The Dhunsar

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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. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

The Dhunsar (Caste No. 173)

The head-quarter.s of the Dhunsar are at Rewari in Gurg-aon. The total number in the Panjab is under 1,000^ and all but three are Hindus. They take their name from Dhosi^ a flat topped hill near Narnaul where their ancestor Chimand performed his devotions. They are of Braliminical origin, as is admitted by the Brahmans themselves, and it is possible that some of t hem may have recorded themselves as Brahmans in the schedules. Indeed, I find 1,G08 Dhusar Brahmans returned, of whom 1,560 are in Gurdaspur ; but whether these are the same men as the Dhunsars of Rewari I cannot say. The detailed tables when ready will clear up this point. In any case, they are no longer Brahmans, any more than are the agricultural Tagas ; and like the latter they employ Brahmans to minister to them. They are almost exclusively clerks or merchants, though, like the Khatris, some of them have risen to eminence in the army and the Court. The great Hemu, the leader of the Indian army at the second battle of Panipat, as a Dhunsar of Rewari. Sherring states that the Dhunsars have a traditioji of origin in the neighbourhood of Benares before migmting to Dehli, that they excel as minstrels, and are exceedingly strict Hindus of the Vashnaiva sect. They seem to be numerous in the North West Provinces.

SeeThe Bohra