Jats: Eastern Sub-Montane (Punjab)
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. |
Jats: Eastern Sub-Montane
The small group of Jats which I shall next describe he to the north of the Sikh Jats just discussed, all along under the foot of the hills from Ambala to Gurdaspur. There is no definite line of demareation between them and the Sikh Jats to the south or the Jats of the western sub-montanc to the west ; and perhaps the only real distinction is that, speaking broadly, the first are Hindus, the second Sikhs, and the thirdMusalmans, though of course followers of all three religions are to be found in almost every tribe. In character and position there is nothing to distinguish the tribes I am about to notice, save that they have never enjoyed the political importance which distinguished the Sikh Jats under the Khalsa.
Abstract No. 76 on the opposite page gives the figures for these tribes roughly arranged in order from west to east. Here again there is no confusion between Jats and Rajputs, though the reason of the precision wuth which they are distinguished is exactly the opposite of that already discussed in the case of the western sub-montane and Sikh Jats. In the Sikh tract the political position of the Jat was so high that he had no wish to be called Rajput : under the hills the status of the Rajput is so superior that the Jat has no hope of being called Rajput. The only one of these tribes of which any considerable number have returned themselves as Jats as well as Rajputs is the Manj, and that only in Gurdaspur on the extreme confines of the tract. Then I shall consider wdth the Rajputs of the same name. In this tract the Settlement Reports are even more meagre than in the last ; and ray informa tion is correspondingly imperfect,
The Jat tribes of the Eastern Sub-montane. The Randhawa (No. 2)
The Bandhawa is a large and widely spread tribe whoso head-quarters appear to he the Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, but who are also found in considerable numbers in Lahore, Jalandliar, Hushyarpur, and Patiala. Their founder Randhawa, a Jadu or Bhatti Rajput, lived in Bikaner some seven centuries ago; and Kajjal, fifth in descent from him, migrated to Batala which had some time before been founded by Ram Deo another Bhatti. Here the tribe increased in numbers, possessed itself of a very considerable tract of country, and rose to some political importance. The history of the Randhawa family is fully detailed at pages 200 to 218 of the Panjab Chiefs. A few Randhawa have shown themselves also as Bhatti in Gujranwala and as Virk in Firozpur.
The Kang (No. 3) — This tribe is found chiefly in the angle between the Beas and Satluj, though they have crossed the latter river into Ambala and Firozpur, and are apparently found in small numbers all along its banks and oven on the Lower Indus. Their tradition is that they came from Garh Ghazni. They occupied a position of some considerable political importance in their own tract during the early days of Sikh rule. Mr. Barkley writes of the Jalandhar Kang : — Most of the Sikh Sardars of the Nakodar tahsil either belong to this tribe, or were connected with it by marriage when they establislicd their authority there. Tara Singh Gheba {sie), who was their leader at the time of the conquest, was himself of this race and a native of Kang on the Satluj, where it is said that eighteen Sardars at one time resided ; but on the village being swept away by the river they dispersed themselves in the- separate jagfrs on both sides of the river.The Kang are said to claim descent from the Solar Rajputs of Ajudhia through their ancestor Jogra, father ot Kaug.
The Sohal (No. 4) — The Sohal are said to be of Chauhan Rajput origin, their ancestor Sohal belonging to the family of Mahag. They appear to he to the north of the Kaug, close up under and even among the hills ; but they are also found along the Satluj, though in smaller numbers.
The Bains (No. 5) — The head-quarters of the Baius appear to be in Hushyarpur and Jalandhar, though they have spread westwards even as far as Rawalpindi, and eastwards into Ambala and the adjoining Native States. They say that they are by origin Janjua Rajputa, and that their ancestor Bains came eastwards in the time of Firoz Shah. Bains is one of the 36 royal famihes of Rajputs, but tod beheves that it is merely a sub-division of the Suryabansi section. They give their name to Baiswava, or the easternmost portion of the Ganges-.ramna doab. The Sardars of Alawalpur in Jalandhar are Bains, whose ancestor came from Hushyarpur to Jalla near Sarhind in Nabha some twelve generations ago.
The Buta (No. 6) — The Buta are, as far as our figures go, confined to Hushyarpur. I have no information regarding them, and am not at all certain that they are distinct from the Bhutta of the Western Plaius (section '129) and the Buttar of the Sikh tract (section 430),
The Ithwal (No. 7) — The Itlnwal or Uthwal seem to be found chiefly in Ambala, Ludhianah,
Jalandhar, and the adjoining territory of Patiala. But unless two distinct names have been
confused, they have a curiously large colony in Dehli, which appears to be completely separated
from that of Ambala. They are said to be descended from a Surajbansi Rajput called Maharaj
who received the nickname of Unthwal from his love for camel-riding !
