Mohan (Mohyal)
Encyclopedia
Mohan is a famous Brahmin
clan from the Punjab
. They are one of the seven clans of the Mohyal
s who are Saraswat Brahmins of the Punjab. The six other clans are Bali, Bhimwal, Chhibber
, Datt
, Lau, and Vaid
. Punjabi Brahmins other than Mohyals include Barahis(Twelvers), Bawanjais(Fifty-twoers) and Athwans(Eighters).
region. A long line of his descendants was devoted to the worship of snakes and enjoyed supremacy in Kashmir.
, Ashwathama went into exile and one of his associates was named Mohan. Some Mohyal historians consider him to be the initiator of the Mohan sect.
Kashmir was the homeland of the Mohans, so it could be possible that its original rulers were the ancestors of these people. The Mohans ruled Kashmir for two hundred and fifty three years, from 602 to 855.
MOHAN : mohyal : punjabi saraswat mohyal brahmin : northindian brahmins
in the South after conquering Kanauj, Malwa and Gujarat. He was an ambitious man and he founded a new city called Lalitpur, where he built a majestic sun temple.
After the death of Lalita Aditya, there was chaos and half a dozen rulers changed hands in a period of ten years, till a great monarch named Jeaped rose on the scene. He ruled with great distinction for forty-three years from 746 to 789. He brought fame and glory to his reign and was credited with extensive conquests of new territories including Nepal
.
With the demise of king Jeaped, the glory and grandeur of the Mohans' dynastic rule in Kashmir waned and whittled down. His son and half a dozen incumbents who followed him squandered away their of the family kingdom and led to its disintegration. The rule of the Mohans was finally wrapped up in 855 AD.
.
. His son, Abinashi Ram went on a pilgrimage of the Ganges and Yamuna
rivers and reached as far as Delhi
. At Delhi, he won the favour of Timur
, who appointed him as his Dewan. The two sons of another Mohan dignitary, Maya Das were made commanders of the royal army.
Dhankot on the Indus was the ancient home of the Mohans. It was during the raid of Mahmud of Ghazni
on India
that Raja Sukhpal Mohan of Peshawar
converted to Islam. Mahmud’s son, Sultan Masood ousted the Mohans after capturing Dhankot. They lived in the hills in unsettled conditions under the protection of the Gakhars
and later shifted to the plains.
. His son, Jaswant Rao adopted the Muslim
faith in 1306 and became a favourite of the ruler. He was able to arrange the grant of a big jagir
in Mamdot for the five sons of his deceased brother. Mamdot became a prestigious Dheri of the Mohans and a nostalgic symbol of the entire clan.
Babar
, the first Mughal
emperor, appointed an eminent Mohan, Harjas Rai as his Dewan. This was a period of glory for the Mohans as several members of clan shot into the limelight and were conferred with titles and jagirs. Mamdot in district Ferozepur remained their bastion of power.
In a short time Mamdot became such a stronghold of the Mohans that Humayun
sent a large force to curb them. The Mohans fought bravely but were outnumbered. In the savage war, they were totally wiped out. The only ones to survive were an aged family patriarch, Baba Sahib and his son, Sobha Ram Thakur.
district) were in great trouble as they were being persecuted by the Jats who had confiscated their lands. The aggrieved Datts approached Baba Sahib for help. He urged his son, Sobha Ram to take necessary action. Sobha Ram headed a big force and recovered all the captured land of the Datts. At this turn of events, out of gratitude a leading Datt offered his daughter’s hand in marriage. Sobha Ram accepted but with the condition that the marriage would be celebrated at their ancestral town of Mamdot. Eventually he arranged the marriage of that girl with Baba Sahib, as he was anxious to save his clan from extinction. Two sons begotten from this marriage are regarded by some as the forerunners of the subsequent generations of Mohans. Baba Sahib bequeathed to his descendants to make a suitable donation on the occasion of marriage or other celebration, to perpetuate the memory of his son. His wishes are carried out to this day and Mohan families offer a lota (vessel) and some eatables on all festive occasions.
The Mohans of Pind Dadan Khan
are regarded as the direct descendants of Baba Sahib while those of other places as having descended from the relatives of those who survived the mayhem at Mamdot. The Mohans were decimated to such an extent in the holocast at Mamdot that they have still not recovered their old strength and constitute only 5% of the total population of the community.
