Gakhars: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:38, 2 November 2005

Revision as of 19:39, 2 November 2005

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''On the second of Shaban A.H. 602 (March 14, A.D. 1206), having reached the village of Rohtuk, on the banks of the [[Indus]], 20 [[Gakhars]], who had lost some of their relations in the late wars, entered into a conspiracy against the King’s life, and sought an opportunity to carry their horrid purpose into effect. The weather being sultry, [[Muhammad Ghori]] had ordered the screens, which surround the royal tents in the form of a large square, to be struck, in order to give free admission to the air. This afforded the assassins an opportunity of seeing into the sleeping apartments. They found their way up to the tents in the night, and hid themselves, while one of them advanced to the tent door, but being stopped by a sentry who was about to seize him, he plunged his dagger into his breast. The cries of the dying man roused the guard, who running out to see what was the matter, the other assassins took that opportunity of cutting their way into the King’s tent. He was asleep, with two slaves fanning him. These stood petrified with terror, when they beheld the [[Gakhars]] enter, who, without hesitation, sheathed their daggers in the King’s body, which was afterwards found to have been pierced by no fewer than 22 wounds. Thus fell [[Sultan]] [[Muhammad Ghori]], in the year 602 (AD 1206), after a reign of 32 years from the commencement of his government over [[Ghazna]], and three from his accession to the throne {of [[Dehli]]}."''''''

''However the Rawalpindi Gazetter of 1894 states that "Rája Jahán Dad Khan, present head of t-hethhe Khanpur Gakhars of Khanpur, traverses this account of the origin of his clan. He states that the account of the Gakhars from Ferishta does not apply at all to them, but was really an account of a tribe called Khokar, not Gakhar. These Khokars occupied a tract in the Salt Range, where the Gakhars never were. These Khokars practised polyandry, but the Gakhars never did. Raja Jahán Dad is also clear that Gakhar should be written thus; Ferishta has it Ghakar which, it is said; is simply a mistake for Khokar. It is also stated that it was the Khokars who were defeated by Shaháb-ud-d~n Ghori and a band of whom afterwards murdered that chief, and this is the account given in H. M. Elliot’s Biographical Index, in which he says that the assassination was accomplished “by some Khokars,” page 301. In the “Tabakat Akbari,” by Wazir Nizam-ud-din Ahmad, Nerari, written in 1623, and quoted by Ferishta, who wrote in 1637, the events quoted above are clearly stated to have occurred to the Khokar tribe. This is also supported by the account given in the Tabakat-i-Nasiri, published in 1864 by Captain Lee.''

''As to their origin, it is stated that they descended from Ijaab Jord, a Persian king, and were driven out on his defeat and death and went to China, where Ferozshah, their leader, took service with his followers as a sort of guard to the Emperor. Thence they went to Thibet, and in the beginning of the 7th century they became Musalmans. Later they came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni. Kaigohar was the leader who came with Mahmud of Ghazni, and from whom the name of Gakhar is derived; Malik Khad and his son Gula came again in the middle of the 15th century, conquered a part of the country north of the Jhelum and founded Guliana in the Gujar Khan tahsil. After this period the history of the clan is fairly well known. The present heads of the Gakhar clan are indignant at having been confused with the Khokars."''