Rajputs: Western Hills

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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.

Western Hills

I have already described the position occupied by Rajputs in the Salt-range Tract. The dominant tribes, such as the Janjua, have retained their pride of lineage and their Rajput title. But many of the minor tribes, although probably of Rajput descent, have almost ceased to be known as Rajputs, and are not nnfrequenlly classed as Jat.

Especially the tribes of the Hazara, Murree, and Kahuta hills, though almost certainly Rajputs, are, like the tribes of the Chibhal and Jammu hills, probably of very impure blood. The tribes of the Salt-range Tract are exceedingly interesting, partly because so little is known about them. The names of many of them end in al, which almost always denotes that the name is taken from their place of origin; and a little careful local enquiry would probably throw much light on their migrations. The great Janjua tribe appears to be Rathor ; and from the fact of the old Bhatti rale which lasted for so long in Kashmir, we should expect the hill tribes, most of whom come from the banks of the Jahlam, to be Bhatti also. But there is perhaps some slight ground for beheving that many of them may be Punwar (see Dhund infra). If these tribes are really descendants of the original Jadubansi Rajputs who fled to the Salt-range after the death of Krishnas they are probably, among the Aiyan inhabitants of the Panjab proper, those who have retained their original territory for the longest period, unless we except the Rajputs of the Kangra hills.

The grades and social divisions of the Hill Rajputs are dwelt upon in the section treating of the tribes of the eastern hills. The same sort of classification prevails, though to a much less marked extent, among the western hills ; but the Janjua are probably the only one of the tribes now under consideration who can be ranked as Mian Sahu or first-class Rajputs. Abstract No. 81 on the next page shows the distribution of these tribes. They are divisible into three groups, roughly arranged in order from north and west to south and east. First came the tribes of the hills on the right bank of the Jahlam, then the Salt-range tribes, then those of the cis-Jahlam sub-montane, and last of all the Tarars who have been already discussed as Jats. I had classed as separate castes those persons who returned themselves as Dhunds and Kahuts, under Nos. 74 and 103 in Table VIII A. But I have brought those figures into this Abstract alongside of the Dhunds and Kahuts who returned themselves as Rajputs.

The figures for these tribes are probably more imperfect than those for any other group of the same importance, at any rate so far as the tribes of the Salt-range are concerned. In that part of the Panjab it has become the fashion to be Qureshi or Mughal or Awan, rather even than Rajput ; and it is certain that very many of these men have returned themselves as such. Till the detailed clan tables are published the correct figures will not be ascertain able.