The Awan
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. |
Caste No. 12
The Awans, with whom have been included all who returned themselves as Qutbshahi, are essentially a tribe of the Salt-rang;', where they once held independent possessions of very con siderable extent, and in the western and central portions of which they are still the dominant race. They extend along the whole length of the range from Jahlam to the Indus, and are found in great numbers throughout the whole country beyond it up to the foot of the Sulemans and the Safed Koh ; though in Trans-Indus Bannu they partly and in Dehra Ismail almost wholly disappear from our tables, being included in the term Jat which in those parts means not very much more than et catera. Thus we find among the Jats of our tables no fewer than 30,015 who returned Awan as their tribe and who should probably be classed as Awan, of whom the details are given in the margin.
The eastern limits of their position as a dominant tribe coincide approxi mately with the western border of the Chakwal and Pind Dadan Khan tahsils. They have also spread eastwards along the foot of the hills as far east as the Sutlej, and southwards down the river valley into Multan and Jhang. They formerly held all the plain country at foot of the western Salt-range, but have been gradually driven up into the hills by Pathans advancing from the Indus and Tiw.uias from the Jahalm.
Their story is that they are descended from Qutb Shah of Ghazni, him self a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, but by a wife other than the Prophet's daughter, who came from Hirat about 1035 A.D. and settled in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. Thence they spread along the Salt-range, forming independent clans by whom the Chief of Kalabagh was acknowledged as the head of the tribe. Mr. Brandreth is of opinion that they are more probably descendants of the Bactrian Greeks driven south from Balkh by Tartar hordes, and turning from Hirat to India, and that they entered the Panjab not more than some 250 years ago as a conquering army under leaders of their own, and dispossessed the Janjua Rajputs of the Salt-range country. General Cunningham, on the other hand, is inclined to identify them with the Jud, whom Babar mentions as being descended from the same ancestor as the Janjuas and occupying the western Salt-range at the time of his invasion, and who were so called from the old name of Mount.
Sakesar which is still the tribal centre of the Awan race. He would make both the Awans and the Janjuas Anuwan or descendants of Anu ; and thinks it probable that they held the plateaus which he north of the Salt-range at the time of the Indo-Scythian invasion which drove them southwards to take refuge in the mountains. [ArehcBological Reports, Vol. II, page 17ff Babar describes the Jud and Janjuas as having been from of old the lords of the Salt-range and of the plain country at its foot between the Indus and the Jahlam, and mentions that their minor Chiefs were called Malik, a title still used by the headmen of those parts. The Jalandhar Awans state that they came into that district as followers of one of the early Emperors of Dehli who brought them with him from the Salt-range ; and it is not impossible that they may have accompanied the forces of Babar. Many of them were in former times in the imperial service at Dehli, keeping up at the same time their connection with their Jalandhar homes. It is almost certain that Mr. Brandreths theory is incorrect. The Awans have been almost the sole occupants of the Mianwali Salt-range Tract for the last 600 years. Mr.
Thomson considers the whole question in sections 73-74 of his Jahlam Settle ment Report, and adduces many strong reasons in support of his conclusion that the Awans are a Jat race who came through the passes west of Derah Ismail Khan and spread northwards to the country near Sakesar, a conclusion towards which some of the traditions of Derah Ismail Khsm also are said to point. I may add that some of the Awans of Gujrat are said to trace their origin from Sindh. Major Wace also is inclined to give the Awans a Jat origin. In the genealogical tree of the Kalabagh family which used to be the chief family of the tribe, in which tree their descent is traced from .Qutb Shah, Several Hindu names, such as Rai Harkaran, occur immediately below the name of Qutb Shah. The Awans still employ Hindu Brahmans as family priests.
Mr. Thomsoii describes the Awans as frank and pleasing in their manners, but vindictive, violent, and given to faction ; strong and broad shouldered, but not tall ; strenuous but slovenly cultivators ; and essentially a peasant race. Colonel Davies thinks scareely more favourably of them. He writes : The Awans are a brave high-spirited race but withal exceeding ly indolent . In point of cliaracter there is little in them to admire ; headstrong and irascible to an unusual degree, and prone to keeping alive old feuds, they are constantly in hot water ; their quarrels leading to affrays and their affrays not unfrequently ending in bloodshed. As a set-off against this it must be allowed that their manners are frank and engaging, and although they cannot boast of the truthfulness of other hill tribes, they are remarkably free from crime. Mr. Steedman says : The Awans hold a high, but not the highest place among the tribes of the Rawalpindi District. As a rule they do not give their daughters in marriage to other tribes, and the children of a low-caste woman by an Awan are not considered true Awans. In Jahhiin their position would scareely seem to be so high as in Rawalpindi, as Mr. Thomson describes them as distinctly belonging to the zamindar or peasant class, as opposed to the Gakkhars and .Tanjuas who are Sahu or gentry. The history of the Awans is sketched by Sir Lepel Griffin at pages 570// of his Panjab Chiefs. The Awans have returned very few large sub-divisions I give the figures for some of the largest in the margin. Of the Khokhar 5,663 are in Rawalpindi, 2,362 in Jahlam, 3,949 in Shahpur, 2,438 in Bannu, and 3,301 in Hazara ; while of the Khattar 10,916 are in Rawal pindi. These men are probably really Khattars and Khokhars rather than Awans, but have returned themselves thus in pursuance of the tradition of all the three tribes having a common origin.
SeeThe Khattar
