Israelites From India 3

Boyer is a toponym in western Iran & a French surname.

Some of the Kashmiri tribes, clans, castes...are considered sometimes as Kashmiri or as Pashtun...or even a separated ethnicity.

There's a city in Sri Lanka called Wattala next to Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. Was it founded by Wattals?

The Bene Israel Indian Jews were called Shanwar Teli, meaning Saturday Oilmen because they had a job in India as oil pressers & rested on the Sabbath. They took upon themselves some of high Indian castes' rules like not eating beef & not re-marrying. The surrounding Hindus abstained from buying oil on the Sabbath, a costum that might have been gotten from the Bene Israel. The Bene Israel are divided between the Black Bene Israel & the White Bene Israel because of their skin color & degree of mingling with local Indians, however there are many instances of White Bene Israel that are darker than some Black Bene Israel. Polygamy was practised among Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Yemeni Jews. The Bene Israel Jews also practised polygamy, bigamy to be precise. Some centuries ago a Jewish man (believed to be Egyptian) instuted the office of Kaji, a name with Arabic origins. The Kajis acted as priests and judges within the Bene Israel community. The office of Kaji was inhereted, together with its privileges. Local rulers sanctioned these powers bestowed upon Kajis.

Debottar land refers to the land dedicated to idols while Dharmottar lands are those that were devoted to religious purposes. Brahmottar lands are those that were granted to priests and learned people. Even in the British period, government did not take back these lands that were granted during the Ahom kings’ rule.  This is like the lands reserved for the Levites in ancient Israel.

Cranganore, Cangranore, Or Currently Kodungallur Was A Jewish Principality In Modern Kerala India

There's evidence that part of King Solomon's fleet reached India to get, among other things, peacocks. His peacocks, tukim in Hebrew, are the Tamil tokey, Sanskrit sikhi. The peacocks that King Solomon acquired came from South India. In this area the Jews of Cochin have been for many centuries. They had a principality in Cranganore. Cranganore is an anglicized form of the Indian name Kodungallur. Cranganore has been misspelled so often, even in books or documents, that it's not unusual to find it as Cangranore. To add more to the confusion, because the Portuguese have been so present in this part of Kerala, the name is also frequently found as Cranganor & Cangranor. 

Kodungallur is a municipality in the South Western border of Thrissur district of Kerala state, Southwest India. Kodungallur has nowadays an extension of 40.62 km².

The Jewish principality was called Principality of Anjuvannam, after the village of Anjuvannam in which it was based. The first Indian Jewish prince was Joseph Rabban who received the title from King Sri Parkaran Iravi Vanmar, Raja of Malabar. This monarch gave them a chart, graven on copper plates, granting privileges, gave him presents, titles...

So, contrary to most areas in the world, the Cochin Jews were not persecuted, but highly rewarded with a monarch from their own. The authorship date of the Cochin Jews' Copper Plates is considered to be 1000 A.D. These Jews might have done something remarkable to have such generous attitude towards the Jews. However the Jews might have been very well established & very influential. Otherwise the prerogatives & high rank insignia are kept jealously & hardly ever given by Indian monarchs.

According to local lore Joseph Rabban arrived to the Malabar coast in 379 C.E., however for the scholar Maldenbaum the date would be between 750 & 774, but the plates in which the chart was written were given in 1020. It's held that the Malabar Jews were visited by Benjamin of Tudela in 1167. Judah halevi, Benjamin of Tudela's neighbor (from the same Spanish village of Tudela) & Abraham ibn Ezra visited the Principality of Anjuvannam, according to Malabar Jewish lore. 

According to Cochin Jews, at the extinction of Joseph Rabban's line, two brothers from the nobility quarreled for the chieftainship, the younger slaughtering many of his elder brother & running away in 1471. The princes of the vicinity intervened dispossessing the Jews of their principality. Eventually all the Jews of the Principality of Anjuvannam left to join their fellow Jews in nearby Cochin. Once again their fate laid on a generous Raja that rewarded these Jewish refugees with a good amount of land next to his palace in what became known as Jew Town.

Their land, just it, was free from taxes. These Jews were such good warriors at the Raja's service that he refused to attack his enemies on the Sabbath for the Jews' sake.

Because the Portuguese Inquisition was set up in Goa in 1560 & the Hindu Raja of Cochin protected the Jews, all the Jews settled in the Kingdom of Cochin so he was called the King of the Jews. The Protestant Dutch were Europeans but, unlike the Portuguese, acted generously toward the Cochin Jews, returning them rights and property & the Jews thrived & went back to their colonies. The Dutch's return to Cochin area in 1663 brought wealth & well-being to the Jews to the point that their prosperity was compared to their glorious past 600 years before when they had the Principality of Anjuvannam.

The tolerant policy towards the Jews from the Rajas of Malabar continued until the 1949 when the last Maharaja of Cochin gave a praising speech & congratulated his Jewish subjects for the independence of the State of Israel.

The Cochin Jews (or Malabar Jews) were divided in three endogamous sub-groups: White Jews, Black Jews & Meshuararim. The Meshuararim descended of the union between Cochin Jews & their slave concubines &, according to descent are sub-divided in two groups, one attached to the White Jews & the other to the Black Jews. Every community has its own version of descent, but in reality this strife is, in a way, a prlongation of the Hindu caste system. The White Jews are also called Paradesi, meaning foreign.

Israel " The 12 Lost Jewish Tribe "

Kashmir in northern India

India's northern Kashmir which there are around 5-7 million people. There is a Hebrew name in the valley and in villages in Kashmir as Har Nevo, Beit Peor, Pisgah, Heshubon. Most researchers argue that the nation of Kashmir Northern Ten Tribes of Israel descendants of the 'Lost' in exile in 722 BC. Their physical appearance is different from most people of India. The tradition they do indicate the origin of the difference.

Kashmiris have the feast of the Passover in the spring, when done adjusting differences moon and the solar calendar, in a way like the Jews. They are identifying themselves as Bene Israel, Children of Israel. Kashmiri people respect the Sabbath (rest from all types of work); circumcise infants at the age of eight months; do not eat fish that is not scaled and finned, and celebrate some of the other Jewish holidays, but not derived from the destruction of the Temple after the first (such as Hannukah) 

Shin-lung (Bnei Manasseh) around the India-Myanmar border

In the mountains on both sides of the India-Myanmar border, about 2 million people residing Shin-lung. They have a tradition of killing the sacrificial animal such as the tribes of ancient Israel in general, and call themselves children of Manasseh or Bnei Manasseh. Manasseh said many emerging in poems and prayers (they call "Oh God of Manasseh"). They have a tradition of stories that say that they were banished to a place located to the west of their home, then migrated eastward and became herders and deity worship.

Their migration continued eastward, reaching Tibet-China border, then follow the flow of the River Wei, to enter and settle in Central China around the year 230 BC. Chinese people make them as slaves, so some of them ran away and lived in the caves of the mountains of Shin-lung, and live in poverty for two generations. They also called the cave or the mountain and keep their holy books. Eventually they began to assimilate with the people of China and influenced Chinese culture, until finally they left the caves of the mountains and go west, through Thailand, to Myanmar. After that they traveled without a holy book, and build an oral tradition, until the Mandaley River, and towards the Chin Mountains. In the 18th century some of them migrated to Manipur and Mizoram, Northeast India.

They realize that they are not Chinese although the Chinese language local dialect, and call themselves Lusi which means Ten Tribes ("Lu" means the Tribe, and "the" means ten). Manasseh traditions include circumcision (now abandoned), the ceremony of blessing children at age 8 days, religious holidays that are similar to the Jewish religious holiday, the practice of marriage in law for the continuance of family name, the name of God as "Yahweh", and maintain a poem similar to the Exodus story of the crossing when the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea.

In every village there is the ever Priest or Priest named Aaron (Aaron, brother of Moses and the Jewish First Priest) with hereditary inheritance. One of their tasks was to oversee the village, pray and offer sacrifices, with her robes'breastplate ', belt and crown, and always opened the prayer with the name of Manasseh. In case there are people falling sick, the priest is called to bless the patient and to sacrifice. Priest will slaughter a sheep or goat and smear its blood on the ear, back and legs while saying incantations patients similar to Leviticus, 14:14. In the case of specific diseases, held a special ceremony. Such redemption ceremony performed by cutting the wings of birds and feathers spread into the air.

In the case of leprosy, the priest slaughtered birds in the open field. For penance, performed sacrificial lamb on the altar as was done in the Temple (as witnessed by a writer in Myanmar jungle circa 1963-1964). Blood sacrifices etched at the end of the altar, the meat is eaten. Yom Kippur is celebrated as the day of redemption, once a year as the Jewish tradition. Imam vehicles should not be made of metal, but of clay, fabric, or wood. Practice idolatry and believe in the occult connection with the spirits and demons. Believe in reincarnation but trust God in heaven will help in distress.

The Tribe of Manasseh Today

Manasseh=forgetting
Found among the descendants of Lehi, including Mesoamericans of Central and South America and South Pacific Islanders [Samoa, Tonga, Hawaii, New Zealand, etc.]. Also found in the Philippines and [to a lesser extent] in Japan, as well as some other areas of the world. 

LDS members of the tribe of Manasseh 

'My husband was born in Volgograd, Russia although his ancestors took the round-about way of settling there. His patriarchal blessing said that he is of the tribe of Manasseh. During (he thinks) Ekaterina's reign, she sent his ancestors (Cossacks) to Ukraine to defend Russia's borders in the south. During the Revolution and Civil War, part of his mother's family left Hersson Oblast' in the Ukraine and headed for China. Most made it to Kazakhstan and stayed there. The other part of her family also ended up in Kazakhstan but they originated from Altai in the Urals. (His parents met when his dad was serving in the army in Kazakhstan.)

My background. Born in Indonesia from mixed parentage (Indonesian, Chinese, European). My wife is European. I (a true true brownface) was told that I am from the tribe of Ephraim, but all my kids are from the tribe of Manasseh. Interesting fact is that I received my PB in an area where there were not so many like me, plus the fact that the Patriarch was a friend of my Mother in Law. My kids received their Patriarchal Blessing in an area where there were a lot of "brownies". Each kids that was brown there was from Manasseh. Go figure. So I have put no value on lineage. It is not important what you are destined to do, but it is important that you do the best you can. I have heard comments from 'diehard members' that the Manasseh group are destined to become followers, while the Ephraim group is destined to become leaders. When I look at the kids of those that have made that statement (especially in Utah) , then all I can say is 'Heaven help us.' My children (5) were all 'straight A Students,' now have extreme high paying jobs and are all in leadership positions. All I told them was that since they were a 'brownface' and thus had to face the ever existing racial prejudice (even prevalent in the LDS Church Community), and also did not have the 'looks' required to compete, they only had their God given capability and brains to beat everybody else in this world. They have done that.

Together, they 'lead' over 2000 co-workers. I came to this country with 60 dollars in my pocket and 2
suitcases with all my earthly belongings. I now have all the things I NEED (not all the things I want).
Please remember that all your PB is, is a promise that God gave you IF you do the right things, and those promises then will come through that lineage. So last but not least, all that matters is that you must realize that you are a child of God, and thus can do all you need to do with his gifts that you received when you were born. You do not have to ask him again for the same stuff He already gave you in the beginning.'

Historicaly and culturaly, Madagascar is a strange mixture of Polynesians, Asians, African and Arabs. Its population consists of somewhat 18 different ethnical 'tribes' according to their customs, culture, lineage and physical appearance. Some minorities claim to belong to a tribe of Israel

The Messianic Gift of the Prince Siddhartha to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel

As we study the literature of the ancients, we seek clues for the whereabouts of the ancient Israelites. According to Herodotus (Book 1, Chapter 1) he mentioned that the escaping Israelites were once part of the Nation formed by Deioces (Deyaco) who was “a man of great ability and ambitious for power.”  This was an era in which there was a vacuum of power with no central government in the entire region. Deioces was known as an arbitrator of disputes amongst the peoples so eventually they selected him as their king: “Let us appoint one of our number to rule us so that we can get on with our work under orderly government, and not lose our homes altogether in the present chaos.”

In the region of modern Hamadan, the first palace of the Medes was built and nearby they began the construction of a new capital city in the land of the Medes called Ecbatana. Deioces (709-656 BCE) became the first King of the Medes (694-665 BCE). He was later succeeded by his son, Phraortes, who was the father of the later ruler, Cyaxarses. 

It was Cyaxarses who joined with the Babylonian King Nabopolaser, asserted their independence and overthrew the Assyrian Empire when they destroyed the city of Nineveh in the year of 606 BCE. The last “Zar” of Assyria, Ashur-Etililani perished on the “funeral pyre” of his palace as it went up in flames at Nineveh. A year later, King Nabopolaser’s son, Nebuchadnezzar’s military forces were on their way to surround and lay siege to the city of Jerusalem and the temple vessels in Solomon’s Temple were taken to Babylon along with Daniel and the three Jewish worthies. 

605 BCE - The initial vessels taken from the Temple of Jerusalem were selected to be sent to the museum archives of the Temple of Marduk.  There in Babylon, the vessels went along with the chief of the royal sons, the elite and the thinkers in the land of Judah.  It can be assumed that the best of the remaining vessels that had not been hidden by Jeremiah and the five guardians of the temple treasureswere sent to Babylon at this time. (Daniel 1:1-2)

597 BCE - When King Jehoiachin and his family were taken as prisoners after their switch of allegiance to the Egyptians, most of the rest of the vessels of precious metals were taken. (2 Kings 24:12-13)

586 BCE - The city was burned and razed, the temple was destroyed and the remaining vessels, mainly of bronze as well as the Bronze Sea, the Bronze Pillars in front of the Temple were taken after the capture of King Zedekiah who tried to flee in an underground tunnel out of the city of Jerusalem. (2 Kings 25:13-17)”

This was the era of the day when a young Sakyan Prince called Siddhartha in the Kingdom of Legend has it that his mother, Queen Maya had a dream in which a white elephant entered into her right side and ten months later, the Lost Israelite babe, Prince Siddhartha was born.

According to the ancient Israelite traditions, when Siddhartha’s mother became pregnant and was near term delivery, she left the palace to travel to her father’s kingdom in order to give birth. Yet, in route, her son was born in a garden at Lumbini on a day of the full moon, where the Temple of Maya Devi was recently excavated. Today, the birthday of the Sakya Buddha is celebrated in the Theravada countries as Vesakon the birth anniversary holiday called “Buddha Poornima”. Sometime between birth and seven days later, depending on what tradition, Queen Maya died either just after birth or seven days after the future Buddha babe’s birth.

His birth name was Siddhartha, which in the Pali language, Siddhattha meant: “he who achieves his aim”. During the birth ceremony on the 5th day they had the “naming ceremony” and after the seventh day, eight Brahmin scholars, who were also Sakyan Lost Israelites gave dual predictions that the young babe would either become a great king or a holy man.

While the Aaronic priest, Buzi, the father of the Prophet Ezekiel with his five disciples were visiting in the lands of the Lost Israelites by the Caspian Sea, it is possible that they first traversed to the east to the lands along the Tigris River where the warriors of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel were beginning to congregate as a peoples in what would become soon the Lost Israelite Parthian Empire on the Tigris River.

From there Buzi and Ezekiel would travel north into the region of east of the Caspian Sea and then onwards into Nepal, the Swat region in Pakistan and Kashmir in Northern India. At the same time, back in the Land of Israel, the Prophet Jeremiah was given the divine command to delegate five temple priests to go on a highly secretive royal mission mandated by Good King Josiah.

They were to become a special secret commando force whose dedicated mission was to hide the Treasures of Solomon’s Temple as instructed in the Emeq HaMelekh, an ancient Tosefta of the Talmud. This story is preserved in the BibleSearchers Reflections series of articles first revealed by the late Vendyl Jones, the famous hunter of the “ark of the covenant” whose mission to find the Mishkhan (Wilderness Sanctuary) was blessed by the late Rabbi Menachem Schneerson

During the interim of this time, the five temple priests as reported in Part Threewere put under the special guardianship of the Prophet Jeremiah and consigned to the secret and sacred mission to hide the “Treasures of Solomon’s Temple.”  They were to comb the mountainous landscape across the Land of Israel in Shomron and Judea, seeking to discover special hiding places in which to put the gold, silver and bronze implements used in the temple services into safe hideouts.

Only then, as revealed in the 12th Mishnah of the Emek HaMalekh, they would wait in preparation for that day in the far future when the Messiah, the son of David would come to reveal their locations in preparation for the inauguration of the 3rd and final Temple of HaShem in the Land of Israel.

Mishnah 12 of the Emek HaMalekh – “Hiluk, son of Shimur HaLevi, was given twelve more precious stones in order to hide them so that they could [eventually] be restored to the Tribes [of Israel]. The names of the Tribes were engraved on them, and they shone on the Tribe's heads, excellent and precious, one more than the other. No king, prophet, or anyone else knew where they were hidden, excepting Hiluk, son of Shimur HaLevi. The remainder of the wealth and glory that was in Jerusalem was taken by angel Shimshiel. Shimur, Hiluk, and their companions, the Levites, later went and showed it to Michael and Gavriel.

All Israel concealed the Vessels until a righteous king arises over Israel. What's more, they all swore a solemn vow never to reveal the whereabouts of these vessels until David, son of David, arises. All silver, gold, and Margaliot (precious stones) which was ever hidden away will be handed over to him when the exiles of Israel will be gathered from the four ends of the earth, and they ascend with greatness and exaltation to the land of Israel.  At that time, a great river will issue forth from the Holy of Holies of the Temple. Its name is Gihon, and it will flow to the great and dreadful desert, and become mixed with the Euphrates River. Immediately, all the Vessels will float up and be revealed.”

Only about twenty years after the first Babylonian invasion the city of Jerusalem, this famed city of antiquity was destroyed in the year of 586 BCE by the military forces of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. The House of G-d known as King Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. The  Prophet Ezekiel and his father, Buzi had already gone to Babylon in an earlier exile, so it appears that that during this interim they also went on a secret mission by the direct command of the G-d of Israel to travel up into the lands of the Sakya Israelites nearby to the east of the Caspian Sea.

They were seeking to discover and identify the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel in order to prepare them for the reunification of the Lost House of Israel with the House of Judah who were also now in exile. Soon the call would go out for parts of the Lost Ten Tribes to be redeemed back to Jerusalem, the land of their forefathers.  While this was happening, through the flames of the palace of Nineveh, and the destruction of the Ancient Assyrians, the Saki, the House of Israel began to fulfill their prophetic destiny:

Jeremiah 51:20-21 – “You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you I will break the nation in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms; with you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider.”

Within seventy years, according to the Prophecy of Jeremiah, the Jews exiled in Babylon were now being prepared for their emancipation and set free to return to the Land of Israel. Was this to be done by a pagan king in the land of Babylon? No!  Rather the amazing emancipation and freedom of the Jews came at the hands of the military forces of Cyrus the Great, who himself was a Lost Israelite of the Tribe of the Pasargadae (Tribe of Gad). Not only was Cyrus a Lost Israelite but his entire military force of the Medes and the Persians were Lost Israelites led by the Persian General Gobryas, a tribal chieftain also a Lost Triber of the tribe of Gad.

They came down and surrounded the mighty city of Babylon. In an amazing military triumph of diverting the waters of the Euphrates River, the mighty river was lowered just enough to allow the Israelite troops to enter through the Water Gates under the city’s impregnable walls. The Persian forces not only captured and took control of this amazing city of antiquity, they did so without shedding one drop of Jewish blood. As we think upon this fact, our hearts ponder with wonder how the hand of the Divine One of Israel continually guides the ways and the paths of his lost and wayward children. 

