Barak

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Barak (बड़क)[1][2] Badak (बड़क) Badak (बड़ाक) Barak (बरक)[3]/ Barkia (बरकिया)[4] Jats live in Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. They are Agnivanshi Chauhans. It is same as Burdak which is sanscritized form of Badak (Barak → Badak → Bardak → Burdak) . Barak/Barakzi Jat clan is found in Afghanistan.[5] Baraki (बरकी) clan is found in Baghlan district of Afghanistan.[6] Barakzai furnished the Amir rulers in Afghanistan.[7] Barakzai (बरकजई) is a Pathan clan found in Montgomery. [8]

Origin

Jat Gotras Namesake

History

Ram Swarup Joon[9] provides genealogy of Second Branch of Yayati (Puru) dynasty in branch of Hasti (Founder of Hastinapur), there is one ruler named Barak Shatger.

Hasti (Founder of Hastinapur) → YanaAkshayaVilaksha → → SambhaVishwamitraDevratInkaAksanSamoranKuruBarak-ShatgerJhanuSorataSorabhumJatusonWadikaAnyo-VayoDalipShantranuVichitra Virya

An interesting discovery of Baraki tribe

H. W. Bellew [10] writes about an interesting discovery of Baraki tribe. In this connection it may be allowable, perhaps, to conjecture in order to account for the existence at the present day, as I hope to show, in the extreme eastern provinces of the ancient Persian Empire, of tribes and nations whose original (in the time of Darius Hystaspes, at least,) seats were in its extreme western provinces — that the former association together of different nations for the payment of tribute, may have led in after times, to their location together in one province in some redistribution or other of the fiscal arrangements of the empire ; or, perhaps, nations and tribes, driven from their seats by internal revolutions or external conquests, may, from former association in the payment of tribute, have held together as friends and confederates for mutual support in their new settlements ; or, probably, they may have been transported, bag and baggage, by order of the king, from one extremity of the empire to the other for purely military purposes or as an exemplary punishment.

Of the last kind of transportation Herodotus has recorded an instance which is of the greatest interest and importance to us in this inquiry. He tells us (Bk. iv. 200, etc.) that, about the same time that Darius Hystaspes led his expedition across the Bosphorus against the Skythians, his governor of Egypt sent a naval and military force against the Greek colonies of Barke and Kyrene in Libya; and that after the Persians had captured Barke, they enslaved the Barkaians and took them to Egypt on their return from this expedition. By this time Darius also had returned from his Skythian campaign to his capital at Susa ; and Herodotus adds to what he had said of the Persians returning to Egypt from Libya, that

" the Barkaians whom they had enslaved, they transported from Egypt to the king ; and king Darius gave them a village in Baktria to dwell in. They gave then the name of Barke to this village, which was still inhabited in my time in the Baktrian territory."

And I may now repeat these words of Herodotus, and say that, after the lapse of about two thousand three hundred and fifty years, the village of Barke, which he mentions, is still in our day inhabited, and by the posterity, in name, at least, if got in lineal descent also, of the Barkaians he speaks of ; and that too in the very territory he indicates. The colony of Barkaians in Baktrian territory, of which the "Father of History " has thus informed us, is to-day represented by the Baraki tribe inhabiting the villages of Baraki in the Baghlan district of Kunduz, and of Barki Bark and Barki Rajan, in the Logar district of Kabul, which last is a tract comprised within the Bakhtar Zamiri or " Bakhtar territory," of Orientals, and the Baktriana of the Greeks.


