Khas people


Khas people also called Khas Arya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Indian subcontinent, what is now present-day Nepal and Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The Khas people speak the Khas language. They are also known as Parbatiyas, Parbates and Paharis/Pahades or Gorkhali. The term Khas has now become obsolete, as the Khas people have adopted communal identities such as Bahun and Chhetri because of the negative stereotypes associated with the term Khas.
Although the term Khas has gained popularity in Nepali identity politics since the 1990s, many castes currently categorized as Khas may not identify themselves as Khas. According to the Constitution of Nepal, Brahmins, Chhetris, Thakuris, and Sanyasis who are citizens of Nepal should be considered as Khas Arya for electoral puposes.

Origin

They have been connected to the Khasas mentioned in the ancient Hindu literature. Historian Bal Krishna Sharma and Dor Bahadur Bista speculates that the Khas or kus people were of Indo-Aryan origin. Historian Baburam Acharya speculates that Khas are a sub-clan of Aiḍa, an Arya clan originated at Idavritt. Khas were living in the Idavaritt in the 3rd millennium BCE. and the original meaning of the term Khas was Raja or Kshatriya. He further speculates that Kashmir has been named from its local residents Khas as Khasmir. 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. Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that Khas were not the Vedic Aryans but Aryans of latter period like the Gurjara, Darada, Shaka, and Pallava. He further asserts that post-Vedic Aryans were akin to Vedic Aryans in terms of Indo-Aryan languages and Indian culture.

History

Khas are believed to have arrived in the western reaches of Nepal at the beginning of first-millennium B.C. or middle of first-millennium A.D. from the north-west. It is likely that they absorbed people from different ethnic groups during this immigration. They have been connected to the medieval Khasa Malla kingdom. In the initial phase, majority of Khas people became Brahmins and others became Kshatriyas.
Traditionally, the Khas were divided into "Khas Brahmins" and "Khas Rajputs". In the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, the Khas Brahmins and Khas Rajputs had a lower social status than the other Brahmins and Rajputs. However, in present-day western Nepal, they had the same status as the other Brahmins and Rajputs, possibly as a result of their political power in the Khasa Malla kingdom.
, Raika Mandhata Shahi at Saka Era 1612 in old Khas language using Devanagari script
Until the 19th century, the Gorkhali referred to their country as Khas Desh. As they annexed the various neighbouring countries to the Gorkha kingdom, the terms such as Khas and Newar ceased to be used as the names of countries. The 1854 legal code, promulgated by the Nepali Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, himself a Khas, no longer referred to Khas as a country, rather as a jāt within the Gorkha kingdom.
The Shah dynasty of the Gorkha Kingdom, as well as the succeeding Rana dynasty, spoke the Khas language. However, they claimed to be Rajputs of western Indian origin, rather than the native Khas Kshatriyas. 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 as synonymous.
Jung Bahadur also re-labeled the Khas jāt as Chhetri in present-day Nepal. Originally, the Brahmin immigrants from the plains considered the Khas as low-caste because of the latter's neglect of high-caste taboos. The upper-class Khas people commissioned the Bahun priests to initiate them into the high-caste Chhetri order and adopted high-caste manners. Other Khas families who could not afford 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 Chhetris.
Because of the adoption of the Chhetri identity, the term Khas is rapidly becoming obsolete. According to Dor Bahadur Bista, "the Khas have vanished from the ethnographic map of Nepal".

Communities

Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel writes the communities or caste in Khas group were Brahman, Chhetri, Gharti, Damai, Kami, Sarki, Hudka, Tamote, Gaine, Badi, etc. The tribal designation Khas refers to in some contexts only to the upper-class Khas group, i.e. Bahun and Chhetri, but in other contexts may also include the low status occupational Khas groups such as Kāmi, Damāi, and Sārki. Khas people are addressed with the term Khayan or Parbatiya or Partyā, Parbaté meaning hill-dweller by Newars. The hill Khas tribe are in large part associated with the Gorkhali warriors.

Language

History

The Khas people originally referred to their language as Khas kurā, which was also known as Parbatiya. The Newar people used the term Khayan Bhaya, Parbatiya 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. 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 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. It has become a national language of Nepal and lingua franca among the majority of population of North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan.

Classification

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

Modern

Nepal

Modern-day Khas people are referred to as Khas Brahmin, Khas Rajput and Khas Dalit. Khas people are popularly referred in modern times as Khas Arya.

India

In Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, too, the term Khas has become obsolete. The Khas people of Kumaon adopted the self-designation 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.

Notable people

Khas Malla rulers