Rajputs of the Western (Punjab) Plains
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. |
Tribes Western Plains
The Punwar (No. 1)
The Punwar or Pramara was once the most important of nil the Agnikula Rajputs. The world is the Pramara's is an ancient saying denoting' their extensive away ; and the nan Kot Maruhthali, extending along and below the Satluj from the Indus almost to the Jamna signified the maru indni asthal or arid territory occupied by them, and the nine divisions of which it consisted. But many centuries have passed since they were driven from their possessions and in 1826 they held in independent away only the small State of Dhat in the desert. It will be seen from the Abstract that the Punwar are found in considerable numbers up the whole course of the Satluj and along the Lower Indus, though in the Derajat all and in the Multan division many of them are shown as Jats. They have also spread up the beas into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. There is also a very large colony of them in Rohtak and Hissar and on the confines of those districts ; indeed they once held the whole of the Rohtak, Dadri, and Gohana country, and their quarrels with the Jatu Tunwar of Hissar have been noticed under the head Jatu.
The Bhatti (No. 2) — Bhatti, the Panjab form of the Rajputana word Bhati, is the title of the great modern representatives of the ancient Jadubansi royal Rajput family, dcsceudants of Krishna and therefore of Lunar race. Their traditions tell that they wore in very early times driven across the Indus; but that returning, they disposssessd the Langah, Joya, and others of the country south of the Lower Satluj some seven centuries ago, and founded Jaialmer. This State they still hold, though their territory has been greatly circumcribed since the advent of the Rather; but they still form a large proportion of the Rajput subjects of the Rathor Rajas of Bikaner. At one time their possessious in those parts included the whole of Sirsa and the adjoining portions of Hissar, and the tract is still known as Bhattiana 'The story current in Hissar is that Bhatti, the leader under whom the Bhattis recrosed the Indus, had two sons Dusal and Jaisal, of whom the latter founded Jaisalmer while the former settled in Bhaltiana. From Dusal sprang the Sidhu and Barar ,Jat tribes (see section 436)), while his grandson Rajpal was the ancestor of the wattu. (But see further, section 449 infra.) According to General Cun ningham the Bhattis originally held the Salt-range Tract and Kashmir, their capital being Gajnipur, or the site of modern Rawalpindi ; but about the second century before Christ they were driven across the Jahlam by the Indo-Scythians, and their leader, the Raja Rasalu of Panjab tradition, founded Sialkot. The invaders however followed them up and dispersed them, and drove them to take refuge in the country south of the Satluj, though their rule in the Kashmir valley remained unbroken till 1339 A.D.
The Bhatti is still by far the largest and most widely distributed of the Raput tribes of the Panjab. It is found in mimense numbers ail along the Lower Satluj and Indus, though on the former often and on the latter always classed as Jat. It is hardly less numerous on the Chenab, the Upper Satluj, and the Beas, it is naturally strong in Bhattiana, there is a large colony in the Delhi district, while it is perhaps most numerous of all in the seats of its ancient power, in Sialkot, Gujrat and the Salt-range country. And if we reckon as Bhatti the Sidhu and Barar Jats of the Malwa, who are admittedly of Bhatti origin, we shall leave no portion of the Panjab proper in which a large Bhatti population is not to be found. Many of those returned as Bhatti are also returned an belonging to other tribes, but these form a wholly insignificant fraction of the whole; and the only large numberss appearing twice over appear to he the 1,100 Naipal of Firozpur already alluded to,2,000 Bhatti Tun war (sic) in Rawalpindi, 2,400 Khokhar and 1,600 Kharral in Bahawalpur, 1,700 Kashmiri Jats in Gujranwala. In this last case the word is probably Bhat, a great Kashmir tribe, and not Bhatti. But if the Bhatti formerly held Kashmir, it is not impossihle that the two words are really identical. Perhaps also Bhatti has in many cases been given as their tribe byJatsor low-class Rajputs, or even by men of inferior castes who returned themselves asJats or Rajputs for their own greater exaltation. But if this be so, it only shows how widespread is the fame of the Bhatti within the Panjab. Almost every menial or artisan caste has a Bhatti clan, and it is often the most numerous of all, ranking with or above the Khokhar in this respect.
