Chhachh
Encyclopedia
Chhachh is a region consisting of an alluvial plain
Alluvial plain
An alluvial plain is a relatively flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms...

 extending from Attock District
Attock District
Attock District is a district in the north-west Punjab Province of Pakistan.The district was created in April 1904 by the merger of Talagang Tehsil in the Jhelum District with the Pindigheb, Fatehjang and Attock tehsils from Rawalpindi District of the Punjab province of British India.Attock...

 of Punjab, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, south-west to Topi - Swabi
Swabi
Swabi is the capital of Swabi District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°7'0N 72°28'0E. Its residents are referred to as 'Swabiwaal.'-Geography:...

. The word Chhachh is derived from the Pashto word Chaj. It is bounded on the north and west by the river Indus, and is about 19 miles (30.6 km) long from east to west, and 9 miles (14.5 km) broad. Percolation from the Indus makes the area extremely fertile, and it was the most fertile area of Rawalpindi Division
Rawalpindi Division
Rawalpindi Division was one of the administrative subdivisions of the Punjab province of Pakistan, forming part of the third tier of government below the federal and provincial levels...

. The population of the area is primarily made up of Hindko and Pashto speakers.

Chhachhi
Chhachhi
Chhachhi is a dialect of Punjabi language. It is spoken in the Chhachh region of Attock District in Punjab Pakistan....

, a dialect of Punjabi is spoken Chhachh region.

Location

Chhachh is 7 km (4 mi) off the Pindi-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....

 GT road (northwards). Chhachh is located at the edge of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa - Punjab border. It is located 20.4 kilometres from Attock city and 22.9 kilometres from Topi
Topi
The Tsessebe , is one of five subspecies in the binomial class D. lunatus. The other subspecies include Korrigum , Tiang , Coastal Topi , and Topi . Tesessebe are found primarily in Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa...

 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Chhachh is a plain which rolls from the Hazara-Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...

 Hills south to Kamra
Kamra
Kamra is located in Attock District in the mountainous north of the Punjab, Pakistan. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and PAF's Minhas Airbase are located in Kamra. It is the biggest air force base in whole of Pakistan...

, and from east of the Indus to the broken lands near Lawrencepur. It is an alluvial plain in the north of the District and tehsil of Attock, Punjab, lying between 33°53' and 33° 59' N. and 72° 22' and 72°44' E.

History

The name "Chhachh" literally means "a bowl type container" according to the native language, which was used to drink lassi
Lassi
Lassi is a popular and traditional yogurt-based drink of the Indian Subcontinent. It is made by blending yogurt with water and Indian spices...

 by the people living around this region. Geographically the surface of the Chhachh region is like a bowl. Chhachh has been identified with the Chukhsa or Chuskha country of the Taxila
Taxila
Taxila is a Tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site.Taxila is situated about northwest of Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi in Panjab; just off the Grand Trunk Road...

 copperplate inscription. In the Muslim period it was known as Chhachh-Hazara, or Takht Hazara, "below Hazara", or "Plain of Hazara". Hazro is located in this plain.

Tribes

A large percentage of the population of Chhachh have Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

 roots and belongs to Qais Abdur Rashid
Qais Abdur Rashid
Qais Abdur Rashid Khan , also known as Kesh, Kish, Qesh and Imraul Qais is a legendary ancestor of the Pashtun race, claimed to be the first ethnic Pashtun who travelled to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia during the early days of Islam.) He is believed to be the 37th descendent of King Saul .He...

. Mostly descendants of the tribes of Durrani
Durrani
Durrani or Abdali is the name of a chief Pashtun tribal confederation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Originally known by their ancient name Abdali later as Durrani they have been called Durrani since the beginning of the Durrani Empire in 1747. The number of Durranis are estimated to be roughly 16%...

, Tanoli
Tanoli
The Tanoli are a Hazarewal tribe of the Tanawal valley, Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Although not usually acknowledged as Pashtuns, the Tanoli have to an extent assimilated many Pashtun cultural features and become Pashtunified. Tribally allied with the Pathans,. The...

