The Bhabra

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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. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

The Bhabra

(Caste No. 88

The Bhabras appear to be a purely Panjab caste, and have their head -quarters in the towns of Hushyarpur and Sialkot. They occupy very much the same territorial position as do the Suds, except that they do not penetrate so far into the hills, and extend as far west as RewalpIndi instead of stopping short at Amritsar. Indeed there seems to be some doubt whether the word Bhabra is not as much a religious as a caste term, and whether it signifies anything more than a Sud, or perhaps a Banya also, of the Jain religion. No Suds have returned themselves as Jains ; and though some 11 per cent, of the Bhabras have returned themselves as Hindus, yet, as already explained in Part IV of the Chapter on Religion, they belong almost exclusively to the Swetambara or more lax sect of the Jains, and consider themselves Hindus first and Jains afterwards. A precisely similar difficulty with re gard to the significance of the term Oswal is discussed in section 259.

As a fact I believe that all Bhabras are Jains. Some of them are said to be Oswals ; but whether this means that they are Oswal Banyas by caste or Swetambara Jains by religion I cannot say. They are all traders. Further information regarding this caste is greatly needed. I have only come across two facts which seem to throw light on their origin. The Bhabras of Hush yarpur make annual pilgrimages to a village called Fattahpur in the hills, some 20 miles from Hushyarpur, where there are remains of a very ancient and extensive town, and there worship at an ancestral shrine. The Bhabras of Jalandhar attribute their name to their refusal to wear the janeo or sacred thread at the solicitation of one Bir Swami, who thereupon said that their faith (bhu) was great. This woudd separate them from the Banyas. On the other hand many of the Gurdaspur Bhahras are said to be Oswal and Kan delwal Banyas ; and Mr. Wilson says that in Sirsa the Sikh immigrants from Patiala call the Oswnl Banyas Bhabra. The Bhabras have a curious rule ag-ainst one man marrying- two wives under any circumstances whatever.

SeeThe Khatri