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1. History- Gujjar. — A great historical caste who have given their
caste name to the Gujarat District and the town of Gujaranwala
caste. in the Punjab, the peninsula of Gujarat or Kathiawar and the tract known as Gujargarh in Gwalior. In the Central
Provinces the Gujars numbered 56,000 persons in 191 1, of
whom the great majority belonged to the Hoshangabad and
Nimar Districts. In these Provinces the caste is thus
practically confined to the Nerbudda Valley, and they
appear to have come here from Gwalior probably in the
middle of the sixteenth century, to which period the first
important influx of Hindus into this area has been ascribed.
But some of the Nimar Gujars are immigrants from Gujarat.
Owing to their distinctive appearance and character and
their exploits as cattle-raiders, the origin of the Gujjars has
been the subject of much discussion. General Cunningham
identified them with the Yueh-chi or Tochari, the tribe of
Indo-Scythians who invaded India in the first century of
the Christian era. The king Kadphises 1. and his successors
belonged to the Kushan section of the Yueh-chi tribe, and
their rule extended over north-western India down to
Gujarat in the period 45-225 A.D. Mr. V. A. Smith,
however, discards this theory and considers the Gujars or
Gurjaras to have been a branch of the white Huns who
166
part ii HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE CASTE 167
* invaded India in the fifth and sixth centuries. He writes : J
" The earliest foreign immigration within the limits of the
historical period which can be verified is that of the Sakas
in the second century B.C. ; and the next is that of the
Yueh-chi and Kushans in the first century A.u. Probably
none of the existing Rajput clans can carry back their
genuine pedigrees so far. The third recorded great irrup-
tion of foreign barbarians occurred during the fifth century
and the early part of the sixth. There arc indications that
the immigration from Central Asia continued during the
third century, but, if it did, no distinct record of the event
has been preserved, and, so far as positive knowledge goes,
only three certain irruptions of foreigners on a large scale
through the northern and north-western passes can be
proved to have taken place within the historical period
anterior to the Muhammadan invasions of the tenth and
eleventh centuries. The first and second, as above observed,
were those of the Sakas and Yueh-chi respectively, and the
third was that of the Hunas or white Huns. It seems to be
clearly established that the Hun group of tribes or hordes
made their principal permanent settlements in the Punjab
and Rajputana. The most important element in the group
after the Huns themselves was that of the Gurjaras, whose
name still survives in the spoken form Gujar as the designa-
tion of a widely diffused middle-class caste in north-western
India. The prominent position occupied by Gurjara
kingdoms in early mediaeval times is a recent discovery.
The existence of a small Gurjara principality in Bharoch
(Broach), and of a larger state in Rajputana, has been
known to archaeologists for many years, but the recognition
of the fact that Bhoja and the other kings of the powerful
Kanauj dynasty in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries
were Gurjaras is of very recent date and is not yet general.
Certain misreadings of epigraphic dates obscured the true
history of that dynasty, and the correct readings have been
established only within the last two or three years. It
is now definitely proved that Bhoja {arc. A.D. 840-890),
his predecessors and successors belonged to the Pratihara
(Parihar) clan of the Gurjara tribe or caste, and, consequently,
1 Early History of India, 3rd ed. pp. 409, 411.
1 68 GUJAR part
that the well-known clan of Parihar Rajputs is a branch of
the Gurjara or Gujar stock." l
2. The Sir J. Campbell identified the Gujars with the Khazar
Gujars tribe of Central Asia : 2 " What is known of the early
Khazars. history of the Gujaras in India points to their arrival
during the last quarter of the fifth or the first quarter of
the sixth century (a.D. 470-520). That is the Gujaras
seem to have formed part of the great horde of which the
Juan-Juan or Avars, and the Ephthalites, Yetas or White
Hunas were leading elements. The question remains :
How far does the arrival of the Gujara in India, during
the early sixth century, agree with what is known of the
history of the Khazar ? The name Khazar appears under
the following forms : Among Chinese as Kosa, among
Russians as Khwalisses, among Byzantines as Chozars or
Chazars, among Armenians as Khazirs and among Arabs as
Khozar. Other variations come closer to Gujara. These
are Gazar, the form Kazar takes to the north of the sea of
Asof ; Ghysar, the name for Khazars who have become Jews ;
and Ghusar, the form of Khazar in use among the Lesghians
of the Caucasus. Howarth and the writer in the Encyclopedia
Britannica follow Klaproth in holding that the Khazars are
the same as the White Hunas. . . .
