From the Black Mountain to Waziristan / Being an account of the border countries and the more turbulent of the tribes controlled by the north-west frontier province, and of our military relations with them in the past

by H. C. Wylly

Khudu Khels.—These are a sub-division of the Saddozai division of the Utmanzai clan of the Mandanr Yusafzais. Their territory is bounded on the north by Chamla, on the west by Yusafzai, on the south by Utmanama, and on the east by the territory of the Gaduns and Amazai. Their country is about twenty-two miles long and about fifteen wide. The Khudu Khel contains two sections, is very much divided among its members, and could probably, if united, furnish some 1600 fighting men, of no particular value. Their country is very open to attack from British territory and to blockade, and for this reason the Khudu Khels have not given us any real trouble since 1847 and 1849, when a British force marched into their country and surprised their villages.

The Khudu Khel have settlements also in British territory in the Mardan district.

Nasozais and Utmanzais

Nasozais.—This sub-division of the Iliaszai Yusafzais, though not included among the Bunerwals proper, is practically identical with them. It is located north-east of Buner in the Puran Valley on the eastern slopes of the Lilban Mountains, and is divided into two sections. The Nasozais can muster some 800 fighting men.

Utmanzais.—These are a clan of Mandanr Yusafzais. They inhabit both banks of the Indus, those on the right bank being independent and occupying a narrow strip of land between the river and the Gadun country, bounded on the north by the Tinaolis and on the south by the British. The Utmanzais on the left bank inhabit the Torbela-Khalsa tracts in British territory in the Hazara district. They contain four divisions and do not number more than 400 fighting men of good quality. About two-thirds of the original Utmanzai territory is now occupied by the Gaduns, who in old days were invited to cross the Indus as mercenaries, and were given in requital the lands they now hold on the western and southern slopes of the Mahaban Mountain.

This clan is more or less dependent upon us, and their territory can be reached by several routes.

Gaduns and Hindustanis

Gaduns.—The origin of the tribe of Gaduns or Jaduns is not very clear, but they certainly have no connection with the Yusafzais among whom they dwell. They claim descent from the family of Ghurghusht, but are more probably of Rajput origin. Many of the descendants of Jadu, the founder of a Rajput dynasty, emigrated from Gujrat, some eleven hundred years before Christ, to the hills of Kabul and Kandahar. When they moved to the Mahaban range, the southern slopes of which some of them now occupy, is uncertain, but in the sixteenth century a portion of the tribe crossed the Indus into Hazara, where, about Sultanpur, Mansehra and Abbottabad, their descendants are still to be found. These have, however, lost all connection with their trans-frontier tribesmen, have even forgotten Pushtu, and are to all intents and purposes Punjabis.

“From opposite Torbela on the Indus, and from the boundary of our border on the right bank,” says Oliver, “the Gadun country extends right up to the crest of the Mahaban Mountain, or rather that cluster of peaks and ranges which, rising 7000 feet from the Indus, extend back as a great spur of the Morah or Ilum. A thoroughly classic ground; ‘the Great Forest’ of the early Aryans; the ‘Sinai’ of Sanskrit, where Arjuna wrestled with God, and, like the Jewish Jacob, though defeated, still won his irresistible weapon, ground that, if not identical with Alexander’s Aornos, is probably not very distant, that was famous for its numerous monasteries (Mahawana) when Hwen Tsang visited it in 630 A.D., and is studded with ruins to this day.”

The tribe has three clans—the Salar, Mansur and Hassazai—of which the last is unrepresented among the trans-frontier Gaduns, while the other two are continually at feud. The trans-frontier clans contain about 2000 fighting men; they do not enlist freely nor are they much in request, being considered to be of smaller fighting value than other Pathans. The trans-Indus Gaduns are bounded on the east by the Utmanzais, on the north by the Amazais, on the west by the Khudu Khels, and on the south by British territory. The tribesmen are all cultivators or cattle-owners. They can be coerced by blockade or by means of an expedition, and their country could be overrun without other tribes being molested or too closely approached.