In this post, I will look at two tribes, namely the Lodhike, and Wahla, that are found mainly in the Gujranwala Bar. The Bar is the region between the Ravi and Chenab, forming the modern districts of Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura districts. This region is also known as the Rechna Doab. I would ask the reader to look at my post on the Tarar and Gondal, who customs and traditions are very similar to the tribes I am looking at in this post. With regards to the Wahla, they are essentially found along the banks of the Ravi, as far south as Amritsar, while the Lodike were found along the Chenab. The Wahla are often referred to as hitharis, meaning the river valley tribes. However the Lodike were Bar nomads, who dwelt in the uplands of the river valleys of the Chenab and Ravi.
Map of the Rechna Doaba
All two tribes are Jats. Lincoln author of the 1935 Gazetteer of Gujranwala, writes the following of the Jats of the middle Rechna Doaba:
Jats are by far the most important tribe in the district. They own 70 per cent, of the cultivated area and constitute nearly a third of the total population. About four-fifths of them are Musalman and the rest Sikhs and Hindus. Their clans are legion, but the Viraks, Varaiches, Gurayas, Dhotars, Sekhus, Basras, Cheemas, Chathas, Tarrars, Bhagsinkes, Lodika Kharals, Jugs, Hanjras and Gondals are the most important.The Cheemas and Chathas are to be found mostly inthe Wazirabad tahsil, the Tarrars, Lodika Kharals, Bhagsinkes and Hanjras in Hafizabad, Viraks in the Bar Circles of Gujranwala and Hafizabad and Varaiches,Gorayas, Dhotars, Sekhus and Basras in the Gujranwala tehsil. There are a few villages of Varaiches in the Chenab Circle of Wazirabad tahsil also where they are Musalmans. The Viraks, Varaiches, Sekhus, Dhotras and Hanjras are mostly Sikhs and Hindus, while the other clans are mainly Musalmans.
The Jats, numbering in all 213,416 souls, constitute 33.9 per cent, of the total population of the district and own 70 per cent, of the cultivated area. About four-fifths of them are Musalmans and the rest Sikhs and Hindus. Formerly they were by no means exclusively devoted to agriculture, the main occupation of many of them being that of pasturing cattle in the wilder portions of the district; they had no fixed habitation and led a nomad life.
The region of the Gujranwala Bar is where is the Jat tribes had remained nomadic right up to the arrival of the British in 1849. The table below gives a breakdown of the larger tribes in the region according to the 1911 Census.
| Tribe | Population |
| Cheema | 21,735 |
| Kharal | 12,077 |
| Waraich | 9,510 |
| Khokhar | 7,893 |
| Virk | 7,644 |
| Tarar | 4,841 |
| Hanjra | 4,334 |
| Goraya | 3,591 |
| Chhina | 3,252 |
| Sandhu | 3,192 |
| Chatha | 2,804 |
| Lodike | 2,675 |
| Gill | 2,635 |
| Bajwa | 2,483 |
| Ghumman | 1,429 |
| Sahi | 1,050 |
| Buttar | 842 |
| Dhillon | 769 |
| Dhariwal | 744 |
| Sipra | 658 |
| Haral | 643 |
| Chahal | 609 |
| Randhawa | 577 |
| Maan | 453 |
| Mangat | 435 |
| Samra | 406 |
| Bhangu | 372 |
| Aulakh | 357 |
| Dhotar | 357 |
| Sarai | 296 |
| Kahlon | 261 |
| Pannun | 251 |
| Sidhu | 196 |
| Deo | 108 |
Lodike
Lodike, sometimes pronounced as Lodhike are a Jat clan, who are found mainly in Gujranwala District. They are a branch of the large Kharal tribe, who have separated from the parent stock. The Kharal are of Panwar Rajput stock and were the archetypal maharavi tribe. The Kharal claim to be a Panwar Rajputs, and claim descent from Raja Karan of the Mahabharata.. Kharal was grandson of Raja Karan and one of the off springs Bhopa, Raja Karan’s son, left Neshapur and migrated to Punjab and reached to Uch Sharif with his son Kharal in the 13th century, where he and his son were inspired by the preachings of Hazrat Makhdoom Jahanian Shah and converted to Islam by Hazrat Makhdoom Jahanian Shah. Kharal is said to have 12 sons. Rose gives the following genealogy:
The Lodiike claim decent from Firuz, from whom their ancestor Lodhi descended. E. A. Prinsep, the author of the 1874 Gujranwala Settlement Report, said the following about them:
Claim solar descent; are called after an ancestor Lodi, who 10 generations ago came from Mauzah Dannapur on the banks of the Ravi, and led a pastoral life in the Bar tracts, much frequenting the country near the Sangla Hills. He had four sons, all noted robbers, who after several revereses from their enemies the Virks, took to agriculture, cultivating the land in Hinjrah and Jag villages. In early Sikh times the tribe began to found villages of their own; they ha four recognisable sub-divisions; called after the names of Lodi’s four sons but there only two clans now.