[Page-53]: This interesting discovery, together with some other notes relating to the tribes of Afghanistan, most of which I reproduce in this paper and rectify where necessary, I had the privilege of making known in a paper which I read by invitation at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society a few years ago, as an installment, I had hoped, of other papers in pursuit of the same subject, had my health, which was by no means satisfactory at that time, permitted. My offering for discussion was, however, received with so little approval, and called forth so strong a disapproval from the Director of that august Society for the encouragement of Oriental research, that I willingly laid aside my notes on the subject, together with the aptitude acquired by a long acquaintance with the country and its peoples, to some more suitable occasion, when I might lay my information before others more willing to investigate it. The present occasion appears to me to afford such an opportunity ; and in submitting this paper to the notice of the learned men of this Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, I hope, not that what I advance will be received without severe scrutiny and criticism, but that it may meet with the close consideration which the subject claims, as a means of throwing light upon many obscure points connected with the history of the peoples of this Afghanistan region in their past relations to the revolutions and invasions which have since the Alexandrian conquest successively swept over its area. The information I have here hastily put together on the subject of our inquiry, — so far as relates to the recognition of the existing peoples of Afghanistan and their identification with the ancient nations of that territory and their successors, as their names and circumstances have come down to us in the records of the historian and geographer, — is, I am fully sensible, fragmentary and defective in detail ; but with all its faults, it will serve, I trust, as a stimulus to others better qualified than myself to pursue the inquiry with more of method and in greater detail, and, above all, with a greater knowledge of Oriental history than I can hope ever to attain. The field of research in Afghanistan is a large one, and almost untrod, so far as methodical and critical investigation is concerned ; and affords material to fill volumes with information of a most interesting kind, and of no small importance to the historian and statesman alike. But to return to our subject of immediate inquiry.

H. W. Bellew [11] writes that The sixth satrapy comprised Egypt, and the Libya bordering thereon, and Kyrene, and Barke, and the Lake Moeris. Here we find something of interest to us. I have already quoted the


[Page-61]: passage in Herodotus, describing the transportation of the Barkaians from the far distant Libya to the village in Kunduz of Baktria, which the exiles named Barke in commemoration of the Libyan Barke ; which was founded 554 B.C, and only half a century prior to their own enslavement and deportation as captives of war, by a colony from the adjoining Greek settlement in Kyrene.

Herodotus, after describing the manner in which the Libyan Barke was founded by Greek colonists (Bk. iv. 1B5), states that the name given to the first king was Battus, which in the Libyan tongue meant "king." I mention this because in the Logar valley of Kabul, which is to-day their principal settlement in Afghanistan, the Baraki tribe have two villages close together, the one called the Baraki Rajan, the other the Baraki Barak ; a distinction probably marking some recognised difference originally existing amongst the exiled Barkaians (Barkai of Herodotus) on their first settlement in these parts, such as the Barkai of the king's family or household, and the Barkai of the city of Barke ; for such is the exact meaning of the names themselves — Baraki Rajan meaning " Royal Barkai," Baraki Bark meaning " Barke of the Barkai." That these Baraki of Afghanistan, or rather their ancestors the Barkai of Herodotus, were recognised as Greeks by Alexander and his followers — notwithstanding the absence of any such explicit statement, and of the mention even of their name — seems clear from a passage in Arrian (Bk. iii. 28), who — after saying that, from the Euergetes Alexander directed his march against Baktria, and on his way received the homage of the Drangai, Gadrosoi, and Arakhotoi (each of which nations we shall speak of later on) ; and then proceeded to the Indians adjacent to the Arakhotoi (the Indians in the Paropamisus about Ghazni, the former seat of the Batani tribe before described), all which nations he subdued with the utmost toil and difficulty, owing to the deep snow and extremities of want ; and then, marching to Mount Caucasus, built a city there which he called Alexandria — adds, that in this city Alexander left a Persian prefect in the government of the country, with a party of his troops for his support, and then passed over the mountains, at a part where the surface was bare, nothing but the sylphium (Pukhto tarkha = "wormwood"), and the turpentine tree (Pukhto khinjak = " mastich ") growing there, but the country very populous and supporting multitudes of sheep and neat cattle, for they feed on the sylphium, of which, says Arrian, the sheep especially were so fond that some of the Kyreneans left their sheep at a distance and enclosed within a fence, to prevent their destroying the sylphium by gnawing the roots, as it was there very valuable.

This mention of the Kyreneans in Baktria, near the present Kabul,


[Page-62]: and the Barkai or Barkaians, in 330 B.C., is extremely interesting in relation to the colony of the Greek exiles transported from the kingdom of Kyrene in Libya, of which Barke was but a branch, to this very country by Darius Hystaspes, as before related ; and affords important evidence in corroboration of my identification of the Baraki tribe of Kabul with the Barkai exiles of Herodotus ; for these Kyreneans mentioned by Arrian can be none other than the Barkaians of whom Herodotus speaks, viz., the Baraki of Baghlan in Kunduz.