" Admitting that the Khazar and White Huna are one, it
must also be the case that the Khazars included two distinct
elements, a fair or Ak-Khazar, the Akatziroi or Khazaroi of
Byzantine historians, and a dark or Kara Khazar. The
Kara Khazar was short, ugly and as black as an Indian.
He was the Ughrian nomad of the steppes, who formed the
rank and file of the army. The White Khazar or White
Huna was fair-skinned, black -haired and beautiful, their
women (in the ninth and tenth centuries) being sought after
in the bazars of Baghdad and Byzantium. According to
Klaproth, a view adopted by the writer in the Encyclopedia
Britannica, the White Khazar represented the white race
1 Mr. Smith ascribes this discovery Kielhorn's paper on the Gwalior In-
to Messrs. A. M. T. Jackson {Bombay scription of Mihira Bhoja in a German
Gazetteer, vol. i. Part I., 1896, p. journal.
467) ; D. R. Bhandarkar, Gurjaras {J. 2 Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of
Bo. B.A.S. vol. xx.) ; and Epigraphic Gujarat, Appendix B, The Gujars.
Notes {ibidem, vol. xxi.) ; and Professor
ii PREDATORY CHARACTER OF THE GUJARS 169
which, since before Christ, has been settled round the Caspian.
As White Hunas, Ephthalites, 1 White Ughrians and White
Bulgars, this white race were the carriers between Europe
and East Asia ; they were also the bearers of the brunt of
the Tartar inroads. A trace both of the beautiful and
coarse clans seems to survive in the complimentary Marwar
proverb, ' Handsome as a Huna,' and in the abusive Gujarat
proverb, 'Yellow and short as a Huna's beard.' Under its
Hindu form Gurjara, Khazar appears to have become the
name by which the great bulk of the sixth -century horde
was known." Sir J. Campbell was of opinion that the
Sesodia or Gahlot Rajputs, the most illustrious of all the
clans, were of Gujar stock, as well as the Parihar, Chauhan,
and Chalukya or Solanki ; these last were three of the
Agnikula clans or those created from the firepit, 2 and a
Solanki dynasty ruled in Gujarat. He also considered the
Nagar Brahmans of Gujarat to be derived from the Gujars
and considerable sections of the AhTr and Kunbi castes.
The Badgujar (great Gujar) clan of Rajputs is no doubt
also an aristocratic branch of the caste. In Ajmere it is said
that though- all Gujars are not Rajputs, no Rajput becomes
a hero unless he is suckled by a Gujar woman. Gujjarika
dudh, nahari ka dudli ; or ' Gujar's milk is tiger's milk.' A
Rajput who has not been suckled by a Gujar woman is a
gidar or jackal. 3
The fact of the White Huns being tall and of fine features, 3. Preda-
in contrast to the horde which invaded Europe under Attila, ^"j
accounts for these characteristics being found among the of the
highest Rajput clans, who, as has been seen, are probably nor J tbern
derived from them. The Gujar caste generally is now, India.
however, no doubt of mixed and impure blood. They were
distinguished in the past as vagrant and predatory marauders,
and must have assimilated various foreign elements.
Mr. Crooke writes of them : 4 " The Gujars as a tribe
have always been noted for their turbulence and habit of
1 The Khazars were known to the 2 See article on Panwar Rajput,
Chinese as Yetas, the beginning of para. 1.
Yeta-i-li-to, the name of their ruling 3 Campbell, loc. fit. p. 495.
family, and the nations of the west 4 Tribes and Castes, article Gujar,
altered this to Hyatilah and Ephthalite. para. 12. The description is mainly
Campbell, ibidem. taken from Elliott's History of India as
told bv its own Historians.
i 7 o GUJAR PART
cattle-stealing. Babar in his Memoirs describes how the
commander of the rearguard captured a few Gujar ruffians
who followed the camp, decapitated them and sent their
heads to the Emperor. The Gujars of Pali and Pahal
became exceedingly audacious while Sher Shah was
fortifying Delhi, and he marched to the hills and expelled
them so that not a vestige of their habitations was left.
Jahanglr remarks that the Gujars live chiefly on milk and
curds and seldom cultivate land ; and Babar says :
' Every time I entered Hindustan the Jats and Gujars have
regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from the
hills and wilds to carry off oxen and buffaloes. These
were the wretches that really inflicted the chief hardships
and were guilty of the chief oppression in the country.'
