Thathal

Thathal (), also referred to as Thothal () and Thathiyal (), is a Rajput/Jatt clan of the area between Salt Range, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Narowal district, Kharian Pubbi and Azad Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan. Thathals are also found in Hoshiarpur and Himachal Pradesh, India. They are said to be the descendants of a Hindu king named Raja Karan Singh. The exact time of Karan Singh's rule is unknown. There is even no document telling about the location of his kingdom. According to the story told by the elders of the clan, Karan singh was the Raja of Kashmir. Thathals claim the Suryavanshi branch of Rajput ancestry. They claim their kinship with Raja Karan Singh through his son Raja Thathu whose other son Naru founded the Narma/Narwa clan. A section of Thathals claims to belong to the Rajput clan while the other section prefer to stick to the Jatt identity.

Thothal (تھوتھال) or Thathal (تھتھال)

Due to many dialects of the Punjabi/Hindi language the pronunciation of Thathal differs according to locality. In Potowar/Mirpur it is pronounced Thothal. In Gujrat district it is written Thathal or Thathiyal. Other variations of the name in Pakistan and India include Thathar, Tharar and Thorar.

Main section of the clan accepts "Thathal" as the correct name. But there is a considerable section who claim that the correct name is "Thothal". This argument is based on the claim that the name of Karan singh's son was not "Thathu" but "Thotho". Thotho was the one who first converted to Islam. There is no documented proof of this claim. It is based on the story passed through generations and told by the elders of the clan. After a few generations, the descendants of Thotho were called Thotho-al. Al (: (Urdu:آل) is an Arabic word which means descendent. Thotho-al means, the descendents of Thotho. With the passage of the time, Thotho-al became Thothal.

According to the Thothals, majority of the clan members call themselves "Thathal", because either they speak carelessly or they really don't know the correct name of the clan. An interesting example to justify their claim is the people from village Mehmand Chak, Tehsil Kharian of district Gujrat, Pakistan. People of Mehmand Chak call themselves "Thathal", while in the record of Tehsil Kharian, they are registered as "Thothal". A group of the clan also call themselves as "Thathiyal".

Thathals history

Indian History revolves mostly about kings, their battles, conquest, defeats etc. Therefore it is not easy to find the history of a clan. The only reliable source of information about a clan is to be "A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West" by Edward Maclagan & H.A. Rose. In this book, we find a "genealogical tree of the Narwa/narma" the cousin tribe of Thathals.

This family tree shows that the name of the ancestor of the Thathal clan was "Thuthir". This sound more like an Indian name than "Thutho" or "Thotho". There is a strong possibility that "Thotho" or "Thutho" could be a shortened version of the original name. Even nowadays it is still common in India and Pakistan that people get nicknames in their childhood which are a shortened or a distorted version of their original names.

While we have a detailed family tree of Narwa clan but we don't find anymore information about Thuthir which strengthen this belief that Thuthir was not the eldest son and therefore not the Yuvraj or a Raja. The prevailing tradition was that the eldest son should inherit the throne. Sahal, the ancestor of Narwa/narma seems to be the one who inherited the throne.

There is another theory about Karan Singh being the king of Kashmir which is supported by a considerable population of Thathals in that area.

Karan Singh is known to have been a generous king. It is because of his extreme generousity that sometime people confuse him with Karna of Mahabharata, who gave away his kavacha ( chest shield) and kundala (ear rings) to Lord Indra disguised as a beggar. This generousity cost Karna very dear and he was killed by his brother Arjuna in the battle of Kurukshetra. Karan Singh and Karna both lived at different times in the history. Karna lived almost around 400 BC, while Karan Singh, whose eight generation is said to have lived at the sametime as Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar ( lived between 1542–1605), must have lived at around the last period of Sayyid dynasty

According to the family tree of the Narmas/Narwa Naru Khan a contemporary of Mughal King Akbar was the first to convert to Islam and after his conversion the tribe was named after him. Naru Khan was the 8th in descent from Raja Karan and it is highly possible that the conversion to Islam of the ancestor of the Muslim Thathals also took place at the same period that Naru Khan accepted Islam as both these tribes lived and are still living side by side in nearby villages professing the same faith and belonging to the same ancestor. In the recorded history of the Narmas Pahar Khan who was 7th in descent from Naru Khan was the ancestor who migrated to Gujarat along with the Thathals who are still living side by side. Fact that no family tree has been preserved by the Thathals leads one to conjecture that Thuthir or Thathu the father of the Thathals was not the direct son of Raja Karan but perphaps descendend from one of the sons of Karan Singh who most probably lived at the same time as Naru Khan founder of the Narmas. Whether the father of the Thathals Thuthir or Thutho was the first to convert to Islam is questionable based on the fact that their still exist today people of the Thathal tribe who profess the Hindu faith and who are also descendants of Thuthir/Thathu in India which would make it very unlikely that Thuthir/Thathu was the first Muslim ancestor of the Muslim Thathals. What is more probable is that Thuthir/Thathu was the Hindu ancestor of all Thathals and that the ancestor of the Muslim Thathals who first accepted Islam never changed his tribal name upon conversion unlike many other tribes like the Narma.

In the Ain-i-Akbari of Moghul King Akbar The Great we have mention of a Thathar tribe living in Tijara, Rajasthan and in Rewari, Haryana where they occupied a brick fort along with 405,108 biggas of land of which the annual revenue was rs 11,906,847. The tribe had 400 cavalry and 2000 infantry soldiers at its disposal.