After the time of the Greek dominion the Baraki, it would appear, increased greatly in numbers and influence, and acquired extensive possessions towards Hindu Kush in the north, and the Suleman range in the south, and eastward as far as the Indus.

During the reign of Mahnud Ghaznavi the Baraki were an important tribe, and largely aided that Sultan in his military expeditions. The reputation then acquired as soldiers they still retain, and the Afghan monarchs — of the Barakzi family at all events — always entertain a bodyguard composed exclusively of Baraki. The Baraki are mentioned by the Emperor Babar as among the principal tribes of Kabul in the early part of the sixteenth century. They are now reckoned at about ten thousand families in Afghanistan, and, besides their head quarters in Kunduz and Logar, have settlements in Butkhak, and at Kanigoram in the Vaziri country, and on the Hindu Kush, about Bamian and Ghorband districts. In Afghanistan, though their true origin is not suspected, the Baraki are considered a distinct people by themselves ; they are disclaimed alike by Afghan and Pathan, by Ghilji and Hazarah, by Tajik and by Turk. Amongst themselves the Baraki use a peculiar dialect, which is more of a Hindi language than anything else, to judge from the few words I have met with.

The Baraki pretend descent from the Arab invaders, but this is a conceit of their conversion to Islam. They are a fine, tall, and active people, with fairer complexions than the generality of Afghans, and are held in consideration as a respectable people. They have no place in the Afghan genealogies by that name, being generally reckoned along with the Tajik population. Yet it is not altogether improbable that the present ruling tribe of the Durani in Afghanistan is originally derived from the Baraki ; for I can find no other source whence the Barakzi can have sprung ; the same remark applies also to the great Barak clan of the Khatak tribe. By reckoning these Durani Barak and Khatak Barak as offshoots from the Baraki, the Barkai of Herodotus, the great decline of the Baraki — perhaps at that time properly called Baraki — from the prosperity and influence they


[Page-63]: are said to have enjoyed in the reign of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, is at once explained. Possibly the split and alienation may have been owing to the readiness of the one and the reluctance of the other to accept Islam in the early period of its introduction.

Kara Khitai dynasty by Barak Hajib in Kirman (Iran)

H. W. Bellew.[12] writes that Barak Hajib founded the Kara Khitai dynasty, which reigned, under a succession of nine princes, according to D'Herbelot, for a period of eighty-two years in the Kirman and Suran provinces of the Indus valley, as dependents of the Mughal Tatar princes of the Changiz Khan family in Khorasan.

With reference to what has been said before of the Baraki tribe, and the derivation of the Barakzi reigning tribe of Afghanistan from them, I may here note what D'Herbelot says, on the authority of the Nigaristan, regarding the Barak Hajib above mentioned. He says to the effect that Barak Hajib, first Sultan of the Kara Khitai (of the Kirman dynasty), of which country he was a native, was sent by the king of the Mogol (of Kashghar and Zunghar, the Kara Khitai country), as ambassador to Sultan Muhammad Khirizm Shah, who, recognising his superior abilities, detained him in his own service, and appointed him to the post of Hajib, or "Chamberlain." On this the Khirizm Shahi Vazir, becoming jealous, so vexed Barak Hajib that he quitted the court and retired to Sultan Muhammad's son Jalaluddin, who held the province ofGhazni, and commanded in India. To reach him, Barak Hajib had to pass through the province of Kirman (on the Kuram river), of which Shuja-'uddin Ruzen (probably of the Rosya Chohan Rajput tribe, prior to the adoption of Islam) was governor on the part of the Kharizm Shah. This governor, desirous of possessing the beautiful women in the harem of the Hajib, who travelled with all his family and dependents, barred the road against him. Barak's people being few, he adopted the stratagem of putting all his women into men's clothes, and so boldly advancing, confronted the governor,


