1 JAT, RAJPUT, AND ALLIED CASTES. 147
2 The Dhudhi (No. 6). — I eiupect that there is some confusion in the=e figure^, and that some
3 of the Dii'i or l)u(lh\val Ea.ipvlt-' of tlie eastern suh-montane have been included with the Dhudlii of
4 tlie Satluj. The former will he described in their proper iilacc. The latter are a small I'ninvar
5 clan found with their kinsmen the R:ithor scattered ahmg the Satluj and Chanah. Their original
6 seat is said to Iiave been in the Mai'lsi tahst'l of Multan, where they are mentioned as early as the
7 first half of the 14th century. When tlie Dehli empire was breaking up they spread ahmg the
8 rivers. One of them, Haji Slier Muhammad, was a saint whose shriTie iii Multan is still
9 renowned. They are said to be ' fair agriculturists and respectable members of society."
10 450. Rajput tribes of the Chanab. The Hiraj (No. 7).— The Hira.i is a Sial clan which
11 holds a tract on the banks of the Riivi .just above its juuctinn with the Clia'niib. It is possible that
12 some of the clan have returned themselves as Sial simply, and are therefore not represenied in the
13 figures. The Ilirii.i of llultan have returned themselves as Sial Hiraj to the numl)er of 3,380, and
14 are shown in lioth columns.
15 The Sial (No. 8). — The Sial is politically one of the most important tribes of the Western
16 244] Plains. As Mr. Steedman observe^, the modern history of the .Ihaug district is the history of the
17 Sial. They arc a tribe of Punwar Rajputs who rose to prominence in the first-half of the 18th
18 century.' Mr. Steedman writes : •■ They were till then probably a pastoral tribe, hut little given (o
19 " husbandry, dwelling on the banks of river, and grazing their cattle during the end of the cold and
20 "the first months of the hot weather in the low lands of the Chandb, and during the rainy sca--on in
21 " the uplands of the .Ihaug bar. The greater portion of the tract now occupied by them" was prob-
22 "ably acquired during the stormy century that preceded the conquest of Hindustan by tlie
23 "Mughals. During this period the country was dominated from Bhera, and sometimes" from
24 " Multan. The colhction of revenue from a nomad population inhabiting the fastnesses of the har
25 " and the deserts of the thai could never have been easy, and was probably seldom attempted. Left
26 " alone, the Sial applied themselves successfully to dipo-se<sing those that dwelt in the land — the
27 " ^'ols, Bhangus, Mangans, Marrals, and other old trihei— amusing themselves at the same time with
28 " a good deal of internal strife and quarrelling, and now and then with stiffer fighting with the
29 " Kharrals and Biloches.
30 " Thcnfor 200 years there was peace in the land, and the Sials remained quiet subjects of the
31 " Lahore Siibah, the seats of local government being Chiniot and Shorkot. Wah'dad Khan died in
32 " 1747, one year before Ahmad Shah Abdali made his first im'oad and was defeated before Dehli.
33 " It is not well known when he succeeded to the chieftainship, but it was probably early in the
34 " centi^ry ; for a cunsiderable time must have been taken uj) in the reduction of minor chiefs and
35 " the ^introduction of all the improvements with which ^^'alldad is credited. It was during
36 " Walidad's time that the power of the Sials reached its zenith. The country subject to Wah'dad
37 " extended from Mankhera in the Thai eastwards to Kamalia on the Ravi, froin the confluence of the
38 " R4vi and Chanab to the ilaka of Pindi Bhattiau beyond Chiniot. He was succeeded by his
39 ''nephew InayatuUa, who was little if at all inferior to" his uncle in administrative and military
40 " ability. He was engaged in constant warfare with the Bhangi Sikhs on the north, and the
41 " chiefs of Multiin to the south. His near relations, the Sial chiefs of Rashi'dpur, gave him constant
42 "trouble and annoyance. Once indeed a party of forty troopers raided Jhang^ and carried off the
43 " Khan prisoner. He was a captive for si,x mouths. The history of the three succeeding chieftains
44 " is that of the growth of the power of the Bhangis and of tliei'r formidable rival the Sukarchakia
45 " misi, destined to be soon the subjugator of both Bhangis and Sials. Chiniot was taken in 1803,
46 " Jhang in 1806. Ahmad Khan, the last of the Sial Khans, regained his country shortly after in
47 " 1808, but in 1810 he was again captured by the Mahar.aja, who took him to Lahore and threw him
48 " into prison. Tluis ended whatever independence the Sial Khans of .Jhang had ever enjoyed,
49 " The Sials are descended from Rai Shaukar, a PunwAr Rajput, a resident of Ddranagar
50 " between Allahabad and Fattahpur. A branch of the Punwars ha.;! previously emigrated from their
51 "native country to Jaunpur, and it was there that Rai Shankar was born. One story has it that
52 " Rai Shankar had three sons, Seo, Teo, and Gheo, from whom have descended the Sials of Jhang,
53 " the Tiwanas of Shahpur and the Ghebas of Pindi Gheb. Another tradition states that Si^l was
54 " the only son of Rai Shankar, and that the ancestors of the Tiwanas and Ghebas were only
55 " collateral relations of Shankar and Sidl. On the death r.f Rai Shankar we arc told that great
56 " dissensions arose among the members of the family, and his son Sial emigrated during the reign
57 " of AlUuddin Ghori to the Pan jab. It was about this time that many Rajput families emigrated
58 "from "the Provinces of Hindustan to the Panjab, including the ancestors of the Kharrals,
59 " Tiwanas, Ghebas, Chaddhars, and Punwar Sials. It was the fashion in those days to be converted
60 " (o_ the Muhammadan religion by the eloquent exhortations of the sainted Bawa Fari'd of
61 " Pak Pattan ; and accordingly we find that Sial in his wanderings came to Pak Pattan, and there
62 " renounced the religion of his ancestors. The Saint blessed him, and prophesied that his sou's
63 " seed should reign over the tract between the Jhelam and Chanab rivers. This prediction was not
64 ' General Cunningham states that the Sial are supposed to be descended from Raja Hiidi, the
65 Indo-Scythian opponent of the Bhatti Raja Rasalu of Si'alkot ; but I do not find this tiutlition
66 mentioned elsewhere.