The Multifarious Faces of Sikhism
throughout Sikh History
Page 1 of 4
Jat
Sikhs
Time of origin: During the times of
Akali Guru Hargobind (early 1600s, as he gradually
militarized Sikhism in the early 1600s)
Sikhism at the racial and caste level also
has varieties. For each racial group that adopted
Sikhism, be they Khatri, Tarkhan,
Jat, Labana,
Pappa, etc., each has brought
its own ‘Jati’
(racial) culture with them.
The Ten Sikh Gurus
The Sikh Gurus, who belonged to the 'Khatri'
caste
This is particularly true of the largest Sikh
racial group - the Jats. There
are said to be over three thousand
Jat clans on the Asian continent. These clans
reside mainly in North India and Pakistan. The
vast majority of them can be considered to be
Sikhs. Some historians speak of Jats as ‘Aryan’
clans who originally came from central Asia
to India. An ancient Indian myth speaks of Jat
origins from Shiva’s Jats (matted hair).
Regardless of which tale of origin one accepts,
Jats have resided in Northern India for a very
long time.
Shiva
A folio from Adi Guru Durbar commissioned by
Sodhi Bhaan
Singh (center circle, seated left), depicting
Chandi - named Mahakali (center, mounted
on a tiger), Shiva - named 'Mahakal' (center,
trampling a foe), and the Sikh Gurus, circa
1839
In the great Indian epic, the 'Mahabharat',
there are references to numerous Jat clans in
northern India. Jats were initially war-like
clans engaged in feudal wars over land. At one
time they ruled lands all over northern India
and beyond, even as far as modern day Iran.
History recounts that Alexander the
Great had to over come the obstinate
war like Jats in order to subdue the Punjab.
According to Indian tradition, the great Alexander
was beaten on the plains of the Indus by
Raja Porus (circa 326 BC), a powerful
Emperor who can be considered the greatest Indian
general of all time.
Raja Porus
A coin marking the encounter between Alexander
the Great and the mighty Raja Porus
General Sir John J. H. Gordon wrote of the
difficulties the Muslims encountered during
their conquests of the Punjab:
‘At every
step taken by the Mohamedan invaders from
the north they encountered the Jats, who
showed themselves a power to be reckoned
with. They so vigorously opposed
Mahmud’s army in the passage of the
Indus, and harassed his line of march that
he had in person to lead his troops against
them in 1207. The famous Tamerlane in the
fourteenth century, at the head of his mighty
Tartar host, felt their weight, and waged
a war of extermination against them: while
the Emperor Baber in his Memoirs writes
in 1525 that in all his expeditions into
India he was assailed by multitudes of Jits.
These Afghan and Moghul invaders knew them
by the name of Jits, but they were known
in the Punjab as Jats. Their early settlements
were along the whole valley of the Indus
from the north down to Sindh. Pliny and
Ptolemy in their writings mention the Jati
of these regions. By the Sixteenth
century they had spread over the Punjab
to the deserts of Rajputana and south to
the banks of the Jumna as the results of
wars and tumults following the Moslem invasions,
when they were brushed aside for the time.’
‘The Sikhs’, by General
Sir John J. H. Gordon, 1883, Pa. 8-9
Alexander the Great
Detail from the Alexander mosaic from the House
of the Faun,
Pompeii, circa 80 B.C. National Archaeologic
Museum, Naples, Italy
