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Khas people

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about medieval and modern day Khas people. For ancient Turanid group of same name, see Khasas. For medieval kingdom, see Khasa Malla kingdom. For native language of Khas people, see Khas language.
Khas/Khasia/Kus/Parbate/Pahari/Gorkhali
Albumen Photograph of Khas Women from Nepal - 1880's.jpg
Picture of Khas Women from Nepal - 1880's
Total population
c. 16 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Nepal, India, Bhutan
Languages
Nepali (Khas kura)
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Kumaoni people, Garhwali people, Pahari people, Magars, Gurungs

Khas people (English: /khɑːs/; Nepali: खस) also called Khas and Arya[nb 1] are an Indo-Aryan[12] ethno-linguistic group native to South Asia, what is now present-day Nepal and Indian states of Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Sikkim.[citation needed]The Khas people speak the Khas language. They are also known as Parbatiyas/Parbates and Paharis/Pahadis or Gorkhali. The term Khas has now become obsolete, as the Khas people have adopted communal identities such as Thakuri and Chhetri because of the negative stereotypes associated with the term Khas.[13][14][15]

According to the Constitution of Nepal, western hill khas Bahuns, Chhetris, Thakuris, and Sanyasis who are citizens of Nepal should be considered as Khas Arya for electoral purposes.[16]

Origin

They have been connected to the Khasas mentioned in the ancient Hindu literature.[17] Historian Bal Krishna Sharma and Dor Bahadur Bista speculates that the Khas or Kus people were of Yuezhi Tribes from Cental Asia, Historian Baburam Acharya speculates that Khas are a sub-clan of Saka, a Central Asian clan that originated at Idavritt (modern day Kashmir) and later migrated to the hilly regions of West Nepal where they were called Paharis/Pahadis literally translating to hill-dwellers.[18][nb 2] Khas were living in the Idavaritt in the 3rd millennium BCE. and the original meaning of the term Khas was Raja (Yoddha).[18] He further speculates that Kashmir has been named from its local residents Khas as Khasmir.[18] In the 2nd millennium B.C.E., one group of Khas migrated towards Iran while the other group migrated east of Sutlej river settling only in the hill regions up to Bheri River.[19] Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that Khas were not the Vedic Aryans but Turanid of the latter periods like the Gurjara, Darada, Shaka, and Pallava.[20] He further asserts that post-Vedic Aryans were akin to Vedic Aryans in terms of Indo-Aryan languages and Indian culture.[20]

History

Khas are believed to have arrived in the western reaches of Nepal at the beginning of first-millennium B.C.[21] or middle of first-millennium A.D.[22] from the north-west. It is likely that they absorbed people from different ethnic groups during this immigration.[23] They have been connected to the medieval Khasa Malla kingdom.[17]

In the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, the Khas Brahmins and Khas Rajputs had a lower social status than the other Vedic Brahmins and Rajputs. However, in present-day western Nepal, they had the same status as the other Brahmins, possibly as a result of their political power in the Khasa Malla kingdom.[24]

Copper Inscription by King of Doti, Raika Mandhata Shahi at Saka Era 1612 (शाके १६१२) (or 1747 Bikram Samvat) in old Khas language using Devanagari script

Until the 19th century, the Gorkhali referred to their country as Khas Desh (Khas country).[25] As they annexed the various neighboring countries (such as Newar of the Newar people) to the Gorkha kingdom, the terms such as Khas and Newar ceased to be used as the names of countries. The 1854 legal code (Muluki Ain), promulgated by the Nepali Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, himself a Khas,[26] no longer referred to Khas as a country, rather as a jāt (species or community) within the Gorkha kingdom.[27]

Khas Kingdom
A Portrait Of Khas/Chhetri Soldier 1815
Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa, the widely accepted first Prime Minister of Nepal
Mother Of Jung Bahadur Rana

The Shah dynasty of the Gorkha Kingdom, as well as the succeeding Rana dynasty, spoke the Khas language (now called the Nepali language). However, they claimed to be Rajputs of Gorkha origin, rather than the native Khasas.[28] Since outside Nepal, the Khas social status was seen as inferior to that of the Rajputs, the rulers started describing themselves as natives of the Hill country, rather than that of the Khas country. Most people, however, considered the terms Khas and Parbatiya (Pahari/Pahadi or Hill people) as synonymous.[25]

Jung Bahadur also re-labeled the Khas jāt as Chhetri in present-day Nepal.[28] Originally, the Brahmin immigrants from the plains considered the Khas as low-caste because of the latter's neglect of high-caste taboos (such as alcohol abstinence).[29] The upper-class Khas people commissioned the Bahun (Brahmin) priests to initiate them into the high-caste Chhetri order and adopted high-caste manners. Other Khas families who could not afford to (or did not care to) pay the Bahun priests also attempted to assume the Chhetri status but were not recognized as such by others. They are now called Matwali (alcohol-drinker Khas) Chhetris.[15]

A portrait Khas-Goorkhali Soldiers IN 1820
Khas Gorkhas Soldiers IN Burma Front 1943

Because of the adoption of the Chhetri identity, the term Khas is rapidly becoming obsolete.[13] According to Dor Bahadur Bista (1991), "the Khas have vanished from the ethnographic map of Nepal".[15]