So these were the same Lost Israelites that the G-d of Israel in a prophetic vision to the Prophet Ezekielcommanded in a divine call to the Prophet Ezekiel, to go find the “brazen faced ones” that had continued to defy the Almighty One of Israel and open their eyes to their divine destiny.  This secret mission was accepted by Buzi, a temple priest, who was also the Prophet Ezekiel’s father; “Buzi with the prophetic eye.” Together they with Buzi’s five disciples traveled to the land of the Medes about the year 600 BCE. There they began their divine mission to begin the restoration of the Lost Ten Tribes back to the fold of Torah Judaism.

It may seem hard to understand what the original Buddhist’s (followers of Buzi/Buddhi) religious beliefs were like.  Buddhism in its most primitive and ancient form is now accepted to have begun spreading across Eurasia about the year of 600 BCE.  What is understood, is that the spiritual lives they professed, practiced and lived then is not the same as practiced by Buddhism today.

We will suggest that Primitive Buddhism was an inoculation of true Temple of Solomon Torah Judaism implanted by a Jewish priest and son, the prophet, into the lives and culture of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. This was before the Lost Ten Tribes began to disseminate and scatter across Eurasia as “The Wanderers” to the East in Nepal, India, Cambodia, Viet Nam and over to Japan and to the west across Samartha, Crimea and Ukraine north of the Black Sea and the Balkans below until most of them settled in the dense unpopulated forests of Northern Gaul. 

It appears that Primitive Buddhism was cloned from the reformation within both the Houses of the Lost Ten Tribes of the Israelites by Jewish emissaries that were sent by the G-d of Israel to restore parts of Torah Judaism back into the religious spiritual life of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.  Understand, Buzi and Ezekiel were a part of the Aaronic priesthood that did not apostatize with the rest of Israelites from the Northern House of Israel.

It was a monotheistic reformation seeking to redeem the Lost Ten Tribes away from the pagan cultures that they were assimilating within, after they first created, and later amalgamated and worshipped while living during the days of the great apostasy in the Land of Samaria under the rule of King Ahab and Jezebel. The Lost Israelites were to become noted as the creator of many religions and later apostasies; the most famous being the Roman Catholic Christian Church. 

Is it not strange that in the region of Shomron or Samaria today, the mountains of Shomron is same land that is in such contention in the world today between the Lost Ten Tribes living in the Northern Regions of the European Union against their cousins, the Jews of the House of Judah. This is the same land that after the Lost Israelites were cast out in exile became a land that was not wanted, and remained desolate, rejected by the nations of the world for millenniums except when the “green thumb” and the fertile and spiritual minds of the Jewish people rested upon its soil.

Truly over the centuries it would become a “No Man’s Land” until the fifty Jubilee years that occurred between the years of 1917 and 1967 were over.  After the 3-day war in 1967, the city of Jerusalem and the “mountains of Shomron and Judea” were now under the control of a Hebrew Jewish government.

Now, because the Jewish pioneers and patriots are building homes in this once “no man’s land” the rest of the world has now become jealous. They lust for its possession to give to a non-peoples called the Palestinians whose internationally accepted homeland is the Land of Jordan. 

Yet, was not this land in Samaria once the homeland of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, whose capital was called Samaria? Is it not true that in this same region, the Jewish pioneers and patriots of Israel are returning a favor to the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel whose ancient military forces, 2,500 years ago redeemed the Jews exiled in Babylon and Persia? And then by the decree of the Lost Israelite Persian rulers, the Jews were restored back to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel to reclaim their ancient homeland in Jerusalem and the mountains of Judea; the very same “mountains” that are also now wanted by the Palestinian peoples. 

Today, these same Jewish patriots are also returning a favor to the Lost Israelites who are still imbedded in their ancient religious apostasies of Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, and Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Soon the day is coming when they will all be redeemed and restored back together in brotherhood and reunited again into a Greater Israel. This time it will be ruled under “The Messiah” a Prince of Kings David and Solomon called David son of David.

In our modern world today, the monotheistic theology of Islam has been captured by a culture of death instead of a culture of life that was given to the Children of Israel by HaShem, the G-d of Israel at the mount called Sinai.  The traces of this ”Culture of Life” became part of the monotheistic reformation that was brought by the Jewish Levite, Buzi the Buddha Mundi and Ezekiel, his son and given back to the Lost Ten Tribes living in India, Tibet and Nepal 2,600 years ago.

Was Prince Siddhartha a disciple of the Jewish Priest-Cohen, Buzi the father of the Prophet Ezekiel? 

Not only that, the primal symbol of Buddhism called the “Dharma Chakra Wheel” as seen on the top of the Buddhist Stupas in Nepal and India today testify of that fact because they depict the “Wheels” of Ezekiel’s heavenly vision of the chariot of G-d called the Merkabah. The archeologists today who have restored the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini for UNESCO and Japan have laid the claim that the birth of the Lost Israelite Sakyan Prince Siddhartha birth was in the year of 623 BCE yet there are other scholars are pushing that birthday later to the dates between 448 to 368 BCE. 

Still using the Roman Catholic Gregorian Calendar, if Prince Siddhartha, later called the Gautama Buddha was born in 623 BCE and when he last left his palace at the age of 29, we are now talking about the year of 582 BCE that he began his search for spiritual enlightenment. Now six years later, after a reputed 49 days of meditation at the age of 35, the young Gautama Buddha was stated to have attained his Enlightenment. This would have been the year of 576 BCE. 

Prince Siddhartha, as the Sakya Buddha died at the age of 84 which would have been in the year of 539 BCE. According to the historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the coronation of the Emperor Aśoka (Aśoka in the Pāli language) was 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to the Theravāda countries today, the date of Buddha’s death was 544/545 BCE because the reign of the Emperor Ashoka was 60 years earlier. So it appears that the present birthdate and the date of death aligned with conventional chronology are within the range of the years in which the Prophet Ezekiel and his father, Buzzi were ministering to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel after the destruction of the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians in 585 BCE.  If we subtract 80-84 years from the birthdate of 623 BCE, we come to the years between 643-639 BCE.

According to the Pali canon in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the Buddha, at the age of 80 made the announcement that he would soon reach the deathless state of Parinirvana and his soul would abandon his earthly body.  Later we read of the tradition that a blacksmith called Cundamade the last meal for the Buddha as an offering and afterwards the Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda assure Cunda that his falling ill after eating at Cunda’s residence had nothing to do with his death, for the last meal for the Buddha was given as a source of great merit.

This meal has been a source of great contention over the centuries, for by one tradition, the Buddha was given pork as his last meal.  This fact is rebuted by Oskar Von Hinüber along with Dr. Mettanando who present the thesis that he died from mesenteric infarction due to age rather than food poisoning. It also opens up the dialogue that the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel for in spite of their rebellion to the G-d of Israel, and were called by the Almighty One as “brazen-faced” and “hard-hearted”, they also were adamantly opposed to eating pork, forbidden in the Torah, and a contention that some scholars use to suggest that Prince Siddhartha was not an Israelite if he willingly ate pork. 

If Prince Siddhartha as the Gautama Mundi, was truly born in the year of 623 BCE, his exalted views of man returning to an ascendant level of human consciousness may have come from the “First Buddha” whose name was Buzi, for his disciples were called the “Buddhi” for “Buzi” and “Budii” in Hebrew are the same.

It is believed that the “First Buddha” being “Buzi the priest” gave the “rebellious house” of the Lost Tribes of Israel hidden insights and mystical hints on how to become intimate and at “One” with the G-d of Israel, for it was the Holy One of Israel who hid Himself so that the rebellious Israelites would have to come searching for him. Was the intense desire of the search by the Prince Siddhartha for “enlightenment” the beginning of the search by the Sakya people for an ascendant state of consciousness?  Was it possible that Buzi the Aaronic priest with his son, the Prophet Ezekiel the vehicle were sent by the Holy One of Israel to the “hard-hearted” Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel in order to begin their return in love and fellowship with each other; the House of Israel and the House of Judah?

We then begin to wonder if the pathway of Buzi the priest with the Prophet Ezekiel his son, truly did cross paths with the young Sakyan Prince Siddhartha. It is now accepted by the archeologists of UNESCO that Prince Siddhartha was born in the year of 623 BCE by conventional chronology, because the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini was dated to the year of 550 BCE. Yet, below the temple was a more primitive deposition layer that was an open air sacred place raised on a platform as though it was a place a place of reverence; in this case the birth place of the Lord Buddha. 

Even so, Prince Siddhartha left behind his dream of royal aspirations as the Crown Heir to the throne of King Suddhodana of the Sakyas (Lost Israelites) living in Kapilavastu nearby to Lumbini.  At the age of 29 years old, which in this timeline of Prince Siddhartha’s life would have been in the year of 582 BCE, Prince Siddhartha began his search for the eternal pathway of “enlightenment”.  This was only four years after the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE when the King Zedekiah, blinded, along were the remnant of his Jewish people were taken back in exile to Babylon. 

 Could the Prophet Ezekiel along with his father, Buzi a temple cohen (priest of the lineage of Aaron), have been already living in the land Nepal when Prince Siddhartha began his search to become an “Awakened One”, and serving as ambassadors of HaShem, the G-d of Israel who were sent as emissaries to instill within the mind of this future Holy Man of Buddhism the ways of Torah living; that is the elevated state of spiritual Torah consciousness? The message of the Holy One of Israel to the Prophet Ezekiel left no latitude of compliancy. He was ordered, compelled and would be given strict punishment if he did not comply with the prophetic words written on a scroll and then consumed by Ezekiel. All of this was preserved in the ancient texts; it would be at the risk of saving Ezekiel’s own soul. 

Ezekiel 3:17-21  - “Son of Man, I have appointed you a sentinel for the House of Israel; when you hear a matter from My mouth, you shall warn them on My behalf. When I say of a wicked one, “Your shall surely die!” and you do not warn him, and do not speak up to warn the wicked one concerning his evil way, to save his life, then he, the wicked one, will die for his iniquity and I will demand his blood from your hand. But if you did warn the wicked on, yet he does not turn away from his wickedness and from his evil way, he will die for his iniquity and as for you, you will have saved your soul. 

And when a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts corruptly and I place a stumbling block before him he will die. Because you did not warn him he will die for his sin, and his righteousness that he did will not be remembered, and I will demand his blood from your hand. But you, if you did warn him, the righteous man, that the righteous man should not sin, and he did not sin, he will surely live because he was careful. And as for you, you will have saved your soul” 

It appears that the Prophet Ezekiel did so good on his mission that the Almighty One of Israel entrusted him to become the “sentinel” for all the other nations surrounding the Land of Israel including the Prince of Israel in Jerusalem. His warning to them with the “Thus said the L-rd” was a warning; the reality of G-d’s judgment would follow.

What is accepted by Buddhist scholars is that Prince Siddhartha was a Kshatriya, one of the four varnas ‘social orders” of the Hindu ruling and military elite. It was his role as a prince to protect the social culture by fighting in times of war and governing in times of peace.

This now places the Hindu religion, which is not a religion that tells you what to believe and how to believe, but as a way of life of seeking higher concepts of spiritual reality without mandating a creed of rigid performance. Yes, Hinduism is also a child of the Lost Israelites as are also Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Confucianism today. All of these were started by Lost Israelites of the House of Israel.

Since the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel had gone their rebellious way, the G-d of Israel would seventy years later in His great mercy open the gates of redemption and restoration to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel at the same time that he was opening the gates of emancipation and restoration to the Jewish people living with the regions of the Satraps of Persia. Were these two isolated incidents in history or was the “hand of the Divine” involved in seeking to pave the way for the restoration of “All Israel”? 

Again we inquire, did the Almighty One of Israel guide the pathways of Buzi the Jewish Cohen and the future, Lord Buddha, so that they would meet and so he could achieve the final step of his journey; become a disciple of the Jewish priest? By this he completed the final path to his “enlightenment” as a disciple of his mentor, Buzi the cohen with the “prophetic eye of the future”. 

What was Prince Siddhartha’s first task since receiving his enlightenment and obtaining Buddhahood? He went out and in the manner of rabbinic Judaism, now as an “Awakened One” and gathered five disciples modeling after his role model, Buzi the Jewish cohen and his five Jewish disciples.  The new “Shakyamuni”, then selected his five disciples to teach them that which he had learned from his master and mentor. As a “Budii” the new “Enlightened One” now became the “Supreme Buddha”. 

As we shall soon see, for it was here, that Buzi the Aaronic Cohen along with his five disciples went to the lands of the Lost Ten Tribes. Yet the region of the Caspian and the Black Sea were not the only homelands of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. In the context of the Great Vision of the Heavenly Merkabah that was given to Buzi’s son, Prophet Ezekiel, this delegation sent by the Divine One of Israel were already  living, working with and giving to the Lost Israelites a new vision so they could soon return could return in aliyah to Halakkhic Jewish Torah understanding.

As we begin to decipher these strange and merge fact of ancient history, we are reminded that the symbols of the “Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel”, Buzi’s son, that included the “Wheel within the Wheel” of HaShem’s Merkabah, the “Trident Flesh Fork” of the temple priests became a part of the Lost Israelites spiritual symbols and iconology. Even the “Lion Rampage” symbol of the Lost Israelites that later would become the symbol on the flag of Scotland in the Isles of the West, as the Unicorn the symbol of the English royalty. 

Then we have the merging of Israel and Judah’s symbols that the Cohen Buzi left behind that also became the mutual identities with Buzi’s (Buddha’s) disciples with the Lost Ten Tribes his Lost Tribal disciples for they were called the “Budii”. When they later migrated to the west, these symbols were adapted into the national symbols in the Isles of the West with the “Union Jack” or the “Union of Jacob” with the cross later known inserted as the “Cross of St George” as today seen on the large tope or tumulus at Sanchi.

Also during this era, according to archeologist in India and Nepal, the first flowering of Buddhism in its most primitive form began to spread across the landscape of Eurasia about the year of 600 BCE.  Other serious archeologist and historians of Buddhism state now that Prince Siddhartha Gautama, outside of the UNESCO date the birth of Gautama to be somewhere between the years of 563 BCE to 483 BCE or even as later towards 400 BCE. With the birthplace of the Gautama Buddha at the Maya Devi Temple of Lumbini now dated to 550 BCE, the earlier shrine beneath may officially push the date of the Israelite Buddha back before the fall of Jerusalem and the first invasion of King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the city of Jerusalem, making the UNESCO birthdate of 623 BCE as the real date of his birth. 

What is understood, is that the spiritual lives the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel professed, practiced and lived after having Buzi the Cohen and Ezekiel the Prophet living within their midst and according to the mandate of the Divine, being a “sentinel” or a judge within their midst, the religious life form of the Lost Israelites could have brought a sense of spiritual brotherhood back between the Lost Ten Tribes and the Jews living first in Babylon and later in the Satraps of Persia. 

We could only suggest that truly there could have been a spiritual revival amongst the Lost Tribes that did bring about a era spiritual enlightenment as the flowering of Torah Judaism permeated in the life of Prince Siddhartha and throughout the Lost Ten Tribes.  Yet, the spiritual life of Torah observance relived in the lives of the Budii disciples and followers of Buzi the priest was truly of a higher plane of spiritual reality than as practiced by Buddhism today. Neither was it the same religious beliefs called Buddhism that was practiced in India when Buddhism was established by the Emperor Ashoka as the state religion three hundred years later in the 4th century BCE. 

Yet in the earliest and most primitive era in which we are seeking, it appears that the Prophet Ezekiel with his father the temple priest Buzi plus five disciples, which were the same number of disciples that the Gautama Buddha later had after he became an “Awakened One” may be an indication that Buzi did become a spiritual mentor of Prince Siddhartha and assisted him in achieving his elevated state of spiritual enlightenment. This could only have had a possible chance of occurring because of the travels of Buzi and Ezekiel to the lands of the Lost Sakya Israelites.

                                      Prince Siddhartha and his Five Disciples

Before Nebuchadnezzar, and before the 70 year exile of the Jewish people to Babylon, there appear to be two groups of people that were contemporary with each other; the Prophet Ezekiel, his father the Jewish cohen as a priest in the Temple of Solomon and his five disciples, later called “The Budii” and a Prince of the Lost Israelite Sakya tribes, Prince Siddhartha and his five disciples. 

Within the 70 years of the Babylonian Empire, the Lost Tribes of Israel had already populated a large sector of the region of Khorasan on the borders of the Caspian Sea. They were already preparing to make their debut as one of the most powerful forces in military history when under the rule of King Cyrus the Great, a Pasargadae Israelite, and his military commander Gobryas, an Israelite chieftain of the Tribe of Gad, led the Lost Israelite military forces from the land of Media now returning to the land of Babylon. This laid the foundation for the emancipation and restoration of the Jewish people back to their homeland in Jerusalem and later Roman Judea.

The Jewish Temple Symbols are indelibly a part of Buddhism and the Potent Symbols of the Lost Israelites living in Northern Europe.

The symbols of the “Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel”, Buzi’s son, that included the “Wheel within the Wheel” of HaShem’s Merkabah, the “Trident Flesh Fork” of the temple priests became a part of the Lost Israelites spiritual symbols and iconology. Even the “Lion Rampage” symbol of the Lost Israelites later would become the symbol on the flag of Scotland in the Isles of the West, as the Unicorn the symbol of the English royalty. 

Then the merging of Israel and Judah’s symbols that the Cohen Buzi left behind also became the mutual identities with Buzi’s (Buddha’s) disciples with the Lost Ten Tribes his Lost Tribal disciples for they were called the “Budii”. When they later migrated to the west, these symbols were adapted into the national symbols in the Isles of the West with the “Union Jack” or the “Union of Jacob” with the cross later known inserted as the “Cross of St George” as today seen on the large tope or tumulus at Sanchi.

Here at the Rock Temple at Azanta, we discovered that the symbols of the “Star and Banner” of the flag of the United States, the “Trident and Shield” with the Isle of Britannia, plus the “Lion and the Unicorn” crouching at peace at the foot of Buddha were also at the temple of Ajanta, where the Buddha sits on the marble throne in the entrance to the large and imposing rock temple at Ajanta.

These are today a part of the Royal Seal of the Monarchy of England while the “Trident” became a symbol of the priestly “Flesh Fork” used while preparing the sacrificial offerings in Solomon’s Temple. Everywhere that the Lost Ten Tribes wandered, these symbols of Israel became a trace of their past and a clue of their present identity with Buddhism of that ancient era.

It's interesting that the major ethnic group that converts to Bhuddism is the Jewish. Is this because, as it is said Buddhism was originally an relgion founded by Israelites?

Vaishnava

Vaishnavism is said to be a form of Druzism, which in turn comes from ancient Israelites.

Doctrines

Vaishnavas worship Vishnu in his various forms and are one of the three major groups of Hinduism, the others being Shaivas and Shaktas. In the trinity of Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, Vishnu is the sattva quality of a centripetal tendency towards light and truth, which holds the universe together by pervading all existence. Vishnu comes from a root meaning "to pervade," and he is known as the Pervader. Thus Vishnu dwells in everything and defeats the power of destruction. Shiva is the centrifugal tendency of destruction and as life depends on death so Vishnu and Shiva are interdependent. As Vishnu pervades the universe, he is the aim and hope of all beings that must die. Vishnu is the source of life and is identified with the world of dream, where prototypes are conceived. The Vaishnavas distinguish five forms of God: in his transcendent form; the avataras, which are incarnations of God sent to save the dharma, cosmic law, and mankind, with Vishnu as an essentially human character; the vyuha, emanations of his power, as Vasudeva-Krishna, Samkarsana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha, who play a part in Vishnu's creation, preservation, and absorption of the universe; the immanent God; and the image or statue.

