Kamboh

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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.

Caste No 33

The Kambohs are one of the finest cultivating castes in the Panjub. They seldom engage in market-gardening, but they are no less industrious and skilful than the Arains. They are found in the upper Satluj valley as low down as Montgomery, throughout the northern portion of the Eastern Plains, and as low down the Janma valley as Karnal. They are especially numerous in Kapurthala. The Jamna Kambohs seem to have come into the valley from the west, and there has quite lately been a very large influx of Kambohs from the northern tracts of Patiala into the great dhdk jungles between Thanesar and the river. The Satluj Kambohs of Montgomery are divided into two branches, one of which came up the river from the Multan country and the other down the valley from the neighboui-hood of Kapui-thala^ both movements having taken place under the Sikh rule. They claim descent from Raja Karan, and say that their ancestor fled to Kashmir. The Kambohs of Bijuor also trace their origin to the trans Indus country, and Mr. Purser accepts this tradition as evidently true.

They ai-e said by some to be ancient inhabitants of Persia^ and the Karnal Kambohs trace their origin from Garh Ghazni ; but the fact that 4U per cent, of them are Hindus and 23 per cent. Sikhs is conclusive against their having had any extra-Indian origin, unless at a very remote period. I have in section 486 noted the fact that Arains and Kambohs are commonly supposed to be closely related. Indeed in Montgomery a man appears to be called Arain if he is Musalman and Kamboh if Hindu. But that this is not always the case is evident from the fact of a very considerable proportion of the Kambohs of Amritsar, Lahore, Firozpur, Patiala, Nabha, and Maler Kotla having returned themselves as Musalmans^ although Musalman Arains are also numerous in those tracts. In Jalaudhar the village of Bhalowal is owned partly by Kambohs and partly by Arains, both being Musalman.

It is perhaps doubtful whether the supposed relationship has any further basis than the fact that they both came from the west, and are both of much the same social standing and agricultural repute. The detailed clan tables will probablv throw light on the question, though in Kapurthala, the stronghold of the Kambohs, their clans were not recorded. It is said by some that the chief distinction is that the Kambohs take money for their daughters, while the Arains do not. But the social standing of the Kamboh is on the whole superior to that of the Arain, and very markedly so where the latter is a vegetable-grower. The Kamboh, moreover, is not a meie agriculturist. He not unfrequently engages in trade, and even takes service in the army or in offices or even as a private servant, while his wife not unfrequently lends money even where he Is a mere husbandman ; and under Akbar a Kamboh General called Shahbaz Khan com manded 5,001) men and distinguished himself greatly in Bengal, Musalman Kambohs held Sohna in Gurgaon some centuries ago ; and the tombs and mosques that they have left show that they must have enjoyed a consIderable position. The military, mercantile, and clerkly Kambohs are said to be dis tinguished as Qalmi or men of the pen,^^ and not to intermarry with the agricultural section of the caste.

But this is probably a mere social custom and not a caste rule. The Kambohs do not seem to beaias high a character for honesty as they do for skill. There is a Persian proverb current in the North West Provinces : The Afghans, the Kambohs, and the Kashmiris ; all thre rogues {badzdt),and Mr. Benton of Karnal describes them as notoriously deceitful and treacherous. On the other hand Sardar Gurdial Singh states_, I know not on what authority^ that '^ during t he reign of terror in India, it was the Kambohs who were trusted by the rich bankers for onrrying theu' cash in the disguise oiyaqtrs.The Kambohs are said to be exeeption ally numerous in ]Mirat. Their loca tion under the hills lends some slight support to their tradition of origin from Kashmir.

See The Ahir