose teaching most of the Hindu Julahas profess to follow.

The eastern Julahas are said to be divided into two great sections, Deswale, or those of the country, and Tel, the latter being supposed to be descended from a Julaha who married a Teli woman. The latter are socially inferior to the former. In the Jumna districts there are also a Gangapuri (? Gangapari) and a Multani section, the former being found only in the Jumna valley and the latter on the borders of the Malwa.

Further west we find the Muhammadan Julahas divided into several groups, mostly territorial, e. g., in Jind we have the Jangli, Deswali,


* According to Mr. J. G. Delmerick Hindu weavers are only found in the Punjab cis-Sutlej. In the Punjab hills they are Kolis, in the United Provinces Kolis or Koris. In the plains they say themselves Ramdasias. In the Upper Punjab the weaver is always a Muhammadan, and is nulled Nurbaf or bafindah as well as Paoli, Sufedbaf or Julaha. In Sikh times they were glad to accept grain as wages; but they now exact cash.

[Page-415]
Julaha religions

Bajwarya and Parya sub-castes. But the Nabha version gives six groups, four territorial, viz., Jangla, Pawadhre (' of the Pawadh '), Bagri and Multani (these two latter are not found in the State), one called Pare and a sixth called Mochia which is nominated from the Mochis. The four groups found in Jind all eat and smoke together. The Janglis are found in the Jangal tract of tahsil Sangrur. They have hereditary Pirs, who are Sayyids. In adopting a Pir a murid (disciple) takes a cup of sharbat from his hand and drinks it, believing that by so doing he will attain to Bahisht (paradise). They revere their Pirs, give them a rupee and a wrapper when they come to their house and entertain them well. The Jangli gots are those of the Jats and Rajputs, and it is said that they were converted during the reign of Aurangzeb. Some of them still retain their Brahman parohils and give them money at weddings.

They only avoid their own got in marriage.

The Pare in Nabha follow the Muhammadan Law as to marriage, whereas the other five groups avoid four gots in marriage, like Hindus.*

The Muhamtnadan Julahas are said to be very strict observers of the Id-ul-fitr, just as the Qassabs (butchers) hold the Id-ul-zuha in special esteem, while the Kanghigarans affect the Shab-i-barat and the Sayyids the Muharram.


On the other hand the Hindu Julahas of these Phulkian States are divided into sectarian groups, such as the Ramdasis and Kabirpanthis.

The Ramdasis are the followers of the saint, Ram Das, the Chamar who was a chela of Lakhmir. Having abandoned his calling as a shoe-maker, he took up weaving and followed the teachings of the Granth. The Ramdasi do not eat, smoke or intermarry with the Chamars. They practise karewa and perform the wedding rite, according to the anand bani of the Granth Sahib, fire being lighted before the scripture and seven turns (pheras) being made round the fire, while the anand bani is read. No Brahman is called in. They burn their dead and carry the ashes to the Ganges. Some of their gots are : —

1. Bhangar.
2. Barah.
3. Berwal.
4. Sokri.
5. Chohan.
6. Saroe.
7. Samjar.
8. Senhmar.
9. Mati.
10.Goru.

The Kabirpanthis are the followers of Kabir Bhagat, chela (disciple) of Ramanand, founder of tho Ramanandi sect of the Bairagis. Kabir is said to have been born at Benares and adopted by a Musalman Julaha during the reign of Sikandar Shah Lodi (1488-1512 A. D.). The story goes that Kabir wished to be Ramanand's chela but he re- fused to adopt him as ha was a Muhammadan. So one day Kabir lay down on the road by which Ramanand went to bathe in the Ganges every morning, and by chance Ramananand touched him with his foot. He exclaimed "Ram, Ram," so Kabir took the word Ram as his Guru mantra and assumed the mala or beads and tilak or forehead mark of


* Muhammadan Julahas of the Katahra got in Zira tahsil of Ferozepur do not inter-marry in their own got and also avoid that of the mother's father. They also refuse to marry a son into a family in which his sister is married.
† N. I. N. Q., I. 643.

[Page-416]
Jun-Juta

a Bairagi. At first Ramanand was opposed to him, but after some discussion he accepted him as his chela. His doctrine and precepts are very popular and are embodied in the Sukh Nidhan Granth, the Bijak and other poems.

Kabir used to earn his livelihood by weaving blankets which he sold for 7 takkas a-piece. One day Falsehood (jhuth) appeared to him in human guise and urged him to demand 12 takkis instead of 7 : he did so but only received 9, so he said : —

Sache kahān to mariye — Jhuthe jagat patiāve,
Sat tahheka bhurā, — Mera nau takke bih jāwe,

"If I speak the truth, I shall suffer, since the world is content with lies, so I spoke false and sold my blanket for 9 takkas."

Since then falsehood has been rife in the world. Starch owes its origin to a sparrow's having let its droppings fall on Kabir's cloth, as he was weaving. Every weaver invokes Kabir or Luqman on beginning work.

As a Kabirpanthi, or follower of Kabir's teaching, the Julaha calls himself Kabirbansi or a descendant of Kabir, just as the Chhimba prefers to be called Namdevi (descendant of Namdeo). They will never take a false oath in the names of these supposed ancestors, and even when in the right, seldom venture to swear by them. Both castes are offended at the ordinary names of Julaha and Darzi, i. e., Chhimba).*

The Julahas, like the darzis, are recruited from various castes, but especially from the Dhanak and Chamar below, whereas the tailors are recruited from the castes above them.

Jun (जूं), lit. ' louse,' a Jat tribe found in Karnal, originally settled in Delhi.

Junan (जुनन), a tribe in Bahawalpur, descended from Jam Juna, who ruled Sind in the 8th century of the Hijra. They give their name to the State of Junagadh. The Junans migrated from Shikarpur in the 18th century A. D. and were granted lands in Bahawalpur.

Jund-Bugdial (जुन्द-बुगदियाल), a clan of the Awans, so called from Jund, their principal village, found in Rawalpindi and Pindi Gheb. Their traditions point to their being a race of marauders.

Junhal (जुन्हाल), a Rajput tribe, once numerous and powerful. It is found on the borders of Kashmir and the Kahuta tahsil, in Rawalpindi, in a beautiful country. They were nearly all destroyed by the Gakkhars and were rivals of the Hadwals.

Junhi (जुन्ही), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Jurai (जुरै), a Muhammadan Jat clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.

Juta (जूता), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan and Montgomery.


* N. I. N. Q. I., § 72.
† This must be the Jam, Juna, Samma, who succeeded Unar, the second ruler of the Samma dynasty. Duff's Chronology of India, p. 302.


End of J

Go to Index of the book