The Bhagavad Gita is the main religious text of the Vaishnavas and the source of many of their beliefs. This text is set in the Mahabharata and tells of Krishna explaining a real life dilemma for Arjuna. It is in the form of a conversation on the battlefield of Kuruksetra before the start of the war. This popularises Upanisadic teachings and yoga, holding out the hope of spiritual progress to those involved in the affairs of the world. By fulfilling one's duty through disinterested action, the path of salvation is open. The doctrine of the avataras come for the first time in the Bhagavad Gita. Six of the eighteen Puranas are traditionally considered as Vaishnava. Of these the Vishnu Purana is one of the oldest (c. fifth century CE) and most important and the Bhagavata Purana (c. ninth century CE) is an authoritative scripture of Vaishnavism. Seventeen of the Upanishads are regarded as Vaishnava, and there are large numbers of prayers and hymns of great literary and religious appeal that are addressed to Vishnu in his different forms.

History

Vishnu is a solar deity in the Vedas, but the origin of Vaishnavism is not Vedic. It comes more from the pre-Vedic, non-Aryan bhakti, devotional cult. As Vedism declined, this cult emerged strongly, and was centered on Vasudeva, the deified Vrsni hero. There is evidence that worship of Vasudeva and not Vishnu came at the beginning of Vaishnavism. This earliest phase was established from the sixth to the fifth centuries BCE at the time of Panini, who in his Astadhyayi explained the word vasudevaka as a bhakta, devotee, of Vasudeva. Another cult which flourished with the decline of Vedism was centered on Krishna, the deified tribal hero and religious leader of the Yadavas. The Vrsnis and Yadavas came closer together, resulting in the merging of Vasudeva and Krishna.

This was as early as the fourth century BCE according to evidence in Megasthenes and in the Arthasastra of Kautilya. Vasudeva-Krishna liberates the throne of Mathura from his evil kinsman Kamsa, travels to the city of Dvaraka on the Arabian Sea to establish a dynasty, and in the Mahabharata he counsels his cousins the Pandavas in their battle with the Kauravas. This then took sectarian form as the Pancaratra or Bhagavata religion. A tribe of ksatriyas, warriors, called the Satvata, were bhagavatas and were seen by the Greek writer Megasthenes at the end of the fourth century BCE. This sect then combined with the cult of Narayana, a demiurge god-creator who later became one of the names of Vishnu. Soon after the start of the Common Era, the Abhiras or cowherds of a foreign tribe, contributed Gopala Krishna, the young Krishna, who was adopted by the Abhiras and worked as a cowherd and flirted with the cowherdesses. Only as a mature young man did he return to Mathura and slay Kamsa. The Vasudeva, Krishna, and Gopala cults became integrated through new legends into Greater Krishnaism, the second and most outstanding phase of Vaishnavism. Being non-Vedic, Krishnaism then started to affiliate with Vedism so that the orthodox would find it acceptable. Vishnu of the Rg Veda was assimilated into Krishnaism and became the supreme God who incarnates whenever necessary to save the world.

Krishna became one of the avataras of Vishnu. In the eighth century CE the bhakti of Vaishnavism came into contact with Shankara's Advaita doctrine of spiritual monism and world-illusion. This philosophy was considered destructive of bhakti and important opposition in South India came from Ramanuja in the eleventh century and Madhva in the fifteenth century. Ramanuja stressed Vishnu as Narayana and built on the bhakti tradition of the Alvars, poet-saints of South India from the sixth to the ninth centuries. In North India there were new Vaishnava movements: Nimbarka in the fourteenth century with the cult of Radha, Krishna's favorite cowgirl (see Nimavats); Ramananda and the cult of Rama in the same century (see Ramanandis); Kabir in the fifteenth century, whose god is Rama (see Kabirpanthis); Vallabha in the sixteenth century with the worship of the boy Krishna and Radha (see Vallabhas); and Caitanya in the same century with his worship of the grown-up Krishna and Radha (see Gaudiya Vaishnavas). In the Maratha country poet-saints such as Namdev and Tukaram from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries worshipped Vishnu in the form of Vithoba of Pandharpur (see Vitthalas).

Symbols

In Vaishnavism there is extensive and minutely regulated worship of images together with intense bhakti, devotion. There are two main forms of Vishnu, a standing figure and a sleeping figure. Vishnu is represented as a black or dark blue young man, though his avataras are in different colors depending on the ages of the world and the qualities of the ages. In the first golden sattvic age Vishnu is white, in the second rajasic age he is red, in the third rajasic-tamasic age he is yellow, and in the fourth dark tamasic age he is black. He has four arms, four being the number of earth and the four directions of space and therefore absolute power. In his hands he holds a white conch, symbol of the origin of existence; a golden discus with six spokes, symbolizing a six-petalled lotus and representative of universal mind; a bow, symbolic of the destructive aspect of individual existence, and a white lotus, symbolizing the universe; and a black mace, symbol of the power of knowledge and identified with the goddess Kali, the power of time.

On his chest is a jewel called Kaustubha, Treasure-of-the-Ocean, representing the total consciousness of all living beings, and on his left breast is a lock of golden hair, Shri-vatsa, favourite of the goddess Shri, symbolizing the source of the natural world. He wears a garland of the forest around his neck, for the visuddha cakra of yoga is located in the throat and is the centre of extreme purity. The garland is of five rows of fragrant flowers or jewels and symbolizes primeval unborn energy surrounding the throat as qualityless immensity. Other symbols associated with Vishnu are earrings (Sankhya and Yoga), armlets (three aims of life), crown (unknowable reality), yellow veil (the Vedas), sacred thread (om), chariot (the mind with its power of action), whisk (dharma), fan (yajna, ritual sacrifice), flag (sun and moon), parasol (heaven of Vishnu with Mount Meru [any relation to the Israelite Mount Moriah?], axis of the world, as the golden pole of the parasol), sword (destroyer of ignorance), and sheath (darkness which is also the form of divinity).

These women's attires are alike. Their religions come from the Middle East after all. Perhaps Vishnu's yellow veil has the same Middle Eastern origin.

Vishnu rides on Garuda, meaning "Wings of Speech," a half-bird, half-human mythological creature, who symbolizes the magic words of the Vedas on whose wings man can be transported from world to world with the speed of light. His wife is Laksmi and on occasion Sarasvati also. Vishnu has a thousand names and the different aspects of his divinity are expressed in twenty-four images, each holding the lotus, conch, discus, and mace in their four hands, but in its own arrangement.

As the highest deity to the Vaishnavas, Vishnu is expressed symbolically in his mythological form as Anantasayin, reclining on the serpent of eternity called Ananta or Sesha. He is floating on the cosmic waters from which reality is manifested. A lotus grows from his navel, symbolising his creative potential, and on the lotus sits Brahma ready to bring about creation at Vishnu's command. After his active phase, Vishnu returns to his snake bed and is united with Yoganidra, the goddess of sleep, and the process of creation starts again. There are twenty-two avataras of Vishnu, of which the most important are the seventh, Rama, and the eighth, Krishna. Rama is depicted with Nature as Sita by his side. He is dark with his hair in a knot and he wears a yellow veil, large earrings and a necklace. He has two arms and holds a bow. The most prevalent image of Krishna is as the divine lover, a dark or blue young man with neck tilted, waist bent, and ankles crossed as he plays his flute to attract the gopis, cowherdesses. Another important form is Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana to protect the people of Mathura from the torrents unleashed by Indra. In Puri, Krishna appears as Lord Jagganath, a grotesque image shaped from a log with staring eyes.

Adherents

Vishnu is the most universally worshipped Hindu deity. Of his different forms, that of Krishna has been and still is one of the most popular figures in Hinduism. Hundreds of millions of Hindus can be described as Vaishnavas, though divided into the many sects.

Headquarters/Main Center Vaishnavism is exceedingly complex and diverse with no central organization. Each of the sects has its main center.

The Lost Tribe that Found Elijah

Benjamin Simon Joseph Dandekar (friends call him "Benny"), has served as the Hazzan, or Jewish prayer leader, of Bene Israel ("Children of Israel") communities in and around Bombay, India, for over 25 years. Benny is a celebrity among the approximately 5,000 Jews who live in Bombay and the surrounding towns and villages of India's Maharashtra Province.

The Jewish community watches as two young Bene Israel siblings marry arranged Bene Israel partners on the same day at Thane’s Magen Hassidim Synagogue, India’s largest congregation. Chazzan Benny Dandekar made both matches. As children, the brides and grooms studied Hebrew prayers with Benny, and he remained close to their families. “Many people used to do the job of matchmaking,” Benny recalls. He considers himself blessed to be one of the few left in this role: “The chosen man from the chosen people!” Benny is fond of saying.

Benny teaches all Bene Israel youth the traditional Jewish prayers, but also schools international Jewish tourists in the unique history of the Bene Israel. He says the progenitors of the modern community were exiled from the Land of Israel hundreds of years before the Common Era. They shipwrecked off the palm-bedecked Konkan Coast, south of what is today Bombay, and only seven couples made it ashore alive.

Thousands of years later, many Bene Israel remain in India though they constitute at best 0.000005% of the country's billion-plus population. Despite the Bene Israel's relatively small numbers, across the centuries, they never fully assimilated, even as they adopted Indian dress and the local Marathi language. The community always remembered its Shema vow of loyalty to one G-d, guarded Kosher laws and rested on Saturdays.

Bombay bustles past the gate of the 140 year-old Mogen David Synagogue, the largest of the city’s six remaining synagogues, tucked in a courtyard off a major thoroughfare. Several times a week, exactly ten, poor, elderly men – nine of them Bene Israel – enter this Mogen David gate to constitute Bombay’s only weekday morning minyan. In return for keeping the minyan active, the Bombay community gives the men breakfast, and for Shabbat, a kosher chicken killed by Bombay’s only kosher ritual slaughterer (shochet) in Mogen David’s gravelly yard.

When Jewish traders from Baghdad, Iraq arrived in India in the late 18th Century, they recognized the Bene Israel as coreligionists. The Baghdadis constructed grandiose new synagogues, into which they welcomed the Bene Israel, teaching the Indians contemporary Jewish practices.

After the modern State of Israel's establishment in 1948, nearly all of the Baghdadi Jews (and many Bene Israel) made Aliyah from India to Israel. The Baghdadis' leadership mantle has been largely assumed by the remaining Bene Israel. The former Bene Israel learners, like Benny, are now the instructors.

Though the pictured Alibag synagogue dates from 1848, some say that for at least 800 years, the Bene Israel have prayed to the Jewish G-d in this village, three hours south of Bombay on the palm-bedecked Konkan Coast. The benches creak and the air hangs heavy in the mildewed Magen Aboth sanctuary. Nonetheless, each day, the old community members gather for prayers, and on Shabbat collect a minyan from the 8-10 Jewish families left in town.

The Baghdadis' influence did not overwhelm every element of the Bene Israel's hybrid, Jewish-Indian culture. The Bene Israel have maintained what was the cornerstone of their unique heritage: a special reverence for Elijah the Prophet (Eliahu Ha'Navi).

Ben Zion Gosalkar, the Bene Israel caretaker (Shamash) of massive Knesseth Eliyahoo synagogue in Bombay, prays during the afternoon service (Mincha). The 19th century temple once housed India’s wealthy Baghdadi Jewish community, but today the prayer leader (Chazzan) and most congregants are Bene Israel. Ben Zion has tears in his eyes before the service remembering his synagogue 50 years ago, before the vast majority of India’s Jews emigrated to Israel. “There were 15,000 Jews in Bombay –people would sleep next door to walk to synagogue on holidays. We needed extra services in the Sassoon Library across the street because there wasn’t room for everyone.” Scanning nostalgically from the rows of empty benches to the unused women’s gallery, he sighs, “Today, even on Yom Kippur there are only 25 people.”

Ever since Bene Israel villagers encountered Elijah incarnate 2000 years ago, touching down his chariot along the Indian coast, the community has celebrated, given thanks and made wishes invoking his name. Their "Malida" ceremony, in particular, consists of offering prayers, songs and bowls of fruits and flowers to the Prophet Elijah.

Though no one is certain exactly where and when the Malida originated, Benny suggests it has roots in antiquity, created to prevent Jews from mixing with the local Hindu population. "The Hindus did their ceremony to their gods, with fruits, singing and flowers," says Benny. "Our kids would go and have a good time mixing with the Hindus. So to compete, we came up with the joyous Malida honoring Eliahu."

Dayan Samson Penkar stands at the doorway to Beth Ha Elohim, the 130 year-old synagogue in Pen, a village two hours southeast of Bombay. Bene Israel historians tell that when seven, exiled Jewish couples first shipwrecked on the Konkan Coast nearly 2000 years ago, they believed they would not stay long. As they scattered to villages, they took their father’s (or, if married women, their husband’s) names as second names (e.g., in Dayan’s case, Samson). They assigned surnames (e.g, Penkar) with the name of their village (in this case, Pen) and the suffix “-kar,” meaning in the local language, "a sojourner." Centuries later, nearly all of the Bene Israel – like most of their non-Jewish, Maharashtrian neighbors, have surnames ending in ‘-kar.’ Today, fewer than 10 Bene Israel families live in Pen, most with the last name “Penkar.”

Though the Malida and certain other Bene Israel customs may have Indian roots, Benny credits the Bene Israel parents for keeping the community from idol worship. "My father died when I was ten years old but not before he heard me singing the Eliahu Ha'Navi prayer." With Hazzan Dandekar's passionate teaching, the Bene Israel community's future will be secured for generations to come.

Bryan Schwartz and Sandy Carter visited the Bene Israel community of India's Maharashtra Province in 2000 and will present its members in vivid text and photographs in their book with Jay Sand, Scattered Among the Nations.

Cochin Jews

Doctrines

The Jews of Cochin in Kerala, South India, do not seem to have been so totally cut off from other Jews as the Bene Israel, although they developed some distinctive features. In a form of caste system, they were organized in three clearly defined groups. Two of these have their own distinct communities and synagogues: the "Black Jews" are physically similar to the local Indian population and presumably descended from the earliest Jewish settlement; the "White Jews" (or Paradesi "foreigners") are a mixed community mostly of European and Middle Eastern origin. The third group is made up of the Meshuhrarim, freed slaves who had no synagogue of their own and distinct from other Jews by having, until the present century, no communal rights. The main synagogue in Cochin was the celebrated Paradesi Synagogue.

White Jews, who came mainly from the professional and merchant classes, were full members; Black Jews who were mostly tradesmen and craftsmen, could pray there but were not eligible for membership; and the Meshuhrarim sat on the floor or on the steps outside. Following Hindu and Muslim custom, worshippers take their shoes off before entering (this tradition could originally come from when Moses was at the burning bush & God Jehovah asked him to be barefoot). Distinctive features of Cochin Jewish worship include circumcision ceremonies at public worship, the wearing of clothes of a special color for each festival, and the distribution of grapes soaked in sweet-smelling myrtle leaves on certain festive occasions. Cochin Jews have no rabbis: leaders of the community are called elders.

History

The origins of the Cochin Jews are obscure although their history can be traced as far back as the 10th century CE when the king of Malabar granted certain rights and privileges to a Jew named Joseph Rabban. The charter, written in Tamil on two copper plates, is proudly preserved in the Paradesi synagogue to this day. The earliest known synagogues are dated to the sixteenth century.

Presentation of the Law (Torah)

In the seventeenth century Dutch merchants brought printed Torah scrolls and Prayerbooks for the Cochin Jews, and there is some Cochin Jewish literature, printed in Amsterdam in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Cochin Jews showed their support for the Zionist movement in a letter sent to Theodor Herzl in 1901, and since 1948 the majority have emigrated to Israel. In 1968 a ceremony in the Paradesi Synagogue commemorating its 400th anniversary, was attended by the Indian prime-minister, Indira Gandhi.

Symbols

In the Paradesi Synagogue special prominence is given to a "Chair of Elijah" and to the two copper plates of the Tamil charter, known as Sasanam.

Adherents

There were about 2000 in the 18th century. Today a few small communities remain in the Cochin area and there are about 5000 living in Israel.

Headquarters/Main Center Paradesi Synagogue, Cochin, Kerala. Council of Indian Jewry, c/o The Jewish Club, Second Floor, Jeroo Building, 137 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay, 400023. Telephone: 271628

Bene Israel

Doctrines

The Jews of the Bombay region of India believe themselves to be descended from Jews who had escaped from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BCE). Shipwrecked on the coast south of Bombay with nothing but oral relics of their religion, and entirely cut off from other Jews until the eighteenth century, they nonetheless called themselves Bene Israel "children of Israel" and succeeded in preserving a form of Judaism. They knew no Hebrew and did not have any Hebrew texts, but could recite the Shema and celebrated the sabbath day and some of the festivals. They practised circumcision and observed some of the dietary laws, but they also adopted Hindu practices such as not eating beef, prohibiting widows from remarrying and a form of caste system.

History

The early origins of this community are unknown. Under the British authorities they came into contact with other Jews, including the Cochin Jews, and the first Bene Israel synagogue was built in Bombay in 1796. Joined by Jews from Europe and the Middle East, the Bombay community grew dramatically and the first synagogue was soon too small. A larger synagogue was built on the same site in 1860, and two more were built in other districts of Bombay by the end of the century. Before the emigration of the Bene Israel to Israel after 1948, they had more than 20 synagogues. Most now live in Israel, where there was controversy over their Jewishness, until the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate decreed in 1962 that marriage with Bene Israel was permitted, and the Israeli prime minister issued a statement in 1964 that the government of Israel regards them as Jews in every respect.

Symbols

Bene Israel employ the same symbols as other Jewish traditions. However, their ritual bears evidence of the influence of their Indian context. Occasions of thanksgiving are followed by the recital of blessings over a concoction of parched rice, shredded coconut, raisins and spices (called malida). 

These are eaten by everyone who is present, with two kinds of fruit.

Adherents

The number of Bene Israel in India rose from about 7000 in the 19th century to about 24,000 in 1947. There are now approximately 8000 in Israel.

Headquarters/Main Center Council of Indian Jewry, c/o The Jewish Club, Second Floor, Jeroo Building, 137 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay, 400023. Telephone: 271628

List of Scheduled Castes in Jammu and Kashmir

Below of list of Scheduled Caste communities and their population according to the 2001 Census of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Scheduled Caste Population 2001

Barwala 27,985, Basith 18,866, Batwal 39,385, Chamar or Ramdasia 187,277, Chura 3,855, Dhyar 7,566, Doom or Mahasha 159,908, Gardi 3,268, Jolaha 467, Megh or Kabirpanthi 300,980, Rattal 1,913, Saryara 13,327 & Watal 169.

Total Population 770,155

Gujar

Gujjars are not ethnically Kashmiri, though some of them are geogtaphically Kashmiris because they live in Kashmir.

It's pretty close to Khazar phonetically. The theory that some anthropologists pointed regarding their Khazar Israelite origin is logical.

Gurjar or Gujjar is a pastoral agricultural ethnic group with populations in India and Pakistan and a small number in northeastern Afghanistan.  Alternative spellings include Gurjara, Gojar, Gūjar, Gurjjara, and Gūrjara. Although they are able to speak the language of the country where they live, Gurjars have their own language, known as Gujari. They variously follow Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism.  The Gurjars are classified as Other Backward Class (OBC) in some states in India; however, Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Himachal Pradesh are categorised as a Scheduled Tribe. Hindu Gurjars today are assimilated into several varnas.

The Kashmiri people' are a Dardic ethnic group. Originally, the Kashmiris were Buddhist and Hindu, however, after the conquest of Kashmir and much of India by Central Asian invaders, the majority of Kashmiri people became Muslim. While there are Sikhs who live in the Kashmir region, they are not Kashmiri but usually Dogri or Punjabi instead. The population living in the Valley of Kashmir is primarily homogeneous, despite the religious divide between Muslims and Hindus. They share common culture, language, customs and history, which is no doubt the basis of 'Kashmiriyat.'

Azad Kashmir has a 99 percent ethnic Punjabi population, consisting of variants such as Sudhans, Rajputs, Gujjars and Mirpuris who are the closest geographical and cultural relatives of the Potohari Punjabis. While the Azad Kashmiris, just like the Ladakhis and Jammuites, are considered Kashmiri as citizens of the Kashmir state, they are however not ethnically Kashmiri and do not have any linguistic, cultural or genetic affinity to the Ethnic Kashmiris who are of Dardic origin.

