Unity of Gujjar

Origion:-

 

The origin of the Gurjars is uncertain. Many Gurjars claim descent from Suryavanshi Kshatriyas (Sun Dynasty) and connect themselves with the Hindu deity Rama. Historically the Gurjars were Sun-worshipers and are described as devoted to the feet of the Sun-god (God Surya). Their copper-plate grants bear an emblem of the Sun and on their seals too, this symbol is depicted.

It has been suggested that the Gurjars along with population from northwestern India, merged with the Hephthalites and formed Rajputs.

The origin of the Gujjar is debatable. While the historian V.A. Smith (Early History of India, 1924) traces their origins to the White Huns who came as nomadic hordes to India around 465 AD, Cunningham places them among the Indo-Scythian tribes, the Kushan and the Yueh-Chi, who overran northwestern India in the first century AD. Most likely they are the progeny of intermarriages between these early foreign invaders and the local inhabitants.

The ethnologist Ibbetson (1916) writes that a Gujjar kingdom existed in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujerat and western Uttar Pradesh around 5 AD up to the 8th-9th centuries AD. With the Muslim invasions from 11th century AD onwards the kingdom disintegrated and many Gujjar were converted to Islam, forcing others to flee to the foothills of Punjab and the hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, etc. and lead nomadic lives.

Under the provisions of the Indian constitution the Gujjar are notified as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. This listing grants them special benefits like fixed quotas in government jobs and higher educational institutions as well as lower benchmarks in competitive examinations. The Gujjar regard themselves as equivalent to the Jat, Ahir and Rajput in social status, but are, in fact, considered below the Jat and the Rajput by these communities.

According to Scholars such as Baij Nath Puri, the Mount Abu (ancient Arbuda Mountain) region of present day Rajasthan had been abode of the Gurjars during medieval period.[9] The association of the Gurjars with the mountain is noticed in many inscriptions and epigraphs including Tilakamanjari of Dhanpala.[10] These Gurjars migrated from the Arbuda mountain region and as early as in the sixth century A.D., they set up one or more principalities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Whole or a larger part of Rajasthan and Gujarat had been long known as Gurjaratra (country ruled or protected by the Gurjars) or Gurjarabhumi (land of the Gurjars) for centuries prior to the Mughal period.

As a Sanskrit word, "Gurjar" can be interpreted as "destroyer of the enemy": "Gur" means "enemy" and "jar" means "destroyer").

In its survey of The People of India, the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) - a government-sponsored organisation - noted that

The Gurjars/Gujjars were no doubt a remarkable people spread from Kashmir to Gujarat and Maharashtra, who gave an identity to Gujarat, established kingdoms, entered the Rajput groups as the dominant lineage of Badgujar, and survive today as a pastoral and a tribal group with both Hindu and Muslim segments.

Irawati Karve, the Indologist and historian, believed that the Gurjars position in society and the caste system generally varied from one linguistic area of India to another. In Maharashtra, Karve thought that they were probably absorbed by the Rajputs and Marathas but retained some of their distinct identity. She based her theories on analysis of clan names and tradition, noting that while most Rajputs claim their origins to lie in the mythological Chandravansh or Suryavansh dynasties, at least two of the communities in the region claimed instead to be descended from the Agnivansh.

A 2009 study conducted by Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, under the supervision of Gurjar scholar Javaid Rahi, claimed that the word "Gojar" has a Central AsianTurkic origin, written in romanized Turkish as Göçer. Study claimed that according to the new research, the Gurjar race "remained one of the most vibrant identity of Central Asia in BC era and later ruled over many princely states in northern India for hundred of years".