The Sidhu and Barar tribes
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. |
The Sidhu and Barar tribes (Nos. 14— 15) — The Sidhu, with its branch the Bariar or Sidhu-Barar, is the largest and most Important of the Jat tribess of the Panjab, for from it have sprung the great Phulkian famihes of Patiala, Nabha, and Jind, and the Barar family of Faridkot.
The Sidhu trace their origin to Jaisal, a Bhatti Rajput and founder of Jaisalmer, who was driven from his kingdom by a successful rebellion and took refuge with Prithi Raj, Chauhan, the last Hindu King of Dehli. His descendants overran Hissar and Sirsa and gave to the latter tract the name of Bhattiana. Among them was Klu'wa, who married a Jat woman of the Ghabaggar, and had by her Sidhu, the ancestor of the tribe. Sidhu had four sons, Devi, Bur, Sar, and Rupach, and from Dhul, the descendant of Bur, is sprung the Barar tribe. The pure Bhatti Rajputs of battiaua still admit their- relationship with the Sidhu and Barar, The early history of the tribes is toll in full detail at pages 1 to 10 and 546 to 518 of Griffin Panjab Rajas ; indeed the whole hook is a political history of the descendants of Sidhu; while the leading minor famihes are noticed at pages 429 to436 of his Panjab Chiefs. Some further details of their early ancestry will he found at page 8 of the Hisar Settlement Report. The original home of the tribe was the Malwa, and it is still there that they are found in largest numhers. But they have also spread across the Satluj into Lahore, Amritsar, Jalandhar, and other districts. The Barar who are shown in the Abstract have returned themselves as Sidhu Harar in the Native States and, to the number of 4,220, in Firozpur, and as Rai Barar in Gurgaon, The rest are returned as Barar simply. Sidhu Barar and Barar are synonymous ; but whether I have done righly in including the Gurgaon Ral Barar I cannot say. Moreover, 26,915 persons in Firozpur and 2,358 in Nabha have returned their tribe as Sidhu and their clan as Barar, and are included in hoth columns, thiis appearing twice over in the Abstract. Mr. Brandreth thus descrthes the Barar of Firozpiur.
The Barars are said to have been Bhatti Rajputs, of the same family as the Rajputs of Jaisalmer, where their original home was. The name of their ancestor was Sidhu, whose grandson was named Barar, whence they are called indifferently both Sidhu and Barar. Either Barar or some descendant of his migrated to Bhatinda, whence his offspring spread over the neighbouring lands, and are now in possession of a very large tract of country. They occupy almost the whole of ilaquas Mari, 5ludki, Mokatsar, Bhuchon, Mehraj, Sultan Khan, and Bhudaur in this district, the whole of Faridkot, a great part of Patiala, Nabha, Jhumbha aid Mallandh. The Chiefs of all these states belong to the same family. The Bhattis of Sirsa who embraced Muhammadauism were also originally Bhatti Rajputs, and related to the Barars, but their descent is traced to some common ancestor before the time of Sindhu.
The Barars are not equal to the other tribes of Jats as cultivators. They wear finer clothes and consider themselves a more illastrious race. Many of them were desperate dacoits in fonner years, and all the most notorious criminals of this description that have been apprehended and brought to justice under our rule were Barars. Female infanticide is said to have been practised among them to a great extent in former times. I am told that a few years ago there was scareely a young girl to be found in any of the Barar villages. This crime is said to have originated in a deceit that was once practised upon one of the chiefs of Nabha by which his daughter was betrothed to a man of an inferior tribe ; and though he considered himself bound to complete the marriage, subsequeutly entered into an agreement with all his tribe to put to death all the daughters that should be born to them hereafter, in order to prevent the possibility of such a disgrace occurring again.
From all accounts, however, this horrid practice has been almost entirely discontinued of late years, and I can detect no difference now between the proportionate number of female children in the Barar villages and in villages inhabited by other castes.
