Biloch tribes: Course of Migration

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article.

Course of migration

Of the original location of the tribes I know next to nothing, and what information I have been able to collect is given in section 378. But the above sketch of their existing distribution enables us to follow with some certainty the later routes by which they arrived at their present settlements. The organised tribes of Derah Ghazi, including the Nutkani, would appear to have descended from the hills eastwards towards the river ; and the four most insignificant of the broken tribes, the Mastoi, the Hajani, the Sanjrani, and the Ahmadani, seem to have followed the same course.

A few Laghari are found in Derah Ismail and Muzaffargarh, and a few Khosa in Bahawalpur ; but with these exceptions not one of the above tribes is represented in the Panjab outside the Ghazi district_, except the Qasrani whose hill territory extends into Derah Ismail. On the other hand all the larger broken tribes of Derah Ghazi, with the single exception of the Nutkani which was till lately organised, and all the remaining tribes which possess any numerical importance in the Panjab except four Derah Ismail tribes to be mentioned presently, seem to have spread up the Indus from below, as they are without exception strongly represented on the lower course of the river, and not at all in the hill country. The Rind and the Jatoi seem to have come up the Indus in very great numbers, and to have spread high up that river, the Chanab, the Jahlam, the Ravi, and the Satluj. The Lashari and the Korai followed in their track in slightly smaller numbers, but avoided to a great extent the Ravi valley. The Chandia, the Gopang, the Hot, and the Gurmani seem to have confined themselves chiefly to the valley of the Indus, the Chandia having perliaps passed up the left bank, as they are found in Derah Ismail but not in Derah Ghazi. So indeed are the Hot,

See note to section 384. but that is accounted for by their seat of Grovernnient having- been Derah Ismail. Pour tribes, the Kulachi, the Jiskani, the Gashkori, and tho Mihrani, the two last of which are comparatively insignificant, are found in Derah Ismail and nowhere else save in Muzaifargarh, where the first three occur in small number-?. As already stated in section 885, the Jiskani and Kulachi apparently had their origin as tribes in Leiah and Derah Fatah Khan, while the Mhrani were driven there from Derah Ghazi. It would seem probable that the Gashkorl either came across the hills in the south of the district, or are a local sub-division of some larger tribe which followed the usual track along the river. The Korai are Rind; the Gopang and the Dasti are not pure Biloch, but are said to have accompanied the Rind in their wanderings.