They maintained their old reputation in the Mutiny when
they perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded
the operations of the British Army before Delhi." In
northern India the Gujars are a pastoral caste. The
saying about them is —
Ahir, Gadaria, Gujar,
♦ E tinon taken ujar,
or, ' The Ahir, Gadaria and Gujar want waste land ' ; that is for
grazing their flocks. In Kangra the Gujars generally keep
buffaloes. Here they are described as " A fine, manly race
with peculiar and handsome features. They are mild and
inoffensive in manner, and in these hills are not distinguished
by the bad pre-eminence which attaches to their race in the
plains." 1 Sir D. Ibbetson had a very unfavourable opinion
of the Gujars of the plains, of whom he wrote as follows : 2
" The Gujar is a fine stalwart fellow, of precisely the same
physical type as the Jat ; and the theory of aboriginal
descent which has been propounded is to my mind con-
clusively negatived by his cast of countenance. He is of
the same social standing as the Jat, or perhaps slightly
inferior ; but the two eat and drink in common without any
scruple, and the proverb says : ' The Jat, Gujar, Ahir and
Gola are all hail fellow well met' But he is far inferior
1 Description of the Kangra Gujars Punjab Census Report {\&&i), para. 481.
by Mr. Barnes. Quoted in Ibbetson's - Census Report, para. 4S1.
1 1 S UBDI VISIONS 1 7 1
in both personal character and repute to the J at. He is
lazy to a degree, and a wretched cultivator ; his women,
though not secluded, will not do field - work save of the
lightest kind ; while his fondness for cattle extends to
those of other people. The difference between a Gujar
and a Rajput cattle - thief was once explained to me
thus by a Jat : ' The Rajput will steal your buffalo. But he
will not send his old father to say he knows where it is and
will get it back for Rs. 20, and then keep the Rs. 20 and
the buffalo too. The Gujar will.' "
The Gujars of the Central Provinces have, however, 4- -^ ub -
entirely given up the predatory habits of their brethren in
northern India and have developed into excellent cultivators
and respectable law-abiding citizens. In Hoshangabad they
have three subcastes, Lekha, Mundle and Jadam. The
Mundle or ' Shaven ' are so called because they take off
their turbans when they eat and expose their crowns bare
of hair, while the Lekha eat with their turbans on. The
Mundle are also known as Rewe, from the Rewa or
Nerbudda, near which they reside. The Jadam are
probably an offshoot from the cultivating caste of
Hoshangabad of that name, Jadam being a corruption of
Jadubansi, a tribe of Rajputs. The Badgujars, who belong
to Nimar, consider themselves the highest, deriving their
name from bara or 'great' Gujar. As already seen, there is
a Badgujar clan of Rajputs. The Nimar Badgujars, however,
were formerly engaged in the somewhat humble calling of
clearing cotton of its seeds, and on this account they are
also known as Ludhare, the word lodhna meaning to work
the hand-ginning machine (charkht). It seems possible that
the small caste of Lorhas of the Hoshangabad District,
whose special avocation is to grow san - hemp, may be
derived from these Ludhare Gujars. The Kekre or Kanwe
subcaste are the lowest and are of illegitimate descent.
They are known as Kekre or ' Crabs,' but prefer their other
name. They will take food from the other subcastes, but
these do not return the compliment. Another group in the
Sohagpur Tahsll of Hoshangabad are the Lilorhia Gujars.
They say that their ancestors were grazing calves when
some of them with their herdsmen were stolen by Brahma.
172 GUJAR part
Then Krishna created fresh cowherds and the Lilorhias
were made from the sweat of his forehead (lilat). After-
wards Brahma restored the original cowherds, who were
known as Murelia, because they were the first
players on the murli or flute. 1 The Badgujars or highest
branch of the clan are descendants of these Murelias.
The caste have also a set of exogamous groups, several of
which bear the names of Rajput clans, while others are
called after villages, titles or nicknames or natural objects.
A man is not permitted to marry any one belonging either
to his own sept or that of his mother or grandmother.
s. Mar- At a Gujar wedding four plough-yokes are laid out to
nage. f orm a square under the marriage booth, with a copper pot
full of water in the centre. At the auspicious moment the
bride's hand is placed on that of the bridegroom, and the
two walk seven times round the pot, the bridegroom leading
for the first four rounds and the bride for the last three.