Ladakh has a blend of many different races, predominantly the Tibetans, Mons and the Dards. People of pure Dard descent predominate in Dras and Dha-Hanu valleys. The residents of Dha-Hanu, known as Brokpa, are followers of Tibetan Buddhism and have preserved much of their original Dardic traditions and customs. The Dards around Dras, however, have converted to Islam and have been strongly influenced by their Kashmiri neighbors. The Mons are descendants of earlier Indian settlers in Ladakh. They work as musicians, blacksmiths and carpenters.

The Changpa nomads who live in the Rupshu plateau are pure Tibetans, and it was probably herders like them who first settled in Ladakh and Baltistan. Since the early 1960s their numbers have increased as Chang Tang nomads from across the border flee Chinese-ruled Tibet. There are about 3500 refugees in Leh alone. Muslim Arghons, descendants of Kashmiri or Central Asian merchants and Ladakhi women mainly live in Leh. The appearance and lifestyle of both central & Eastern Ladakhis and Zanskaris reflect a strong influence from Central Tibet, which diminishes westwards, being replaced by that of Dards. The Baltis of Kargil, Nubra, Suru Valley, and Baltistan, however, show strong Tibetan links in their appearance, and language and were Bonpa and Buddhists until recent times.

The Northern Areas of Pakistan are also inhabited by Dardic people, but they do not refer to themselves as Kashmiris. And those living in the Northern Areas (Gilgit, Hunza and Baltistan), which are theoretically a part of Jammu and Kashmir, are not Kashmiris per se and do not share much, except in religion with the Muslims of Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Azad Kashmir. They are culturally and ethnically different.

Many Tajiks look like Kashmiris and vice-versa.

Is it Coincidental that the Native Names of the Kashmiri Language (Kashur & Kosher) & People, Are so Similar to the Israelite Food (Kosher, Kasher & Kashrut)?

The word kosher comes from Yiddish (kosher) which comes from Hebrew (kashér). "Kashrut" comes from the Hebrew root Kaf-Shin-Reish, meaning fit, proper or correct. It is the same root as the more commonly known word "kosher," which describes food that meets these standards. In Hebrew,  “Kashrus,” from the root kosher ("Kasheir" or “kasher”), means suitable and/or “pure”, thus ensuring fitness for consumption. When applied to food, the term indicates that an item is fit for consumption according to Jewish law. The word "Kashruth" refers to the general subject of Kosher food. The laws of “Kashrus” include a comprehensive legislation concerning permitted and forbidden foods. There are several aspects to these dietary rules. We will consider each aspect in turn.

Interestingly Kosher is also one of the names of the Kashmiri language. Kashur is another name of the Kashmiri language, being Kashur is also very similar to kashrut. Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus, ) is the set of Jewish religious dietary laws. Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher. Also related is Kasher (hebrew: כשר,which is a Hebrew surname meaning "fit" and in the common context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law.

In the Old Testament purity had to do primarily with ritual life and its disciplines: foods that could pollute the bodty... Those who are not pure of heart see the world and others not with the eyes of God but.

Perhaps this stress on purity given to the etymology of the words kasher, kosher & kashrut is the origin of the names of the Kashmiri language: Kosher & Kashur. Kashur is also the name of the Kashmiri People. The name Pakistan is an acronym of its main two peoples (Kashmiris & Pathans), which by the way are Lost Israelites. Another meaning of Pakistan (this time in Urdu) is Country of the Pure. Is it not amazing this other coincidence? Of course the name Pakistan & the country are only creations of the 20th century, but it's interesting anyway.

The following words, written by an anonymous book reader, give an idea of many people's consideration of the Kashmiris as Israelites: The Kashur (kosher) people, Kashmiri, are Semitic in origin and keep the tomb of Yuz Ausef, Jesus. Hindis know this as historical fact. And Mary, his mother is in nearby Pakistan where her tomb and monument are reverred. Buddha is descended from the diaspora of the period of King Hezekiah, 2700 de years ago and is of Jewish extraction.

Among other names & nicknames, the Jews are called kosher people, which is the very name of the Kashmiri people.

Kashmiri peoples

Since the Kashmiri consists of several million subdived in many tribes, clans etc... Therefore there's a variety of features & skin tones among the Kashmiris. Kashmir lies in an intersectional area between India, China & Pakistan. That's why some Kashmiris look more mongololoid & a few look even negroid, but most Kashmiris look caucasian. From among the caucasian looking Kashmiris there are some who are light skinned (even light haired & light eyed) that could pass for European. Others have skin as dark as darkest Indian. There are finally all tones in between the darkest & lightest ones. Most Kashmiris are Muslims, but there's quite a few Hindus as well. Not all tribes in Kashmir are Kashmiri, but all of the tribes here are considered Kashmiri. The Kashmiris are sojourning outside Kashmir as well. Apart from Kashmiri clans, tribes...there are (mostly at the end) castes, popular last names... Sometimes the barrier between these categories is very thin or blurry, as is the case in many cases in India, Pakistan... So, for example the last name Chowdry is basicly regarded a caste, even an ethnicity, in itself.

Naming patterns of the Kashmiri Pandits are almost the same as are found there among the Brahmins of the centro-eastern region with componential preferences with regard to the second component. Some of these are: (1) + Narayan: Jagdish -(Sapru), Anand - (Mulla), Parameshwar -(Haksar), Hriday - (Kunjru), Jagat-, Laxmi-, Brij-, Shyam-, etc. (2) + Krisn: Roop-, Maharaj-, Brij-, Avta-, Tej-, Mohan-, Hari-, Kumar-, Jay-, Pyare-, Nipun-, Apurv-, etc. (3) + Nath: Hriday-, Omkar-, Raghu-, Amar-, Balji-, etc. (4) + Lal: Moti-, Jawahar-, Krishan-, Ziya-. Moreover, at present the names of Kashmiri Pandits are drawn from the same sources as by the Hindus of northern India, but some of the names of the Kashmiri Pandits, recorded in earlier literary works show that names drawn from Persian sources too were current among them. e.g. Aftab Pandit, Balkak Dar, etc. Interestingly, in Kashmiri 'Pandit' surname is attested with Muslims as well, e.g. Mohd Shafi Pandit.

Kashmiri brahman pandits who, like the Bengali kaayasths, had a long tradition of administrative service based on fluency in a link language - initially Persian under the Mughals and then English under the British - had migrated to Delhi, Lucknow and Lahore from the late eighteenth century onward. By the 1820s they had entered princely states as educators and administrators. The Haksar family was prominent in Indore and Gwailor, the Kak family in Jodhpur, and others in Bharatpur.

There's an important Kashmiri element in the Punjab. The most important Kashmiri element in the Punjab is found in the cities of Ludhiana and Amritsar, which still contain large colonies of weavers, employed in weaving carpets and finer fabrics. In fact, the Ludhiana hosiery industry owes its origin to Kashmiris. According to the Ludhiana District Gazetteer, during a devastating famine in the 19th century a number of Kashmiris migrated to Ludhiana. They are known world over for their handicraft skills. They started weaving woollen fabric there. Slowly the trade got popular and Ludhiana started to be identified with hosiery only.

Some of their surnames are derived from location, occupation, tide, status, original professions, their ancestors' nicknames (eg, Hakim, Kaul, Dhar, Raina, ...), family history and so.
  

Dhars were those who migrated to Gauda {Bengal} and retained their Dhar surname once they returned to the valley.

Similar is the case of Hindus and Christians in Kerala, eg (Krisna Panikkar; George Panikkar), and Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir or Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab who have many common surnames, eg (Kashmir): Bhat, Dar, Malik, Rana, Pandit (Saleem Pandit), etc. and (Punjab): Arora, Bedi, Kapoor, Bjaj, Sahney, Maini, Ahloowalia, Zutshi, etc. In such cases reference to a person by his surname, as Mr. Bhat or Mr. Arora does not indicate whether the person under reference is a Hindu, a Muslim or a Sikh. Something peculiar to Kashmir only is the Hindu surnames like Rishi, Pandit, Bhatt, Handoo, Kachru, Bhat, Pandit, Munshi, Dhar, Dar, Handoo, Kaul...

The Kashmiri population consists of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others. Hindus, popularly known as Pandits and considered the purest specimens of the ancient Aryan race...a race that it's really Israelite in origin. The Aryan Europeans are really Israelites as well.

Northern Pakistan, bordered by China to the north, Afghanistan to the northwest, and India to the east, is said to contain the most breathtaking sights in Pakistan. It is there-nestled between five of the world's highest mountain peaks-that the northern tribes can be found. They are the original inhabitants of the area.

The northern tribes include the Badeshi, Burushas, Kolai, Punjabi Pahari, Shina, Shumashti, and Kho. Before the conquest of the Pushtun, their ancestors occupied Dir, Swat, and other areas of northern Pakistan. The British gained control of the region around 1895, but left in 1947 when Pakistan became an independent nation. Yet, the Pushtun have dominated the various ethnic groups of this region for years, either buying their land or forcing them out with violence.

The northern tribes are known as quiet, peace-loving, and brave people. Most of them live in the upper valleys, where farming is very difficult due to the dry, rugged mountain terrain. The opening of the Karakoram Highway, which follows the Indus River Valley, has had the greatest economic impact on this region.

What Are Their Lives Like? The communities of the northern areas are located in the narrow valleys formed by the tributaries of the Indus, where irrigation is possible. Since the Indus River flows through a steep rocky gorge, it is useless for irrigation. The people there are primarily farmers and shepherds. Grain is planted on terraced fields and bulls are used for plowing.

In the remaining area, which is very dry and irrigated by glacial runoff, they raise barley, wheat, maize, millet, and rice, supplemented by potatoes and a variety of other vegetables. Since they can only grow one annual crop, the people rely on the "transhumant" herding of their dairy goats and cattle. This means that they transfer their livestock from one grazing ground to another with the changing of seasons. During the summer months, they leave their permanent villages and drive the cattle, goats, and sheep to alpine pastures.

Mountain ranges and political borders tend to isolate the ethnic groups that live in the northern areas. Most settlements exist as small independent communities, located at altitudes between 2,000 and 14,000 feet. Families usually have houses in four or five different locations at the higher altitudes. Only in the winter do they live together in their compact villages, which lie along the rivers.

Prior to the twentieth century, the northern areas of Pakistan were semi-independent. They were under various local rulers such as the Mehtars of Chitral, the Wali of Swat, and the Mir of Hunza. Today, these communities are under Pakistani administration, governed by a federally appointed district commissioner.

Ever since the abolition of the Mehtars and other local rulers, the northern tribes have undergone many social and cultural changes. Although the extensive road-building project is providing them with greater access to the mainstream of Pakistani society, it is also encouraging the influx of Pushtun from farther south. Among the smaller ethnic groups, there is a growing resentment toward the Pushtun, who dominate bureaucracy in the district government.

Some ethnic groups, such as the Kho, are divided into three social classes: the upper class, ruling nobility; the middle class landowners; and the lower class tenant farmers and hired laborers. Most of the tribal groups in the northern territories practice endogamy, meaning that they only marry within their own group. Their societies are also patrilineal, which means that the line of descent is traced through the males. The women are not secluded, as is customary among many other Muslim groups, because they are needed to help with the farm work.

Centuries ago, the area of northern Pakistan was primarily Buddhist. Later, Buddhism was replaced by Hinduism. However, around 1000 A.D., the Islamic faith spreadh to the region. Today, the vast majority of the people are Sunni (orthodox) Muslim.

Traces of traditional, pre-Islamic beliefs still linger in a few areas. Some of the tribes practice shamanism. They believe that there is an unseen world of gods, demons, fairies, and ancestral spirits (similar to the Viking Lost Israelites & the Celtic Lost Israelites). They depend on shamans (priests or priestesses) to cure the sick by magic, communicate with the gods, and control events. These are remaining traditions of a fallen Israel.

Population 11,104,000 People   Groups (Across Countries) 56   People Groups (by Country) 77

Subdivisions of the Kashmiri: Bafinda, Bandukkhar, Basith (Hindu traditions), Basith (Sikh traditions), Batwal (Muslim traditions), Bhirai, Bodh, (Muslim traditions) Brahmin (Kashmiri Pandit), Broq-Pa, Budhan (Muslim traditions), Burusho, Dangarik, Desil, Dhar (surname), Dhund, Galleban, Ganz, Garwi, Kohistani, Gawar-Bati (Narisati, Aranduil, Gokha, Indus Kohistani, (Galo), Haksar, Hamals, Jangam (Muslim traditions), Kashmiri Pandits, Kak clan, Kashmiri Shaikh, Kavoj (Kraal), Kichlu, Kumangar, Kumhiar (Muslim traditions), Lone, Mangrik (Munji), Mattoo, Mir clan, Namdagur, Pashayi (Northeast),  Pashayi (Northwest), Pashayi (Southeast)  Pashayi (Southwestl, Pohul, Purig-Pa Rajput (Awan), Rajput (Halbani), Rajput (Halbatia), Sapiada, Saryara (Muslim traditions), Sau, Shakhsaz, Shin, Shumashti, Sofi, Sudhan, Tarakhehas, Tirahi, Wattal (Hindu traditions), Wattal (Muslim traditions), Waza, Wotapuri-Katarqalai, Yidghal, Zargar (Hindu traditions), Zargar (Muslim traditions), Zargar (Sikh traditions).

Kashmiri (Muslim traditions)

                        It's interesting to see that the hat this man is wearing has a star of David.

The Kashmiri (Muslim traditions) people group is reported in 3 countries. Mostly in India & Pakistan, but also in Bangladesh.

Kashmiri Muslims

Kashmiri Muslims are ethnic Kashmiris living in the Kashmir Valley. They refer to themselves as "Kashur" in their mother language. Presently the Kashmiri Muslim population is predominantly found in Kashmir valley along with a significant population of Kashmiris in the Chenab valley region, which comprises the Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts of Jammu. The Kashmiri language is the main language in both these regions. Smaller Kashmiri communities also live in other regions of the Jammu and Kashmir state. This article does not include other ethnic groups of the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir such as the Pothwari/Pahari, Gilgiti, Balti or Ladakhi Muslims who have their own distinct identities. Kashmiri language, or Kashur, belongs to the Dardic group and is the most widely spoken dardic language.

Srinagar Khanqah - one of the oldest masjid in Kashmir.

History

Buddhism, Hinduism and Animistic type religions had been prevalent in Kashmir at various points of time. Islam started making inroads in the 12th and 13th centuries. The earliest copy of Quran in Kashmir dates back to 1237 AD and was calligraphed by Fateh Ullah Kashmiri who is believed to be a then Kashmiri Islamic scholar. The first Muslim missionary in Kashmir was Syed Sharaf-ud-Din Abdur Rahman Suhrawardi popularly known as Bulbul Shah to common masses. He was an extensively travelled preacher and came to Kashmir during the reign of Raja Suhadeva (1301–20). Impressed by Bulbul Shah's simplicity and noble character, King Rinchan Shah the ruler of Kashmir accepted Islam and came to be known as Sultan Saddrudin Shah. He was the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir. Following Rinchan's conversion his brother-in-law who was the army commander in chief also became Muslim. In 1339 Kashmir throne was captured by Sultan Shahmir who founded Shahmiri dynasty in Kashmir. Subsequently according to some traditions ten thousand Kashmiris adopted Islam and hence the seeds of Islam in Kashmir were sown. The spread of Islam among Kashmiris was further boosted by arrival of a host of other Sayyids, most prominent among them being Sayyid Jalal-ud-Din, Sayyid Taj-ud-Din and Sayyid Hussain Simanani.

However the greatest missionary whose personality wielded the most extraordinary influence in the spread of Islam in Kashmir was Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani of Hamadan (Persia) popularly known as Shah-i-Hamadan. He belonged to the Kubrawi order of Sufis and came to Kashmir along with seven hundred disciples and helpers. His emphasis was on the Islamization of royal family and the court as a pre-requisite for Islamizing people. This was an important modus operandi adopted by Syed Ali and his deciples. He was of the firm belief that the common masses followed the conduct and culture of their rulers. His disciples established shrines with lodging and langar at many places in Kashmir which served as centres for propagation of Islam. His preaching resulted in a colossal number of Kashmiri people and priests of the aforementioned religions along with thousands of their followers converting to Islam which became the vastly dominant religion of the Kashmiri masses by the fourteenth century. Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani's impact in Kashmir was not only confined to religion but had a great say on culture, industry and economy of Kashmir. Spread of shawl making, carpet manufacturing, cloth weaving, etc. gained great prominence by his efforts.

Another interesting point about Kashmiris is that most of them speak Dardic languages: Kashmiri,  Kalasha... It's interesting because the name Dardic sounds as derived from Darda, Judah's grandchild. Judah was one of Israel's twelve sons.

Bafinda

Population All Countries 122,000

Bandukkhar

World Population 700  Jammu and Kashmir (700)  Alternate Names Banduk Khar
Secondary Languages: Bhadrawahi (60)  Primary Language: Kashmiri

Basith (Hindu traditions)

Population 29,000  Alternate Names Asithi, Bashishth Rajput  Jammu and Kashmir (29,000)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (19,000 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Hindi (3,800) Dogri (3,400) Gujari (2,300)

Basith (Sikh traditions)

Population 2,900  Jammu and Kashmir (2,900)  Primary Language: Panjabi, Eastern (1,600 speakers)

Secondary Languages: Hindi (800) Kashmiri (400) Dogri (100)

Batwal (Muslim traditions)

Population All Countries 2,300

Bhirai

Population All Countries 1,300  Bodh, (Muslim traditions)  Population 600  Jammu and Kashmir

Main Language Kashmiri

Brahmin, Kashmiri Pandit

Population 690,000  Alternate Names Banamasi, Batta, Kashmiri Pandit, Malamasi, Pandit, Pant, Purana Kashmiri Pandit, Purohit, Sharma, Taza Kashmiri Pandit  Jammu and Kashmir (470,000) Delhi (147,000) Himachal Pradesh (27,000) Maharashtra (21,000) Madhya Pradesh (11,000) Punjab (5,800) Gujarat (4,700) Chandigarh (3,300) Uttar Pradesh (300) Uttarakhand (200) Jharkhand (40) West Bengal (40) Rajasthan (40)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (390,000 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Dogri (230,000) Hindi (47,000) Bhadrawahi (2,500) Ladakhi (500) Chambeali (70)

Broq-Pa

This is the one of the scarce subgroups with a Buddhist majority. Another rarity is that they are well implanted not only in India but in Bhutan.

Population All Countries 79,000 Largest Religion Buddhism

Budhan (Muslim traditions)

Are they Danites?  Population All Countries 21,000

Burusho in Pakistan

Population 223,000 Gilgit-Baltistan (223,000) Primary Language: Burushaski (223,000 speakers)

Dangarik in Pakistan

Are they Danites?

Population 21,000 Primary Language: Palula (6,300 speakers)  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (21,000) Federally Administer (300)

Secondary Languages: Khowar (3,500) Kalasha (2,300) Kati (2,300) Hindko, Southern (900) Urdu (800) Kamviri (700) Saraiki (400) Pashto, Northern (300) Panjabi, Western (200) Pashto, Central (80)

Desil in India

Population 1,200 Alternate Names Gilka, Gilkar, Hilka  Primary Language: Kashmiri  Secondary Languages: Bhadrawahi  Jammu and Kashmir

Gilka is a German last name, but it's frequently found in eastern European countries like Moldova, Poland...where Germans (Saxons, Swabians... were more numerous once. They were very numerous once in eastern Europe because there was a German colonization. A far greater number emigrated to the USA. After the war a great majority of them relocated in Germany. Many of them left for South America. Nowadays there are only hundreds of thousands of Germans in eastern Europe & the ex Soviet countries where there use to be millions & millions of Germans. Germans are usually identified as Assyrians, but there's a great amount of Germans with Israelite blood. For example the Germans that moved to the USA are considered to have been Israelites (not Jews). Then the last name Gilka might have been of Israelite origin. The r of Gilkar may have been added afterwards. The Kurds are Lost Israelites & the Gilakis are also Lost Israelites because they are part of the Kurds. Were the Indian Gilkas part of the Gilakis? After all their names have the same consonants & in Hebrew phonetics they are identical.

