A glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province By H.A. Rose Vol II/F
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Faizullapuria (फैज़ुल्लापुरिया), the sixth of the Sikh misls or confederacies, which was recruited from Jats.
Faqartadari (फक़र्तादरी), a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Multan.
Faqir (फकीर), pl. Fuqara (फुक़रा), 'poor' a mendicant (Arabic). The term faqir comprehends at least two, if not three, very different classes, exclusive of the religious orders pure and simple. Many of these are of the highest respectability ; the members are generally collected in monasteries or shrines where they live quiet peaceful lives, keeping open house to travellers, training their neophytes', and exercising a wholesome influence upon the people of the neighbourhood. Such are many at least of the Bairagis and Gosains. Some of the orders do not keep up regular monasteries, but, travel about begging and visiting their disciples; though even here they generally have permanent headquarters in some village, or at some shrine or temple where one of their order officiates. So too the monasterial orders travel about among their disciples and collect the offerings upon which they partly subsist. There is an immense number of these men whose influence is almost wholly for good. Some few of the orders are professedly celibate, though even among them the rule is seldom strictly observed; but most of the Hindu orders are divided into the Sanyogi and Viyogi sections of which the latter only takes vows of celibacy, while among the Musalman orders celibacy is seldom even professed. Such, however, as live in monasteries are generally, if not always, celibate. The professed ascetics are called Sadhs if Hindu, and Pirs if Musalman. The Hindus at any rate have their neophytes who are undergoing probation before admission into the order, and these men are called chela. But besides these both Hindu and Musalman ascetics have their disciples, known respectively as sewak and murid, and these latter belong to the order as much as do their spiritual guides; that is to say, a Kayath clerk may be a Bairagi or a Pathan soldier a Chishti, if they have committed their spiritual direction respectively to a Bairagi guru and Chishti pir. But the Muhammadan Chishti, like the Hindu Bairagi or Gosain, may in time form almost a distinct caste. Many of the members of these orders are pious, respectable men whose influence is wholly for good. But this is tar from being the case with all the orders. Many of them are notoriously profligate debauchers, who wander about the country seducing women, extorting alms by the threat of curses, and relying on their saintly character for protection. Still even these men are members of an order which they have deliberately entered, and have some right to the title which they bear. But a very large portion of the class who are included under the name Faqir are ignorant men of low caste, without any acquaintance with even the general outlines of the religion they profess, still less with the special tenets of any particular sect, who borrow the garb of the regular orders and wander about the country living on the alms of the credulous, often hardly knowing the names of the orders to which the external signs they wear would show them to belong. Such men are mere beggars, not ascetics ; and their numbers are unfortunately large. Besides the occupations described above, the Faqir class generally have in their hands the
- custody of petty shrines, the menial service of village temples and mosques, the guardianship of cemeteries, and similar semi-religious offices. For these services they often receive small grants of land from the village, by cultivating which they supplement the alms and offerings they receive.
- The subject of the religious orders of the Hindus is one of the greatest complexity ; the cross-divisions between, and the different meanings of, such words as Jogi, Saniasi and Sādh are endless. See also Bharai, Chajjupanthi, Dadupanthi, Jogi, Saniasi, Udasi, etc., etc.
- Faqir miskin (फकीर मिस्कीन), see under Chitrali.
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- Ferozke (फेरोजके), a Kharral clan (agricultural) found in Montgomery.
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- Firdusian (फिरदुसियां), a sect or order of the Sufis, founded by Shaikh Najm-ud-Din Firdus.
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