[Page-84]: who, not expecting to find so many men with Barak (who was probably assisted by some of his Baraki kindred in the adjoining Logar district through which his road lay), lost courage, and in the conflict which ensued not only was defeated, but also taken prisoner, and deprived of his government. Thus commenced the power of this prince ; for Barak Hajib having thus installed him self in the government of Kirman, he gradually became absolute master of the country, and declared himself independent. The Sultan Muhammad no longer regarded him as his officer, for he gave him his own mother, who was still young, in marriage ; and one day, by way of familiarity or banter, said to him, Who has elevated you to this high degree of honour in which you now find yourself ? " To which Barak proudly replied :

" It is he who has deprived the Samani of their kingdom to give it to one of their slaves, namely, to Sabaktakin, first prince of the Ghaznavi dynasty, and who has similarly despoiled the Saljuki of their empire to confer it on their slaves, who are the Kharizmi, your ancestors."

Barak had eight successors in his principality, of whom his son Mubarak Khwaja was the first ; for he left his government to him after a reign of eleven years in 632 h. (commenced 6th of October, 1234 AD). The Kharizm Shahi dynasty being extinguished by the Moghol, Barak Khan so gained the good will of Oktai, son and successor of Changiz, that he not only maintained him in his principality, but also greatly augmented its extent. His son Mubarak Khwaja (called Ruku-uddin Khwaja Hacc by Khondamir) had four sisters named Sunij, Ya'cut, Khan, and Maryam, each with the title Turkan, who all married into the principal Moghal families. The dynasty founded by Barak Hajib is that known as the Kara Khitai dynasty of Kirman. There were nine princes of this dynasty, who reigned from 1224 to 1306 A.D., a period of eighty-two years ; they were

  • Barak Hajib, eleven years;
  • Mubarak Khwaza, his son, six years ;
  • Sultan Cutbuddin, nephew of Barak, eight years ;
  • Hajaj, son of Cutbuddin (being a minor, his mother-in-law governed for him), twelve years ;
  • Siurghatmish, son of Cutbuddin, nine years ;
  • Padshah Khatun daughter of Cutbuddin ;
  • Shah Jahan, son of Siurghatmish ;
  • Muhammad Shah, son of HajAj.

Barak and Barakzi

H. W. Bellew [13] writes that The Barak, or Barakzi, are more than twice as numerous as the Popalzi, whom they dispossessed of the government in 1818-19 A.D. Since that date the Barakzi have held the rule in Afghanistan by favour of the British. The Barakzi are partly agricultural and commercial, and largely pastoral and military. They occupy a large tract of country drained by the Arghasan river, and extending from the Toba and Margha plateaux of the Khojak Amran range in the east to the borders of Garmsil in the west, all along the south of Kandahar to the borders of Shorawak and the sand desert of Balochistan. In the south-eastern portion of this tract the Barak were formerly associated with the Achak, but Ahmad Shah on establishing his Durani kingdom severed the connection, and the Achak are now recognised as an entirely distinct tribe, and are held in light esteem as the most ignorant and savage of all the Durani clans. The Barakzi are now the dominant tribe in Afghanistan, and have acquired a high reputation for their military qualities in consequence of their prowess in the wars with the British. They appear to be the same people as the Baraki, or Baraki of Logar and the Barak clan of the Khattak tribe, though long separated, and not now themselves cognisant, at least confessedly, of any such affinity. The Barakzi are reckoned at upwards of thirty thousand families in Afghanistan, where their original seat is not far from the Baraki settlements of our day, as before described. The Baraki, it is said,


[Page-164]:formerly held very much more extensive- territory than that represented by the few castles and villages they now possess. Though recognised as a distinct people from all the other tribes of Afghanistan by the natives of that country themselves, the Baraki are nevertheless considered a superior race, and are held in esteem for their bravery and soldierly qualities. The Baraki are in high favour with the Barakzi rulers of the country, and are enlisted by them as trusted bodyguards, and for service about the royal palaces. At least such was the case up to the time of the late Amir Sher Ali Khan.

