The Dogar are a Punjabi people of Muslim heritage (bradari).^[1] 'Dogar' is commonly used as a Surname.^[1]

History

Dogar people settled in Punjab during the Medieval period.^[2] They have been classified as a branch of the Rajput^[3] (a large cluster of interrelated peoples from the Indian subcontinent). Initially a pastoral people, the Dogar took up agriculture in the Punjab, where they became owners of land in the relatively arid central area where cultivation required particularly strenuous work.^[4] In addition to cultivating crops such as jowar (millet) and wheat, they seem partly to have continued pastoral practices, sometimes as nomads.^[2] The arid conditions proved challenging, especially in the light of competition from peoples with more established agricultural ways (notably the Jats), and over the centuries the Dogar people developed a long-lasting reputation for marauding behaviour,^[4] such as animal raiding and other types of theft, including highway robbery.^[2]

In the late 17th century, the Dogars residing within the faujdari of Lakhi Jangal (in present-day Multan) were among the tribes that challenged the authority of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.^[5]

In literature

In the Sufi poet Waris Shah's tragic romance of 1766, Heer Ranjha, Dogars are scorned as commoners (along with Jats and other agricultural groups).^[6]

See also

• Lakhi Jungle

References

Further reading

• Ibbetson, D (1916) . "The Dogars". Panjab castes. Lahore: Government Printing, Punjab. pp. 177–178.
• Rose, HA (1911). "Dogar". A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier province. Vol. II. Lahore: Samuel T Weston. pp. 244–246.
• Longworth Dames, M (1987) . "Fīrūzpūr". E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. p. 114. ISBN 978-9-00408-265-6.