Another faction of Thathals are mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as being Rajputs living in Ghelot, Rewari in Haryana where they were occupiers of 27,270 biggas of land with a revenue of rs 656,688 having 700 cavalry and 2000 infantry soldiers. In Ujjinah, Tijara, Rajasthan the Thathals were living alongside with the Khanzada Muslim Rajputs occupying 33,926 bigas of land with a revenue of 428,347 rs having 45 cavalry and 150 infantry. Also in Pur, Tijara, Rajasthan a community of Thathals were residing with a total of 2,476 biggas revenue of 540,645 rs 10 cavalry and 100 infantry men.

Are the Jatts and Rajputs distinct?

Whether Jatts and Rajputs were or were not originally distinct, and whatever aboriginal elements may have been affiliated to their society, I think that the two now form a common stock, the distinction between Jatt and Rajput being social rather than ethnic, I believe that those families of that common stock whom the tide of fortune has raised to political importance have become Rajputs almost by mere virtue of their rise and that their descendants have retained the title and its privileges on the tradition, strictly enforced, of observing the rules by which the higher are distinguished from the lower castes in the Hindu scale of precedence; of preserving their purity of blood by refusing to marry with families of inferior social rank, of rigidly abstaining from widow marriage, and of refraining from degrading occupations. Those who transgressed these rules have fallen from their high position and ceased to be Rajputs while such families as, attaining a dominant position in their territory, began to affect social exclusiveness and to observe the rules have become not only Rajas, but also Rajputs or " sons of Raja."

In the Western Plains (Pak Punjab) the freedom of marriage allowed by Islam has superseded caste restrictions, and social rank is measured by the tribe rather than by the larger unit of caste. But even there, families who were a few generations ago reputed Jatts have now risen by social exclusiveness to be recognised as Rajputs and families who were lately known as Rajputs have sunk till they are now classed with Jatts ; while the great tribes, the Sial, the Gondal, the Tiwana are commonly spoken of as Rajputs, and their smaller brethren as Jatts. The same tribe even is Rajput in one district and Jatt in another according to its position among the local tribes.

A group of Thathals claim to belong to Jatt clan while the other claim to be Rajputs. According to A Glossary of the Tribe and casts of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Provinces by E.D. Maclagan and H.A. Rose, "Thuthal, A tribe of Muhammadan Jatts found in Gujrat. It claims Surajbansi (Suryavanshi) origin by descent from Thathu, son of Raja karn singh, whose other son Naru, founded the narwa". The explanation of the different section of the same clan is that at a certain time in history, Thathals lost their power. Which forced them to leave their age old warrior profession and turn to the cultivation for their survival. This transformation has also taken place in other Rajput groups too, which eventually led them being labeled as Jatts instead of Rajputs.

Lt. Col. J.M. Wikeley, the author of " Punjabi Musalmans " described, (Jatt)now signifies in the North Western Punjab an occupation or degree of social status, rather than a tribe or race. Thus both Rajputs and jatts represent the highest social grade.

J.M. Wikeley continues, Many tribes have both a Rajput and a Jatt branch, some rank as Rajputs in one district and Jatts in another such as "Dhamial" who are of both Rajput and Jatt status, the two branches appear to mix freely and are one tribe.(Punjabi Musalmans section-Dhamial). According to him the sections fallen to Jatt status because of their non observance of those social laws recognised as necessary for the retention of their position as Rajputs (mostly due to their islamic practices).Thus, Rajput mean a social grade rather than an ethnological term.

Nowadays those Thathals who call themselves Rajputs use "Raja" as their royal title while the Jatt section use "Chaudhry" as a royal title.

Villages Of Thathals

There are some villages in India and Pakistan with Thathals concentration Like Mehmand Chak, Kaleechpur Khambi Jaleelpur, Hoshiarpur (India). Include some villages of Azad Kashmir and Potohar region include Chakwal, Dheri Thothal, Rawat, Jatli, Mora Thathal and Tarlai Kalan.

Tarlai Kalan (quite a big town nowadays, comes under the rural areas of Islamabad (the Capital Territory of Pakistan) is considered to be an origin of all those Thathals who had moved to Azad Kashmir and other villages around the Potohar Plateau. The ancestor of Thathals who belonged from Tarlai Kalan was "Rai Dalia Singh". All Thathals have been recorded in a family tree since the time of "Rai Dalia Singh", but the exact date is unknown. This family tree is still maintained and is up to date, where more than 15 generations can be found.

Moreover, Kaleechpur Khambi Jaleelpur is a large village of the Tehsil Sarai Alamgir, Gujrat District, Pakistan. Mainly the Thathal Jatt and Chib Rajput families live there.

Sahan Kalan is a village in Tehsil Kharian, in the Gujrat District of Pakistani Punjab, 4 km southeast of Kotla Arab Ali Khan and 35 km north of Gujrat. The name Sahan Kalan comes from Persian words meaning Big Strong man. The main tribe in the village is the Thathal Jatt.

Villages named on Thathal/Thothal

There are some villages owned by Thathals in Pakistan and India like:

• Basti Lal Thathal(Pakistan)
• Dhok Thathal(Pakistan)
• Mohra Thathal (Pakistan)
• Nangal Thathal (India).
• Thathal is a small village in Tehsil: Hoshiarpur-i, District: Hoshiarpur, State: Punjab (India).
• Thathal is a small village in Tehsil: Amb, District: Una, State: Himachal Pradesh (India).
• Thothal(Pakistan)
• Dheri Thothal(Pakistan)

• Chak Thothar, Rurka kalan, District : Jalandhar.Punjab .

• Thathar Jammu Kashmir.

Notable Thathals

• Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry - Former Prime Minister of AJK.

References

ur:تھتھال