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
clan from the Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
. They are one of the seven clans of the Mohyal
Mohyal
Mohyal is the name of an endogamous ethnic group that originates from the Gandhara region and consists of seven Brahmin lineages of that area that left the usual priestly occupation of Brahmins long ago to serve as soldiers and in government services.The...
s who are Saraswat Brahmins of the Punjab. The six other clans are Bali, Bhimwal, Chhibber
Chhibber
Chhibber is a Brahmin clan from the Punjab. They are one of the seven clans of the Mohyals who are Saraswat Brahmins of the Punjab. The other six clans are Bali, Bhimwal, Datt/Dutt, Lau, Mohan and Vaid. Punjabi Brahmins other than Mohyals include Barahis , Bawanjais and Athwans...
, Datt
Datt
Datt or Dutt is a Brahmin clan from the Punjab. They are one of the seven clans of the Mohyals who are Saraswat Brahmins of the Punjab. The six other clans are Bali, Bhimwal, Chhibber, Lau, Mohan and Vaid. Most Datts are Hindus, but like most Mohyals, many follow Sikhism and other religions as...
, Lau, and Vaid
Vaid
Vaid is a Brahmin clan from the Punjab, one of the seven clans of the Mohyals. The words Vaid and Rajvaid are particularly used to denote medical professionals in Indian history.- Gotra :The gotra or founding lineage of the Vaids is Dhanvantari...
. Punjabi Brahmins other than Mohyals include Barahis(Twelvers), Bawanjais(Fifty-twoers) and Athwans(Eighters).
Gotra
Mohans are the descendants of Rishi Kashyapa, one among the seven Saptarishis from whom they get their Kashyap gotra. He was the fabled founder of the KashmirKashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
region. A long line of his descendants was devoted to the worship of snakes and enjoyed supremacy in Kashmir.
Origins
After the conclusion of the Kurukshetra WarKurukshetra war
According to the Indian epic poem Mahābhārata, a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins of an Indo-Aryan kingdom called Kuru, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura resulted in the Kurukshetra War in which a number of ancient kingdoms participated as allies of...
, Ashwathama went into exile and one of his associates was named Mohan. Some Mohyal historians consider him to be the initiator of the Mohan sect.
Kashmir was the homeland of the Mohans, so it could be possible that its original rulers were the ancestors of these people. The Mohans ruled Kashmir for two hundred and fifty three years, from 602 to 855.
MOHAN : mohyal : punjabi saraswat mohyal brahmin : northindian brahmins
Lalitaditya
Virambhak’s third son, Lalitaditya ascended to the throne in 699 AD and ruled for thirty-six eventful years. He extended his dominion up to KonkanKonkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
in the South after conquering Kanauj, Malwa and Gujarat. He was an ambitious man and he founded a new city called Lalitpur, where he built a majestic sun temple.
After the death of Lalita Aditya, there was chaos and half a dozen rulers changed hands in a period of ten years, till a great monarch named Jeaped rose on the scene. He ruled with great distinction for forty-three years from 746 to 789. He brought fame and glory to his reign and was credited with extensive conquests of new territories including Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
.
With the demise of king Jeaped, the glory and grandeur of the Mohans' dynastic rule in Kashmir waned and whittled down. His son and half a dozen incumbents who followed him squandered away their of the family kingdom and led to its disintegration. The rule of the Mohans was finally wrapped up in 855 AD.
Pothi Rai Seegadh and Jangnama Mohan
The early history of the Mohan clan was documented in the form of a book called Pothi Rai Seegadh. A later version appeared at the turn of the century under the title of Jangnama Mohan.The Mohans migrate to Mathura
Russel Stracey’s history of the Mohans starts from the time of their migration to the holy city of Mathura. Curiously, Mathura at different times became the camping ground of almost castes of Mohyals. Being the divine fortress of peace, it offered ready shelter to those who were driven to its portals in distress or struck by calamity, as was often the case with the Mohyals. They became luckless fugitives, time and again, due to political turmoil or following attacks. Moreover as militant Brahmins, they were called upon to defend the holy city against barbarians and iconoclastsIconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
.
