Khas people

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About: medieval and modern day Khas people

For other uses, see Khasas.

medieval kingdom

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Template:Infobox ethnic group

File:Khas or Kus group, Goorkha, dominant tribe, Nipal.jpg
Khas Tribe of Nepal

Khas peoples or Khas Tribes, (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx) popularly known as Khashiya[1][nb 1] are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia, in what is now the South Asian country of Nepal, as well as the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim.[nb 2] Khas consists of many subtribes like Kshetri, Thakuri, Bahun and Sanyasis and all spread across the Himalayas.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]Template:Sfn

According to the Constitution of Nepal, Bahun, Kshetris, Thakuris, and Sanyasis (Dashnami) who are citizens of Nepal should be considered as "Khas Arya" for electoral purposes.[12]

Historically, Khas were the speakers of an ancient Khas language from the Indo-Aryan language familyTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the earliest recorded speakers of the Western Pahari languages.Template:Sfn The large portion of the Indo-Aryan speakers throughout lower Himalayas were the Masto people.Template:Sfn An intrusion of this tribe from the Western and Northwestern Himalayas into Central Himalayas is substantiated by the early linguistic evidences related to the Nepali language.Template:Sfn They were also known as Parbatiyas/Parbates and are currently known as Paharis/Pahadis. (literally, "from the hills"). They were also referred to as Yartse in Tibet and are also known as Khasan by Bhotia people. The term Khas has now become obsolete, as the Khas people have adopted communal identities because of the negative stereotypes associated with the term Khas. In Nepal the native speaker of Nepali language are known as Khas people.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Origin

Template:Main Template:Main

Indo-Aryan origin theories

They have been connected to the Khasas mentioned in the ancient Hindu literature.Template:Sfn Irish linguist Sir G.A. Grierson asserted that "..the great mass of the Aryan speaking population of the lower Himalaya from Kashmir to Darjeeling is inhabited by tribes descended from the ancient Khasas of Mahabharata."Template:Sfn Historian Bal Krishna Sharma and Dor Bahadur Bista speculates that the Khas people were of Indo-European origin.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Historian Baburam Acharya speculates that Khas are a sub-clan of Aida, an "Aryas” clan that originated at Idavritt (modern day Kashmir to Nepal).Template:Sfn[nb 3] Khas were living in the Idavaritt in the 3rd millennium BCE. and the original meaning of the term Khas was Raja or Kshatriya (Yoddha).Template:Sfn He further speculates that Kashmir has been named from its local residents Khas as Khasmir.Template:Sfn In the 2nd millennium B.C.E., one group of Khas migrated towards Iran while the other group migrated east of Sutlej river settling only in the hill regions up to Bheri River.Template:Sfn Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that Khas were not the Vedic Aryans but Aryans of the latter periods like the Gurjara, Darada, Shaka, and Pallava.Template:Sfn He further asserts that post-Vedic Aryans were akin to Vedic Aryans in terms of language and culture.Template:Sfn Irish linguist Sir George Abraham Grierson asserted that the Khasas were one of the warrior "Kshatriya tribe of Aryan origin" with linguistic connections to both Sanskrit and Iranian languages, who lost claim to Vedichood due to non-observance of Vedic rules.[nb 4] Roman geographer Pliny The Elder described the ancient Khasas/Khasiras (referred as 'Casiri') as one of the Indian ethnicity.Template:Sfn

Saka origin theories

Historian Rahul Sankrityayan proposes the origin of the Khasha tribe from the Shaka tribe and further identifies Khashas and Shakas to have been two different waves of the same race.Template:Sfn The Shakas were in Indian subcontinent before the first century BCE while the Khashas spread over the Himalayas and extensively populated the mountainous regions of UttarakhandTemplate:Sfn and the later waves of Shakas got diffused into them.Template:Sfn Historian Omchand Handa contends that the "sun worship" among Khashas is a Shaka legacy and perhaps the standing Surya images with long boots which was commonly found at the Khasha belt of Himalaya. Some examples of it are the Bara-Aditya at Katarmal and Surya images of Baijnath, Bageshwar and Dwarahat.Template:Sfn

