Jats: South-Eastern Districts (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. |
South-Eastern Districts
The last group of Jat tribes that I have to discuss is fliat which occupies the Jamna districts, Jind, Rohtak, and Hissar. They call themselves Jat not Jat, and are the same people in every respect as the Jat of the Jamna-Ganges dodb and the lower Jamna vallev, differing however in little save religion from the great Sikh Jat tribes of the Malva ; though perhaps the latter, inhabiting as they do the wide unirrigated plains of the central States, are of slightly finer physique than their neighbours of the damper riverain. The eastern Jats are almost without exception Hindu, the few among them who are Musalman being known as Mula or unfortunate,and dating their conversion almost without exception from an ancestor who was taken as a hostage to Dehli and there foreibly circumcised. Indeed these men were not unfrequently received back into caste on their return from captivity, and their descendants are in this ease Hindus, though still known as Mula. Their traditions show them to have come up either from Bikaner and Rajputana, or northwards along the Jamna valley, and very few of them appear to have come from the Panjab to the Jamna. The Jats of Gurgaon indeed still look upon the Raja of Bhartpur as their natural leader, and the fall of Bhartpur- made such an impression on their minds that old men still refer to it as t he fera from which they date events.
The Jat of these parts is, if anything, even a better cultivator than the Sikh Jat ; and that, chiefly because his women assist him so largely in the field, performing all sorts of agricultural labour whether light or heavy, except ploughing for which they have not sufficient strength, and sowing which is under all circumstances a prerogative strictly confined to the made sex. Directly we leave the south-eastern districts and pass into the Sikh tract, women cease to perform the harder kinds of field-work, even among the Jats ; while in the Musalman districts they do not work at all in the fields. So essentially is the Jat a husbandman, and so especially is he the husbandman of these parts, that when asked his caste he will quite as often reply zamindar as Jat, the two names being in that sense used as synonymous. The social standing of the Jat is that which the Gujar, Ahir, and Ror enjoy ; in fact these four castes eat and smoke together. They stand at the head of the castes who practise kasewa or widow-marriage, a good deal below the Rajput, but far above the castes who grow vegetables, such as Arain and Mali. If the social scale is regulated by the rules of the Hindu religion they come below Banyas, who are admittedly better Hindus. But the manly Jat despises the money-grubbing Banya, and all other castes and tribes agree with him.
In the extreme south-eastern corner of the Panjab the Jats who have come in from the north and west, from Rajputana and the Panjab, are known as Dhe, to distinguish them from the original Jat tribes of the neighbourhood who are collectively called Hele, the two sections abstaining from intermarriage and having in some respects different customs. In Sirsa again, that meeting place of races, where the Bagri Jat from the Bikaner prairies, the Sikh Jat from the Malwa, and the Musalman Jat from the Satluj valley, meet the Jat of Hissar, the last are distinguished as Dese and the Musalman Jats as Pachhdde or western ; but these terms appear to be unknown to the people in their respective homes. There the superiority of the Sikh and DeseJats over the stunted Bagri and the indolent enervated Jat of the Satluj is most strikingly apparent.
There is an extraordinary division of the Jats of Dehli, Rohtak, and Karnal, and indeed of the other land-owning- castes who have for the most part taken the one side or the other, into two factions Imown as Dehia and Haulania. I quote the following- passage from my Settlement Report of Karnjil and Panipat : —
The Dehias are called after a Jat tribe of that name, with its head-quarters about Bhatganw in Sunpat, having originally come from Bawana near Dehli. The Haulania faction is headed by the Ghatwal or Malak Jats, whose head-quarters are Dher-ka-Ahulana in Gohana, and who were, owing to their successful opposition to the Rajputs, the accepted heads of the Jats in these parts. Some one of the Emperors called them in to assist him in coercing the Mandahar Rajputs, and thus the old enmity was strengthened. The Dehia Jats, growing powerful, became jealous of the supremacy of the Ghatwals and joined the Mandahars against them. Thus the country side was divided into two factions ; the Gujars and Tagas of the tract, the Jaglaii Jilts of thap'a Naultha, '•and the Latmar Jats of Rohtak joining the Dehias, and the Huda Jats of Rohtak, and most of the Jats of the tract except the Jaglans, joining the Haulanias. In the mutiny, disturbances took place in the Rohtak district between these two factions, and the Mandahars of the Nardak ravaged the Haulanias in the south of the tract. And in framing my zails I had to alter my proposed division so as to separate a Dehia village which I had included with Haulanias, and which objected in consequence. The Dehia is also called the Jat, and occasionally the Mandahar faction, Even Sir H. Elliott seems to have been unaware of the existence of these factions. The Jats and Rajputs seem, independently of these divisions, to consider each other, tribally speaking, as natural enemies ; and I have often been assured by Jats, though I do not beheve it, that they would not dare to go into a Rajput village at night.