Dhar or Dara

Dhar was the honorific given to a village head, strongman or a warlord of smaller jagir/estate; called Dara pronounced as Dhara. This honorific was prevalent during 12th Century and continue to be used till about 14th Century. 

Dhund

Are they Danites?

Population All Countries 645,000

Galleban

Alternate Names Galwan, Gurtsur

Jammu and Kashmir (1,200)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (500 speakers) Secondary Languages: Gujari (300) Ladakhi (200) Balti (200) Zangskari (50) Purik (20)

Galle is similar to Gallic, the name of the French's ancestors. They are regarded, with other western Europeans as Israelite diaspora whose name would come from gallut/gola, a Hebrew word meaning diaspora. Ban or ben is son in Hebrew. Galleban would be translated from Hebrew as children of the diaspora & that's what they are with the rest of Kashmiris.

Ganz in India

As several Pashtun clans have the same name of Germanic tribes, toponyms..., because both are Lost Israelites, so some Kashmiri clans have Germanic names like Ganz, found sometimes under similar spellings like Gans, Gant, Gantt, Gantz, גא, Gancz, Gantz, Ganț, Ganss, Gansz, Ganzer, Gantzer, Ganser, Gansser. These names-last names are found usually in Germany, Switzerland, Romania, the USA & Hungary, areas with German majorities or important minorities. Apart from that Ganz is also a pretty common Jewish last named.

Kanzer (Persian: كنذر, also Romanized as Ganzer, Geyānzīr, and Gianzir) is a village in Masal Rural District, in the Central District of Masal County, Gilan Province, Iran. Western Iran is an area were first the Israelites were put in captivity.

Ganz, Styria, a town in the district of Mürzzuschlag in Styria, Austria. Ganz, Gantz... are Jewish Ashkenazi, Kashmiri & German last names. In German means "whole, all".

Population 1,400 Primary  Language Kashmiri  Alternate Names Baba, Balle, Dianpash, Rathor

Garwi, Kohistani in Afghanistan

Population 1,700  Main Language Kalami  Alternate Names Bashkarik, Garwer Garwi, Kohistani, Rajkoti

Narisati, Arandui in Afghanistan

Population 14,000  Alternate Names Arandui, Birkot, Gabr, Gawar-Bati, Narisati, Nursut

Main Language Gawar-Bati  Location in Country Kunar Valley. 8 or 9 villages

Gokha in India

Population 200 Jammu and Kashmir (200) Alternate Names Galo, Kohiste, Maiyon

Primary Language: Kohistani, Indus (41,000 speakers)

It's remarkable that the among the western Lost Israelites are the French & their ancestors were the Gallians. In some Latin languages like Spanish Galo is Gallian. Galo is the very same name (among others) of this Kashmiri tribe. It's supposed to come from galut; diaspora in Hebrew. Gola is another form of diaspora in Hebrew.

Haksar

Haksar is a Kashmiri caste.

They are native to the Kashmir Valley within the disputed Jammu and Kashmir; however, some Haksars are Kashmiri Pandits, who have a long tradition of Indian administrative service based on fluency in a link language -Persian under the Mughuls and English under the British. In light of this fact, the Haksar family historically became a prominent administrative family in other parts of India, namely in Indore and Gwalior.

Hak is similar to the Hebrew word ak meaning: indeed, surely (emphatic), howbeit, only, but, yet (restrictive)... It's even more similar with the determinant "ha". The determinant Ha + ak = hak.

Sar or sher (related to Sara, princess in Hebrew) means prince, ruler, leader, chief, chieftain, official, captain...

Hamals

Hamal is a tribe which comes from Kashmir. They have a very long history of building Kashmir. The caste is a low one, and all the people used to work at the Ration Ghats. Most of the population is in old Kashmir. This people are very friendly and normally live with the joint families. The Hamals' ancestors had a business of milk, so they were mostly milkmen. They contributed quite a lot to the economy of Kashmir as they belonged to a working class. The Glimpse of their work can be seen in Habba Kadal, the well known area on the Ghats of Jehlum...

Hamal (α Ari, α Arietis, Alpha Arietis) is the brightest star in the northern zodiacal constellation of Aries. The name Hamal (also written Hemal, Hamul, Ras Hammel) derives from the Arabic راس الحمل rās al-ħamal "head of the ram", in turn from the name for the constellation as a whole, Al Ħamal "the ram". Any relation between their milkmen business & the ram? Were they in the business getting dairy products from sheep?

Western European names like Hamil, Hamula, or Hamelin are close to Hamal &  also regarded as Lost Israelites. In fact among the clans of Judah were Hamul = Hamlyn (Frankish Germany); Haemele (Anglo-Saxon group).

Hammal in India

Population 1,600 Alternate Names Hamali, Hamul Madhya Pradesh (1,500) Maharashtra (80)

Primary Language: Urdu (1,600 speakers)

These are not denied or confirmed as Kashmiris, but judging from the data they might have easily been Hamals once. They are regarded as Urdu Muslims,  but that's a vague definition.

They might also come from Hamul, a clan of the Israelite tribe of Judah as found in Genesis 46:12. Hamul & Hamal are very similar words, more so if we take into account that in Hebrew in olden times didn't exist.

Hamul

In Hebrew ha'-mul is (chamul, "pitied," "spared"), godly; merciful. A son of Perez, and head of one of the clans of Judah (Genesis 46:12; 1 Chronicles 2:5; Numbers 26:21). His descendants were called Hamulites.

Jangam (Muslim traditions)

Population All Countries 720  Gilgit-Baltistan (700) Jammu and Kashmir (20)

Languages Balti (600 speakers) Purik (20 speakers) Shina (60)

Kak clan

Kak is an Indian name (Kashmiri Brahmin surname) that can refer to a community originating in Kashmir. In Bar Kaev District, Cambodia there's a commune named Kak.

Kavoj in India

Population 400 Jammu and Kashmir (400) Main Language Kashmiri

Kichlu

Kichlu (Kashmiri: किचलू (Devanagari), کچلو (Nastaleeq)) or Kitchlew is a Kashmiri clan in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan. The Kichlu are both Hindu and Muslim. The Kichlu clan is a part of the largest of the Malmas gotras which is known as Paldeo Wasgare. Overtime, some Kitchlews have migrated from the Kashmir Valley and have settled in other parts of India, as well as in neighboring Pakistan.

Kraal in India

Population 4,500  Jammu and Kashmir (4,200) Himachal Pradesh (300) Delhi (40) Uttarakhand (10)

Primary Language: Dogri (2,200 speakers) Secondary Languages: Kashmiri (2,100) Bhadrawahi (100)

Kumhiar (Muslim traditions)

Alternate Names Gumar, Kumahar, Kumangar  Population All Countries 56,200  Jammu and Kashmir (7,400) Himachal Pradesh (900) Azad Kashmir (45,000) Gilgit-Baltistan (2,200) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (800)

Primary Language: Urdu (19,900 speakers) Secondary Languages: Pashto, Northern (13,200) Kashmiri (10,630 speakers) Shina (5,070) Hindko, Northern (3,100) Dogri (2,100 speakers) Khowar (700) Bhadrawahi (500) Gujari (300) Zangskari (60) Chambeali (40)

Lone

Lone (Kashmiri: लोन (Devanagari), لون (Nastaleeq)) is a Kashmiri tribe in the Kashmir Valley of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The caste belongs to the Kshatria order.

The Lone tribe is based mainly in northern Kashmir, although in the past few centuries there has been a gradual diffusion of the tribe throughout the valley of Kashmir. However, now the tribe also is concentrated in the Kupwara district of the Kashmir valley.

In the 1911 census, the total Lone population in the state of Jammu & Kashmir was, 51931. 8126 in Jammu division, 354 in Gilgit & Biltistan and the rest in Kashmir division.

Although the vast majority of the Lone tribe speak Kashmiri as their mother tongue, significant numbers speak Shina, especially those wholive inthe Gurez valley.

A significant number of Kashmiris of Lone tribe live in central and northern Punjab regions of Pakistan in cities such as Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Jhelum and Rawalpindi. In Punjab there has been a gradual tendency among kashmiri Muslim immigrants to use Butt as their surname which include people from Kashmiri Lone tribe too.

Also there is a big family of 'Lones' that live in Reading UK. Some of their familiar names are Haseeb Lone, Tanvir Lone and Mohammed Lone. The Lones originally immigrated from Dina Pakistan. Dina was the name of Israel's only daughter.

There is a big family of Lones living in Worcester UK who migrated from Sahang Distt. As if Lone are the prominent members of the family, members of lone family are also dominant in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan  having majority of individuals.

Mangrik

Population All Countries 71,000

Mattoo or Mattu

Mattoo (Kashmiri: मट्टू (Devanagari), مٹو (Nastaleeq)), also spelled Mattu, is a Kashmiri Pandit surname. They are native to the Kashmir Valley within the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

As we see in the paragraphs below, Mattu is related to the Hebrew names Matthew & Mathias. Both of them were part of the 12 apostles. Mathias was elected after Judah Iscariot committed suicide. None of them are known to missionize in Kashmir or India. Thomas was the apostle that preached the gospel in the area. In his honor there's a group of Christians in India called Saint Thomas Christians. Inspite their Christian practices they consider themselves as descended from Israelites.

Mattu

Diminutive of: MATTHIAS & MATTHÆUS.  Origin: Hebrew  Form of: Matti

Hebrew names with the same root: MATTHIAS & MATTHAÍOS (ΜΑΤΘΑΊΟΣ)

MEANING: Gift of the Lord, gift of Yahweh, gift of Jehovah. This is a given name that ultimately comes from the Hebrew name Matiyahu. Matthew was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus in Christian theology, and is the author of the Gospel with his name. It's Greek form was "Ματταθίας" (Mattathias), which was shortened to "Ματθαῖος" (Matthaios). Matthew the Apostle; (also known as Saint Matthew) was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists. The name Matthew became popular during the middle Ages in North-West Europe, and appears in many European languages. The name has been very common throughout the English-speaking world since the 1970s.

Mir clan

Mir (Urdu: مير) is a Kashmiri tribe with origins in the Kashmir Valley. They are found among both rural and urban communities and traditionally practiced agriculture but these days work in all fields of expertise.

Munji in Afghanistan

Main Language Munji  Alternate Names Munjiwar, Munji-Yidgha (the name Yidgha is clearly related to Yidghal, a fellow Kashmiri tribe)  Population 6,100  Northeastern Afghanistan, Badakhshan Province, in the Munjan Valley and Mamalgha Valley.

Namdagur in India

Population 1,100  Alternate Names Jalagdoz, Naqqash, Naqsgur, Rangrez  Jammu and Kashmir (1,100)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (1,100 speakers)

Pashayi, Northeast in Afghanistan

Population 80,000  Kunar Province west of Asadabad, side valleys between Kunar and Pech rivers.

Secondary Languages: Pashayi, Southeast: Wegal  Primary Language: Pashayi, Northeast

Pashayi, Northwest in Afghanistan

Population 14,000  Alternate Names Laurowan, Northwest Pashayi, Pashai, Pashayi  Kapisa and Laghman provinces, Gulbahar to Nuristan on Alingar River, Alisheng Valley, valleys north of Sarobi.

Primary Language: Pashayi, Northwest (14,000 speakers)

Pashayi, Southeast in Afghanistan

Population 189,000  Alternate Names Darai-Nur, Pashai, Pashayi, Southeast Pashayi  Upper and Lower Darrai Nur Valley, Damench, Shale (Shari); Nangarhar Province, north of Shewa; south Laghman Province, Alingar Valley area.

Primary Language: Pashayi, Southeast (189,000 speakers)

Pashayi, Southwest in Afghanistan

Population 105,000  Alternate Names Laurowan, Pashai, Pashayi, Southwest Pashayi, Tagau

Northeast of Kabul, north of Sarobi, Tagau (Tagab) Valley

Primary Language: Pashayi, Southwest (105,000 speakers)

Pohul in India

Population 3,300  Jammu and Kashmir (3,300)  Primary Language: Kashmiri (3,300 speakers)

Purig-Pa

Population All Countries 45,000

Rajput, Awan

Population All Countries 74,000

Rajput, Halbani

In Hebrew "the white one" is "haLeban" or just "halban". Halbani would mean "people of the white". Lebanon has this origin. Lebanon was part of the Kingdom of Israel. Part of the Israelites setted in Lebanon. Could these Kashmiris come from the the Israelites settled in Lebanon or they were named their white countenances as compared to the neighboring Indians? Interestingly the among the western Europeans considered as Lost Israelites there was an Albania in the Caucasus & later they founded another Albania (also known as Alba) in modern Scotland.

We should also take into account that that among the Kashmiris' neighboring ethnic groups there are the Pathans, a fellow Israelite ethnicity. I point at them because one of the Pashtun tribes is called Lebani & it's considered to descended from the Israelite tribe of Levi.

Population 46,000  Jammu and Kashmir (46,000)

Primary Language: Dogri (33,000 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Hindi (12,000)

Rajput, Halbatia

This name might be related to the previous, but in this case with the suffix ti, meaning of, from & even land of.

Another possibility mentioned above is the Halbati Kashmiris coming from the Israelite tribe of Levi. The Swiss are the offspring of Helvetians. Some consider them to descend from Levites & the name ha Leviti or Haelveti means Land of the Levite. The Hebrew name ha Levi, meaning the Levite, is considered to have derived the names of two communities in the Middle East: Alevis & Alawis. V, b & w have the same characters in Hebrew. So Alevis & Alawis would have an Israelite origin from the tribe of Levi.

Population 40,000  Jammu and Kashmir (40,000)

Primary Language: Dogri (33,000 speakers) Other Languages: Kashmiri (4,000) Hindi (2,400)

Sapiada

Population All Countries 300

Sapru

Sapru is a clan of Kashmiri Pandits. The majority of the caste is now living in diaspora outside the Kashmir Valley. Most Saprus are Hindus while some are Muslims. Muslim Saprus use the title Sheikh. One of the most famous Muslim Sapru is Muhammad Iqbal, the Pakistani Muslim philosopher and poet.

Sapru could be a variant of Saphir. Saphir means “beauty-town. Micah 1:11 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place. Saphir Sapher, Sepphoris, or Sephora, was the strongest place in Galilee. It was a city in the tribe of Judah, between Eleutheropolis and Ascalon. 

Saryara (Muslim traditions)

Population All Countries 3,500

Sary is another form of the Hebrew name Sarah, meaning princess. Ara can have several Hebrew meanings: altar, lion... Aryeh is the most usual form for lion in Hebrew, but "ara" is also another form.

So Saryara, among other meanings, could be translated as "Princess' Lion" or as "Princess' Altar".

The Pathans, or part of them, claim to come from the Israelite Royal House of king Saul. Maybe the Kashmiris, or part of them, had a claim of royalty at one time. It's also possible that they wanted to remember Sara, their ancestress & Abraham's wife. This could be the origin of the noun Sary (princess).

An important Kashmiri figure received the name of Lion. Nevertheless, nor Kashmir nor Asia has lions. It has many tigers, panthers..., but no lion. However lions are prominent symbols among the Pashtuns & it's the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah. Lions are native of Africa but in ancient times were numerous in Fertile Crescent. Perhaps the Saryara Kashmiris come from the tribe of Judah. Perhaps, as some Pathans come from king Saul, some Kashmiris come from king David, & as king David is a Judahite their symbol is a lion.

Sau in Afghanistan

Population 4,200  Kunar River, Sau village. Possibly refugee camps in Pakistan.

Primary Language: Savi (4,200 speakers)

A Catalonian water reservoir in the Ter river, named after the town drowned by its creation. Two Housers consider Catalonians, with the rest of Iberians as western Lost Israelites, so this Indian name is found again among western Europeans. Both might come from Saul, first Israelite king, which the some neighboring Pashtuns claim to come from.

Shaikh

Kashmiri Shaikh (Urdu: کشمیری شيخ ) mainly live in Kashmir regions of Pakistan and India. The Kashmiri Shaikhs are considered to be a clan of Punjabi Muslims of Kashmiri origin found predominantly in Pakistan Punjab and also in India.

After the advent of [Islam] into Afghanistan and South Asia, a significant number of Hindu Brahmins and Kshatriya's converted to Islam and adopted the title of Shaikh. In Punjab, they are known as Kashmiri Shaikh. The Kashmiri Shaikhs are mostly urban and some are involved in agriculture.

Shakhsaz in India

Alternate Names Kanil, Shahbaz, Shakaz, Shaksaz  Population 2,600  Jammu and Kashmir (2,600)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (2,600 speakers)

The alternate names of this Kashmiri tribe bears the name of Saka people who were in the area. The Sakas or Scythians were supposed to be Iranian speaking Lost Israelites bearing their ancestor's name Isaak. The name Kanil has the root Kan of Canaan, the home country of Israel.

Shin in Pakistan

Population 33,000  Alternate Names Astori, Dardi, Dras, Sina  Gilgit-Baltistan (33,000)

Primary Language: Shina (24,000 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Balti (2,500) Hindko, Northern (2,000) Khowar (1,600) Domaaki (600) Gujari (200) Pashto, Northern (200)

Shin is a Hebrew letter & (also spelled Šin (šīn) or Sheen) literally means "tooth", "press", and "sharp".

Astori is a name clearly derived the pagan goddess Astarte or Asteroth. The wicked Israelites adopted that middle eastern goddess & took it with them wherever they went.

Dardi is easily derived from Darda, an Israelite from Judah's tribe. 

Sina might derive from Shin or from the mountain Sinai, a mountain were Israel got his laws.

Shumashti

Shumas is a Jewish last name. Ti is a Hebrew suffix. Shamash means attendant, or caretaker in Hebrew. But what should also be noted, as that in the Hanukiya (the 9-stemed menorah of Hanuka), the central Shamash is the first candle to be lit. It is then used to light the other ones (and could be considered a caretaker for the others). The Shamash is not counted with the other candles. For example, on the third evening of Hanuka, one should light 3 candles. There are actually 4 lit candles, one of them being the Shamash. Shumash & Shamash are phonetically exact in Hebrew because Hebrew is mostly a vowelless language.

Population 1,400  Location in Country West side of Kunar Valley between Pech Valley and Jalalabad.

Primary Language: Shumashti (1,400 speakers)

Sofi in India

Jammu and Kashmir (1,300)  Primary Language: Kashmiri (1,300 speakers)

Sudhan

Are they Danites?

Population All Countries 213,000

Tarakhehas

Population All Countries 35,000

There's a hill in Ireland named Tarah. Tarah is said to be named after the Israelite Torah. Tarakh & Tarah are phonetically relared. Ehas is somewhat close to nekhas (kh is s strong h) which means brass. In ancient times in the Middle East they didn't use books. They mostly used pergamins & metal plates. The most usual metals for "writing" on plates were gold & brass. The Torah is the most important text to record on gold plates. Perhaps the Tarakhehas' ancestors were Israelite scribes.

Tirahi in Afghanistan

Tirahi might derive from Tyre, plus hi. The name Hi is a boy's name originated from the Hebrew culture. Hi means my brother is exalted.

The Danites were famous amongst the Israelites as sailors. They were neighboring the Phoenician cities of Tyre & Sidon, celebrated for the their sailing skills too. The alliance between the Phoenician king Hiram & king Solomon, made Solomon a very powerful Israelite emperor. They were partners, but since Israel had far more people, the "Phoenician" colonists were really Israelites mostly. And in many cases they were Danite Israelites. Perhaps the Tirahi Kashmiris are Danites after all.

