Achi

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Achi (अची) Jat clan is found in Afghanistan.[1]

According to H. W. Bellew Acho, Aghoki and Ashak in Afghanistan appear to be the same, and may stand for the Indian Achi a tribe celebrated in the history of Kashmir (See Troyer's "Rajataringini"), and now represented in Afghanistan by the Achakzi. [2]

Origin

Jat Gotras Namesake

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[4] mentions Nations situated around the Hyrcanian Sea.... Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the Chorasmii,13 the Candari,14 the Attasini, the Paricani, the Sarangæ, the Marotiani, the Aorsi,15 the Gaëli, by the Greek writers called Cadusii,16 the Matiani, the city of Heraclea,17 which was founded by Alexander, but was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Achaïs; the Derbices also,18 through the middle of whose territory the river Oxus19 runs, after rising in Lake Oxus,20


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

History

Achak, a tribe held to be distinct from the others by the Durani themselves, I take to represent the Indian Achi or Achiholada, " The turbulent Achi," of the Rajataringini, a branch of the Damara (Dumar Kakar before noticed) tribe, which figures in the history of Kashmir as a powerful and turbulent people about Lahore and the northern Punjab in the reigns of Avantivarma, 857 to 886 A.D., and of Harsha, 1090 to 1102 A.D., both kings of Kashmir; they may represent tribes of the Tokhari or Toghiyani Turk, or of the Kator. [5]

According to Rajatarangini[6] A'cha, the son-in-law of Pramoda the king of Mathura, who was subject to the king of Kashmira, set up an image of Mahadeva named A'cheshvara.

H. W. Bellew[7] writes....The Tarin tribe occupies the Sibi and Peshin districts, and is one of the five tribes composing the Sharkhbun division of the Sarabanri Afghan. ....The Tor Tarin, "Black Tarin," inhabit the Peshin valley, having the Achakzi to their north, the Barech to their west, and the district of Shal (Quetta) to their south, whilst on the east they are separated from their Spin Tarin tribesmen by a strip of Kakar territory.

Achak, or Achakzi

H. W. Bellew[8] writes that The Achak, or Achakzi, are entirely pastoral and predatory, and inhabit the Kadani valley and north slopes of the Khojak Amran range to the Toba tablelands. But they wander far to the west, and are found scattered all over the country to Herat and Badghis, and parts of the Ghor country. They are reckoned at five thousand tents, and are in two divisions, viz., Bahadur and Gajan.

Bahadur (Batar, a tribeless clan of Rajput) sections are : —

Ashdan. Bakar. Fam. Ghabe. Kako. Shamo, etc.

Gajan (Kachin tribe of Naga) sections are : —

Ada. Adrak. Ali. Ashe. Badi. Harun. Jali. Kamil. Lali. Mali. Mapi, Mushaki. Shakar, etc. Of the above sections

Of the divisions of the Nurzi, the Badi section is Turk, and the Chalak (Chalak or Solanki) Rajput. Little is known of this tribe.

The Ali, or Alizi, are reckoned at sixteen thousand families, and occupy much the same districts as their kinsfolk, the Aliko, above mentioned, their chief seat being on the plain of Zamindawar, to the west of the Helmand, between Bost and Chaknasur.


H. W. Bellew[9] writes that The Achakzi, as before stated, of all the Afghan tribes are noted for their turbulence and barbarity ; and the Sanskrit name Achi-ho-lada, or Achi-holara, of the Rajataringini expresses this character for it means " The turbulent Achi." Tod, in his enumeration of the Hindu tribes of the Indian desert, mentions the Ashyag, a name which may stand for the Sanskrit Achi, and is evidently the source of the Afghan Achak, whom we have noticed above among the Durani clans.

Notable persons

See also

References


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