Yet it is strange, if the Bhatti did hold so large a portion of the Panjab as General Cunningham alleges, how almost universally they trace their origin to Bhatner in Bhattiana or at least to its neighbourhood. Either they were expelled wholly from the Upper Panjab and have since returned to their ancient seats, or else the glory of their later has overshadowed that of their earher dynasties, and Bhatner and Bhattiana have become the city and country of the Bhatti from which all good Bhatti trace their origin. The subject population of Brkaner is largely composed of Bhatti, while Jaisalmer is a Bhatti State ; and it seems impossible that if the Bhatti of the Higher Satluj are immigrants and not the descendants of the residue of the old Bhatti who escaped expulsion, they should not have come largely from both these States, and moreover should not have followed the river valleys in their advance. Yet the tradition almost always skips all intermediate steps, and carries us straight back to that ancient city of Bhatner on the banks of the long dry Ghaggar, in the Bikaner territory bordering on Sirsa. The Wattu Bhatti of Montgomery, while tracing their origin from Raja Salvahan, the father of Raja RaSalu of Sialkot, say that their more immediate ancestors came from Bhatner ; the Nun Bhatti of Multan trace their origin to the Dehli country; while the Bhatti of Muzaffargarh, Jhang, Gujarwala, Sialkot, Jahlam, and Pindi, all look to Bhatner as the home of their ancestors. It is probable either that Bhatner is used merely as a traditional expression, or that when the Ghaggar dried up or the Rathor con quered Brkaner, the Bhatti were driven to find new homes in the plains of the Panjab. Indeed Mr. Wilson tells me that in Sirsa, or the old Bhattiana, the term Bhatti is commonly apphed to any Musalman Jat or Rajput from the direction of the Satluj, as a generic term almost synonymouS with Rath or Pachhada.
In Multan the Nun, a Bhatti clan, are the dominant tribe in the Shujabad tahsil, where they settled some four or five hundred years ago. The Mittru Bhatti of Multan came from Brkaner. The Bhatti of Montgomery are probably Wattu and Khichi who will be described presently. The Bhatti of Jhang hold a considerable tract called Bhattiora in the Chiniot uplands north of the Chanab. They came first from Bhatner to the right bank of the Jahlam near the Shahpur border, and thence to Bhattiora. They are described as a fine race of men, industrious agriculturists, hardly at all in debt, good horse-breeders, and very fond of sport. They do very little cattle lifting, but are much addicted to carrying off each other's wives.The Bhatti of the Gujranwala bdr, where they are the natural enemies of the Virk,are descended from one Dhir who eighteen generations ago left Bhatner, and settled in the Nur Mahal jungles as a grazier and freebooter. His grandson went further on to the banks of the Ravi, and his son again moved up into the uplands of Gujranwala. The modern descendants of these men are described as a muscular and noble looking race of men, agricultureists more by constraint than by natural inclination, who keep numerous herds of cattle which graze over the pasture lands of the bar, only plough just sufficient to grow food for their own necessities, and are famous as cattle-lifters and notorious thieves. The Bhatti of Gujranwala enjoyed considerable political importance in former times, and they still hold 86 villages in that district. In Sialkot the Bhatti claim descent from Bhoni seventh in descent from their eponymous ancestor Bhatti, who came to Gujranwala from Bikaner, and thence to Sialkot. None of these Bhatti of the bar will give their daughters to the neighbouring Jat tribes, though they will take wives from among them without scruple. In the Salt-range Tract the Bhatti seem to hold a very subordinate position as Bhatti, though it may be that some of the innumerable Rajput tribes of those tracts may consider themselves Bhatti as well as whatever their local name may be. In Kapurthala and Jalandhar they have lost position greatly in recent times. Till dispossessed by the Ahluwalia Sikhs, the Rais of Kapurthala were Bhatti Rajputs.
