In this post I will look at a particularly interesting tribe, that of the Rathore of Poonch. The Rathore of the Poonch region have clear traditions of migrations from the Marwar region of Rajasthan. I shall start off my giving a general description of the history of the Rathore and then to look specifically at the Rathore of Poonch. Vogel and Hutchison in their history of the Punjab Hill States describe the state of Poonch as follows:
Punch State, in ancient times, was situated in the valleys of the Punch Tohi and its tributaries. It was bounded on the north by the Pir Panjal Range, on the west by the Jhelum, on the south probably by the plains and on the east by Rajauri (Rajapuri). The original name of the State was Pamotsa, of which Punch is a derivation, and the original capital was at Lohara, the present Lohrin to the north-east of the town of Punch.
Poonch was the western most of the Punjab Hill States, and was often incorporated into Kashmir. What made it standout was its royal family, and their origins in Marwar.
Map of Jammu and Kashmir showing Poonch: Source Pinterest
Origin of the Rathore
The Rathore were rulers of Jodhpur, historically called Marwar and latter extender their rule over Bikaner. Reference can be made to “khyats” (traditional accounts) written down in the seventeenth century, which refer to the fact that the Rathores were originally feudatories of the Ujjain based Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, and may perhaps have been domiciled in the vicinity of Kannauj in the heyday of that dynasty. Pratihara-ruled Kannauj was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1019 CE, which ushered in a chaotic period for that area. A family known to us as the Gahadvala gained control of Kannauj and ruled for nearly a century; their best-known ruler was Raja Jaichand, their last king. The Gahadvalas were displaced from Kannauj by the invasion, in 1194 CE, of Muhammad of Ghor. It is said that Sheoji, a surviving grandson of Jaichand, made his way into the western desert with a group of faithful followers, finally settling in the town of Pali in Marwar, which was ruled by another branch of the Pratiharas. Sheoji is regarded as the patriarch of the entire Rathore clan and all Rathores trace their patrilineage back to him. The tradition finds supports from a number of inscriptions found in the vicinity of Kannauj that mention several generations of a Rashtrakuta dynasty ruling there for two centuries. A very similar account is also mentioned in the “Rashtrayudha Kavya” of Rudrakavi, finished in 1595, who was the court poet in the court of the Rathore king, Narayana of Mayurgiri.
Marwar to Poonch
The Rathores gradually spread across Marwar, forming a brotherhood of landowners and village chieftains, loosely bound to each other by ties of clan and caste. An epoch in the history both of Marwar and of the Rathores was marked by Rao Jodha, a warrior who founded a kingdom that grew to encompass all of Marwar. He also founded the city of Jodhpur in 1459, and moved his capital from Mandore. One of his sons, Rao Bika, with the help of his uncle Rawat Kandhal, established the town of Bikaner in 1488, in the Jangladesh region lying to the north of Marwar; that town was to become the seat of a second major Rathore kingdom.
The various cadet branches of the Rathore clan gradually spread to encompass all of Marwar and later spread to found states in Central India and Gujarat. The Rathore were actually recruited as soldiers in the Mughal Army. In 1596, one such soldier of fortune, Raja Siraj-Ud-Din Rathore, the descendant of Rao Jodha and Rao Suraj Singh, was made by the Mughal emperor Jahangir the new ruler of Poonch. The establishment of the Rathore state led to the migration of several Rathore in the Poonch region. Not all the Rathore however converted to Islam, and there are several villages of Hindu Rathore Rajputs found mainly in Bhaderwah and Kishtwar areas of Jammu Province.
