Maral / Marral Jats

In this post, I will look at the Maral, or sometimes spelt Marral tribe of Jats, who are found mainly is South Punjab, and are Seraiki speaking. They should not be confused by the Marhal, who were historically found in eastern Punjab. Like most posts, I will first look at the British sources, then look at tribal traditions.

British Sources

The earliest reference to the Marral comes from E. B Steedman’s Report of the Revised Settlement of Jhang District 1874-80. He writes the following about them:

The Marrals at present time do not own a single village, yet in the past times they must have been an important tribe, for we constantly hear of them in local lore. They claim to be Rajputs, Chauhan of the Surajbansi race, and to have settled at Thatha Wara beyond Khiva in the Chiniot tehsil during the reign of Akbar. The Shah Jiwana legend makes them proprietors of the land where Shah Jiwana now stands. Probably they occupied the land between the Khiva Sials and Chadhars on the left bank, and also some lands on the right bank of the Chenab. A few families still live in Marralwala, but as hereditary tenants only.

Report of the Revised Settlement of Jhang District 1874-80 Civil and Military Press Lahore

E.B. Steedman was an Indian Civil Service officer who had spent his career based in Gujrat, Jhang, and Dera Ismail Khan in the last half of the 19^th Century and built extensive knowledge of this region of South Punjab. His account, that the Marral were Chauhan Rajput was followed up by a number of other sources. For example, Malik Muhammad Din author of the 1904 Bahawalpur State Gazetteer reinforced the Chauhan ancestry.

Malik was the first to refer to Marral being the nickname of the tribal ancestor, from the Seraiki marhna, to muffle. A very similar account was given by H. A Rose. Rose was an early 20th Century British colonial official who co-authored A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, which is one of the most comprehensive glossaries on the tribes of Punjab, and a good source on many Punjabi tribes. He has two entries on the Marral, one relating to the clan in Bahawalpur, where a section was settled, and other in Jhang.

Marral a, tribe found in Bahawalpur. Maral, its eponym, was a Chauhan who migrated from Delhi and settled in Sindh. He had three sons, but all their descendants are called Marals. Their mirasi give the following folk-etymology : A certain Chauhan was told by his astrologers that a boy would be born in a Chauhan family who would destroy his kingdom, so he ordered that all the children born to the Chauhan  should be killed, but Maral’s mother concealed him in a drum, and so he was named Maral (from marhna, ‘ to muffle,’) while the family fled to Sindh.

Rose, Horace Arthur; MacLagan, Edward Douglas. A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. Volume 2, Lahore: Samuel T. Weston at the Civil and Military Gazette Press.

He repeats Malik’s account of the Marral. He then has an entry on the Marral of Jhang:

The Marrral seemto have been once of far greater importance than now in the Jhang District, which is their home. They claim to be Chauhan Rajputs by origin, tind to have come to the Upper Chenab in the time of Akbar. They are a fine bold looking set of men, but with a bad reputation for cattle-lifting and are poor cultivators.

Rose, Horace Arthur; MacLagan, Edward Douglas. A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. Volume 2, Lahore: Samuel T. Weston at the Civil and Military Gazette Press.

Here he repeats Steedman’s account. But both accounts refer to two things, the Marral are Chauhan, and there ancestor had to leave Delhi, which was one of the capitals of the ancient Chauhan state.

Tribal Traditions

Like many Punjab tribes, there are a number of traditions. However, most Marral claim a Chauhan Rajput ancestry. Like Steedman, they name their ancestor Marral, whose family left Delhi as consequence of a threat and settled in Sindh and refer to the threat by the Chauhan Raja. In Jhang, the Marrals claim that they were a local power, whose independence was ended by Walidad Sial, who founded the Sial state in Jhang. According another traditions, they are a group of Chauhans that migrated from Panipat, in what is now Haryana in India to the banks of the Jhelum. But both traditions seem to suggest that there first place of settlement was Jhang, where after their overthrow, led to groups migrating to further south to Multan and Muzaffargarh.