Baraki tribe of Kabul

H W Bellew [14] writes that there is the Baraki tribe of Kabul, which is in Afghanistan acknowledged to be of different


[Page-8]: origin from all the other peoples amongst whom they dwell. But nobody mentions the existence of any tradition as to whence they originally came ; though themselves and their neighbour tribes with one accord declare that they were planted in their present seats in the Logar valley of Kabul by Mahmud of Ghazni. But they say, with one accord also, that they are by descent neither Afghan nor Pathan, being excluded from their genealogies ; further, they say that they are neither Turk nor Tajik, nor Ghilzi nor Kurd, nor Hazarah nor Mughal. In fact, of the Baraki tribal traditions really nothing is known for certain, and next to nothing of their peculiarities in respect to domestic manners and customs. They are known to use a peculiar dialect of their own amongst themselves, though ordinarily they speak the vernacular of the district in which they reside ; those dwelling about Kabul using the Pukhto, and those in Kunduz and the Tajik States north of Hindu Kush using the Persian. Of their own Baraki dialect very little is known to others, and from the very meagre vocabularies of it which have hitherto been obtained no definite opinion can be formed, though it is probable that careful examination would disclose a great majority of Greek elements.

The Baraki are a fine manly race, of generally fairer complexion than those amongst whom they live, and are sometimes quite as fair as Englishmen ; at least, I have seen two such. Amongst the Afghans they enjoy a reputation for intelligence and bravery superior to the ordinary standard of those qualities amongst their countrymen, and are credited with a loyalty to the ruling Barakzi dynasty so marked as to obtain record in the writings of contemporary native authors, and attested by their almost exclusive employment as the palace guards at Kabul since the time of the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan.

The Baraki possess their own hereditary lands, castles, and villages, and are principally engaged in agriculture and sheep-breeding, though many take service in the regular army, and some engage in trade as caravan merchants.


[Page-9]: They are said to have formerly been a very numerous and powerful tribe, holding extensive territory throughout the country from Kunduz and Indarab, north of Hindu Kush, to the Logar valley and Butkhak in the Kabul district, and to Kanigoram on the Suleman range; but now they are much reduced and scattered, their principal seats being in the Baraki castles of Logar, where they are agricultural, and in the Khinjan and Baghlan districts of Kunduz, where they are pastoral; they have lesser settlements in Kaoshan district on Hindu Kush, and in Kanigoram district on the Suleman range. They are reckoned at between twenty and thirty thousand families altogether, half the number being south of Hindu Kush and the rest to its north. In this latter direction their chief place is the village of Baraki in the Baglan district of Kunduz ; and this appears to have been the original settlement of the tribe in this part of the world. For it is said, as above noted, that they were planted in Logar by Mahmud of Ghazni (in the beginning of the eleventh century), who afterwards gave them certain lands in Kanigoram as a reward for their services in his expeditions into Hindustan. As to the origin of the Baraki nothing is known by the Afghans ; by some they are classed amongst the Tajik, and by others they are reckoned as Kurd ; whilst the Baraki themselves prefer to be considered as Arab, perhaps of the Koresh tribe, that convenient refuge of so many of the wild tribes of these parts, who on entering the fold of the ennobling faith become ashamed of their poor relations, and willingly forget all about their early parentage. The foregoing is what we learn from the local sources of information available amongst the people themselves.

But from our more extended inquiry the Baraki of Afghanistan appear to be no other than the modern representatives of the captive Greeks who were transported, in the sixth century before Christ, by Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, from the Libyan Barke to the Baktrian territory, as recorded by Herodotus, who further tells us


[Page-10]: that the village which these exiles there built and called Barke, was still inhabited in his time, which was about a century later. It appears also from the passage I have quoted in this connection from Arrian, that in the time of Alexander's campaign in Baktria, say a century later again, the descendants of these Birkai, or Barkaians, were still there; and not only so, but also that their true origin was known to the followers of Alexander. For although Arrian does not mention the Barkai by name, it can be only to them that he refers when incidentally mentioning the Kyrenes or Kyreneans in the passage above referred to. For otherwise what could Kyreneans be doing in this distant part of Asia ? If they were not the descendants of those who had been transported to this very tract by Darius from Barke, a colony of Kyrene, then who were they ? From the tenor of Arrian's account it would seem that these Barkai in Baktria were recognised as the posterity of the exiles from Kyrene, and that the history of their presence there was so well known at that time as not to require any special explanation in mentioning them by the name of the country whence they had originally come. Besides, it is probable that in their passage of the Kaoshan Pass over Hindu Kush, at that time in the possession of these Kyreneans, as it is now of the Baraki, the Makedonian army received succours in the form of supplies and guides, which the historian, bent on magnifying the exploits of his hero, would not care to lay too much stress upon.