Rajahs of Poonch
Poonch was the western most of the Rajput Hill States that lay north of Punjab, and east Hazara, and stretched from Kangra in the east. It was said to be founded by Siraj-Ud-Din, a member of the royal family of Marwar. Its territory was annexed either by dynasties based in Punjab, and occasionally in Hazara, such as Turks, who briefly ruled the region. It was after the overthrow of the Chak Dynasty by the Mughals under Akbar, which was based in Kashmir, and whose territory included Poonch, that the region came under direct Mughal rule. In A.D, 1686, during the reign of Jahangir, Poonch was granted to the ancestor of the Rathore dynasty which ruled the country till 1819. The events of the finding of the state are narrated as such by Vogel and Hutchison:
The ancestor of the Musalman dynasty is said to have been Man-Singh, a cadet of the Jodhpur family. His son was Sarje Singh, who became a Musalman and received the name of Siraj-ud-din Khan. He came to Punch sometime in the reign of Jahangir and settled in Kahuta. There he became acquainted with the local official, whose title was Chaudhri, and married his daughter. Later he succeeded his father-in-law in the office of Chaudhri and this title still remains in the family.
Sometime afterwards the Emperor came by Punch on one of his visits to Kashmir, and it fell to the Chaudhri to arrange everything for the Imperial camp. This duty he discharged with such ability that he attracted the Emperor’s attention, and inquiries were made about his family, and on learning that he belonged to the Rathor family of Jodhpur he was appointed ruler of Punch. He probably assumed or received the title of Baja and continued to rule the State for some years. He was succeeded by his son, Fateh Muhammad Khan, who also had a long reign.
Mohammad Din Fauq, in his Tareekh Aqwam-Poonch gives a similar account. Siraj-ud-Din after his conversion to Islam married two wives, from his first wife’s son Raja Fateh Mohammad Khan (ruled – 1646-1700), descend the Rathore rulers of Poonch. From a second wife, who was a Chauhan Rajput had two sons Noor Mohammad and Khan Mohammad. His successors included Rajah Abdul Razak Rathore (1700-1747), on his death the throne of Poonch was usurped by Latifullah Tarkhan. With the help of Islam Yar Khan Kishthwaria, the Tarkhan was defeated and killed and Baqa Mohammad Rathore was made ruler of Sadhrun and Kahuta. Meanwhile the throne of Poonch passed to the Kishtwaria chieftain. On his death in 1760, the throne returned to the Rathores, with Raja Rustam Rathore becoming next Raja (ruled – 1760-1787). During this Poonch at times was a tributary of Rajauri. Vogel and Hutchison describe the situation during the 18th Century as follows:
We can find no mention of the State in any of the histories of the Mughal period, but several references occur in the chronicles of Rajauri. It was in subjection to the Mughals from 1686 to 1752, like all the other Hill States of the Panjab. Rajauri seems to have acquired a kind of suzerainty over the State, especially during the reign of Aurangzeb, due to the fact that he was married to a Rajauri princess, who was the mother of his son and successor, Muazam or Bahadur Shah I.
Rajah Rustam Rathore was born as Ali Gohar, and his period was considered a golden age of the Poonch principality. The territory of the Rathore then covered all of Poonch, including what is now Haveli district of Azad Kashmir. He was succeed by Raja Shahbaz Khan who ruled from 1787-92, Raja Bahadur Khan who ruled from 1792-1798, who was overthrown by his vizier Ruhullah. The Rathore chiefs of Sarhoon, under Rajah Sher Baz Rathore expelled Ruhullah and assumed the thrown of Poonch. Sher Baz ruled from 1804-1808, when his state was conquered by the Sikhs. This put an end to the main line of the Rathore, but two branches continued as jagirdars until the end of the Jammu and Kashmir State in 1948.
Vogel and Hutchison describe the demise of the state as follows:
From A.D. 1762 to 1819, Punch, like the other Hill States, and especially those to the west of the Chenab, was under Afghan rule, and, as during the Mughal period, its history seems to have been uneventful. The ruling family and most of the population being of the same religion as the payment power, helped to encourage and maintain friendly relations and we read of no outbreaks such as were common among the Hindu States to the east of the Chenab.
With the rise of the Sikh power in the Punjab, this long period of comparative tranquillity came to an end. Before 1810, Ranjit-Singh had asserted his supremaly over all the Hill States, except those to the west of the Chenab, which still maintained political relations with Kabul. His main objective at that time was the conquest of Kashmir, which was still in the possession of the Afghans. The subjection of these hill tracts, containing the States of Bhimber, Rajauri Khari Khariyali, Kotli and Punch, thus became a necessary preliminary to any further advance.