Baba Bajwa of the YouTube channel Baba Bajwa, whose sources seem to be the tribal mirasi (genealogist) however gives a different genealogy. According to him, the Marral are Panwar, and not Chauhan.

Wacha (ancestor of the Surayvanshi tribes)

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Bhoj Raj (20^th in descent from Wacha, and ancestor of most the Punjab Suryavanshi)

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Mulraj (10^th in descent from Bhoj Raj, ancestor of the several tribes such as Dhudhi, Lak and Waseer)

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Chaluk Raj

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Sotrakh Raj

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Ra Sangli

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Ra Kathi

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Ra Sial, also known as Ra Shankar (ancestor of the Sial tribe)

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Hiraj

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Marral

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Moma + Mami + Nankota + Pira

This genealogy connects the tribe with the Sial, and make the Marral Panwar Rajputs. However, most Marral traditions make the tribe a branch of the Chauhan Rajputs, and not Panwar, with Marral’s three sons being Bhara, Jot and Sawand.

Marral Population According to the 1911 Census of Punjab

District / State	Population
Bahawalpur	880
Jhang	826
Total	1,706

Distribution

The Marral are found in south Punjab, mainly in Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Muzaffargarh and Jhang districts. Their villages in Rajanpur District include Jindo Marral and Phagan Marral. In Chiniot District, Marralwala, and Multan District, Khanpur Marral, Inyatpur Marral and Qasba Maral.

In Sindh, they are found in Kashmore and Ghotki districts. Rais Ahmed Bux Maral, Gaji Maral, Haji Alim Maral and Nihal Maral are important Marral villages in Sindh.

Dhandla, Jakhar, Lohanch and Makwal tribes

In this post, I shall look at five tribes that are found largely in the uplands of the Chenab and Indus rivers, now forming part of Bhakkar, Layyaj and Muzaffargarh districts. This region goes by the name of the Sindh Sagar Doab (the land between the Indus and Chenab rivers), and is frontier region in terms of both politics and culture. The Jats were probably the earliest settlers, but many Jat tribes have vague traditions of migration from Jaisalmer or Bikaner in Rajasthan. Like most Bar nomads, they were largely pastoralist till the 19th Century. Almost all consider themselves and are considered as Jats. Of the four tribes, the Dhandla, Lohanch and Makwal are fairly local, but the Jakhar ahave spread to other parts of Punjab.

Dhandla

I shall of by looking at the Dhandla, a tribe of Jat status found in Bhakkar and Rajanpur districts. The tribe claims descent from Dhandla, a Bhatti Rajput, who is said to have come from Jaisalmer to Multan, where he converted to Islam. Like most Bar tribes, they have traditions of accepting Islam at the hand of a Sufi saint, and in the case of the Dhandla, it was Bahaudin Zakaria of Multan.

In Rajanpur District, their main villages are Basti Dhandla, Raqba Dhandla and Tatarwala. In Bhakkar District, their main villages are Basti Jamal, Mitho Bindu, Bharmi Nawab, Bharmi Charagh and Gadola.

Jakhar

I come next to come to the Jakhar, sometimes pronounced as Jhakkars, who are found pretty much throughout South Punjab. In fact in terms of numbers, they are after the Bhatti, the second largest tribe of the Seraiki speaking region. In India, Jakhars are one larger Jat tribes, found in east Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

There are a number traditions as to the origin of the Jakhar. William Crook, the late 19^th Century British colonial writer in his book Castes of Northwest provinces and Avadh, narrates the story of a king of Dwaraka, who is said to have had a huge bow and arrow and he proposed that whoever broke it would be given a status above the king. The king of the Jakhar clan, Jakhbhadra, tried but failed. The failure made him leave his state and settle in Bikaner, in the area that was then known as Jangladesh.

Among Punjab Jakhars, there are traditions that connect them with Rana Rajwadhan, the ancestor of the Hattar, Kalyar, Kanju and Uttera tribes. Most Jakhar groups have various traditions that came from Rajasthan in the fifteenth century, crossing the Thar Desert, and settling in the valleys of the Sutlej and Chenab rivers, and eventually converting to Islam.

