History and origin

The community claims to be 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 who converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. They were originally settled in the city of Multan

Multan

Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

, and were brought to 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...

 by its ruler to manufacture cannonballs. Over time, these Multani Lohars immigrated to Gujarat. Their dialect of Gujarati

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

 still contains substantial Seraiki

Saraiki language

Saraiki , transliterated as Sirāikī and sometimes spelled Seraiki and Saraiki, is a standardized written language of Pakistan belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages. It is a language spoken in the heart of Pakistan...

 loanwords. The community claims to be distinct from the other Lohar

Lohar

Lohar is an ethnic sub-caste found among Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in Northern India and Northern Pakistan. Originally this community was a warrior tribe living in provinces of Kermanshah in Iran right up to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. In India the Lohars are also known as Vishwakarma, Sharma,...

 communities of Gujarat on account of its 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...

 ancestry.

Present circumstances

The community's traditional occupation was that of blacksmithy, but as with other artisan groups, they have seen a decline of their traditional occupation. Many now earn their living as day labourers. Like other Gujarati Muslim

Gujarati Muslim

The term Gujarati Muslims is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the State of Gujarat in west India, who speaks the Gujarati Language as a mother-tongue and follows certain customs different from the rest of Indian Muslims...

 groups, they have a caste council, the Multani Lohar Jamat, which is responsible for the welfare of the community. They are strictly endogamous community, and practice 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"...

exogamy. All their clans have equal status, and intermarry.