In Delhi
In the fourteenth century, Bhagwan Das made Mathura his home. He had three sons named Gokul, Mathura Das and Hari Kishan. Hari Kishan later on shifted to VaranasiVaranasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
. His son, Abinashi Ram went on a pilgrimage of the Ganges and Yamuna
Yamuna
The Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...
rivers and reached as far as Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. At Delhi, he won the favour of Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
, who appointed him as his Dewan. The two sons of another Mohan dignitary, Maya Das were made commanders of the royal army.
Dhankot
When Timur departed from Delhi after defeating Mahmud Tughlaq and ravaging Delhi, he appointed Sultan Mohammed Khan as the surrogate ruler. It was during his reign that Dewan Hira Nand and Dewan Rai Mohan rebuilt the town of Dhankot on the banks of the river Indus.Dhankot on the Indus was the ancient home of the Mohans. It was during the raid of Mahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...
on India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
that Raja Sukhpal Mohan of Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
converted to Islam. Mahmud’s son, Sultan Masood ousted the Mohans after capturing Dhankot. They lived in the hills in unsettled conditions under the protection of the Gakhars
Gakhars
The Gakhars are an ancient warrior clan who have predominantly resided in what is present day northern Punjab and South-Western Kashmir, Pakistan. In particular in the cities of Rawalpindi, Jhelum and regions of Gilgit, Baltistan, Chitral, Khanpur and Mirpur, Pakistan...
and later shifted to the plains.
Mamdot
Rai Thakur was a famous Mohan during the period of Alauddin KhiljiAlauddin Khilji
Ali Gurshap Khan better known by his titular name as Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji was the second ruler of the Turko-Afghan Khilji dynasty in India.He was a well and capable ruler. He belonged to the Afghanized Turkic tribe of the Khiljis...
. His son, Jaswant Rao adopted the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
faith in 1306 and became a favourite of the ruler. He was able to arrange the grant of a big jagir
Jagir
In historic India, a jagir was a small territory granted by the ruler to an army chieftain in fairly short terms usually of three years but not extending beyond his lifetime, in recognition of his military service...
in Mamdot for the five sons of his deceased brother. Mamdot became a prestigious Dheri of the Mohans and a nostalgic symbol of the entire clan.
Babar
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
, the first Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor, appointed an eminent Mohan, Harjas Rai as his Dewan. This was a period of glory for the Mohans as several members of clan shot into the limelight and were conferred with titles and jagirs. Mamdot in district Ferozepur remained their bastion of power.
In a short time Mamdot became such a stronghold of the Mohans that Humayun
Humayun
Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early, but with Persian aid, he eventually regained an even larger one...
sent a large force to curb them. The Mohans fought bravely but were outnumbered. In the savage war, they were totally wiped out. The only ones to survive were an aged family patriarch, Baba Sahib and his son, Sobha Ram Thakur.
Sobha Ram
Sobha Ram was taken prisoner and deported to Delhi where he was posted as manager to the royal household. He distinguished himself in his job and was promoted to a higher rank in the imperial court. At this time, the Datts living in Veeram (in AmritsarAmritsar District
Amritsar district is one of 22 districts in the state of Punjab in West India. It has a population of 3,074,207 and covers an area of 5075 km²...
district) were in great trouble as they were being persecuted by the Jats who had confiscated their lands. The aggrieved Datts approached Baba Sahib for help. He urged his son, Sobha Ram to take necessary action. Sobha Ram headed a big force and recovered all the captured land of the Datts. At this turn of events, out of gratitude a leading Datt offered his daughter’s hand in marriage. Sobha Ram accepted but with the condition that the marriage would be celebrated at their ancestral town of Mamdot. Eventually he arranged the marriage of that girl with Baba Sahib, as he was anxious to save his clan from extinction. Two sons begotten from this marriage are regarded by some as the forerunners of the subsequent generations of Mohans. Baba Sahib bequeathed to his descendants to make a suitable donation on the occasion of marriage or other celebration, to perpetuate the memory of his son. His wishes are carried out to this day and Mohan families offer a lota (vessel) and some eatables on all festive occasions.
The Mohans of Pind Dadan Khan
Pind Dadan Khan
Pind Dadan Khan is a town in Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan, it is the capital of Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil, which is an administrative subdivision of the district...
are regarded as the direct descendants of Baba Sahib while those of other places as having descended from the relatives of those who survived the mayhem at Mamdot. The Mohans were decimated to such an extent in the holocast at Mamdot that they have still not recovered their old strength and constitute only 5% of the total population of the community.