Communities

Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel writes the communities or caste in Khas group were Brahman, Chhetri, Thakuri, Sannyasi, Gharti, Damai, Kami, Sarki, Gaine, Gandarbha, Badi, Kusunda, Raute, Kumal, etc.[20] The tribal designation Khas refers to in some contexts only to the Pawai/Matwali Khas group, Chhetri-Thakuri, but in other contexts may also include the low status (generally untouchable) occupational Khas groups such as Kāmi (blacksmiths), Damāi (tailors), and Sārki (shoemakers and leather workers).[30] Khas people are addressed with the term Khayan or Parbatiya[20] or Partyā, Parbaté meaning hill-dweller by Newars.[30] The hill Khas tribe are in large part associated with the Gorkhali warriors.[30]

Khas/Chhetri Tribe of Nepal


Language

The Khas people originally referred to their language as Khas kurā (Khas speech), which was also known as Parbatiya (the language of the hill country). The Newar people used the term Khayan Bhaya, Parbatiya[20] and Gorkhali as a name for this language, as they identified it with the Gorkhali conquerors. The Gorkhalis themselves started using this term to refer to their language at a later stage.[31] In an attempt to disassociate himself with his Khas past, the Rana monarch Jung Bahadur decreed that the term Gorkhali be used instead of Khas kurā to describe the language. Meanwhile, the British Indian administrators had started using the term Nepal (after Newar) to refer to the Gorkha kingdom. In the 1930s, the Gorkha government also adopted this term to describe their country. Subsequently, the Khas language also came to be known as Nepali language.[32] It has become a national language of Nepal and lingua franca among the majority of population of North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan.[20]

A Nepali speaker, recorded in Myanmar.

Classification

Khas language, Belongs to the Northern Indo-Aryan language group as shown as Nepali, in purple

Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that the Khas language belonged to neither the Iranian language family, nor the Indian languages, but to the mid Indo-Iranian languages.[20]

Modern

Nepal

Modern-day Khas people are referred to as Khas Brahmin (commonly called as Khas Bahun), Matwali/Pawai Khas (commonly called as Khas Chhetri), and Khas Dalit.[24] Khas people are popularly referred to in modern times as Khas and Arya.

India

Further information: Indian Gorkha

In Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, too, the term Khas has become obsolete. The Khas people of Kumaon termed as Kumaoni Jiagahari Rajput, after being elevated to the Rajput status by the Chand kings. The term Khas is almost obsolete, and people resent being addressed as Khas because of the negative stereotypes associated with this term.[14]

Notable people

Khas Malla rulers

  • Khas Malla rulers

Other Khas

Notes

  1. ^ See[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
  2. ^ Historian Baburam Acharya speculates that in the 3rd millennium BCE., there were two clans of Arya in the northern Indian subcontinent; Aiḍa and Mānava. Aiḍa who were named after their homeland Iḍavritt (modern day Kashmir), settled over Panjab and Ganga-Jamuna plain while Mānava settled over Awadh region. Chandravanshi kings like Bharata and Yudhisthir belonged to Aiḍa while Suryavanshi kings like Ramachandra belonged to Mānava. Later, Aiḍa built dominion over Magadh while Mānava had dominion over Videha.[18]

Gallery

A Khasa Female Photo From Pokhara At 1920




See Also

References

  1. ^ "Nepali (npi)". Ethnologue. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  2. ^ Khadka, Suman (25 Feb 2015). "Drawing caste lines". The Kathmandu Post.
  3. ^ "Khas Arya quota provision in civil services opposed". thehimalayantimes.com. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Nepal's election may at last bring stability". The Economist. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  5. ^ "The Kathmandu Post -PM briefs international community". kathmandupost.ekantipur.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  6. ^ Times, Nepali. "Quotable quota". www.nepalitimes.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Next Door Nepal: Another chink in the wall". indianexpress.com. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Oli in balancing avatar". myrepublica.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. ^ "Nepal seeks unity from its first local elections in 20 years". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. ^ "Lessons for India From Nepal's History of Banning Cow Slaughter - The Wire". The Wire. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. ^ "What does high caste chauvinism look like?". ekantipur.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  12. ^ Hagen & Thapa 1998, p. 114.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b William Brook Northey & C. J. Morris 1928, p. 123.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b K. S. Singh 2005, p. 851.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b c Dor Bahadur Bista 1991, p. 48.
  16. ^ "Part-8 Federal Legislature – Nepal Law Commission". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b John T Hitchcock 1978, pp. 112–119.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Acharya 1975, p. 199.
  19. ^ Acharya 1975, p. 200.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Pokhrel 1973, p. 229.
  21. ^ Dor Bahadur Bista 1991, p. 15.
  22. ^ Sharma 1999, p. 112.
  23. ^ John T Hitchcock 1978, p. 113.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b John T Hitchcock 1978, pp. 116–119.
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b Richard Burghart 1984, p. 107.
  26. ^ Jump up to: a b Dor Bahadur Bista 1991, p. 37.
  27. ^ Richard Burghart 1984, p. 117.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b Richard Burghart 1984, p. 119.
  29. ^ Susan Thieme 2006, p. 83.
  30. ^ Jump up to: a b c Whelpton 2005, p. 31.
  31. ^ Richard Burghart 1984, p. 118.
  32. ^ Richard Burghart 1984, pp. 118–119.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Pradhan 2012, p. 22.
  34. ^ "BBBBB", Improvement of Buildings' Structural Quality by New Technologies, CRC Press, pp. 520–522, 2005-01-20, doi:10.1201/9780203970843-60, ISBN 978-0-429-22460-7, retrieved 2021-07-02

Bibliography

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