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1. Histori

cal notice

of the caste.

GUJAR

LIST OF PARAGRAPHS

1. Historical notice of the caste.
2. The Gujars and the Khazars.
3. Predatory character of the
Gujars in Northern India.

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4. Subdivisions.
5. Marriage.

6. Disposal of the dead.
7. Religion.

8. Character.

Gūjar. A great historical caste who have given their name to the Gujarat District and the town of Gujarānwāla in the Punjab, the peninsula of Gujarāt or Kāthiāwār and the tract known as Gūjargarh in Gwalior. In the Central Provinces the Gūjars numbered 56,000 persons in 1911, of whom the great majority belonged to the Hoshangābād 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 Nimār Gūjars are immigrants from Gujarāt. Owing to their distinctive appearance and character and their exploits as cattle-raiders, the origin of the Gūjars has been the subject of much discussion. General Cunningham identified them with the Yueh-chi or Tochāri, the tribe of Indo-Scythians who invaded India in the first century of the Christian era. The king Kadphises I. 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

PART II

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE CASTE

167

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invaded India in the fifth and sixth centuries. He writes: "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 Kushāns in the first century A.D. Probably none of the existing Rājpūt clans can carry back their genuine pedigrees so far. The third recorded great irruption of foreign barbarians occurred during the fifth century and the early part of the sixth. There are 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 Hūnas 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 Rājputāna. The most important element in the group after the Huns themselves was that of the Gurjaras, whose name still survives in the spoken form Gūjar as the designation 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 Bharōch (Broach), and of a larger state in Rājputāna, 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 (circ. A.D. 840-890), his predecessors and successors belonged to the Pratihāra (Parihār) clan of the Gurjara tribe or caste, and, consequently, 1 Early History of India, 3rd ed. pp. 409, 411.

2. The Gujars and the Khazars.

that the well-known clan of Parihār Rājpūts is a branch of the Gurjara or Gūjar stock."

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Sir J. Campbell identified the Gujars with the Khazar tribe of Central Asia: "What is known of the early 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 Avārs, and the Ephthalites, Yetas or White Hūnas 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 Encyclopædia Britannica follow Klaproth in holding that the Khazars are the same as the White Hūnas.

"Admitting that the Khazar and White Hūna 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 Kāra Khazar. The Kāra 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 Hūna was fair-skinned, black-haired and beautiful, their women (in the ninth and tenth centuries) being sought after in the bazārs of Baghdad and Byzantium. According to Klaproth, a view adopted by the writer in the Encyclopædia Britannica, the White Khazar represented the white race

1 Mr. Smith ascribes this discovery to Messrs. A. M. T. Jackson (Bombay Gazetteer, vol. i. Part I., 1896, p. 467); D. R. Bhandarkar, Gurjaras (J. Bo. R.A.S. vol. xx.); and Epigraphic Notes (ibidem, vol. xxi.) ; and Professor

Kielhorn's paper on the Gwalior Inscription of Mihira Bhoja in a German journal.

Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, Appendix B, The Gūjars.

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