The district in Baktria to which the Barkai of Herodotus were transported would appear to be the present Baghlan ; and the existing village of Baraki there probably marks the site of the village they there built and named Barke.

In the text of my "Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan," I have preferred, rightly or wrongly, the Baraki in Logar as the original settlement of the Barkai in these parts, because of its being the better known of the two ; though the Baraki in Bughlan accords best with the situation indicated by Herodotus — the district in Baktria-


[Page-11]: whilst the other is in Baktriana, or the wider territory of Baktria proper.

Durrani dynasty rule under Barakzai

H W Bellew [15] writes that In 1818, on some trivial pretence, Fath Khan was made a prisoner by Mahmud and handed over to Kamran, who, to prevent further chance of the more than suspected schemes of the Wazir growing to maturity, deprived him of sight by thrusting a red-hot pin into his eyes an act of barbarity, winch, it is said, the savage young prince committed with his own hands. On this, all the Barakzai chiefs brothers and sons of Fath Khan rose in revolt, and Mahmud was driven from Kabul by Dost Muhammad Khan. The fugitive made a stand at Ghazni, but unable to resist the impetuosity of his pursuer, continued his flight to Herat ; but, before doing so, Mahmud and Kamran vented their hatred of the helpless prisoner in their hands by putting him to death with the most horrible tortures. The murder of Fath Khan raised a storm of vengeance, which sealed the doom of the Saddozai Fath Khan sacrificed his life in the game he played for, but it was not lost, his family took it up, and with the sympathy of the whole nation won it. The Barakzai came into power under Dost Muhammad, who, in 1826, established himself at Kabul, whilst his brother Sherdil held Kandahar.

And thus ended the Durrani Empire. ....And so it was that the Durrani Empire sunk and disappeared, but not so the Durrani rule. This merely passed from one family of the race to another from the Saddozai to the Barakzai. With this transfer of rule, however, there came a complete change over the status of the country. The empire had passed away and was replaced by the principality. The Shah gave way to the Amir the Emperor to the Prince.

Villages after Barak

Distribution in Delhi

Pahari Dheeraj, Ujawaa,

Distribution in Haryana

Villages in Rohtak district

Baland (बालँद), Garnwathi (गरनावठी), Kakrana(ककराणा), Sundana (सुँडाणा),

Distribution in Rajasthan

Villages in Chittorgarh district

Kalji ka Khera (Jasama),

Distribution in Madhya Pradesh

Villages in Gwalior district

Gwalior,

Villages in Mandsaur district

Bugalia (Gujarda),

Villages in Ratlam district

Villages in Ratlam with population of this gotra are:

Bardiya Goyal (1), Bhaisa Dabar (1), Borkheda (1), Dodiana (1), Kalmoda (21), Kotdi (1), Kunwajhagar (7), Nalkui (7), Raoti (1),

Distribution in Uttar Pradesh

Villages in Rampur district

Mewala Kalan,

Notable persons

  • Dost Muhammad Khan - Emir of Afghanistan between 1826 and 1863. He first ruled from 1826 to 1839 and then from 1843 to 1863. He was the 11th son of Sardar Pāyendah Khan (chief of the Barakzai tribe).
  • Pravin Kumar Barak (Col) (b.18.02.1976-) fought Kargil War in 1999 and was awarded Vira Chakra for his act of bravery. He belongs to a family of army men. His father Mahabir Singh Barak and grandfather Amilal were in Indian Army. He belongs to village Baland in tahsil and district Rohtak in Haryana. Unit: 14 Sikh Regiment.

See also

Gallery

References


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