Widows are allowed to remarry, and, as girls are rather
scarce in the caste, a large price is often paid for the widow
to her father or guardian, though this is not willingly
admitted. As much as Rs. 3000 is recorded to have been
paid. A widow marriage is known as Natra or Pat. A
woman is forbidden to marry any relative of her first
husband. When the marriage of a widow is to take place
a fee of Rs. 1-4 must be paid to the village proprietor to
obtain his consent. The Gujars of the Bulandshahr
District of the United Provinces furnish, Mr. Crooke says, 2
perhaps the only well - established instance of polyandry
among the Hindus of the plains. Owing to the scarcity of
women in the caste it was customary for the wife of one
brother, usually the eldest, to be occasionally at the disposal
of other unmarried brothers living in the house. The custom
arose owing to the lack of women caused by the prevalence
of female infanticide, and now that this has been stopped it
is rapidly dying out, while no trace of it is believed to
exist in the Central Provinces.
6. Disposal The bodies of unmarried persons are buried, and also
of the
dead. . *
1 Cf. Krishna s epithet of Murhdhar and shepherds in Greek and Roman
or the flute-player, and the general mythology.
association of the flute with herdsmen 2 Ibidem.
ion.
ii RELIGION i 73
of those who die of any epidemic disease. Others
are cremated. The funeral of an elderly man of good
means and family is an occasion for great display. A
large feast is given and the Brahman priests of the
caste go about inviting all the Gujars to attend. Some-
times the number of guests rises to three or four thousand.
At the conclusion of the feast one of the hosts claps
his hands and all the guests then get up and im-
mediately depart without ceremony or saying farewell.
Such an occasion is known as Gujarwada, and the Gujars
often spend as much, or more, on a funeral as on a wedding,
in the belief that the outlay is of direct benefit to the
dead man's spirit. This idea is inculcated and diligently
fostered by the family priests and those Brahmans who
receive gifts for the use of the dead, the greed of these
cormorants being insatiable.
The household goddess of the caste is known as Kul 7 . Re
Devi, the word kul meaning family. To her a platform is llg
erected inside the house, and she must be worshipped by
the members of the family alone, no stranger being present.
Offerings of cocoanuts, rice, turmeric and flowers are made
to her, but no animal sacrifices. When a son of the family
dies unmarried, an image of him, known as Mujia, is made
on a piece of silver, copper or brass, and is worshipped on
Mondays and Fridays during the month of Magh (January).
On one of these days also a feast is given to the caste.
Each member of the caste has a guru or spiritual preceptor,
who visits him every second or third year and receives a
small present of a cocoanut or a piece of cloth. But he
does not seem to perform any duties. The guru may
belong to any of the religious mendicant castes. A man
who is without a guru is known as Nugra and is looked
down on. To meet him in the morning is considered un-
lucky and portends misfortune. Sir C. Elliot l characterised
the Mundle Gujars as " A very religious race ; they never
plough on the new moon nor on the 8 th of the month,
because it is Krishna's birthday. Their religious and social
head is the Mahant of the Ramjidas temple at Hoshangabad."
In Nimar many of the Gujars belong to the Pirzada sect,
1 Hoshangabad Settlement Report, para. 16.
acter.
174 GUJAR PART II
which is a kind of reformed creed, based on a mixture of
Hinduism and Islam.
8. Char- The Gujars wear the dress of northern India and their
women usually have skirts (lahenga) and not saris or body-
cloths. Married women have a number of strings of black
beads round the neck and widows must change these for
red ones. As a rule neither men nor women are tattooed.
The men sometimes have their hair long and wear beards
and whiskers. The Gujars are now considered the best
cultivators of the Nimar District. They are fond of
irrigation and sink unfaced wells to water their land and
get a second crop off it. They are generally prosperous
and make good landlords. Members of the caste have the
custom of lending and borrowing among themselves and not
from outsiders, and this no doubt conduces to mutual
economy and solvency. Like keen cultivators elsewhere,
such as the Pan wars and Kurmis, the Gujar sets store by
having a good house and good cattle. The return from a
Mundle Gujar's wedding, Captain Forsyth wrote, 1 is a sight
to be seen. Every Gujar from far and near has come with
his whole family in his best bullock-cart gaily ornamented,
and, whatever the road may be, nothing but a smash will
prevent a breakneck race homewards at full gallop, cattle
which have won in several such races acquiring a much
coveted reputation throughout the District.
1 Nimar Settlement Report (1868).