The Gakkhar
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. 68
The Gakkhars are the ancient rulers of the northern portion of the cis-Indus Salt-range Tract, just as are the Awans and Janjuas of the southern portion of the same tract ; and it appears probable that they at one time overran Kashmir, even if they did not found a dynasty there. Their own story is that they are descended from Kaigohar of the Kayani family then reigning in Ispahan ; that they conquered Kashmir and Tibet and ruled those countries for many generations, but were eventually driven back to Kabul, whence they entered the Panjab in company with Mahmud Ghaznavi early in the 11th century. This last is certainly untrue, for Ferishtah relates that in 1008 Mahmud was attacked by a Gakkhar army in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. Sir Lepel Griffin thinks that they were emigrauts from Khorasan who settled in the Panjab not later than 300 A.D., and points out that, like the Persians and unlike the other tribes of the neighbourhood, they are still Shiahs. It is at any rate certain that they held their present possessions long before the Mabomedan invasion of India. Ferishtah writes of them during Muhammad Ghoris invasion in 1206 A.D. :—
During the residence of Muhammad Ghori at Lahore on this occasion, the Ghakkars who inhabit the country along the lanks of the Nrlab up to the foot of the mountains of Siwalik, exercised unheard of cruelties on the Muhammadans and cut off' the couimimication between the provinces of Peshawar and Multan. These Ghakkars were a race of wild barbarians, without either religion or morality. It was a custom among them as soon as a female child was born, to carry her to the door of the house and there proclaim aloud, holding the child in one hand and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her otherwise she was im mediately to be put to death. By this means they had more men than women which occasioned the custom of having several husbands to one wife. When this wife was visited by one of her husbands she left a mark at the door, which being observed by any of the other husbands, he with drew till the signal was taken away. This barbarous people continued to make incursions on the Muhammadans till in the latter end of this king's reign their chieftain was converted to the true faith while a captive. A great part of these mountaineers, having very little notion of any religion, were easily induced to adopt the tenets of the true faith ; at the same time most of the infidels who inhabited the mountains between Gliazni and the Indus were also converted, some by force and others by persuasion, and at the present day (1609 A.D.) they continue to profess the faith of Islam. Briggs' feristab , i, 183ff
The Gahkhars however did not hesitate to assassinate Muhammad Ghori on his return from Lahore.
General Cunningham identifies the Gakkhars with the Gargaridse of Dionysius, and holds them to be descendants of the great Yueti or Takhari Scythians of the Abar tribe, who moved from Hyrkania to Abryan on the Jahlam under either Darius Hystaspes (circa 500 B.C.), or still earher under one of the Scytho-Parthian Kings. The whole origin and early history of the tribe will be found discussed at pages 22 to 33, Vol. II of the Arehaeolo gical Reports, and at pages 574 to 581 of Griflin's ranjdh Chiefs; while much information as to their early history is given in Brandreth's Settle ment Report of the Jahlam District. As Mr. Thomson says : The Turanian origin of the Gakkhars is highly probable ; but the rest of the theory is merely a plausible surmise. On the whole there seems little use in going beyond the sober narrative of Ferishtah, who represents the Gakkhars as a brave and savage race, living mostly in the hills, with little or no religion, and much given to polyandry and infanticide. They have now, in apparent imitation of the Awans, set up a claim to Mughal origin ; and many of the Rawalpindi Gakkhars returned themselves as Mughals, while I am told that some of the Gakkhars of Chakwal entered themselves as Rajputs.
At present the Gakkhars are practically confined to the Rawal pindi, Jahlam, and Hazara Districts, where they are found all aloug the plateaus at the foot of the lower Himalayas, from the Jahlam to Haripur in Hazara. To the figures given in Table VIII-A should be added 1,543 persons who returned themselves in Rawalpindi as Mughal Gakkhar, and perhaps 4,549 others who returned themselves as Mughal Kayani, of whom 3,861 were in Rawalpindi, 592 in Jahlam, and 93 in Kohat. This would raise the total number of Gakkhars to 31,881, of whom about half are in Rawalpindi. They are described by Mr. Thomson as compact, sinewy, and vigorous, but not large boned ; making capital soldiers and the best light cavalry in Upper India ; proud and self-respecting, but not first-class agriculturists ; with no contempt for labour, since many work as coohes on the railway ; but preferring service in the army or police.
Their race feeling is strong, and a rule of inheritance disfavours Gakkhars of the half-blood. Colonel Craeroft notes that they refuse to give their daughters in marriage to any other elass except Saiyads, that they keep their women very strictly secluded, and marry only among the higher Rjijputs, and among them only when they eannot find a suitable match among themselves. Some of their principal men are very gentlemanly in their bearing, and show unmistake ably their high origin and breeding. They still cling to their traditions and, though the Sikhs reduced them to the most abject poverty, are looked up to in the district as men of high rank and position, and in times of commotion they would assuredly take the lead one way or the other. Thus the character of the savage Gargars seems to have been softened and improved by time. The Gakkhars do not seem always to have returned their clans, which are very well marked. I give in the margin the figures for a few of the largest. Their local distribution in the Jahlam District is fully described in Mr. Thomson's Settlement Report.
SeeThe Awan
