Pathans: Non-Frontier
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. |
Pathans: Non-Frontier
During the Lodi and Sur dynasties many Pathans migrated to India, especially during the reign of Bahlol Lodi
Major Wace says they were a clan of the Hazaraara Turks. But the Turks who gave their name to the district are supposed to have come wilh Cliangiz Klijin and not with Taimur. Per haps they were the same men, and have confused the two invaders in their traditions.
- This is the date given approximately by Major wace. It should perhaps be put a century earlier. and Sher Sbuli Sur. Those naturally belonged to the Ghilzai section from which those kings sprang. But large numbers of Pathans also accompanied the armies of Mahmud Ghaznavi. Shahab-ul-din, and Babar, and many of them obtained grants of land in the Pan jab plains and founded Pathan colonies which still exist. Many more Pathans have been driven out of Afghanistan by internal fends or by famine, and have taken refuge in the plains east of the Indus. The tribes most commonly to be found in Hindustan are the Yusufzai including the Mandanr, the Lodi^ Kakar, Sarwani; Orakzai, the Karlanri tribes and the Zamand Pathans. Of these the most widely distributed are the Yusufzai of whom a body of 1,200 accompanied Babar in his final invasion of India, and settled in the plains of Hindustan and the Panjab. But as a rule the Pathans who have settled away from the frontier have lost all memory of their tribal divisions, and indeed almost all their national characteristics.
The descendants of Zamand very early migrated in large numbers to Multan, to which Province they furnished rulers till the time of Aurangzeb ; when a number of the Abdali tribe under the leadership of Shah Huseu were driven from Kandahar by tribal feuds, took refuge in Multan, and being early supplemented by other of then- kinsmen who were expelled by Mir Wais, the great Ghilzai Chief, conquered Multan and founded the tribe well known in the Pan jab as Multani Pathans. Nawab Muzaffar Khan of Multan was fourth in descent from Shah Husen. When the Zamand section was broken up, the Khweshgi clan migrated to the Ghorband defile, and a large number marehed thence with Babar and found great favour at his hands and those of Humayun. One section of them settled at Kasur, and are now known as Kasuria Pathans. The Pathans of Guriani and Gohana in Rohtak are Kakar. They are said to have settled in the time of Ibrahim Lodi. Those of Jhajjar in the same district are said to be Yusufzai. In the time of Bahlol Lodi, Sarhind was ruled by members of the Prangi tribe from which he sprang, and many of this tribe are still to be found in Ludhianah, Rupar, and the north of Ambala. The reigning family of Maler Kotla belong to the Saripal clan of the Sarwani Afghans, who, as already related, were driven out of Afghanistan by the Mian Khel and Bakhtiar in the time of Humayun, Jahangir, for what reason I do not know, deported the Mita Khel sept of the Afridi to Hindustan ; and some of the Afghans of Panipat and Ludhianah are said to be descended from this stock,