Lodike’s own traditions refers to them coming from the Ravi, and initially leading a pastoral life and nomadic life in the Sangla Hill country. Reverses at the hands of the Virk Jats forced them to settle down in the 18th century. However, they claim to be Agnivanshi and not Suryavanshi (solar descent), claiming descent from the Panwar Rajputs. The tribe gets its name from the Lodi, or sometimes spelt Lodhi, its ancestor. Among Kharal clans, the suffix ke has the same function as aal among the Pothohar tribes, and aana among the Thal, meaning a descendent.
The Lodike are now found in thirty-six villages in the Gujranwala Bar.
Wahla
The Wahla are a Jat clan now found mainly in Faisalabad, Sialkot and Narowal districts. The name is said to mean someone who is listens with patience. H. A Rose, the early 20th Century British colonial ethnologist wrote the following about them:
A tribe of Jats found in Sialkot and like the Kang descended from Jograh, through its eponym.
Like the Kang and Natt clans of the Jats, the Wahla claim descent from Jograh, a Suryavanshi Rajput, who came from Ayudhia. Rose gives the following family tree:
The various tribal genealogies of the Jat tribes are based on bardic traditions of the Punjab, which classifies every Jat clan within the three sub-divisions of the Rajputs, the Suryavansh, Chandravanshi and Agnivanshi. The Wahla are according to this genealogy Suryavanshi, descended from Jogra, sixth in descent from Ram. Jograh fell out with his brothers, and left Ayodhia, and settled in Sialkot, where he was welcomed by semi-mythical Raja Salvahan. According to other traditions, they came from Ghazni in Afghanistan. Claims to an origin from Afghanistan is fairly widespread among several Jat tribes, but unfortunately, they have never been investigated properly. Therefore, as things stands, this simply remains that, a claim
There is a third tradition which gives Tomar ancestry and would make them Chandravanshi and Suryavanshi. Below is this other family tree
Tomar or Toor (ancestor of Tomar tribe)
↓
Pandu
↓
Dharpat
↓
Mal Pal
↓
Khakh Pal
↓
Janjua
↓
Bains or Waince
↓
Sadda Pal
↓
Wahla Pal
↓
Wahal + Wahalawat + Walecha + Waloot + Venkat
This connects the Wahla not with the Kang and Natt, but with the Janjua tribe, making Janjua the grandfather of Wahla. However, most traditions connect the tribe with the Kang, rather than the Janjua.
Muslim Wahla Population according to the 1911 Census
| District | Population |
| Lyallpur | 1,215 |
| Gurdaspur | 145 |
| Other Districts | 1,056 |
| Total | 2,416 |
The census does not give the numbers in Amritsar, but there were several Muslim Wahla Jat villages in Ajnala Tehsil, such as Kamalpur, Nisoke and Singhoke, who all moved to Pakistan at parttion. In Gujranwala District, the Wahla are found in Muraliwala.
newpakhistorian 