The Jakhars of Pakistan are found mainly in the south of Punjab, in the districts of Layyah, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Okara, the village of Jakhar in Toba Tek Singh District, Sahiwal and in Faisalabad district near small towns of Mamukanjan and Chak Jakharanwala.

Jakhars are also found in Jakhar village in Gujrat District, while in neighbouring Jhelum District they are found in Kalyal near Dina. In Layyah District, they are found in Hyder Shahwala, Basti Jakhar, Chak152 TDA, Jhakkar Kacha and Jhakkar Pakka, while Dera Ghazi Khan District, they are found in Jakhar Imamudin. Further up along the Indus River, in Bhakkar District they are found in the villages of Basti Jakhar, Basti Dirkhan near Dolatwala and Manjhotanwala. In Multan District they are found in the villages of Khoja and Ranawahan.

 

Lohanch

I shall next look at the Lohanch, a tribe of Jat status. According to tribal traditions, the Lohanch were settled in their present abode by two descendents of the famous Sufi, Bahwal Haq. Makhdum Lal Isa is said to have brought with him two brothers, the elder of whom was called Lohanch, and settled them in what was wasteland, in the Sindh Saggar Doab. The descendants have remained confined in this small territory, which is now part of Layyah District.

The Lohanch are almost confined to Layyah District. Their main villages are Chak 152TDA LAYYAH,  Chak 145TDA LAYYAH, Chak 143TDA, Ghullam Hyder Kalluwala, Nangi Lohanch Pukka, Nangi Lohanch Kucha, Lohanch Nasseb and Lohanch Thal Kalan, all in Layyah District.

Makwal

The next tribe I am going to look at are the Makwal. Unlike other tribes in this post, Makwal have traditions of an Arab origin. The word Makwal, is a shortened form of Makkah wal, which in the Seraiki language means “from Makkah”. The tribe claims that its ancestors were Arabs from the holy city of Makkah in what is now Saudi Arabia. As far as I know, the Makwal are distinct from the Makkal, who are found further north in Mianwali. Coming back to the Makwal, according to their traditions they arrived in India during the reign of the Sultans of Delhi, and took to agriculture. The Makwal also started to intermarry with other Jat tribes, and as such became Jat.

The Makwal of Kot Addu Tehsil in Muzaffargarh District, who are guardians of the Sufi shrine of Dera Din Pannah, are family that has had some influence in the politics of southern Punjab. Most Makwal villages are found close to the shores of the Indus river. In Muzaffargarh District, their main villages are Bait Rayli, Basti Makwal, Basti Karamwala, Chowk Makwal, Makwal Hader, Makwal, Shah Jamal as well as Dera Din Pannah.

Across the Indus, several Makwal also exist in Dera Ghazi Khan District. The larger Makwal villages include Patti Makwal, Jhok Makwal, Makwal Kalan and Makwal Khurd. While in neighbouring Rajanpur they are found in Basti Basheer Nagar.

Shrine of Dera Din Panah

The Makwal are closely associated with the Sufi shrine of Dera Din Pannah, as they are the heredity caretakers. Din Panah was said to be a Bukhari Saiyad, who settled by the banks of the Indus some four hundred years ago. He is said to have taken up residence in the house of Suhagin, the wife of Akku, a Jat of the Makwal tribe. When Suhagiun’s daughter was married, Din Panah gave himself as part of the dowry. He died in A. H. 1012 (1603 AD), on the west bank of the Indus, and was buried there. However a dispute arose between the Makwals of Dera Ghazi Khan and those of Muzaffargarh as to where Din Panah be buried. The MakwaJs of the east Bank tried to steal his coffin, but were prevented. A feud broke out between the Makwals on each bank of the Indus. At last Din Panah revealed himself in a dream to the brothers of Akku, and told them to make a coffin for the east bank of the Indus, and that his corpse would be found in it also, as well as on the west bank. Since then there bas been a shrine on each bank of the Indus.

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