Kak
Encyclopedia
Kak is an Indian name that can refer to a caste living in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

.

Jammu and Kashmir

Kak is also a family name of Kashmiris
Kashmiri people
The Kashmiri people are a Dardic linguistic group living in Kashmir Valley in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the Pakistani territory of Azad Kashmir who speak the Kashmiri language...

. There are two families of Kaks — one from Kaksoth, and the other from Rainawari. Most of the Kaks were driven out of Kashmir in 1947 due to political affiliations with Ram Chandra Kak
Ram Chandra Kak
Ram Chandra Kak was Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–47. He was also a pioneering archaeologist who excavated the leading sites of antiquities in Kashmir and wrote the definitive text on them....

, the then prime minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

.

Some Kaks are Kashmiri Pandits, who have a long tradition of Indian administrative service based on fluency in a link language - Persian under the Mughals
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...

 and English under the British
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. In light of this fact, the Kak family historically became a prominent administrative family in other parts of India, namely in Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...

.

Notable Kashmiri Kaks

  • Kapil Kak
  • Subhash Kak
    Subhash Kak
    Subhash Kak is an Indian American computer scientist, most notable for his controversial Indological publications on history, the philosophy of science, ancient astronomy, and the history of mathematics...

  • Manju Kak
    Manju Kak
    Manju Kak is a Kashmiri writer and film-maker. Her books are:*First Light in Colonelpura*Requiem for an unsung revolutionary and other stories.-Reference:...

  • Mushtaq Kak
    Mushtaq Kak
    Mushtaq Kak is an Indian actor and director. Kak's parents are from different parts of India; his father is a Kashmiri, of the Kak caste, while his mother is a Dogra.Earlier, he was associated with Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi as the artistic director...

  • Amar Nath Kak
    Amar Nath Kak
    Amar Nath Kak was a prominent Kashmiri lawyer and author. His most important books are Hamara Vrittanta and the Gayatri, both written in Hindi. He was the older brother of Kashmiri archaeologist and politician Ram Chandra Kak....

  • Ram Nath Kak
    Ram Nath Kak
    Ram Nath Kak was a Kashmiri veterinarian whose autobiography Autumn Leaves is one of the most vivid portraits of life in 20th century Kashmir and has become a sort of a classic...

  • Ram Chandra Kak
    Ram Chandra Kak
    Ram Chandra Kak was Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–47. He was also a pioneering archaeologist who excavated the leading sites of antiquities in Kashmir and wrote the definitive text on them....

  • Khemendra Kak
    Khemendra Kak
    Son of Ram Chandra Kak he was one of the first Indian offices of Royal Indian Air force to receive the distinguished flying cross in World War-IIFirst Sqn...

  • Sanjay Kak
    Sanjay Kak
    Sanjay Kak is an independent documentary film-maker whose recent film Words on Water on the anti-dam movement in the Narmada Valley in Central India has been widely screened in India and abroad, including at film festivals in Durban, Hong Kong, Locarno and Turin...

  • Siddharth Kak

Uttar Pradesh

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...

n gotra
Gotra
In the Hindu society, the term Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram , which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son"...

 of Jats
Jat people
The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...

 found in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

. The Kak Jats have 52 villages in Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh and about 100 villages in other parts of India. These people called themselves descendants of the Naga
Naga (clan)
The Naga were one of the ancient most kshatriya tribes of India who ruled large parts of the world at different times. They spread throughout India during the period of the epic Mahabharata. Anthropologist Gelek Lonbsang believes they have distant ancestry with East Asians based on their similar...

s or Yadu
Yadu
Yadu is one of the five Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rig Veda . The Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Puranas mention Yadu as the eldest son of king Yayati and his queen Devayani. The prince of King Yayati, Yadu was a self-respecting and a very established ruler...

 and worship Balram. Their ancestors ruled over Anhalwara in Ajmer
Ajmer
Ajmer , formerly written as Ajmere, is a city in Ajmer District in Rajasthan state in India. Ajmer has a population of around 800,000 , and is located west of the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur, 200 km from Jodhpur, 274 km from Udaipur, 439 km from Jaisalmer, and 391 km from...

. On being driven out from there, they settled down in Brij
Braj
Braj is a region mainly in Uttar Pradesh of India, around Mathura-Vrindavan. Braj, though never a clearly defined political region in India but is very well demarcated culturally, is considered to be the land of Krishna and is derived from the Sanskrit word vraja...

. They have 40 villages in the district of Gonda
Gonda District
Gonda is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Gonda is the district headquarters, and also the administrative centre for the Devipatan Division....

.

History

The first King of Ayodhya was Ikshvaku
Ikshvaku
Ikshvaku pāli: Okkāka) was the first king of the Ikshvaku dynasty and founder of the Solar Dynasty of Kshatriyas in Vedic civilization in ancient India.-In Hinduism:He is remembered in Hindu scriptures as a righteous and glorious king...

 whose son was Vikukshi. Vikukshi's son was Kakustha, who started the vansha Kak or Kakustha. They are mentioned in Vayu Purana. They are mentioned in Allahabad Pillar Inscriptions of Samudragupta
Samudragupta
Samudragupta , ruler of the Gupta Empire , and successor to Chandragupta I, is considered to be one of the greatest military geniuses in Indian history according to Historian V. A. Smith. His name is taken to be a title acquired by his conquests...

, along with Khara, Salkalan, etc. - all Jat clans.
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