PATHAN, a name applied in a loose manner to all the tribes bordering on the common frontiers of India, Afghanistan, Persia, and Balkh. The people are now found in all parts of British India, mixed withthe rest of the inhabitants. The greatest colony is that founded chiefly by the Yusufzai at no very remote period. They have been known to the British as Afghan, Pathan, and Rohilla. The source of the name is doubtful. Pihtan or Pathan, given as one source of the term, is said to have been a titular designation bestowed by Mahomed on an Afghan of the name of Kais or Kesh, who visited Mahomed at Medina. It is also claimed to be a corruption of the Arabic Fathan (a conqueror), or a derivation from the Sanskrit Paithna, to penetrate (into the hostile ranks). It is an honourable term in Arabia, where Khurasani (a native of Khorasan) leads men to suspect a Persian. The Karani, Ashta rani, Mash wani, and Wardak of the North-West Frontier call themselves Pathans, but they arc deemed of different origin from the Afghan. The Karani includes the Orakzai, Mangal, Khatak, Afridi, and Khugiaui tribes, and the Waziri are sometimes included among these. The Wardak are in the valleys of the Sokhta and Ghazni rivers. They are quiet and hospitable, and their country is well cultivated. The Afghans call themselves Ban i Israel,' or children of Israel, but consider the name of Yahudi,' or Jew, as opprobrious. They affirm that Nebuchadnezzar, after the destruc tion of the temple of Jerusalem, removed them to Bamian (the present Kabul), and that they were called Afghans, after their leader Afghana, who was a son of the uncle of Asof (Solomon's vizir), who was the son of Berkin. This person's pedi gree is derived from a collateral branch, his own father being unknown, which is not at all uncom mon in the east. They say that they lived as Jews till Kalid (who obtained the title of khalif), in the let century of the Muhammadan era, called on them to take part in the war against the infidels. For these services the khalif gave their commander, Kysee, the title of Abd-ur-Rashid, which means the son of the mighty, and appointed him Butan (an Arabic word), or head of his tribe (answering to a clan in Scotland). It is supposed to be from this title that the Afghans were called, in India, Patan. After the campaign under Kalid, the Afghans returned to their native country, and were governed by a royal race, descended from Kyani or Cyrus, till the 11 th century, when they were conquered by Mahmud, who established his power in Ghazni, conquered part of India, and founded the Afghan kingdom, which continued till Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane, founded the Mongol empire. Such is their belief.
Afghans have never migrated in large bodies, but have accompanied the Muhammadan rulers of India, all of whom have entered from Afghanistan, and brought bodies of the Pathan with them.
Some of these have settled in many places throughout Northern India, and in some parts of the south, some of them in villages, where they own and cultivate the soil. They have been in considerable numbers in the native army of British India, particularly in the corps of irregular cavalry, and in Northern India, in the civil service of Government. A few Pathan settlements are found in the Panjab and about Heidi. They are numer ous in the Upper Doab and Rohilkhand, and, all over India, Pathan principalities, jaghirs, and families were met with till the beginning of the 19th century.
They came in without their women, and have intermarried with other Muhammadaus, and with Hindus. Tod relates (Rajasthan, ii. pp. 22, 23) that in S. 1572 (A.D. 1516) a desultory band of Pathans made an incursion during the fair of the Tij, held at the town of I'ecpar, and carried off 140 of the maidens of 3faroo. Between A.D. 1157 and 1526, 20 Pathan kings ruled in Hin dustan. The average duration of their rule was 91 years, The only Pathan dynasty now in Bride India is that of the Begun of Bhopal.
Wherever Pathan dynasties ruled in India, their architectural remains are of a magnificent character. At Delili, Agra, Mnndu, and Burhan pur, ruins of palaces, mosques, and mausoleums attest, the magnificence of their founders, and their noble, scientifically constructed fortifications attest their skill. Of the early Pathans of the Ghori and Khilji dynasties, from A.D. 1193 to 1321, there may be noticed the Kutub Minar, of majestic beauty, erected A.D. 1200, and the stern grandeur of Taghalaqabad, A.D.1321. The style is different of the later Pathan of the Taghalaq and Saida dynasties, A.D. 1321 to 1451, from the Afghan of the Lodi dynasty, A.D. 1451 to 1526. The usual form of a Pathan tomb was an octagonal apart ment surmounted by a dome, the apartments sur rounded by an arched verandah, the arches rising from square columns.
Pathans to the west of the Indus, as well as a few to the east of it, in the north of the IIazara district, and west of that of Rawal Pindi, speak Pushtu. The Pathan are the only people of Central Asia who in comparatively recent times have come to reside to any considerable extent in India. The Pathan tribes had advanced into the north-east corner of Afghanistan within com paratively recent historical times, for the lower valleys of the Kabul country were once occupied by Hindu races, and the peaks of the Safed Koh, between Jalalabad and Kabul, bear such Hindu names as Sita, Ram, etc. The term Afghan is hardly known to the people whom Europeans so designate, for the tribes have not as yet coalesced into a nation.