Population 11,000  Location in Country Kandahar area.

Primary Language: Pashto, Southern

Wattal (Hindu traditions) in India

Population 1,600  Jammu and Kashmir (1,300) Himachal Pradesh (300)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (1,500 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Hindi (100) Dogri (70) Gujari (40)

Wattal (Muslim traditions)

Population All Countries 5,100

Betulah, together with other meanings, means “virgin”. It comes from the Arabic word “vatal”( בתל ) that means “separate”. As the Pashtun Israelites became Islamized by the Arab missionaries & conquerors, the Pashtuns adopted more things than just Islam. They adopted many terms from the Arabic language. This has been probably the case with the Islamized Kashmiris which most Kashmiris are. W, v & b are represented in Hebrew with the same characters. Perhaps the origin of the name Wattal is vatal, meaning virgin, separate... If the Kashmiris are Lost Israelites they're SEPARATED from their country of origin in Eretz Israel & from the rest of their Israelite brothers.

Waza in India

Waza is an Ashkenazi last name. It's used casually in Israeli Hebrew with the same meaning & origin as the American phrase "what's up". Waza might come from Wā·za·‘am,  which is a form of the Hebrew verb zaam Phonetic Spelling:(zaw-am') Short Definition:cursed Definition:to be indignant, abhor, angry, become enraged, been indignant, cursed, denounce, denounced, indignant, indignation. Perhaps the Waza Kashmiris received their name (in a shortened form) as reminder of God's indignation with them. After all the Lost Israelites because of God's indignation their breaking of His laws.

Alternate Names Wazwan  Jammu and Kashmir (1,400)

Primary Language: Kashmiri (1,400 speakers)

Wotapuri-Katarqalai in Afghanistan

Population 3,000  Location in Country Katarqalai and Wotapuri villages, Nuristan...

Primary Language: Pashto, Northern (3,000 speakers)

Yidghal in Pakistan

Population 7,900  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (7,900)

Primary Language: Yidgha (6,600 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Pashto, Northern (400) Khowar (400) Urdu (100)

Yidghal sounds very much as a corruption of the Hebrew name Yigdal. Yigdal (also Yighdal or Igdal) is a pretty popular name in modern Israel. A famous Jewish hymn is called "YIGDAL ELOHIM CHAI - אלוהים חי וישתבח יגדל - May the living Elohim become greater and be praised". The author, R. Daniyel ben Yehudah the Judge of Rome, who lived in the 13th century, lists the thirteen Principles of Faith as phrased by Maimonides in his commentary to the Mishnah. It's been popular among the two main branches of white Judaism: Ashkenazi & Sephardi. Yighdal means "magnify" in Hebrew. It is often said the Lost Israelites lost their land so that they would obey the Lord in another land. This might be the origin of the name Yidghal.

Zargar (Hindu traditions) in India

Zargar could come from the Hebrew words zar & ger. They have different, but related meanings.

What is a “ger”? What is Zar? Let’s start off with what ger means. Strong’s translates the Hebrew word ‘ger’ as stranger, sojourner, alien. It is defined as: a) a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights b) of foreigners in Israel, through conceded rights. A “ger” is one who dwells among Israel as one who is not against them, but alongside them. The ger has no inheritance rights and therefore has no way to support themselves and their family because they own no land.

The ger is listed as one of the disadvantaged people in the Torah –“the widow, the orphan and the foreigner…” They, therefore, are given special place as servants in the families of Israel.

It’s easy for non-Hebrew speakers and readers to feel a sense of confusion when one non-Hebrew is allowed to do something and another isn’t and then there’s the whole “there shall be one law for the native and the sojourner” verse that just adds to the confusion.

To be a “ger” in Israel and a servant meant you were protected, provided for, you were part of an Israelite household. And there was no shame in this! Ger is contrasted with ezrach which is a “native born” as in “native born Israelite”. Take a look at Exodus 12:19 where both the ger and the ezrach are mentioned in the same passage.

Now, to be clear there are several words that are translated as “foreigner” or “sojourner”. Let’s touch on those really quick.

Toshav is another word that often translates as “sojourner” and it is also a foreigner who has taken up residence in Israel. The key with Toshav and ger is that they sojourn “with you”. Toshav is used in Leviticus 25:45 as “strangers that do sojourn among you”.

By the times of Yeshua’s ministry and the teachings of the Emissaries, the word ger had come to mean proselyte. A proselyte is one who was not born a Jew and yet found the truth of the One True G-d and His ways, and wanted to join Israel, to convert. These people converted from paganism of whatever variety to Judaism, which was the only expression of faith in the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Jacob.

Zar is the word used in Isaiah 61:5 and speaks of an outsider, one who is estranged. Zar is a stranger, a foreigner. Zar is also the word used when speaking of strange fire. A Zar would be one who is different, and is used to describe someone who is not walking with Israel. A Zar could be a born Israelite who is doing the job that he is not supposed to (for example a non-priest doing the work of priest).

Zar is also used to speak of foreign gods, strange fire and strange incense. But the “Zar” isn’t all bad, he’s just separate because he is “strange” (not unique, but estranged). The Zar may be the one who worships the G-d of Israel but in a way that reveals a certain disregard for the Scriptures or those to whom He has entrusted them.

The Zar was not the one who later became the proselyte that was the Ger. The Zar seems to show no interest in becoming a proselyte. To my mind this resembles much of those who say worship the G-d of Israel; they say it in the Churches, but worshiping the same G-d but doing it their own way and with their own customs, traditions and interpretations. Sometimes there is hostility and sometimes there isn’t, but they are distinctly different than Israel.

Neichor (nachri) is another word for foreigner or stranger. The neichor is one who is hostile to Israel and whose allegiance is toward another god.

Deuteronomy 23:20 uses the word neichor as the stranger that is treated differently than the Israelites. It is interesting to note that Ruth called herself nochri when speaking humbly with Boaz, her ultimate redeemer.

The issue here is that there are a few words used to speak of non-Jews who have left their native land or native position to join themselves to Israel (ger and Toshav) while there are also a few words used to speak of those who are estranged from Israel and those who are hostile toward her and HaShem (Zar and neichor). Ger and Toshav are often used together with ger being the most common word used, these are like resident aliens who have joined themselves to Israel in one way or another.

In English, they all translate the same: stranger, sojourner, foreigner, alien, etc. It is important to know which type of people a particular verse is referring to and to understand that the Torah’s applications are different for the differing classes of people. It is from these classes of people that we begin to draw our identity.

So, what about the non-Jews with the Messianic Jewish movement? As non-Jews who are grafted-in to the heritage of Abraham by our faith, where do you stand in this list? Or the question might be better phrased – who do you best represent, and who are you supposed to represent?

So how does one change status from a Zar to a ger? It is our thought, that as a pagan hears of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he will have a natural progression toward the Light of the World. He will see that Israel has a Great G-d and will want to serve Him. As they turn from their pagan ways they will begin to walk more and more according to the Torah. This is the path from nochri to Zar and eventually to Ger.

Population 20,000  Jammu and Kashmir (19,000) Himachal Pradesh (800) Delhi (200) Uttarakhand (30) Haryana (30) Rajasthan (10)

Primary Language: Dogri (15,000 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Kashmiri (4,900) Urdu (400) Hindi (90) Bhadrawahi (60)

Zargar (Muslim traditions)

Population All Countries 12,000

Zargar (Sikh traditions) in India

Jammu and Kashmir (2,600)

Primary Language: Panjabi, Eastern (1,500 speakers)  Secondary Languages: Dogri (600) Kashmiri (500)

Dom (Muslim traditions)

The Doms (also known as the Doom, Dum or Dumar) have many different stories of their origin but most centre around their becoming an outcaste group because of a celebrated slaughtering of a sacred cow. The Dom is a Scheduled Caste in India and is counted among the depressed castes or 'untouchable' community in Nepal. Numbering over 2 million they can be found in over 500 of the districts of India and Nepal.

The Doms are a colorful community of South Asia. There are so many different clans and sub-groupings that it is hard to generalise about their lives. They have been traditionally defined by the low occupations of alms collecting, grave digging, cremating, drum-beating, singing, dancing, as well as the making of bamboo baskets (sirki) and mats (chatai). Of the Doms in Nepal about 25% are Muslim Dom. In their Muslim communities some have today entered into other labor jobs such as plantation workers, rickshaw-pullers and construction. In Nepal they primarily speak Nepali and are non-vegetarian.

The ministry of Jesus among the poor and outcaste is a clear call to reach out to the Muslim Dom of Nepal. There are no known workers among the Muslim Dom. The Dom of India can benefit from the education programmes but in Nepal tuition programmes and community education can lift some of the children up socially and into traditional schools for the first time.

Population in Pakistan 7,700  World Population 191,000

Alternate Names Dhangad, Domahra, Domar, Dombo, Dombo Dumna, Dombo. Dumna, Domra, Doom, Doomna, Dumar, Dumna, Mahasha, Murdafarash.

Urdu (2,900 speakers) Sindh (4,700) Punjab (3,000) Islamabad (20) Punjabi, Western (2,900) Sindhi (1,500) Saraiki (80) Marwari  Bhojpuri (1,300 speakers) Maithili (400) Uttar Pradesh (162,000) Madhya Pradesh (6,900) West Bengal (5,100) Uttarakhand (4,900) Himachal Pradesh (1,400) Punjab (20) Dhaka (300) Chittagong (200) Rangpur (200) Barisal (90) Rajshahi (90) Khulna (80) Sylhet (50)

Basith

The Basith are a Muslim, Hindu & Sikh caste found in the Indian administered area of Jammu and Kashmir and have been granted Scheduled Caste status. According to the 2001 Census of India, their population was 18,866.

According to the traditions of the Basith community, they immigrated from Chamba in Himachal Pradesh some two centuries ago to Poonch. They have a Hindu (& Sikhs) community in a predominantly Muslim region, occupying their own villages. The Basith speak Pahari, and their customs are similar to neighbouring communities such as the Domaal. However, the Basith maintain a distance from neighbouring Muslim communities with strict restrictions on commensality.

The Basith are strictly endogamous and practice clan exogamy. There clans called zaats include the Chatriyal, Chimal, Raine, and Salotre, each of which have their own origin myth. A number of zaats then form a gotra, for example the Chatriyal belong to the Changin gotra and the Chimal belong to the Pardwari gotra. Like many North Indian Hindus, the Basith have an informal caste council called a biradari panchayat. Each of their settlement contains this informal body, headed by a chaudhary. The panchayat deals with all intra community disputes, and as well as those who breach community norms. Marriage outwith the caste is strictly discouraged, and those who transgress this are excommunicated. The Basith are Hindu of the Satnami sect. They worship all deities of the Hindi pantheon besides have their clan gods and goddesses called kul-devitas.

Burushos

The Hebrew word Pur neans "a lot". This is the meaning of the Jewish feast Purim. Hebrew language scholar believe that could be a loanword from the Assyrian word "buru". The Hebrew word "sho" means (apart from other things) devastation, ruin, waste... & it's related to the word shoah, meaning "calamity" in Hebrew. So Burusho would mean "great devastation" & the Lost Tribes of Israel suffered a great devastation when they were invaded by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were known for their ruthlessness in the ancient world. They are compared very often with the nazi Germans in the 20th century.

Total population 87,000 (2000)

Regions with significant populations Chitral District, Hunza, Pakistan

Languages Burushaski, Khowar

Religion Ismaili Islam, Historically Shamanism

Ismaili Islam is considered to be a religion of Israelite origin.

                                               Hunza Rajah and Tribesmen in 19th century.

The Burusho or Brusho people live in the Hunza, Nagar and Chitral District, and valleys of Gilgit–Baltistan in northern Pakistan. They are predominantly Muslims. Their language, Burushaski, has not been shown to be related to any other.

Coat of arms of the Hunza State. A lion holds the Hunza State flag. Lions are native of Africa and, in olden times, of the middle eastern areas. The lion is a symbol of Judah. Perhaps the Burushos are Judahites. Apart from the lion their Dardic origin seems to indicate that Darda, Judah's grandchild, was their ancestor. Moreover, the Davidic royal lines descended from two of Judah's sons: Zarah & Phares. Darda was Zarah's son.

The Hunzakuts or Hunza people, are an ethnically Burusho people indigenous to the Hunza Valley, in the Karakorum Mountains of northern Pakistan. They are descended from inhabitants of the former principality of Hunza. The Burusho claim to be descendants of the soldiers who came to the region with Alexander the Great's army in the 4th century BC.

DNA research groups the people of Hunza with Sinti Romani (Gypsies) and the speakers of Bartangi (Pamir language), primarily because of the M124 marker (defining Y-DNA haplogroup R2a), which is present at high frequency in all three populations. However, they have also an East Asian genetic contribution, suggesting that at least some of their ancestry originates north of the Himalayas.

Hunzakuts and the Hunza region have relatively high literacy rates, compared to similar districts in Pakistan. Hunza is a major tourist attraction in Pakistan, and many domestic and foreign tourists travel to the region to enjoy the picturesque landscape and stunning mountains of the area. The district has many modern amenities and is quite advanced by Asian standards. Local legend states that Hunza may have been associated with the lost kingdom of Shangri-La.

The Hunzakuts live alongside the Wakhi and the Shina. The Wakhi reside in the upper part of Hunza locally called Gojal. Wakhis also inhabit the bordering regions of China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan and also live in Gizar and Chitral district of Pakistan. The Shina-speaking people live in the southern part of Hunza. They have come from Chilas, Gilgit, and other Shina-speaking areas of Pakistan.

Genetic evidence supports only 2% Greek genetic component among the Pashtun ethnic group of Pakistan and Afghanistan, not the Burusho.

Burusho legend maintains that they descend from the village of Baltir, which had been founded by a soldier left behind from the army of Alexander the Great, a legend common to much of northern Pakistan. In 2008, the Macedonian Institute for Strategic Researches "16.9" organized a visit by Hunza Prince Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Princess Rani Atiqa as descendants of the Alexandran army.

The Hunza delegation was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the then mayor of Skopje Trifun Kostovski. Academics dismiss the idea as pseudoscience, and doubts exist that party leaders actually believe the claims either.

Macedonia claims descent from the ancient Macedonians, but the current Macedonians are Slavians. In order to inforce their claim they have been in touch with some Burushos. Greece plays the same game, funding cultural centers and schools for the Kalash, another set of Alexander claimants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the 1930s, scientists in Nazi Germany also combed the Himalayas in search of lost Aryan cousins. All of them are searching in vain because they're nothing but Lost Israelites. That's what those lost Aryans really are, both Burushos (which are part of the ethnic Kashmiris) & Kalashas.

A variety of Y-DNA haplogroups are seen among the Burusho. Most frequent among these are R1a1 and R2a, which probably originated in Central Asia during the Upper Paleolithic. R2a, unlike its extremely rare parent R2, R1a1 and other clades of haplogroup R, is now virtually restricted to South Asia. Two other typically South Asian lineages, haplogroup H1 and haplogroup L3 (defined by SNP mutation M20) are also common among the Burusho.

Other Y-DNA haplogroups reaching considerable frequencies among the Burusho are haplogroup J2, associated with the spread of agriculture in, and from, the neolithic Near East, and haplogroup C3, of Siberian origin and possibly representing the patrilineage of Genghis Khan. Also present at lower frequency are haplogroups O3, an East Eurasian lineage, and Q, P, F, and G.

DNA research groups the male ancestry of the Hunza with speakers of Pamir languages and the Sinti Romani (Gypsies), due primarily to the M124 marker (defining Y-DNA haplogroup R2a), which is present at high frequency in all three populations. However, they have also an East Asian genetic contribution, suggesting that at least some of their ancestry originates north of the Himalayas.

Healthy living advocate J. I. Rodale wrote a book called The Healthy Hunzas in 1955 that asserted that the Hunzas, noted for their longevity and many centenarians, were long-lived because of their consumption of healthy organic foods such as dried apricots and almonds, as well as their getting plenty of fresh air and exercise. He often mentioned them in his Prevention magazine as exemplary of the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle.

Dangarik

Two Housers consider Scandinavians (& other western Europeans) as Lost Israelites. There are many names, last names, toponyms...in common between western Europeans (especially Scandinavians) & Pathans, but also Kashmiris. The first ones are western Lost Israelites & the second ones are eastern Lost Israelites. The Scandinavian Danes are considered as Dan's offspring. Garik is a Scandinavian Norse name meaning Warrior archer. The Scythians (Israelite ancestors of western Europeans & some peoples from the Indian sub continent) were celebrated for their expertise as bowmen.

In these maps we see first the great span of the Scythian Israelite & Parthian Israelite empires while in the next we see the Israelite empire of the Indo-Scythians. The Indo-Scythians were just Scythian remnants that established in India. Both Scythian Israelite empires either spanned parts of Kashmir or were next to it. So it shouldn't be strange to find Kashmiri toponyms, names... similar to western European ones like Ganz, Garik...

Garwi Kohistani

Garwi is once more a name similar to a western European name, Garwin, both being two streams of the Lost Israelites. The next two paragraphs give some explanation.

Garwin /gar-win/ as a name for boys is of Old English derivation, and Garwin means "spear-friend". Garwin is an alternate form of Garvin (Old English) with the suffix -win. Moreover, Garvi is a last name in Navarre, north Spain.

Variations: Garwin has 3 variants: Garwen, Garwyn and Garwynn. Garwin has 3 more alternative forms via Garvin: Garvan, Garven and Garvyn.

The Kohistani tribes live along the upper banks of the Swat and Panjkora Rivers in northern Pakistan, with a few in Afghanistan. They can also be found along the east bank of the Indus River and its tributaries, which run through the Kohistan district near the border of Afghanistan. This region of Pakistan contains some of the world's loftiest mountain peaks, deepest valleys, and largest glaciers.

The British gained control of this territory around 1895, but left in 1947 when Pakistan became an independent nation. Yet, the Pushtun have dominated the Kohistani for years, either buying their land or forcing them out with violence.

Today, there are several different ethnic groups living in the Kohistan region that are subgroups of the Kohistani people. They include the Turvali, the Bateri, the Galo (this name is one form of Gallian, so related to Celtic Lost Israelites, or other toponyms and names like Galoway, Gael, Galatia, Galicia...all derived from the Hebrew gallut, meaning diaspora) Rajkoti, and the Kohistani themselves. The tribes speak several distinct Dardic dialects, but their main language of communication is Pashto, the language of the dominant Pushtun ethnic group. The Kohistani have been described as a powerful, well-built, brave, but quiet people.

What Are Their Lives Like? The Kohistani tribes are located in the narrow valleys formed by the tributaries of the Indus, where irrigation is possible. Since the Indus River flows through a steep rocky gorge, it is useless for irrigation. The people are primarily farmers and shepherds. Grain is planted on terraced fields and bulls are used for plowing. There is very little rain, so the crops are irrigated by water channels known as kuhls, which require constant and skillful management.

In the areas that are irrigated by the kuhls, the Kohistani raise barley, wheat, maize, millet, and rice, supplemented by potatoes and a variety of other vegetables. Since they can only grow one annual crop, the people rely on the "transhumant" herding of their dairy goats and cattle. This means that they transfer their livestock from one grazing ground to another with the changing of seasons. During the summer months, they leave their permanent villages and drive the cattle, goats, and sheep to alpine pastures.

The surrounding mountain ranges and the Afghanistan border tend to isolate the Kohistani. Most of their settlements exist as small independent communities, located at altitudes between 1,000 and 4,500 meters. Families usually have houses in four or five different locations at the higher altitudes. Only in the winter do they live together in their compact villages, which lie along the rivers.

Kohistani villages are made up of several lineages. In addition to farmers, a village population normally includes blacksmiths and carpenters who are bilingual in Pashto. There are also a number of tenant farmers and hired farm laborers.

The Kohistani generally practice endogamy, meaning that they only marry within their own groups. Their societies are also patrilineal, which means that the line of descent is traced through the males. The women are not secluded, as is customary among many other Muslim groups, because they are needed to help with the farm work.

