1 148 PANJAB CASTES.
2 " very accurate. Babs Farid died about 1264-65. Sial and his followers appear to tave wandered
3 " to and fro in the Rechna and .Tetch doabs for some time before they settled down with some
4 "degree of permanency on the right bank of the Jlielam. It was during this unsettled period that
5 " Siil married one of the women of the country, Sohag daughter of BhaiEhiin Mekhan, of Saiwal
6 " in the Sliahpur district, and is also said to have built a fort at Si'alkot while a temporary resident
7 " there. At their first settlement in this district, the Sials occupied the tract of country lying
8 " between Mankhera in the thai and the river .Tlielam, east and west, and from Khushab on the
9 " nortli to what is now the Garh Maharaja ilaka on the south."
10 The political history of the Siiil is very fully described in the Jhang Settlement Report from
11 which I have made the above extract, while their family history is also discussed at pages 502.^
12 and 520 of Griffin's Patijdb Chiefs. The clans of the Sials are very numerous, and are fully
13 described by Mr. Steedman in his Jhang Report, who remarks " that it is fairly safe to assume that
14 " any tribe (in Jiiang only I suppose) whoso name ends in dtia is of Sial extiaotion."
15 Tlie head-quarters of the Sials are the whole southern portion of the Jhang district, along the
16 left hank of the Chanab to its junction with the Riivi, and the riverain of the right hank of the
17 Chanab between the confluences of the Jahlam and Ravi. They also hold both banks of the Ravi
18 throughout its course in the Ihiltan and for some little distance in the Montgomery district, and are
19 found in small numbers on the upper portion of the river. They have spread up the Jahlam into
20 Shahpur and Gujrat, and are found in considerable numbers in the lower Indus of the Devajat and
21 Muzaffargarh. Who the Sials of Kangra may be I cannot conceive. There is a SiAl tribe of
22 Ghiraths ; and it is just possible that some of these men may have returned their caste as Sial, and
23 80 have been included among Rajputs. Mr. Purser describes the Sial as "large in stature and of a
24 " rough disposition, fond of cattle and caring little for agriculture. They observe Hindu ceremonies
25 " like the Kharral and Kathia, and do not keep their women in pardah. They object to clothes of
26 " a brown (lida) colour, and to the use of brass vessels."
27 451. Rajput tribes of the Jahlam.— The Banjha (No. 9).— The Ranjha are chiefly
28 found in the eastern uplands of Shahpur and Gujrat between the Jahlam and Chanab, though they
29 have in small numbtrs crossed both rivers into the Jahlam and Giijranwala districts. They are for
30 the most part returned as Jats except in Shahpur. They arc however Bhatti Rajputs ; and though
31 they are said in Gujrat to have laid claim cf late years to Qurcshi origin as descendants of Abii
32 Jiihil uncle of the Prophet, whose son died at Ghazni whence his lineage emigrated to the Kerana
33 liir, yet they still retain many of their Hindu customs. They are described by Colonel Davies as
34 " a peaceable and well-disposed section of population, subsisting chiefly by agriculture. In physique
35 " they resemble their neighbours the Gondals, with whom they intermarry freely." They would
36 perhaps better have been classed as Jats.
37 The Gondal (No. 10).— The Gondal hold the uplands known as the Gondal idr, running up the
38 centre of the tract between the Jahlam and Chanab in the Shahpur and Giijrat districts. They are
39 also numerous in the riverain of the right hank of the former river in the Jahlam district, and a few
40 have spread eastwards as far as the Riivi. They are said to he Chauhan Rajputs, and 1,388 in
41 Jahlam and 6,674 in Shahpur have shown themselves as Gondal Chauhan, and appear in both
42 columns in consequence. But I do not think these men have any connection with the Gondal whom
43 our tigures show as so numerous in Kangra and Hushyarpur. I "have liad the figures for these last
44 districts examined, and there is no mistake about the name. Who the Gondal of the hills are I do
45 not know, as I can find no mention of them ; but 3,451 of the Kangra Gondal have also retui-ned
46 themselves as Pathial.' The Gondal of the plains are probably as much Jats as Rajputs, as they
47 appear to intermarry with the bui-rounding Jat tribes. Colonel Davies writes of them : " Physically
48 " they are a fine race, owing doubtless to the free and active life they lead and the quantities of
49 " animal food they consume ; and if we except their inordinate passion for appropriating the cattle
50 " of their neighboui-s which in their estimation carries with it no moral taint, they must be pro-
51 " nounced frjc from vice." Tbey say that their ancestor came from Naushahra in the south to Pak
52 Pattan, and was there converted by Baba Fari'd ; and if this be so they probably occupied their
53 present abodes within the last six centm-ies.
54 The Mekan (No. 11). — The Mekan are a small tribe said to be of Punw^r origin and spring
55 from the same ancestor as the Dhudhi already described. They occupy the Shahpur bdr lying to the
56 west of the Gondal territory, and are also found in smaller numbers in Jahlam and Gujrat. They
57 are a pastoral and somewhat tmblent tribe.
58 The Tiwana (No. 12) — The Tiwana hold the country at the foot of the Shahpur
59 Salt-range and have played a far more prominent part in the Panjab history than their
60 mere numbers A-ould render probable. They are said to be Punwar Rajputs, and descended
61 from the same : ncestor as the Sial and Gheba (see Sial snpra). They probably entered the
62 » Mr. Anderson suggests that Gondal may be the name of one of the Brahminical gotras. This
63 would explain the extraordinarily large numbers retui'ued imder this heading ; but I cannot find a
64 _90^r« of that name in .any of the lists to which I have access. This much appears to be certain;
65 that there is no Gondal tribe of Rajputs in Kangra which nunihera over 17,0UU souls.