1 irO PAN JAB CASTES.
2 Salt-range, forming indcpondent clans by whom the Chief of Kalal)agh was
3 acknowledged as the head of the trilte. Mr. Biandreth is of opinion that
4 they are more probably " descendants oF the Bactrian Greeks driven south
5 " from Balkh by Tartar hordes, and turning from Hirsit to India, " and that
6 they entered the Panjab not more than some 2.50 years ago as a conquering
7 army under leaders of their own, and dispossessed the Janjua Rajputs of the
8 Salt-range country. General Cunningham, on the other hand, is inclined to
9 identify them with the Jud, whom Biibar mentions as being descended from
10 the same ancestor as the Janjuas and occupying the western Salt-range at
11 the time of his invasion, and who were so called from the old name of ]\rouiit
12 Sakesar which is still the tribal centre of the Awau race. He would make
13 both the Awiins and tiie Janjuas Anuwan or descendants of Anu ; and thinks
14 it probable that they held the plateaus wliich lie north of the Salt-range at
15 the time of tlie Indo-Scythian invasion which drove them southwards to take
16 refuge in the mountains. [Arckaologieal Reports, Vol. II, page 17/f.)
17 Babar describes the Jud and Janjuas as having been from of old the lords
18 of the Salt-range and of the plain country at its foot between the Indus and
19 the Jahlam, and mentions that their minor Chiefs were called Malik, a title
20 still used by the headmen of those parts. The Jalandhar Awans state that
21 they came into that district as followers of one of the early Emperors of Dehli
22 who brought them with him from the Salt-range ; and it is not impossible
23 lliat they may have accompanied the forces of Babar. IMany of them
24 were in former times in the imperial service at Dehli, keeping up at the samij
25 time their connection with their Jalandhar homes. It is almost certain thai
26 Mr. Brandreth's theory is incorrect. The Awans have been almost the sole
27 occupants of the !Mianwali Salt-range Tract for the last 600 years. Mr.
28 Thomson considers the whole question in sections 73-74) of his Jahlam Settle-
29 ment Report, and adduces many strong reasons in support of his conclusion
30 that the Awans are a Jat race who came through the passes west of Derah
31 Ismail Khan and spread northwards to the country near Sakesar, a conclusion
32 towards which some of the traditions of Derah Ismail Khan also are said to
33 jHjint. I may add that some of the Awans of Gujrat are said to trace their
34 origin from Sindli. Major Wace also is inclined to give the Awans a Jat
35 origin. In the genealogical tree of the Kaliibagh family which used to be the
36 chief family of the tribe, in which tree their descent is traced from (intb
37 Shah, several Hindu names, sucli as Rai Harkaran, occur immediately below
38 the name of Qutb Shaii. The Awans still employ Hindu Brahmans as
39 family priests.
40 466. Mr. Thomson describes the Awans as frank and pleasing in their
41 manners, Imt vinilictive, violent, and given to faction ; strong and broad
42 shouldered, but not tall ; strenuous but slovenly cultivators ; and essentially
43 a peasant race. Colonel Davies thinks scarcely more favourably of them.
44 He writes : " The Awans are a brave high-spirited race but withal exceeding-
45 " ly indolent. In point of character there is little in them to admire ; headstrong
46 •' and irasciljle to an unusual degree, and prone to keeping alive old feuds, they
47 " are constantly in hot water ; their quarrels leading to affrays and their affrays
48 " not unfrequently ending in bloodshed. As a set-off against this it must
49 " be allowed that their manners are frank and engaging, and although they
50 " cannot boast of the truthfulness of other hill tribes, they are remarkably
51 " free from crime. " Mr. Steedman says : " The Awans hold a high, but
52 " not the highest place among the tribes of the Rawalpindi District. As a rule