Mr. Maconachie quotes a Dehli tradition which makes two brothers from Rajputjina called Mom and som the respective ancestors of the Haulania Rajputs of the doub and the Haulania Jats of Rohtak.
Here again, in the south-eastern districts, the distinction between Jat and Rajput is definite and well-marked, the Jat always practising and the Rajput always abstaining from karewa ; though I do not think that here a family could raise itself from the former to the latter caste by discontinuing the custom, as would appear to be possible elsewhere. The figures for the tribes we are to consider are given in Abstract No. 77 on the opposite page,the tribes being roughly arranged from north to south down the Jamna valley, and then westwards along the southern border of the Province. The last five tribes will be considered under Rajputs ; and they are shown in this abstract, not because they are returned as Jats especially in this part of the Panjab, but because the Rajput tribes to which they belong will be discussed under the head of Rajputs of the Eastern Plains. The tribes in this group are neither so large nor so important as those of the Sikh tracts, and in many cases Ihave little or no information to give concerning them. There seems a great tendency in these parts to split up into small clans, retaining the tradition of common tribal descent, but commonly using the name of the clan and not of the tribe.
The Jat tribes of the South-Eastern Districts
The Ghatwal (No. 1)
This is the only one of the tribes now under consideration who trace their origin from Ghar Ghazni ; and even they place that city in the Decean and not in Afghanistan. They claim descent from Saroha Rajputs. Their head-quarters are at Ahulana in the Gohana tahsil of Rohtak, and they occupy the country between it and the Jamna, being numerous in the north of Delhi and the south of Karnal. I suspect that our figures for Rohtak are considerably under the truth. Ahulana is said to have been founded 22 generations ago, and gives its name to the Haulania faction already mentioned. The Ghatwal are often called Malak, a title they are said to have obtained as follows : —
In the old days of Rajput .ascendancy the Rajputs would not allow Jats to cover their heads with a turban, nor to wear any red clothes, nor to put a crown (mor) on the head of their bridegroom, or a jewel (nat) in their women's noses. They also used to levy seiguorial rights from virgin brides. Even to this day Rajputs will not allow inferior- castes to wear red clothes or ample loin clothes in their villages. The Ghatwals ohtained some suceesses over the Rajputs, especially over the !Mandahars of the dodh near Deohan and Manglaur, and over those of the Begar near Kalanaur and Dadri, and removed the ohnoxious prohihitions. They thus acquired the title oi Malah (master) and a red turban as their distinguishing mark ; and to this day a Jat with a red pagri is most probahly a Ghatwal.
Mr. Fanshawe says that the title is a mere nickname conferred by a Malik or chief called Rai Sal ; yet in Rohtak they appear generally to he called Malak rather than Ghatwal, and perhaps this is the cause of the smallness of the Rohtak figures, though I ordered the two names to be taken together. Who the Ghatwal of Bahawalpur are, I cannot explain. I may notice that there are inseveral parts of India, and especially in Monghyr and its neighbourhood, tribes of low-class Raiputs called Ghatwals, who holder held assignments of revenue on condition of defending the ghats or passes in the hills by which the hill tribes were wont to make predatory incursions into the plains below.
The Dagar (No. 2) — The D agar are numerous in Dehli and Gurgaon and there is a small Colony in Rohtak. I have no information concerning them.
TheJakhar andSangwan (Nos. 3 and 14) — These tribes are said to be descended from a Chauhan Rajput only 20 generations back, who came from Bikaner, and whose four sons founded the Jakhar, Sangwan,Piru, and Kadian Jats, for the last two of which I do not show separate figure- as they are of but little importance. The Sangwan are most numerous in Jind and Hissar, though there is a small colony of them in Rohtak also ; while the Jakhar are almost confined to Gurgaon and the adjoining jhajjar tahafl of Rohtak.
The Sahrawat (No. 4) — The Sahrawat claim to be descended from Sahra, a son or grandson of Raia Anangpal Tunwar. They are almost confined to Dehli, Gurgaon, Rohtak, and the adjoining Patiala territory. In Rohtak their settlement dates from some 25 generations back.
