History of Punia gotra

[lrburdak]

Punia or Poonia is a gotra of jats in Rajasthan, India. They are the descendents of Paunbhadra rishi. They belong to the Naag race. As per Hisar Gazetteer they are considered to be of Shiva gotra, originated from the locks of Shiva. Shivi and Taxak were neighbourers. After the attack of Alexander the Shivi and Taxak people moved down Panjab and occupied jangladesh. Punia Gotra Jats were one of them to occupy parts of Jangladesh. They reached here in early century and ruled till 15th century when Rathores occupied the Jangladesh.

Rathores under the leadership of Bika and Kandal were spreading their rule in Jangladesh. At that time Punia Jat were ruling six states and about 300 villages. The extent of rule of Punias spread from Jhasal, which was their capital, to Marod. Marod town is situated at a distance of about 40 kms from present Rajgarh town. Godara Jats had aligned with Rathores due to which Punias faced a defeat and moved to Uttar Pradesh. Punias had strongly retaliated and were able to kill Rathore Raja Rai Singh.

Reference
Thakur Deshraj: Jat Itihas (Hindi), Maharaja Suraj Mal Smarak Shiksha Sansthan, Delhi, 1934.

[rajendersingh]

laxman ji namaskar,
punia is the largest gotra in jats.we find punia villages in rajsthan,haryana,up and jatt sikhs also. although i do not have details village by village ,but i got a fair idea about their concentration in haryana. there are many villages in hisar district in barwala tehsil namely.. kharak punia, bawani khera etc. punia villages are there in fatehabad district namely jandly kalan and jandly khurd etc.we got a few villages in jind also such as khera. then we got punia villages on jhajjar -rewari road also like khudan etc. its just a general picture.
i came across a very old map in some liabrary... almost whole of north rajasthan was shown as ''punian bagar''

[poonia]

Punia or Poonia is a gotra of jats in Rajasthan, India. They are the descendents of Paunbhadra rishi. They belong to the Naag race. As per Hisar Gazetteer they are considered to be of Shiva gotra, originated from the locks of Shiva. Shivi and Taxak were neighbourers. After the attack of Alexander the Shivi and Taxak people moved down Panjab and occupied jangladesh. Punia Gotra Jats were one of them to occupy parts of Jangladesh. They reached here in early century and ruled till 15th century when Rathores occupied the Jangladesh.

Rathores under the leadership of Bika and Kandal were spreading their rule in Jangladesh. At that time Punia Jat were ruling six states and about 300 villages. The extent of rule of Punias spread from Jhasal, which was their capital, to Marod. Marod town is situated at a distance of about 40 kms from present Rajgarh town. Godara Jats had aligned with Rathores due to which Punias faced a defeat and moved to Uttar Pradesh. Punias had strongly retaliated and were able to kill Rathore Raja Rai Singh.

Reference
Thakur Deshraj: Jat Itihas (Hindi), Maharaja Suraj Mal Smarak Shiksha Sansthan, Delhi, 1934.

Laxmanji,


You are absolutely correct about the Poonia Gotra history which dated way back in 1459 AD,when house of Joda were in process to annex the six Jat cantons namely.

1 Poonia 300 Bahaderan, Ajltpoor, Scedmookh, 'RaJgurh', Dadrewoh, Sankoo, etc

2 Beniwal 150 Bookurko, Sondurie, Munohurpoor, Kooie, Bae etc.

3 Johya 600 Jaetpoor, Koombanoh, Maha]in, Peepa sir Uodigoor etc.

4 Asiag'h 150 Raotsir, Birmsir, Dandoosir, Gundaeli

5 Saran 100 Kaijur, Phoag, Boochawas, Sowae, Badinoo Sirsilah. etc.

6 Godara 700 Poondrasir, Gosensir (great)) Shelihsir Gursisir) Garibdesir, Rungaysir) Kaloo) etc.


Ram Singh, son of Kalayan Singh, was slained by Poonia Jats , who were among the last 6 jat cantons succummed by Jodas conquest :


Here are the excerpts from Lt. Col James Tod's Annals & Antiqueties of Rajathan.:

Quote

They considered themselves, in short, as a distinct class, and, as a Pooniah Jit informed me " their wuttun was far beyond the five Rivers." Even in the name of one of the six communities (the Asiagh), on whose submission Beeka founded his new state, we have nearly the Asi, the chief of the four tribes from the Oxus and Jaxartes, who overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria.
The period of Rahtore domination over these patriarchal communities was intermediate between Timoor's and Baber's invasion of India. The former, who was the founder of the Chagitai dynasty, boasts of the myriads of Jat souls he " consigned to perdition " on the desert plains of India, as well as in Transoxiana. So we may conclude that successive migrations of this people from the great " storehouse of nations " went to the lands east of the Indus, and that the communities who elected Beeka as their sovereign, had been stablished therein for ages. The extent of their possessions justifies this conclusion ; for nearly the whole of the territory forming the boundaries of Bikaner was possessed by the six Jat cantons namely:—

1. Poonia, 2, Godara, 3. Saran 4. Asiagh 5. Beniwal 6. Johya, or Joweya


Calain Sing succeeded in S. 1603. He had three sons, 1. Rae Sing; 2. Ram Sing ; and 3, Pirthi Sing.

Rae Sing succeeded in S. 1630 (A.D. 1573)- Until this reign the Jats had, in a great degree, preserved their ancient privileges. Their maintenance was however, found rather inconvenient, by the now superabundant Rajpoot population, and they were consequently dispossessed of all political authority


Ram Sing, having thus destroyed the power of future resistance in the Johyas, turned his arms against the Poonia Jats, the last who preserved their ancient liberty. They were vanquished, and the Rajpoots were inducted into their most valuable possessions. But the conqueror paid the penalty ot his life for the glory of colonising the lands of the Pooniahs. He was slain in their expiring effort to shake off the yoke of the stranger ; and though the Ramsingotes add to the numerical strength, and enlarge the territory of the heirs of Beeka, they, like the Kandulotes, little increase the power of the state, to which their obedience is nominal. Seedmook'h and Sankoo are the two chief places of the Ramsingotes.

Unquote.

[poonia]

Poonia gotra had spread from the state of Bikaner(Founded in 1488 by Rao Bika ji) included present day Bikaner, Churu , Ganganagar and Hanumangarh to boundaries of Punjab, western UP , Haryana.

[brad]

This may be very interesting:
I had a friend from Manipur in college: his last name was Punia but he was a total Manipuri guy. I never went into caste details and history with him.
Did some of jat clan spread out that far ?

[lrburdak]

Thanks Rajenderji, Rahulji and Budhramji
For complements and additional info. I posted this article on some other website also. I found to my surprize- a punia villge in Lithuani. The excerpts are as under:

Punia (Polish: Punie) is a small town in Lithuania. Punia has one of the largest mounds in Lituania, in the bend of Neman River ("The Hill of Margier" or "Margirio Kalnu" in Lithuanian). The wooden castle on the hill was destroyed in 1336 by Teutonic Knights.

This will give some clue about where Punia came to Bikaner and established kingdom over there. Punia word has meaning in Polish language.!!!

Regards,