The opening of the Karakoram Highway, which follows the Indus River Valley, has had the greatest economic impact on the Kohistani society. Although the extensive road-building project is providing them with greater access to the mainstream of Pakistani society, it is also encouraging the influx of Pushtun from farther south. There is a growing resentment among the Kohistani toward the Pushtun, who dominate bureaucracy in the district government. However, the government of Pakistan has created the Kohistan district in order to give the Indus Kohistani their own administrative area.

What Are Their Beliefs? Centuries ago, the area of northern Pakistan was primarily Buddhist. Later, Buddhism was replaced by Hinduism. However, around 1000 A.D., the Islamic faith spread through the region. At that time, the Kohistani converted from their polytheistic Aryan beliefs to Sunni (orthodox) Islam.

Traces of traditional, pre-Islamic beliefs still linger in a few areas. Some of the tribes practice shamanism. They believe that there is an unseen world of gods, demons, fairies, and ancestral spirits. They depend on shamans (priests or priestesses) to cure the sick by magic, communicate with the gods, and control events. They are Keeping in a way with the pagan traditions of the wicked Israelites.

Gawar Narisati, Arandui in Afghanistan

Hebrew characters often represent more than one consonant. For example v, w, b are represented by the same character. Gabar in Hebrew means to be strong, mighty... So Gawar would only be another pronunciation of the same Hebrew name. And indeed Gabr is another form of the same name.

Arandi could mean in Hebrew "country of wild goats". That's what a high land like Kashmir is. Aran is wild goat, while di, could easily be a variant of ti, meaning land of.

The Narisati, Arandi are primarily found in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many live in mountain valleys in southern Chitral, Arandu, and several villages along the Kunar River south of Arandu. There are about eight or nine Narisati villages in the Kunar Valley.

What Are Their Lives Like? These people are further divided into three subgroups, the Sniardai, Sultana, and Afghanis. The Arandui live in the southern part of northern Pakistan's Chitral district, which is situated among some of the world's largest mountain peaks; the lowest elevation in the area is 3,600 ft. This district is cut off from the rest of the country during six months of the year due to snow. Deep valleys and powerful rivers are mixed in between the mountainous slopes. Embroidery, finger rings, rugs, woodwork, and fruit are items common to the area.

The Narisati, Arandi are primarily found in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many live in mountain valleys in southern Chitral, Arandu, and several villages along the Kunar River south of Arandu. There are about eight or nine Narisati villages in the Kunar Valley.

What Are Their Lives Like? These people are further divided into three subgroups, the Sniardai, Sultana, and Afghanis. The Arandui live in the southern part of northern Pakistan's Chitral district, which is situated among some of the world's largest mountain peaks; the lowest elevation in the area is 3,600 ft. This district is cut off from the rest of the country during six months of the year due to snow. Deep valleys and powerful rivers are mixed in between the mountainous slopes. Embroidery, finger rings, rugs, woodwork, and fruit are items common to the area.

What Are Their Beliefs? This people group of Afghani origin is unreached with the gospel. Sunni Islam is the practiced religion and there are no known Christian believers among them. Gawar-Bati is their heart language in which they need resources. Many are bilingual in Pashto. Sunni Islam is the practiced religion. Gawar-Bati is their heart language in which they need resources. Many are bilingual in Pashto.

Galo, Maiyon or Indus Kohistani in Afghanistan

They have the very name of the Celts in ancient France. Galo is believed to come from the Hebrew word galut, meaning diaspora.

Maiyon is close phonetically to Maion. Maion is a Hebrew name meaning "angel of self discipline who inspires self control and the ability to work hard"

The Kohistani tribes live along the upper banks of the Swat and Panjkora Rivers in northern Pakistan, with a few in Afghanistan. They can also be found along the east bank of the Indus River and its tributaries, which run through the Kohistan district near the border of Afghanistan. This region of Pakistan contains some of the world's loftiest mountain peaks, deepest valleys, and largest glaciers.

The British gained control of this territory around 1895, but left in 1947 when Pakistan became an independent nation. Yet, the Pushtun have dominated the Kohistani for years, either buying their land or forcing them out with violence.

Today, there are several different ethnic groups living in the Kohistan region that are subgroups of the Kohistani people. They include the Turvali, the Bateri, the Galo, the Rajkoti, and the Kohistani themselves. The tribes speak several distinct Dardic dialects, but their main language of communication is Pashto, the language of the dominant Pushtun ethnic group. The Kohistani have been described as a powerful, well-built, brave, but quiet people.

What Are Their Lives Like? The Kohistani tribes are located in the narrow valleys formed by the tributaries of the Indus, where irrigation is possible. Since the Indus River flows through a steep rocky gorge, it is useless for irrigation. The people are primarily farmers and shepherds. Grain is planted on terraced fields and bulls are used for plowing. There is very little rain, so the crops are irrigated by water channels known as kuhls, which require constant and skillful management.

In the areas that are irrigated by the kuhls, the Kohistani raise barley, wheat, maize, millet, and rice, supplemented by potatoes and a variety of other vegetables. Since they can only grow one annual crop, the people rely on the "transhumant" herding of their dairy goats and cattle. This means that they transfer their livestock from one grazing ground to another with the changing of seasons. During the summer months, they leave their permanent villages and drive the cattle, goats, and sheep to alpine pastures.

The surrounding mountain ranges and the Afghanistan border tend to isolate the Kohistani. Most of their settlements exist as small independent communities, located at altitudes between 1,000 and 4,500 meters. Families usually have houses in four or five different locations at the higher altitudes. Only in the winter do they live together in their compact villages, which lie along the rivers.

Kohistani villages are made up of several lineages. In addition to farmers, a village population normally includes blacksmiths and carpenters who are bilingual in Pashto. There are also a number of tenant farmers and hired farm laborers.

The Kohistani generally practice endogamy, meaning that they only marry within their own groups. Their societies are also patrilineal, which means that the line of descent is traced through the males. The women are not secluded, as is customary among many other Muslim groups, because they are needed to help with the farm work.

The opening of the Karakoram Highway, which follows the Indus River Valley, has had the greatest economic impact on the Kohistani society. Although the extensive road-building project is providing them with greater access to the mainstream of Pakistani society, it is also encouraging the influx of Pushtun from farther south. There is a growing resentment among the Kohistani toward the Pushtun, who dominate bureaucracy in the district government. However, the government of Pakistan has created the Kohistan district in order to give the Indus Kohistani their own administrative area.

What Are Their Beliefs? Centuries ago, the area of northern Pakistan was primarily Buddhist. Later, Buddhism was replaced by Hinduism. However, around 1000 A.D., the Islamic faith spread through the region. At that time, the Kohistani converted from their polytheistic Aryan beliefs (evolved middle eastern paganism really) to Sunni (orthodox) Islam.

Traces of traditional, pre-Islamic beliefs still linger in a few areas. Some of the tribes practice shamanism. They believe that there is an unseen world of gods, demons, fairies, and ancestral spirits. They depend on shamans (priests or priestesses) to cure the sick by magic, communicate with the gods, and control events.

Jangam (Muslim traditions)

Jan would be a variant of Yan.

The Hebrew word Yan, means "whom Jehovah answers". The Hebrew word gam means to gather together as a group of animals gathering at the water hole to drink. So Yangam or Jangam would mean in Hebrew something like "gather together who Jehovah answers". Who else would answer & gather together Jehovah except the Lost Tribes of Israel? They might be related with the Jangams from farther south.

The Jangam or Jangama are a Shaivite order of wandering religious monks. They are the priests or gurus of the Shaivite sect of Lingāyats.

They migrated from Karnataka and from Andhra Pradesh in order to propagate the Shaivaite cult and to act as priests for those who do not avail the services of Brahmans for performing religious rites. Many jangam live in Tamil Nadu, specifically, and in Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Dharmapuri, Madurai, Theni, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Erode, Thirupur, Villupuram,[Arni] and Coimbatore, Pudukottai, Salem, Kanchipuram, Thiruvellore, Trichy and Chennai (Madras) districts.

The word Jangam is derived from the movable emblem (linga) of Lord Shiva. It is also called the swamy.

As seen above, the Jangams of the south are a priestly caste & they are devoted to an Hindu god known as Lord. This resembles the Israelite devotion to the Lord that eventually was oriented to pagan gods that deviated Israel's heart from the true Lord Jehovah. In the same there was priestly tribe: Levi. Perhaps the Jangams were originally Levites.

Perhaps if they were Levites they stayed longer faithful to the Lord & from that loyalty they received the Hebrew name Jangam or Yangam meaning "gather together who Jehovah answers".

Kavoj

In local languages the sound d is often rendered as j, so the word Kavoj could come from the Hebrew word kavod. The Hebrew kavod is related to kaved, meaning “heavy”, honor, respect, dignity, community...qualities of high regard in olden Israel & the whole middle eastern areas.

Khorasan. Kavoj is a mountain near Kahijeh, Khorasan, Iran. And the Lost Ten Tribes were sent into exile and captivity in Khorasan, now part of eastern Iran and western Afghanistan. Interestingly Kavoj is not only a toponym in the first areas were the Lost Israelites were first placed, but in southern Finland. Finland is one western Lost Israelite nation.

Kamangar

The Kamangar is a Muslim community, found in North India, Dist. Chiniot, South Punjab, North Sindh and South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.

The name of the community is derived from the two Persian words Kamaan, which means a bow, and Gar which means maker. Thus Kamangar means bow-makers or weapon-makers. Kamangar must not confused with Kamboh.

Kamangar originated from Turkic and Pashtun communities. They migrated into Sindh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh from Rewari in Haryana, accompanying the Mughal armies. Kamangar is a tribe in Iran. Living in the West, Kurdistan and Kermanshah and kamyaran. The Kamangars were originally believed to be Turkic and Pashtun soldiers who ended up as Lohar (Blacksmith). The Kurds are Lost Israelites & these three areas are Kurdish areas. Kamangar is a common Kurdish last name. It's obvious to conclude that the Irani Kamangars are part of the Kurds while the ones in India are mixed with Turks & Pashtuns as said above. I would add that the Kurds as Lost Israelites became known as Pashtuns in Afghanistan because the local Pashtuns were fellow Lost Israelites & finally in India they were known sometimes by other names.

The Kamangar found throughout North India, with communities in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. They are also found in Pakistan, particularly in the province of Sindh and South Punjab.

The traditional occupation of the Kamangar was the making of bows and arrows. They now manufacture toys made of bamboo, as well as Ta'ziya for Ashura. The community is urban and semi-urban, and many are now wage labourers. Many have also been involved in drawing pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses. They have other Backward caste status. The community in Uttar Pradesh are found in Fatehpur, Ferozabad, Budaun, Agra, Varanasi, Sultanpur and Eta, while in Gujarat they are found in Kutch, Mandvi, Bhuj, and Mundra. In Uttar Pradesh, the community speak Urdu and various local dialects like Braj Bhasha and Khari Boli. They have a caste council that deals with disputes within their community. The community belong to the Sunni sects of Islam.

There is a community of Kamangar found in the districts of Sukkur, Shikarpur, Multan and Dadu, in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab in Pakistan. A well known Kamangar family is living in Distt. Chiniot Punjab. They migrated from Afghanistan in 17th century and permanently settled at Mohallah Kamangran. Are Sukkur & Shikarpur names coming from Issakkar? These cities might have been founded by Isacharites. The Kamangars might have been the founders & therefore Isakkarites. Since David is in Hebrew phonetics DWD, the same as Dadu, then Dadu might have been founded by Israelites after their celebrated king. 

Sunni Islam is dominant following Deobandi and Salafi School of Thoughts.

Chamar

Are the Chamar people a caste of ethnic Kashmiris or they are just Kashmiris by geography?

Chamar (pronounced hamar) is a Hebrew word meaning to ferment, boil, foam up...

Chamar is one of the untouchable communities, or dalits, who are now classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of positive discrimination. As untouchables, they were traditionally considered outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. They are found mainly in the northern states of India and in Pakistan and Nepal.

Ramnarayan Rawat posits that the association of the Chamar community with a traditional occupation of tanning was constructed, and that the Chamars were instead historically agriculturists.

The term chamar has also been used as a pejorative word for anyone whom the describer considers to be of low standing.

Chuhra or Chura

Chura or Bhanghi is a caste in India and a tribe in Pakistan.  Populated regions include the Punjab region.

Their traditional occupation is sweeping, a "polluting" occupation that caused them to be considered untouchables in the Hindu caste system.

Kraal

Kraal is an Ashkenazi last name. Other variants are: Carel, Carl, Charul, Cherel, Cirola, Couriel, Crol, Curiel, Cyrel, Gorali, Gorel, Grala, Gril, Gryl, Gurjol (the Gurjars, at least some, are regarded as Kashmiri), Herlij, Kahril, Karel (Karelia was a Finn Israelite region that the Russians took from the Finns), Kariel (idem), Karl (any relation to Karelia & the Karlani Pashtuns?), Karol (idem), Karolyi (idem), Keral, Koral, Korl, Korol, Korolyi Krel, Krela, Kroel, Krol, Kruel, Krul, Kryl, Kuriel. Kraal is the name of fenced property for animals in South Africa. It's a word with Dutch roots. Graal is a similar word & possibly related. Graal is an ancient name for the Holy Grail. Graal-Müritz is a little town in Germany.

Kumangar

Kumangar can be composed of the Semitic words Kuman & gar.

In Hebrew the middle matzo of the three matzot or matzos is divided into two halves - one a smaller half and the other a larger half - with the larger half known as the "Afikoman" or "Afikomen", which is the Hebrew word for the Aramaic words "Afi Kuman", meaning "dessert".

Gar is a form of ger, meaning convert in Hebrew.

If gar is convert & kuman is matzo, then Kumangar would be "matzo converts". The Israelites became converts to the law of Moses long after they converted to Passover festivity & matzo eating. Eating matzo is a great form to commemorate the liberation of Israel from pharaoh.

Kumhiar

The Kumhiar Kashmiris might have been related to the geographically not distant Kumhars. In fact their name (Kumhar) in Hebrew could be translated as "arise on the mountainous".

                                                                   Pakistani Kumhar

This is a very scriptural term. The Israelites gave great importance to mountains, especially to mountain tops as a scripture says in Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!". The most celebrated of Abraham's sacrifices was performed on mount Moriah were eventually would be erected Solomon's Temple. Even the 10 commandments were received on mount Horeb. Are the Kumhar Israelites then?

Kum is a Hebrew word meaning to arise, stand up, stand... Hiar is possibly deformación of the Hebrew har, meaning mountain. In previous paragraph there's of what Kumhar would mean.

Pashayi

Total population (Approx. 500,000)

Regions with significant populations Laghman, Kapisa and Nangarhar

Languages Pashai language Pashto also spoken as second language

Religion Islam

Related ethnic groups Pashtuns, Kalash, Nuristani and Kashmiris

Pashayi or Pashai are a Dardic ethno-linguistic group living primarily in eastern Afghanistan. Their total population is estimated to be 500,000.

They are mainly concentrated in the northern parts of Laghman, Nangarhar, Kunar, Kapisa, Kabul, Baghlan, Nuristan, and also in Ghazni. Some believe the Pashai are descendants of ancient Gāndhārī. Many Pashai consider themselves Pashtuns speaking a special language, and many are bilingual in Pashto. Pashai communities can also be found in the Chitral district of northwestern Pakistan. The majority of Pashai are Sunni Muslims and are often referred to as Kohistani, while a minority are Nizari Ismaili Muslims. Ismaili religion is a crypto Jewish religion.

The Northwest Pashayi, also called the Laurowan, Pashai, and Pasyayi, are of the Kashmiri people cluster. They live in Afghanistan, mostly in the valleys of the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan. They tend to live in valleys located near major river systems. The Northwest Pashayi mostly live in the area between Gulbahar and Nuristan Provinces along the Alingar River, especially in the Alisheng Valley and the valleys that are north of Sarobi.

What Are Their Lives Like? Very few people actually refer to themselves as Pashayi, rather they call themselves Safi, Kohistanis, or Nuristanis.

Pashayi, a Dardic language, is their primary language and has many dialects. The northwestern Pashayi speak the northwestern dialect of Pashayi, which is unintelligible to other Pashayi speakers. The literacy rate for their first language is less than one percent and the literacy rate for their second language is between five and fifteen percent.

It is believed that the Pashayi once inhabited the northeastern plains of Afghanistan, however were forced to move to the mountains as the Pashtun invaded their areas.

The Pashayi are mostly rice farmers, for those living at lower elevations, and wheat and maize farmers and herders, for those living at the higher elevations.

Pashayi are tribal people. They are often lead by a village council which is the authority on issues affecting the entire village. The council is composed of extended family members from each family unit. Personal disputes are left to be resolved by the individual who was hurt in some way, which often leads to feuds.

The Pashayi value masculinity and honor more than anything else. The idea of an ideal man among the Pashayi is a man who is a proud warrior, one who is loyal to his family, one who is dangerous to his enemies, and a man who is always prepared for a feud when necessary.

The Pashayi culture has a rich tradition of songs and folklore which is passed down by oral tradition. Songs are often sung about their culture and traditionally, around harvest time, the young people in the village travel to other villages to sing the songs they'd composed throughout the year.

What Are Their Beliefs? The Pashayi converted to Islam in the late sixteenth century. They are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafite sect. Many Pashayi have some Folk Islamic practices, and it is not uncommon for Pashayi men to leave their communities to study under Pakistani or Afghani holy men. Shrines dedicated to saints are found throughout their areas.

Pashayi, Southwest in Afghanistan

The Southwest Pashayi, also called the Tagau, Pashai, and Pasyayi, are of the Kashmiri people cluster. They live in Afghanistan, mostly in the valleys of the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan. They tend to live in valleys located near major river systems. The Southwest Pashayi mostly live the Tagau Valley, north of Sarobi, northeast of Kabul.

What Are Their Lives Like? Very few people actually refer to themselves as Pashayi, rather they call themselves Safi, Kohistanis, or Nuristanis.

Pashayi, a Dardic language, is their primary language and has many dialects. The Southwestern Pashayi speak the Southwest dialect of Pashayi, which is unintelligible to other Pashayi speakers. The literacy rate for their first language is less than one percent and the literacy rate for their second language is between five and fifteen percent.

It is believed that the Pashayi once inhabited the northeastern plains of Afghanistan, but were forced to move to the mountains as the Pashtun invaded their areas.

The Pashayi are mostly rice farmers, for those living at lower elevations, and wheat and maize farmers and herders, for those living at the higher elevations.

Pashayi are tribal people. They are often lead by a village council which is the authority on issues affecting the entire village. The council is composed of extended family members from each family unit. Personal disputes are left to be resolved by the individual who was hurt in some way, which often leads to feuds.

The Pashayi value masculinity and honor more than anything else. The idea of an ideal man among the Pashayi is a man who is a proud warrior, one who is loyal to his family, one who is dangerous to his enemies, and a man who is always prepared for a feud if necessary.

The Pashayi culture has a rich tradition of songs and folklore which is passed down by oral tradition. Songs are often sung about their culture and traditionally, around harvest time, the young people in the village travel to other villages to sing the songs they'd composed throughout the year. Most Pashayi men carries a knife or a gun.

What Are Their Beliefs? The Pashayi converted to Islam in the late sixteenth century. They are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafite sect. Many Pashayi have some folk Islamic practices, and it is not uncommon for Pashayi men to leave their communities to study under Pakistani or Afghani holy men. Shrines dedicated to saints are found throughout their areas.

Pashayi, Southeast in Afghanistan

The Southeast Pashayi, also called the Darai-Nur, Pashai, and Pasyayi, are of the Kashmiri people cluster.

They live in Afghanistan, mostly in the valleys of the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan. They tend to live in valleys located near major river systems. The Southeast Pashayi mostly live in the Upper and Lower Darrai Nur Valley, Damenche, and Shale. They are found in the Nangarhar Province and in the southern part of the Laghman Province.