History

Medieval history in Nepal and Uttarakhand

File:कर्तिखम्म.jpg
Stone script of Damupal near Kartikhamba in Dailekh dated 1038 (981 A.D.) is claimed to be the first stone script in Nepali Language.[13]

Khasas are believed to have arrived in the western reaches of Nepal at the beginning of first-millennium B.C.Template:Sfn or middle of first-millennium A.D.Template:Sfn from the north-west. The earliest linguistic evidences related to Nepali language also substantiates the linguistic intrusion of an Indo-Aryan speaking Khasa tribe from the West or Northwest Himalayas into Central Himalayas at the present day regions of Western Nepal.Template:Sfn It is likely that they absorbed people from different ethnic groups during this immigration.Template:Sfn They had extensively populated the mountainous regions of UttarakhandTemplate:Sfn and they had entirely dominated the inner Himalayan belt up to Nepal.Template:Sfn Previously, Khashas had strongly established themselves from Afghanistan to Nepal from ancient period and as per internal evidences, they managed the village level theocratic republics like Gram-Rajya and Mandals under various local clans and identities.Template:Sfn

The ruling Katyuri dynasty (700-1065 CE) of Kumaon who were of Khas origin,Template:Sfn was one of the ruling houses of Joshimath that claimed the sovereignty over other Gram Rajyas of the entire territory.Template:Sfn The Katyuris ruled from Joshimath in the Alaknanda Valley and later they shifted their capital to Baijnath.Template:Sfn They have also been connected to the medieval Khasa Malla kingdom.Template:Sfn The Khasa kings of West Nepal-Uttarakhand formed the famous Malla Kingdom, which ruled Humla from the eleventh century before collapsing and splintering into local chiefdoms during the fourteenth century.[14] In the initial phase, majority of Khas people became Brahmins and others became Kshatriyas.Template:Sfn

History in Kashmir

File:Vishnu and Lakshmi Supported by Garuda, 11th century CE, Ancient Kingdom of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir.jpg
Vishnu and Lakshmi Garuda art at the time of the Khasha Lohara dynasty, 11th century CE, Jammu and Kashmir.

The ruling Lohara dynasty (1003-1320 CE) of Kashmir were from the Khas tribe as per the 12th century text Rajatarangini written by the local Kashmiri Pandit historian Kalhana.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Furthermore, Rajatarangini describes the rulers of Rajapuri (modern Rajauri) as the "lord of the Khasas".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Khasa chiefs of Rajapuri freely intermarried with Kshatriya rulers of Kashmir while the Khasa chief of Lohara, Simharaja, married a daughter of Shahi Kings of Kabul.Template:Sfn The descendants of the royal family of Rajauri later became Muslim Rajput chiefs and they retained the rulership of the territory till 19th century.Template:Sfn The inhabitants of Karnah region in northwestern Kashmir, were Khasas and they were represented by the modern Bomba (tribe)Template:Sfn who independently ruled the northwestern Kashmir till the Sikh conquest of Kashmir.Template:Sfn There was also an independent Khasa lord at the castle located in the foot of Banahal Pass in the territory of VisalataTemplate:Sfn and Dengapala ("Thakkura Dengapala"Template:Sfn) was a Khasa chief at the banks of Chandrabhaga (modern Chenab river).Template:Sfn

Modern history in Nepal

File:Mandhata Shahi- SAKE-1612.jpg
Copper Inscription by King of Doti, Raika Mandhata Shahi at Saka Era 1612 (Template:Lang; 1747 Bikram Samvat (Template:Circa) in old Khas language using Devanagari script

Until the 19th century, the Gorkhali referred to their country as Khas Desh (Khas country).Template:Sfn As they annexed the various neighboring countries (such as Nepal or Newa of the Newar people) to the Gorkha kingdom, the terms such as Khas and Newar ceased to be used as the names of countries. The 1854 legal code (Muluki Ain), promulgated by the Nepali Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, himself a Khas,Template:Sfn no longer referred to Khas as a country, rather as a jāt (species or community) within the Gorkha kingdom.Template:Sfn