Bhimber and Rajauri were reduced in 1810 and 1812 after much hard fighting, and in 1814 the Sikh army advanced to Punch, led by the Maharaja in person. The Baja of Punch at that time was Ruhallah Khan and his sympathies were with the Afghans. On the eve of the Sikh advance, Ranjit-Singh sent a letter to the Raja asking his co-operation in the invasion of Kashmir. To this an evasive answer was returned, pleading engagements with Kashmir and his inability to comply with the Maharaja’s wishes, as his son was a hostage in the hands of the Afghans.
This indecision led to the destruction of the Poonch State. Vogel and Hutchison describe its final end as such:
One division of the Sikh army,* under the Maharaja, advanced into the Tohi Valley, while the other followed the route over the Pir Panjal. The Raja of Punch with his forces fell back before them in the direction of the Tosa-Maidan Pass, after issuing orders to his people to abandon all towns and villages and harass the enemy in every way. Some delay occurred at Punch while the Sikhs waited for supplies, and, the rainy season having set in, they suffered much from damp and cold, and the troops of the Punch Raja, secretly aided by the Raja of Rajauri, hung on their flanks and cut off stragglers. On reaching the Tosa-Maidan Pass, on 18th July, it was found to be strongly held by the Afghans.
Punch continued to preserve its independence for a few more years, till the conquest of Kashmir in 1819 transferred the hill tracts to the Sikhs. On this occasion also, as in 1814, the Punch Raja supported the Afghans, and on their defeat he was expelled from his State
Soon after the conquest of Kashmir, Poonch was granted in fief to Raja Dhian Singh, younger brother of Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu, who latter went to found the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The exact date is uncertain, but it was before 1822. Poonch remained a semi-autonomous jagir under the rule of Dhian Singh’s family
The Chaudhary of Sadhrun and Kahuta
After the overthrow of the Rathore, the last representatives of the main line seem to be Sher Jang Khan and Shams-Khan, sons of Ruhallah Khan, who seem to have left no descendants. However, the head of a collateral branch of the family, Sher Baz Khan, was granted a jagir of Sadhrun and Kahuta in Poonch, by Ranjit- Singh, which his descendants still hold. The territory of Sadhrun and Kahuta is located north of Poonch city, and now lies largely within Pakistani Kashmir in what is now Haveli District. The Rathores of this chieftainship descend from the second son of Rajah Fateh Mohammad by the name of Mohammad Moazam Khan. This occurred in 1667, and the chieftainship lasted till 1787, when last chief Rajah Azamatullah Khan was defeated by the Sikhs. In 1846, the territory became part of the Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir. Raja Sarandaz Rathore, the then ruler was granted a jagir within the Dogra state. His descendants maintained this position until the end of the Dogra state in 1948.
The Chaudharies of Shahpur and Mandhar District Poonch
This branch of the Rathore claims descent from Raja Noor Mohammad Khan, who was the son of Siraj-Ud-Din Khan. He was granted the jagir of Shahpur, that lies just south of the line of Control in Indian administered Kashmir. The Rathore of Shahpur descend from the eldest son of Raja Noor Mohammad Khan, while those of Mandhar, also located close to the line of control, descend from the younger brother. These two minor principalities were never independent, but were feudal states loyal to the rulers of Poonch. When the Poonch State was annexed by the Sikhs, they continued as jagirdars until the end of the Dogra State in 1948.
Distribution
The Rathore are now divided by the Line of Control, with Kahuta branch now found in Haveli District of Pakistani Kashmir, while those of Shahpur and Mandhar now found in Indian Kashmir.
In Haveli District and neighbouring Kotli, there are several Rathore villages such as Budh, Barengban, Chapa Najl, Jokan, Halan, Werha Khas, Padr, Palan Chaudriyan and Kalali.
Large number of Rathore are also found in Nakar Bandi (about 60 km East of Bagh) in Azad Kashmir.
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