The Dehia (No. 5) This is the tribe which has given its name to the Dehia faction men tioned in section 439. They are found on the north-eastern border of the Sampla and the adjoining portionof the Sunpat tahsil of Rohtak and Dehli. They claim to be descended from a Chauhan Rajput named Manik Rai by a Dhankar Jat woman. This is probably the Manik Rai Chauhan who founded Hansi. Another account makes then- ancestor Dhadhij, son of Haria Harpal, son of Prithi Raja. The Dehia is one of the 36 royal tribes of Rajputs, whose original home was about the confluence of the Satluj with the Indus.' They are probably the Dahise of Alexander.
The Golia (No. 6) — The Golia or Gawalia are a very curious tribe. They declare that they were originally Brahmans who lost caste by inadvertently drinking liquor placed outside a distillers house in large vessels . The Local Brahmans apparently admit the truth of the story. They now intermarry with Jats, but not with the Dagar or Salanki; for while they were Brahmans the latter were their chents, while when they first lost caste the former alone of all Jat tribes would give them their daughters to wife, and so have been adopted as quasi brethren. They came from Indor to Rohtak some 30 generations ago. They are only found in Rohtak and Karnal. The scattered entries probably reier to a few Gwalas or Ahirs who have been returned as Jats.
The Rathi (No. 7) — The word Rath is used in Sirsa as synonymous with Pachhada, to denote Musalman Jats or Rajputs from the Satluj. It is said to mean strong-handed or zahardast. In Rohtak, however, there is a distinct Rathi tribe of Jats who claim to be by origin Tunwar Rajputs, and are among the oldest inhabitants of the tract. They are descended from a brother of The ancestor of the Rohal and Dhankar Jats, and the three tribes do not intermarry. They are found in Dehli and Gurgaon as well as in Rohtak, and apparently in Ludhiana, though it is perhaps doubtful whether these last are the same tribe.
The Khatrl (No. 8) — This tribe appears to be very numerous in Dehli, and to be found also in Rohtak and Patiala. I have no information regarding them.
The Dalai (No. 9) — This is another of the great Rohtak tribes, and is found also in the adjoining territory of Dehli, Hissar and Jind. They claim to be descended from a Rathor Rajput who settled in Rohtak and married a Bargujar Jat woman some 30 generations back. By her he had four sons from whom the Dalai, Deswal, Man, and Sewag? Sewab Jats have sprung, and these four tribes do not intermarry. But compare the account of the origin of the Man given in section 435. The same four tribes have a tradition of common descent and a prohibition against inter-marriage in Karndlalso.
The Ahlawat (No. 10) — The Ahlawat are said to be descended from a Chauhan Ribput who came from Sambhar in Jaipur- some 30 generations ago. From him sprang the Ahlawat, Olian, Biima, Mare, and Jun Jats who do not intei-marry. The tribe is found in Rohtak, Dehli and Karnal. Its members worship a common ancestor called Sadu Deb.
TheDhankar(No. 12) — I have said that the Dhankar are of the same stock as the Rathi. They are almost confined to jhajjar in Rohtak, and are perhaps nothing more than a local clan of the Rathi tribe.
The Phogat (No. 13) — This tribe possesses some importance in Jind, and has spread into the neighbouring portions of Gurgaon and Rohtak. The only fact I have concerning them is that they will not intermarry with the Deswal ; but the reason is not explained,
The Sangwan (No. 14) — The Sangwana, re descended from the ancestor of the Jakhar already mentioned. Their head-quarters are in Jind ; but they are also found in Rohtak and Hissar.
The Pawania (No. 15) — The Pawania are a Hissar tribe who are also found in Rohtak, Sirsa, Jind, and the detached portion of Patiala and, curiously enough, in Ambala. I have no information to give regarding them.
The Bahniwal (No. 16) — The Bahniwal are found chiefly in the Hissar division and Patiala. They are also found on the Lower Satluj in Montgomery, where they have probably returned them selves as Bhatti Rajputs, which they claim to be by descent. Mr. Purser says of them :—In numbers they are weak ; but in love of robhery they yield to none of the tribes.They gave much trouble in 1857. In the 15th century the Bahniwklheld one of the six cantons into which Bikaner was then divided.
The Nain (No. 17) — The Nain are chiefly found in the detached portions of Patiala, but have spread into Hissar and Dehli. I have no information regarding them.