File:Khas or pre-gorkha kingdom.jpg
Khas Kingdom
File:Bhimsen Thapa of Nepal (cropped).jpg
Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa, the widely accepted first Prime Minister of Nepal

The Shah dynasty of the Gorkha Kingdom, as well as the later prime-ministerial Rana dynasty, spoke the Khas language (now called the Nepali language). However, they claimed to be Rajputs of western Indian origin, rather than the native Khas Kshatriyas.Template:Sfn Since outside Nepal, the Khas social status was seen as inferior to that of the Rajputs, the rulers started describing themselves as natives of the Hill country, rather than that of the Khas country. Most people, however, considered the terms Khas and Parbatiya (Pahari/Pahadi or Hill people) as synonymous.Template:Sfn

Jung Bahadur also re-labeled the Khas jāt as Chhetri in present-day Nepal.Template:Sfn Originally, the Brahmin immigrants from the plains considered the Khas as low-caste because of the latter's neglect of high-caste taboos (such as alcohol abstinence).Template:Sfn The upper-class Khas people commissioned the Bahun (Brahmin) priests to initiate them into the high-caste Chhetri order and adopted high-caste manners. Other Khas families who could not afford to (or did not care to) pay the Bahun priests also attempted to assume the Chhetri status but were not recognized as such by others. They are now called Matwali (alcohol-drinker Khas) Chhetris.Template:Sfn Because of the adoption of the Chhetri identity, the term Khas is rapidly becoming obsolete.Template:Sfn According to Dor Bahadur Bista (1991), "the Khas have vanished from the ethnographic map of Nepal".Template:Sfn

Modern

Nepal

File:Jangabahadur Horse Riding Statue.jpg
Jang Bahadur Rana, de-facto ruler of Nepal and a patriarch of historical Rana dynasty (1846-1951)

Modern-day Khas people are referred to as Hill Brahmin (Bahun), Hill Kshatriya (Thakuri/Chhetri) and Hill Dalit.Template:Sfn Further, historian Pokharel adds the Gharti, Damai, Kami, Sarki, Hudka, Tamote, Gaine and Badi to the Khas communities.Template:Sfn In modern times, Khas people are popularly referred by the term "Khas Arya".[2]

India-Pakistan

In Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, too, the term Khas has become obsolete. The Khas people of Kumaon termed as Kumaoni khash jimdar, after being elevated to the Rajput status by the Chand kings. During Chand rule in Kumaon, Khas and Rajput were differentiated by their sacred thread, Khas were allowed to wear only 3 thread (3 palli)sacred thread whereas Rajput used to wear 6 palli sacred thread.The term Khas is almost obsolete, and people resent being addressed as Khas because of the negative stereotypes associated with this term.Template:Sfn Furthermore, the Kanets of Kangra and Garhwal, Khasa of Jaunsar-Bawar and the bulk population of Garhwal and Kumaon (referred as "Khasia") are descended from the Khasas.Template:Sfn Generally, the Khas people are referred as Rajputs or Kanets in the Himachal Pradesh.Template:Sfn According to E.T. Atkinson, the Jaunsar-Bawar is the representative Khasiya tract and it Template:Blockquote

Historian Sir Marc Aurel Stein identified the modern Khakha Rajputs of Azad Kashmir as the descendants of Khasas mentioned in the Rajatarangini.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Khasa tribe in Karnah region in northwestern Kashmir were represented by the modern Bomba (tribe).Template:Sfn

Communities

Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel writes the communities or caste in Khas group were hill Bahun, Chhetri, Thakuri,[15] Gharti, Damai, Kami, Sarki, Hudka, Tamote, Gaine and Sunar, badi, luhar, parki etc .Template:Sfn The tribal designation Khas refers to in some contexts only to the alcohol drinker Khas group, i.e. Thakuri and Chhetri, but in other contexts may also include the low status (occupational Khas groups such as Kāmi (blacksmiths), Damāi (tailors), and Sārki (shoemakers and leather workers).Template:Sfn Khas people are addressed with the term Khayan or ParbatiyaTemplate:Sfn or Partyā, Parbaté meaning hill-dweller by Newars.Template:Sfn The hill Khas tribe are in large part associated with the Gorkhali warriors.Template:Sfn


