The Khattar

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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.

Caste No. 182

The Khattars are a tribe which claims kinship with the Awans, and to be, like them and the western Khokhars, descended from one of the sons of Qutb Shah Qureshi of Ghazni. But the Awans do not always admit the relationship, and the Khattars are said often to claim Rajput origin. Mr. Steodman however accepts their Awan origin, and says that an Awan admits it, but looks upon the Khattars as an inferior section of the tribe to whom he will not give his daughters in marriage. Sir Lcpol Griffin, who relates the history of the principal Khattar families at pages 561 to 569 of his Panjab Chiefs, thinks that they were originally inhabitants of Khorasan who came to India with the early Mahomedan invaders. But Colonel Craeroft notes that the Khattars of Rawalpindi still retain marriage customs which point to an Indian origin ; and they them selves have a tradition of having been driven out of their territory on the Indus near Attak into Afghanistan, and returning thence with the armies of Muhammad Ghori.

General Cunningham, on the other hand, would identify them with a branch of the Kator, Cidarite?, or little Yuchi?, from whom the Gujars also are descended and whose early history is related in section 480. {Arehæological Reports, Vol. N, page 80) . They now hold the tract known by their name which extends on both sides of the Kala Chitta Pahar from the Indus to the boundary of the Rawalpindi tahsil, and from Usman Katar on the north to the Khair-i-Murat hills on the south, and which they are said to have taken from Gujars and Awans. The figures of Table Vlll-iV are very imperfect, as the Khattars of Rawalpindi have returned themselves as Awans.

Under the caste heading of Awan no fewer than 11,278 persons have shown their clan as Khattar, of whom all but 362 are in the Rawalpindi district, thus bringing up the total numbers for the Province to 12,523. Colonel Craeroft writes: The Khattars enjoy an unenviable notoriety in regard to crime. Their tract has always been one in which heavy crime has flourished ; they are bad agriculturists, extravagant in their habits, keep hawks and horses, and are often backward in paying their revenue. They do not allow their daughters to inherit excepting in cases of intermarriage with members of the family and even then only for some .special reason.On this Stecdman notes Since then they have become more civilised and less addicted to deeds of violence. Socially the Khattars hold an intermediate place, ranking below Gakkhars, Awans, Ghebas, Jodras, and other high class Rajputs.