, Alizai, Yousafzai
Yousafzai
The Yūsufzai is one of the largest Pashtun tribes...

, Kakar
Kakar
The Kakar are a Pashtun tribe, with members living in Afghanistan and Pakistan.-Kakar :Kakar Afghan was one of the grandsons of Qais Abdur Rashid. Kakar's father's name was Dani, son of Gharghasht, who was the son of Qais in the Afghan appendix of tribes. According to Afghan and Muslim historians,...

, Jadoon
Jadoon
The Jadoons are one of the largest Pashtun tribes in Pakistan. They originate from Jallalabad and are now located in the southern Hazara Division area of Khyber Pakhtoonkhuwa, Pakistan, partly in Gadoon area in Swabi on the southern slopes of Mahaban Mountains, and partly in Abbottabad District...

, Tareen
Tareen
The Tareen are a prominent Sarbanri Pashtun tribe residing in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. They are one of the largest Pashtun tribes.-History:...

, Tahirkheli
Tahirkheli
The Tahir Kheli are a Pashtun tribe who mainly dwell in the Hazara region of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Most Tahirkhelis have adopted the language of Hindko, which is the native language of the people of Haripur. However, there is still a substantial number of Tahirkhelis that...

, Sadozai, Khattak
Khattak
Khattak or Khatak , is the name of an Afghan tribe. speaking a variant of the Kandahari Pashto. They are accorded the status of being one of the original and true Afghans. The tribe is settled along the western bank of the river Indus from as north upwards as Sammah; modern day Lund Khwar & Sher...

 and Barakzai
Barakzai
- History :Barakzai is a common ethnic name among the Pashtuns of Afghanistan/Pakistan and it means . Barakzai is also a Pashtun tribe in Pakistan, and more predominantly, in Afghanistan...

. They arrived in the area around 1000 AD as part of the army of the Ghaznavid Empire
Ghaznavid Empire
The Ghaznavids were a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic slave origin which existed from 975 to 1187 and ruled much of Persia, Transoxania, and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The Ghaznavid state was centered in Ghazni, a city in modern-day Afghanistan...

 and made it their permanent home after defeating the Hindu confederation near Hazro
Hazro
Hazro is a district of Diyarbakır Province of Turkey. The populatrion is 4,488 as of 2010....

. Proof of this is that many of the villages and individual quarters are named after certain Pashtun personalities & tribes, markedly proving who had founded them. such as Aka Khel, Aja khel, Nasozai
Nasozai
The Nasozai are a Pashtun tribe. They are largely literate. Nasozai is the second largest and most important mohallah of the village of Nartopa in Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan, naming that part of the village after their tribe. The people of Nasozai migrated from Afghanistan to Chhachh,...

, Inayat Khel, Utman Khel, Saleem Khan
Saleem Khan
Saleem Khan or Salim Khan is a town and Union Council of Swabi District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located at 34°10'0N 72°28'0E with an altitude of 348 metres ....

, Ghorghushti
Ghorghushti
Ghorghushti is one of the largest towns of Chhachh in Attock District and is on the border of North-West Punjab , and Hazara in Pakhtunkhwa/North-West Frontier Province...

, Adalzai, Grhe Alizai, Pirzai, Barazai
Barazai
Barazai is a village situated in the east of Hazro Tehsil, Attock District in northern Punjab in Pakistan. Its altitude is 315 metres .-Demographics:...

