The Bodla

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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.

The Bodla

Caste No, 172

The Bodlas are a small section of the Wattu Rajputs of the lower and middle Satluj, who have for some generations enjoyed a character for peculiar sanctity, and who now claim Qureshi origin from Abu Bakr Sadiq ; and 2,435 of them have entered themselves as Qureshi and not as Bodla, and are included under the head Shekh. Of these 144 are in Hissar, 749 in Sirsa, 889 in Eirozpnr, 349 in Montgomery, and 254 in Bahawalpur. They still marry Wattu girls, though they give their daughters only to Bodlas. They were till lately a wholly pastoral tribe, and still hold a jdgir, the proceeds of which they now supplement by cultivation. They came up from Multan through Bahawalpur to Mont gomery, where they are described byMr.

Purser as lazy, silly, and conceited.From Montgomery they spread into Sirsa, where they occupied the Bahak parganah which they still hold. They are credited with the power of curing disease by exorcism, and especially snake-bite and hydro phobia; they are recognised saints, and can curse with great efficacy. They have no relations with the other Qureshis of the neighbourhood, and their Wattu origin is undoubted.