Khas people of the Western Himalayas are considered similar to the Khas people of the Garhwal, Kumaon and Nepal.Template:Sfn They are generally referred as Rajputs or Kanets in the Himachal Pradesh.Template:Sfn The Khasas of Jaunsar-Bawar who are represented by the Jaunsari Rajputs and Brahmins) practiced polyandrous marriages.Template:Sfn

Culture and religion

Languages

Irish Linguist George Abraham Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India stated that the Khas tribe were the earliest recorded speakers of the Western Pahari languages.Template:Sfn He further asserted that the Khas people made the bulk population of the Indo-Aryan speakers throughout the lower Himalaya from Kashmir to Darjeeling.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Major Indo-Aryan languages.png
Khas language of Nepal, belongs to the Northern Indo-Aryan language group as shown as Nepali, in dark purple

The Khas people of Nepal originally referred to their language as Khas kurā (Khas speech), which was also known as Parbatiya (the language of the hill country). The Newar people used the term Khayan Bhaya, ParbatiyaTemplate:Sfn and Gorkhali as a name for this language, Gorkhalis themselves started using this term to refer to their language at a later stage.Template:Sfn In an attempt to disassociate himself with his Khas past, the Rana prime minister Jung Bahadur decreed that the term Gorkhali be used instead of Khas kurā to describe the language. Meanwhile, the British Indian administrators had started using the term Nepal (after Newar) to refer to the Gorkha kingdom. In the 1930s, the Gorkha government also adopted this term to describe their country. Subsequently, the Khas language also came to be known as Nepali language.Template:Sfn It has become a national language of Nepal and lingua franca among the majority of population of Northern region of West Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan.Template:Sfn Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that the Khas language of Nepal belonged to neither the Iranian language family, nor the Indian languages, but to the mid Indo-Iranian languages.Template:Sfn

Music

Deuda song and folk dance performed on the occasion of various festivals in the Sudurpashchim and Karnali provinces of Nepal.[16]

Religion

The majority of Khas profess Hinduism; some of them also follow Buddhism and some were also converted to Christianity. The Khas people also had their own sect of Shaivism known as Masto religion where 12 Masto gods were worshipped. These gods were said to be sons of Shiva. Masto worship was prevalent throughout all of the Western Himalayan region.Template:Full citation needed

Notable people

File:Queen Tripurasundari of Nepal.jpg
Portrait of a Khas 'Queen Tripurasundari of Nepal', who ruled the country as a Queen regent in the 19th century

Medieval Khas families and dynasties

Modern Khas

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Bhunda festival in Spail, a relic of the tribal past. The Tribune. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Drawing caste lines. The Kathmandu Post(25 Feb 2015).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Khas Arya quota provision in civil services opposed. thehimalayantimes.com(10 November 2017). Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nepal's election may at last bring stability. The Economist. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 PM briefs international community. The Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Quotable quota. Nepali Times(23 March 2018). Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Next Door Nepal: Another chink in the wall. indianexpress.com(2 April 2018). Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Oli in balancing avatar. myrepublica.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Nepal seeks unity from its first local elections in 20 years. Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lessons for India From Nepal's History of Banning Cow Slaughter. The Wire. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 What does high caste chauvinism look like?. The Kathmandu Post(7 April 2018). Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Part-8 Federal Legislature. Nepal Law Commission. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  13. ↑ Rising Nepal{{#if:Prasai|, Prasai}(27 Feb 2011)
  14. ↑ Hidden Himalayas{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Abbeville Press(March 2001). ISBN 9780789207227
  15. ↑ Sannyasi
  16. ↑ देउडा गीत र देउडा भाषिकाको इतिहास. Sajha Bisaunee. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  17. ↑ BBBBB. CRC Press(2005-01-20).

References

Bibliography

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