, etc. Most of these Pashtuns now refer to themselves as Pathans and speak Hindko as their main language. Chach Pathans are revered for their fighting ability in ancient times and more recently for their many advancements in education, culture, and society. It is claimed that Hindko was the original ancient language of Chhachh when it was part of the Gandhar
Gandhar
Gandhar or Gandhara is a gotra or tribe of Jats found in the states of Haryana and Punjab in India as well as the province of Punjab in Pakistan...

an civilisation and was adopted over time by the Pashtun tribes of the area. The remaining population of Chach consists of Mughals, Kashmiris, Jats, Bangash
Bangash
Bangash is the name of a Pashtun clan. The Bangash clan inhabit regions within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas , the Kurram Agency, the Miranzai Valley bordering the Samana Range, Naryab, Tirah, Kohat and Peshawar within the Sarhad province...

s, Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

s, Gujjar
Gujjar
The Gurjar are an ethnic group in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Alternative spellings include Gurjara, Gujar, Gurjjara and Gūrjara. The spelling Gurjara or Gurjar is preferable to the rest....

s, Syeds
Sayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...



However there are villages (Waisa, Tajik, Shadi Khan, Painda, etc.) that are predominantly inhabited by Pashto speakers. Even though the majority of Chach Pathans may no longer speak Pashto as their mother tongue, they still zealously guard the pashtunwali
Pashtunwali
Pashtunwali or Pakhtunwali is a non-written ethical code and traditional lifestyle which the indigenous Pashtun people from Afghanistan and Pakistan follow. Some in the Indian subcontinent refer to it as "Pathanwali". Its meaning may also be interpreted as "the way of the Pashtuns" or "the code of...

tribal social traditions.

Villages

There are some 84 villages in the Chhachh valley, including:
  • Kamalpuralam (The Barakzai's Village)
  • Painda
    Painda
    Painda is a town in Attock District, Pakistan. Before the 1947 Partition of India, Painda was major living place for Sikh religion peoples and they had major gurdawara in Painda where now Boys primary school Painda stands. Majority of peoples living in Painda are migrated from other nearby...

  • sirka (The Barakzai's Village)
  • Nartopa
    Nartopa
    Nartopa or Nartupa is a village in Hazro Tehsil, Attock District in Punjab province, Pakistan. Nartopa is situated in the middle of the Chhachh area of Attock District and is the third largest village of the area, located to the west of Hazro...

  • Waisa
    Waisa
    Waisa is one of the 84 villages of Chhachh Valley, a geographical region in the northern section of Attock District which is East of Peshawar and west of Islamabad....

  • Jalalia, Punjab
  • Momanpur
  • Malhoo
    Malhoo
    Malhoo is a village in the Chach Valley of Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan.-Geography:Malhoo is situated six kilometres north of Kamra from Rawalpindi Pishawar GT Road and six kilometres south of the Indus River...

  • Shadi Khan
  • Malak Mala
    Malak Mala
    Malak Mala is a village in the Chachh region of Attock District in Northern Punjab of Pakistan. It lies close to the borders of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Its neighboring villages include Barazai, Behbudi, Shinka, Nartopa and Ghorghushti town....

  • Garhi Matani
    Garhi Matani
    Ghari Matani is village in Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is situated to the south of the river Indus and has fertile lands which are very well cultivated. The population are Pashtun and speak Pashto. The religion is Sunni Islam. A notable inscription is located in the area.It is situated...

  • Barazai
    Barazai
    Barazai is a village situated in the east of Hazro Tehsil, Attock District in northern Punjab in Pakistan. Its altitude is 315 metres .-Demographics:...

  • Shinka
    Shinka
    Shinka is a small village near Jalalia village in Hazro Tehsil, Attock District, Punjab province of Pakistan. Nearby are Behbudi, Ghorghushti town, Malak Mala and Nartopa. Main tribes are Showkhel, Khankhel, Karamkhel, Ajakhel, Babukhel, Akakhel and Torakhel etc....

  • Behbudi
    Behbudi
    Behbudi or Behboodi also known as Pabuto in Pukhto is a village in the Chachh region of Attock District, Northern Punjab, Pakistan. It is located close to the borders of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa....

  • Chechi
    Chechi
    Chechi or Chechhi is a gotra among the Gurjars. According to Ajmer patels they are Lor Gurjars . The Chechis are spread all over the world specially Central Asia. Some Chechis live in Northern California.According to Rajputana Gazetteer Pushkar was held by Chechis until about 700 years ago....


External links

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