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This article is an extract from <br/>

PANJAB CASTES <br/>

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br/>

Being a reprint of the chapter on <br/>
The Races, Castes and Tribes of <br/>
the People in the Report on the <br/>
Census of the Panjab published <br/>
in '''1883''' by the late Sir Denzil <br/>
Ibbetson, KCSI <br/>

Lahore: <br/>

Printed  by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, <br/>

1916. <br/>
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[[Category:India|J]]
[[Category:Communities|J]]

=The Jogi, Rawal and Nath =

Caste Nos. 40 and 80
The figures 
under the head Jogi include two very distinct classes of persons. First are the 
Jogis proper, a regular religious order of Hindus, which includes both the 
Augar Jogis and the Kanphatta Jogi ascetics, who are followers of Gorakhnath 
and priests and worshippers of Siva. These men are fully as respectable as 
the Bairagis, Gosains, and other religious orders. So far as the sub-divisional 
tables help us, the present figures include 9,143 of this class, of whom 5,769 are 
males, but the real number is probably greater. They are all Hindus. They 
228 have been discussed in the earlier portion of this section, at    The 
second class is that miscellaneous assortment of low-caste faqirs and fortune
tellers, both Hindu and Musalraan but chiefly Musalmau, who are commonly 
known as Jogis. The word Jogi or Yogi means a student of the Joga school of 
philosophy, which teachs how, by suppression of the breath, mental abstrac
tion, and the like, to obtain supernatural powers of divination, second sight, 
and so forth ;' and the result is that every rascally beggar who pretends to be 
able to tell fortunes, or to practise astrological and necromantic arts in however 
small a degree, buys himself a druiu and calls himself and is called by others 
a Jogi. These men include all the Musalmans, and probably a part of the 
Hindus of the eastern districts who have been returned as Jogis. 

They are a 
thoroughly vagabond set, and wander about the country beating a drum and 
begging, practising surgery and physic in a small way, writing charms, telling 
fortunes, and practising exorcism and divination ; or, setthng in the villages, 
eke out their earnings from these occupations by the offerings made at the 
local shrines of the malevolent godlings or of the Saiyads and other Musalraan 
saints (see sections 216 and 226) ; for the Jogi is so impure that he will eat 
the offerings made at any shrine. These people, or at least the Musalraan 
section of them, are called in the centre of the Paujab Rawals, or sometimes 
Jogi-Rawals, from the Arabic BaniMal a diviner, which again is derived from 
ramal sand with which the Ai-ab magicians divine ; and the two sets of 
figures must be taken together, always remembering that those for Jogis 
include respectable Jogis, while those for Rjiwals, who are all Musalmans, do 
not. The Jogi-Rawals of Kathiawar are said to be exorcisers of evil spirits, 
and to worship a deity called Korial. In Sialkot the Jogis pretend to avert 
storms from the ripening crops by plunging a d^awn sword into the field or 
a knife into a mound, sacrificing goats, and accepting suitable offerings. 
Mr. Benton writes: — The Jogi is a favourite character in Hindustani 
fiction. He there appears as a jolly playful character of a simple disposition, 
See Wilson's Sects of the Hindus, pages 130 for a very interesting account of both classes 
of Jogis, and for references to further authorities. 
who enjoys  the fullest liberty and conducts himself in the most eccentric 
fashion under the cloak of religion without being called in question.

The Rawals of the Panjab are notorious cheats. One of their favourite 
devices is to personate a long lost relative. In the Province itself they seldom 
venture upon open crime ; but they travel about the Central Provinces and the 
Deccan and even visit Bombay and Calcutta and there pilfer and rob. They 
are often absent for long periods on these expeditions ; and meanwhile the 
Banyas of their villages support their families on credit, to be repaid with 
interest on the return of the father. Some interesting information regarding 
them will be found in Selected Papers, No. XMN of l869 of the 
Panjab Police Department. The town of Rawalpindi is named after 
the Rawals ; but the Rawals of the district appear to have returned 
themselves either as Jogis or more probably as Mughals, as 1,263 of 
the Mughals of Rawalpindi give Rawal as their clan. There they are said, 
in addition to their usual pursuits, to recite at the Muharram stories of the 
doings of Mahomet, accounts of his miracles, and hymns in his praise. 

The Naths of the higher hills, where the worship of Siva is prevalent, 
correspond very closely with the Jogis of the plains, though they make little 
pretence to an ascetic character and live chiefly by growing vegetables ; but 
they also perform certain semi-sacerdotal function, taking the place of the 
Acharj of the plains in the funeral ceremonies of the Kanets, and receiving 
like him the clothes of the deceased. They also consecrate new houses, and 
purify them when they have been defiled. They now form a true caste, 
and are not recruited from without. One or more in almost every Natb 
household has his ears pierced in honour of Siva, and is called a Kanphatta 
Nath. They occupy much the same social position as the Jogi-Rawal of the 
plains. They are understood to have returned themselves as Jogis and to be 
included in the figures now under discussion. 

Of the figures given in Table 
VIII A, all the Hindus are men 
returned as Jogis. Of the JNIusalmans 
the numbers shown in the margin 
were returned as Rawals, the remain
der being: Jogis. 



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