- Region: Mandi, Kangra, Sirmaur, Bilaspur, Chamba, Solan, and Una districts
- Majority Religion: Hindu & Muslims
- Language: Gujari or Gojri
Gujjar Tribe of Himachal Pradesh’s located in the center of Himachal Pradesh. A very important aspect that can be found in this Himachali tribe is that, they are very respectful, they believe in giving respect. This Gujjar tribe is also known as Gujar, Goojar and Gurjara. This tribe is mostly located Himachal Pradesh state’s north western region. The Gujjar tribes origin is very interesting as they believe that they come to the northern region and Himachal Pradesh, during the Hunas invasion.
They also believe that their antecessor tribe is the Khazar tribe. The name Gujjar came from Khazar. The people of Gujjar tribe are mostly found in the Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jammu Kashmir, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh’s northern part and Rajasthan. Gujjar tribe’s semi gypsy groups are mostly found in the region of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu Kashmir. Gujarat state’s name came from the name “Gurjar”. The history points out that the origin of Gujjar clearly goes into the days of Isaac and Ishmael. If you will try to talk to the Gujjar tribe of Himachal Pradesh; they will briefly tell you that they are the antecessors of Isaac. Majority of the Gujjar people are Muslims then they may be descendants of Ishmael.
The story behind this that Ishaque or Isaac, told both his children that whoever will give him the Kabobs of goat’s meat, that boy will be augur from Ishaue. Both his sons Yaqub and Ash went to search goat meat’s Kabobs, by their own different ways. To find the goat meat Kabobs, Ash went to the forest and Yaqub went the help of his mother, she had the goat, Yaqub helped her in making the Kabob. After completing, Yaqub served the Kabob to his father, that time Ishaque gave blessing to Yaqub and appointed Yaqub as his heir. When Ash came back, he found that he was cheated by his blood brother.
He was disappointed and came back from the forest. He was very tired that’s why he slept soon. He had a dream of Allah; and in the dream he spoke with Allah. Ash told Allah that to give him a pure heart and bless him to spend his whole life in the area of the forest. He also told Allah that if he gives these things to him, he will be on bigger status than his brother Yaqub. After doing this, Ash become a very big saint. Because of this reason even if you observe today, you will find Gujjars in the forest areas; where they feel closer to God. Some of the, Gujjars are shifted into the other religions like Islam and Hinduism.
This tribe is one of the strict tribes, who follow their own traditional values and customs strictly till now. They also follow their old customs and rules of marriages, the girls gets married in the age of fourteen to fifteen years and the boys gets married in the age of seventeen to eighteen. Majority of the Gujjar tribe is situated in the northern part of the Indian Territory, that’s why their occupation is also semi gypsy. Gujjar tribe’s have a clan of animals such as goats, buffalo and sheep.
Semi gypsy Gujjar have the habit of traveling to the Himalayas with their animals, when summer season starts and when winter season starts, they come back to the plains. Within the Gujjar tribe, they have a need of artisans in different types of crafts and arts; because of this they have to depend on the market for the needful items like cobblers, Barbers, Blacksmiths; if they have these people within their community, they can easily travel for a long distance. Gujjar tribes have accepted these people as a part of their community, but these people go by their own way and preference of life.