The Khokhar
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. 58
The figures of Table VIII A under the head Khokhar only represent a fraction of the Khokhars in the Panjab. The Khokhars are ordinarily considered a Rajput tribe, and most of the Khokhars of the districts have so returned themselves, Many of the Khokhars of western districts again, and all those of the frontier, have been re turned as Jats ; while only in the Rawalpindi and Multan divisions are separate figures shown for the Khokhar caste. How far this in clusion is due to Kho khars having actually returned themselves as Rajput or Jat by caste and Khokhar by tribe, and how far to the action of the divisional offices, I cannot say exactly till the detailed clan tables are ready.
But from local enquiry it would appear that Khokhars did very generally return themselves as Jats or Rajputs, especially the latter, and Mr. Thomson tells me that in Pind Dadan Khan the Jat Khokhars are said to be entirely distinct from the Rajput Khokhars. The figures in the margin show those who are returned as Khokhar, Rajput Khokhar, and Jat Khokhar respectively. In the east of the Panjab Khokhars appear to be admittedly of Rajput origin, though in Jalandhar at least they are said to intermarry rather with then' own clan, Shekhs, Awans, and the like, than with their Rajput neighbours. But in the Avest the Khokhars have set up a claim to be descended from Muhammad the eldest son of tlutb Shah of Ghaznl, the traditional ancestor of the Awans ; and the claim Is often admitted by the Awans themselves, though of com'se as mythical as the Awnn's own story. Thus no fewer than 18,388 men, of whom the detail has already been given in section 466_, have returned them selves as Awan by caste and Khokhar by clan, and should probably be counted as Khokhars and added to the figures given above. Mr. Barkley points out that the annals of Jaisalmer given by Major Tod narrate the quarrels between the Khokhars and the Bhattis of Jaisalmer long before the time of Mahomot ; though I should add that Major Tod thinks Khokhar may be a misreading for Gakkhar. Major Tod gives Khokra as one of the clans of the Rathor Rajputs. In Bahjiwalpur I find that 2,4-12 of the Khokhar Rajputs have returned their main tribe as Bhatti. On the whole it would appear most probable that they are really Rajputs^ perliaps not of the purest descent ; while the low repute in which Rajputs are held on the frontier would account for the rise of the claim to Qureshi origin, which would quickly spread among a Musalman tribe. In Sirsa, where the prohibition against marriage out of the caste is very strictly observed, the Khokhars intermarry with the local Rajput tribes. Sir Lepel GrifRn indeed separates the Khokhar Rajputs from those Khokhars who claim kindred origin with the Awans; but it is doubtful whether this is allowable, for the Awan tradition is apparently spreading, even among those Khokhars who are still recognised as Rajputs throughout the country side. At the same time the Khokhars are so widely spread, and have been at one time or another so powerful that Khokhar is almost as favourite a name as Bhatti for the clans of the lower castes in the Panjab ; and it may be that there is a distinct Khokhar caste apart from the Khokhar RajputS just as both are certainly distinct from the Khokhar Chnhras. Colonel Davies notes .that many of the social customs of the Khokhars of Shahpur denote Hindu origin ; and this would be quite decisive against the Qutb Shahi myth.
The Khokhars are most numerous along the valleys of the Jahlam and Chanab^ and especially in the Jhang and Shahpur districts ; but they are also found, though in smaller numbers, on the lower Indus and the Satluj, and especially in Lahore, and also all along the foot of the hills from the Jahlam to the Sathluj. Pind Dadan Khan is said to have taken its name from a Khokhar Chief who founded it and was Raja of those parts in the time of Jahangir ; and the history of the family, which at one time possessed some importance, and of the struggles between the Janjuas and the Khokhars for the possession of the tract, is told at pages 589^ of Griffins Panjab Chiefs.
In Jhang too they once ruled over an extensive tract lying east of the Jahlam, The Khokhars of Gujrat and Sialkot have a tradition that they were origin ally settled at Garh Karanah, which they cannot identify,^ and were ejected by Tamerlane ; and that they then went to Jammu, whence they spread along the hills ; and the concentration of the Khokhars of the plains on the Jahlam and the Chanab, and 'the wide diffusion of those of the sub-niontane tract, lend some colour to the theory that they si^road downwards from the hills, and not upwards from the south. In Akbars time the Khokhars were shown as the principal tribe of the Dasuva parganah of Hushyarpur ; and the Mahomedan historians tell us that the Khokhars held Lahore and were power ful in the Upper Bari Locih at the time of Taimurs invasion.
The Khokhars of Shahpur are said to be split up into innumerable clans, among whom tbe Nissowana, notorious for their thieving propensities and generally lawless character, are alone important ; but in Jhang Mr. Steedman describes the Khokhars as among the best of the agricultural classes, hard working, thrifty, and not given to crime.
1 Mr. Steedman suggests Koh Kerana, lying south of Slmlipur, in the Jhang district. The English Editors generally suggest Gakkhar as an emendation : probably because they do not know the word Khokhar,
SeeThe Kharral