What Are Their Lives Like? Very few people actually refer to themselves as Pashayi, rather they call themselves Safi, Kohistanis, or Nuristanis.

Pashayi, a Dardic language, is their primary language and has many dialects. The Southeastern Pashayi speak the Southeast dialect of Pashayi, which is unintelligible to other Pashayi speakers. The literacy rate for their first language is les than one percent and the literacy rate for their second language is between five and fifteen percent.

It is believed that the Pashayi once inhabited the northeastern plains of Afghanistan, however were forced to move to the mountains as the Pashtun invaded their areas.

The Pashayi are mostly rice farmers, for those living at lower elevations, and wheat and maize farmers and herders, for those living at the higher elevations.

Pashayi are tribal people. They are often lead by a village council which is the authority on issues affecting the entire village. The council is composed of extended family members from each family unit. Personal disputes are left to be resolved by the individual who was hurt in some way, which often leads to feuds.

The Pashayi value masculinity and honor more than anything else. The idea of an ideal man among the Pashayi is a man who is a proud warrior, one who is loyal to his family, one who is dangerous to his enemies, and a man who is always prepared for a feud when necessary. Every Pashayi man carries a knife or a gun.

The Divine Mission to Restore the Lost Sheep (Tribes) of the House of Israel

Todd assigns Scythian origin to the Rajputs. Scythians came to be known as Sakas in South Asia, and were absorbed in the Hindu fold as Kshatryas. Sakas, Yavannas (Greco-Bactrians), Pallavas (Parthians) ultimately became Kshatryas. The Huns are known to have been regarded as one of the 36 clans of Rajputs. However, except for the Huns, all others had mostly adopted Buddhism mixed with their religions (like Saka sun-worship).

Along with their Islamic brethren in the Jammu and Kashmir regions, their related tribal brothers of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel were also intermingling in central and eastern Pakistan, aligning themselves with Punjabs of Northern India. 

Three Messiahs, Three Religions from the Loins of the Patriarch Abraham the Prophet

The strangest of all the mysteries as we arrive at the time of the end are the conflicting messiahs between the Christians, the Muslims, and the Jews, where to each, theirs is the only Messiah.  In reality, when we study each of their historical traditions, they could really be a portrayal of the same divine manifestations of the same “Person” in different events at the time of the end, seen through the prisms of three different religious traditions.

The Christians believe in one Messiah who will come with two appearances on this earth; the first in the 1st century CE when he came as the Prince of David Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus the son of Joseph) and the second coming will be the returning King Messiah Yahshua as the Prince of David, the (Messiah son of David) who will return as the “King of kings and the Lord of lords.”

The Jewish traditions of the Maschiach (Messiah) are also that He will make two appearances, but both of these will be at the time of the end.  They are expecting the Maschiach ben Yosef (Messiah son of Joseph) who will come to lead the Jewish faithful during the days of great upheaval before the final days of the apocalypse.  The Jewish traditions are nonspecific as to the timing of the Messiah’s arrival, or the length of time between the revelation of His arrival and His death.  The Messiah son of Joseph will die in battle, but whose apocalyptic demise will herald the arrival of the Maschiach ben David (Messiah son of David).

The Arrival of the 12th Islamic Imam, the Mahdi as the “Guided One”

The coming of the Jewish Messiah son of David is specifically timed by the Jewish prophet Zechariah to occur during the “Great Day of the Lord” in which all nations will gather to battle against Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:1-4 – “Behold the day of the Lord is coming and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished.  Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from the east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.”

The Islamic traditions of the Messiah are also that He will make two appearances.  Also both of these appearances will be at the time of the end. They are expecting the arrival of the “Guided One” who is called “The Mahdi”.  He also will lead the Islamic faithful through days of great tribulations and apocalyptic wars and will die in battle for His people.  The death of the Mahdi will herald the arrival of the Islamic Messiah, Isi ben Miriam (Jesus son of Mary).

A Little Israel in Himachal, India. Is this why there's a Galaad (Jalad) There?

Kasol is a small village in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. The village is resting on the lap of Outer Himalyan range or Shivalik. The village is so small that one can walk two ends in half an hour. There are good moterable roads from Kullu to Manikran via Malana and Kasol. You can enjoy driving and see the beautiful apples and pines trees on the both sides of road.

Kasol is situated in Parvati valley, on the banks of Parvati River, on the way between Bhuntar and Manikran. Manikaran is a Sikh and Hindu pilgrimage centre. Kasol is located 42 km east of Kullu at the height of 1640 meters. Kasol is partitioned into Old Kasol and New Kasol on the either side of the bridge.

The village has thick deodar (pine) forest as the crown, river Parvati wetting its feet, mountains made of black hard-rock. Making a perfect backdrop for the village. It is assumed that parvati valley is a tapobhumi of lord Shiva.

Kasol is a hub to backpackers especially Israelis. The village is a mini Israel, the mostly hotels, restaurants and the local business banners and boards are in Hebrew. Almost all localite can speak the Hebrew language. Israelis roaming around, German bakeries, Cafes serving of best Israeli food is all that one could see. It is all on 2km long road, making you feel that you are out of India.

Once a remote village is now obsolete place, crowded by large numbers of foreigners. One can see Internet Cafes, restaurants offering a multi cuisine menu with Israeli, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Indian and Tibetan food and open air Cafes selling junk food.

Everything in Kasol is a must check, from Israeli cafe's to the beautiful scenery out. The Mountains are half snow covered in most of seasons and in December and January its killing chill out there in Kasol.

ISRAELIS ALSO ADMIRE THE FACT THAT IN INDIA, THE JEWS ARE ARMY GENERALS, MAYORS, GOVERNORS & HOLD MANY RSPONSIBLE POSITIONS IN SHAPING INDIA'S FUTURE. THEY LIVE HERE AS AN INTEGERAL PART OF OUR SOCIETY. LOVE YOU JEWS. THIS IS ALSO YOUR HOME AFTER ISRAEL.

Pohul in India

The vast majority of Dardic peoples are Muslim. They follow a number of different sects. The Kashmiri, Pashayi, Kohistani, and Kho peoples are majority Sunni, while the Shina and Burusho peoples are majority Shia Ismaili and Twelver. Some in Gilgit-Baltistan follow Sofia Noorbakhshia, a Sufi order.

A minority in Chitral are polytheistic Kalash. They are exceptional in having retained their ancestral polytheistic religion and are officially protected by the Government of Pakistan.

The Brokpa of Ladakh are nominally Buddhists. However, they still retain marked traces of their pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos.

Social status

As of 2001, the Brokpa were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination.

Purig-Pa

The Purigpa are a community found in Jammu and Kashmir in India. Social status: As of 2001, the Purigpa were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination.

Dardic peoples

                                                                          Kalash girl

Regions with significant populations Gilgit–Baltistan (Pakistan) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) Jammu and Kashmir (India)

Languages Dardic languages

Religion majority Islam (Sunni, Shia, & Sofia Noorbakhshia), minority Kalash and Buddhism

Related ethnic groups Nuristani people

The Dard people are an ethnic group found predominantly in northern Pakistan, north west India, and eastern Afghanistan. They speak the Indo-Aryan Dardic languages. The largest populations are in Gilgit–Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and in Kashmir, India. There are smaller populations in Ladakh, India and eastern Afghanistan. The Kashmiri people are the largest group, with over 5.5 million members.

During Swati rule, the Dard people predominantly followed the Kalash religion and frequent small-scale jihad against Dards may have been a routine.

The vast majority of Dardic peoples are Muslim. They follow a number of different sects. The Kashmiri, Pashayi, Kohistani, and Kho peoples are majority Sunni, while the Shina and Burusho peoples are majority Shia Ismaili and Twelver. Some in Gilgit-Baltistan follow Sofia Noorbakhshia, a Sufi order.

A minority in Chitral are polytheistic Kalash. They are exceptional in having retained their ancestral polytheistic religion and are officially protected by the Government of Pakistan.

The Brokpa of Ladakh are nominally Buddhists. However, they still retain marked traces of their pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos.

Social status

As of 2001, the Brokpa were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination.

Gaddi

Population in India 596,000 World Population 641,000

Alternate Names Gadolli, Goala, Pahari Bharmauri, Rathi

These people might be Lost Israelites because they live in areas with or near Lost Israelites (Kashmiris, Pashtuns & Kalashas) & their name means Gadite in Hebrew.

Gaddi is a tribe living in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Gaddi may also refer to: Gaddi (Gadi & Gaddis) is both a surname and a given name. Gaddis is a Scottish last name. These last names are mostly common in areas were the western Lost Israelites are found: western Europe, Australia-New Zealand, North America...

The Muslim Gaddi are a tribe found in North India and Pakistan. Gaddi was one of the scouts sent by Moses into the Land of Canaan. Gaddi was a seat with a cushion used as a throne by Indian princes.

Some of them claim Arab ancestry. The Gaddi are strictly endogamous (as in ancient Israel), and practice both cross-cousin and parallel cousin marriages.

There are two different Gaddi ethnicities. They might have  been once one & the same.

Gadi may refer to:

Gadi, Nepal, is a village development committee in Parsa.  District in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal.

Gadi Bayalkada, is a village development committee in Surkhet District in the Bheri Zone of mid-western Nepal People.

Gadi, in its different forms, is a popular name among Israeli Jews.

Gadi (seat), the seat or throne of a Hindu institution, sat by an Acharya or other religious superior

Gadi, a residential mansion  of a lord in Indian feudalism.

Gadi people, a tribe of Baloch people in Punjab, Pakistan.

House of Gadi, a dynasty of kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Gadhi may refer to:

Gadhi, a village development committee in the Narayani Zone of southeastern Nepal.

Gadhi (structure), a type of small castle-like structure or fort in India.

Gadhi (tribe), a Baloch tribe in Pakistan.

Rajput, Awan

Since v, w & b are represented by the same character Avan could be the origin of Awan. And in fact they were called Abanii, proving that those consonants are interchangeable. Avan is a Hebrew word meaning to eye, look at.

Awan tribe

Regions with significant populations Pakistan

Languages Punjabi (Saraiki, Hindko), Pashto, Urdu

Religion Islam

Awan (Urdu: اعوان), is a tribe living predominantly in northern, central, and western parts of Pakistani Punjab, with significant numbers also residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and to a lesser extent in Sindh and Balochistan.

People of the Awan community have a strong presence in the Pakistani Army and have a strong martial tradition.

Prof Ahmad Hasan Dani claimed that the Awans were, in fact, indigenous to Northern Punjab, and might well be the ancient Abanii mentioned by Greek and Roman travelers and historians.

On a rural level, Awans historically were of the zamindar or landowning class and many Awan families to this day live on and cultivate land, which their ancestors have held for centuries. They often carry titles typical to Punjabis who own tracts of ancestral land.

Saryara

The Saryara are a Hindu caste found in the Indian administered area of Jammu and Kashmir. They have been granted Scheduled Caste status. According to the 2001 Census of India, their population was 13,327. The Saryara’s observe their annual congregation on 15 Āṣāḍha (as per Hindu calendar) in Bahu Fort at community’s Devsathan, Mahatma Atma Ram Samadhi in Bahu Fort Jammu.

The Saryara are found mainly in the districts of Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur, with almost half the Saryara population living in Bahu Fort, a settlement situated on the banks of the Tawi River. According to their traditions, they are descended from the camp followers of Bahulochan, the brother Jambulochan. The Saryara are a Dogri speaking community, although most also understand Hindi.

The Saryara are strictly endogamous like the Jews, and like other Jammu Hindus practice clan exogamy. Their main clans include the Basotra, Pagathia, Padwal, Sagotra, Sawalia, Shavotra & Patru .The Saryara live in multi-caste villages, occupying their own distinct quarters. Each of their settlement contains a caste council which resolves intra community disputes and enforces community norms. The Saryara also have a state wide caste association based in the Bahu Fort locality.

The Saryara were traditionally a community of laborers, and many are still involved in their traditional occupation, although many more are now employed in the construction industry. As a community that has been granted Scheduled Caste status, they are subject to a number of affirmative action schemes by the Government of India.

The name of Jammu is associated with a cluster of magnificent temples. Jammu province has a variety of new and old sacred shrines, which attract devotees and pilgrims from far and near. While ancient temples built by Royals of Jammu speak of its ancient glorious past, on the other hand some dedicated to some pious individuals speak about the humbleness and reverence of the particular individuals within the society and one among them is situated near famous Bagh-e-Bahu in Bahu Fort Area.

At approximately six km from Jammu city in close vicinity of the highly revered Bawe-walli Mata there stands a small ancient temple dedicated to Mahhatma Atma Ram ji Sidh.

The Samadhi is sacred place for the ‘Saryara’ community and a large number of devotees drawn from community hailing from Jammu and around visit on every happy occasion within the family throughout the year. However the temples’ main festivity is witnessed in annual congregation on 15 Āṣāḍha (as per Hindu calendar) when the temple wears a festive look and is decorated aptly for the religious congregation.

On this day, disciples offer puja (worship) or pay respect to their Guru (Spiritual Guide) Mahatma Sidh Ji and seek his blessings for their welfare. Besides the Punya divas (when Guru Ji left for his heavenly abode) the devotes throng to temple on Guru Purnima which falls on the day of full moon, Purnima, in the month of Ashadh (June–July) of the Shaka Samvat, Hindu calendar. On this day the devotees practice common spiritual traditions as per in Hinduism, and express gratitude towards the teacher by his/her disciple to guide him spiritually and enlighten them.

According to Ranjit Saryara one of the executive member of the committee looking after affairs of the temple, Mahatma Sidh ji was born at Old Basti Bahu Fort locality. Born to a religious minded family Sh Koli Sagotra and Smt Nanti Devi, the Sidh Ji came true to his childhood name i.e. Atma Ram. He inherited religious and kind nature besides humbleness by remaining close to his mother who was a god fearing and pious lady.

Coming events cast their shadows before and Atma Ram as the name suggests itself the child while entering to youthdom showed more inclination towards religious rituals and God. He always was seen involved in supreme being and making people aware of the supreme and was popularly known as Sidh (a saint) within the community. However during the passage of time he was married to Sukh Devi who also was religious minded lady.

According to legends inherited from generation to generation of the Saryara community Sidh ji even after marriage remained involved in religious practices and always was seen singing Bhajans in praise of supreme being. And it was the miracle of almighty that he got alienated from materialistic world and got spiritually enlightened. His sayings were believed to be divine and just like oracle.

A huge market comes up at the site of the mela and shops and stalls selling food items and all sorts of wares are set up. Besides visiting the Baba Sidh Ji’s temple devotees also visit the Bawe-Walli Mata temple which is just at stones throw from the said temple and seek blessing of the deity who is considered as incarnation of Goddess Durga as Mahakali and presiding deity of the Royal family of Duggar land.

The Rattal caste is related to the Saryara caste, lives in Jammu and Kashmir and is endogamous. If they are considered as Kashmiri, then they would be Lost Israelites like the Saryara.

Shin in Pakistan

Shin is a pre-Islamic tribe from the Hindu Kush.The tribe spread throughout the Indus Valley in Kohistan, extending as far North as Baltistan, Pakistan. The part of the Indus Valley below Gor to the Pak-Afghan border near Ghorband is called Shinkari and its Southernmost part is home to the purest Shin community known. The name Shin-kari still exists in Pakhli, and the Shin-kari family's original home may have been in that valley. The Shins form the majority of the population in Gor, Chilas, Tangir, the Indus Valley below Sazin, and the upper part of the Gilgit Valley above Ponyal.

Pre-Islamic Hindu Shin names “ Of the Shin names a great number have the suffix of Sing, which is retained in spite of the conversion of the people to Islam. These named are never found among the purely Boorish population of Hunza and Nager, but it is to be noted that the Suffix Sing is found among the earlier Makpon Kings of Iskardo. The suffix is local version of Hindu Surname Singh which coms from Sanskrit word Simha meaning Lion. It is generally used by Rajputs or Kshatriya ruling class.

Names & Toponyms Similar to the Hebrew Word Shin

Further on when there's a Chinese last name, there's often also ancient royal Chinese dynasty & ancient Chinese kingdom with the same name. Sometimes it has another spelling. In one ocasion there's a Korean last name homonyn of a Korean dynasty & kingdom.

Shin is also a Japanese given name & Chinese & Korean last names. Shin (letter) is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic alphabets. Shin Buddhism is a widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan, named after its founder, Shinran...

Geography

Apart for the one of Syria, very close to Israel, all of these toponyms are found in areas were the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel ended in western Europe or were they first were put after their captivity in northwestern Iran. They went through the Caucasus chain, including modern Azerbabaijan.

River Shin, a river in the Scottish Highlands

Loch Shin, a loch in the Scottish Highlands

Shin, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran

Shin, Syria, a village in Syria

Şin, Azerbaijan

Chin

Chin State, a state in Myanmar

Chin people (Lost Israelites) , the name of an ethnic group living in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Chin languages, family of Tibeto-Burman languages

Personal names

Chinn, or Chin, English surname

Chin is also an alternate spelling for several Asian surnames (mostly Chinese): Qin (surname), Jin (Chinese surname), Qian (surname), Chen (surname). Although the surname Chen sounds & it's very Chinese, it's very Jewish too. Meaning in Hebrew: Grace, Charm, Fairness, Gracefulness. In Hebrew is pronounced Khen, like ch in the Scottish word loch.

Geography

Chin (China), a name of China, old Chinese form of the Sanskrit name Cina. Chin, Alberta, a small hamlet in Canada. Chin, Iran, a village in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran. Chin, Zanjan, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran (northwestern area were the Lost Israelites were first placed). Chin Rural District, in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran Other. Transliteration variant of the Chinese "Jin" Chin dynasty. Chin (Mayan god), a god in Mayan mythology. Qian (/tʃjæn/, simplified Chinese: 钱; traditional Chinese: 錢; pinyin: Qián; Wade–Giles: Ch'ian²; Shanghainese: ), also spelt Chin, Chien, Tsien, or rarely Zee, is a common Chinese family name. The name literally means "money".

Chen a Jewish surname.

Other names

Chen (Mandarin) Tan (Hokkien, Teochew) Chan (Cantonese) Chin (Taishanese, Hakka, Japanese) Zen (Wu) Jin (Korean) Trần (Vietnamese). Trần, Jin (Korean name), Sae-Tang Sae-Chen Sae-Chin Sae-Tan Sae-Chin (Thai name), Chen or Chan (simplified Chinese: 陈; traditional Chinese: 陳; pinyin: Chén; Wade–Giles: Ch'en) is one of the most common Han Chinese and Korean family names.

Sheen

Sheen is a first name & a British last name.

Places

Sheen or West Sheen, an alternative name for Richmond, London, England East Sheen

North Sheen

Sheen Priory

Sheen, Staffordshire, a civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands, England

Sheenboro, Quebec, Canada, formerly Sheen Township and Sheen-Esher-Aberdeen-et-Malakoff United Township Municipality

Shien is a Chinese last name. Shein is a last name distributed mainly throughout western countries.

Shine is an Irish last name. Shinya is Japanese given name.

Sofi in India

Sofi is possibly a variant of the Greek name Sophia, meaning wisdom. Alexander the Great's army of Greeks went as far as modern India. Obviously they left some influence. There are plenty of legends of local tribes regarding their Helenic Macedonian origin. The traditions of Israelite origin among the native peoples of the area (Pashtuns, Kashmiris...) are far more important though.

Sudhan

Sudhans (also known as Sudhozai) are one of the major tribes from the districts of Poonch, Sudhanoti, Bagh and Kotli in Azad Kashmir.

Origin

The tribe claims an Pashtun ancestry.

According to Syed Ali, Sudhans have a Pashtun descent and moved to the Poonch district of Kashmir region some centuries ago. The name Sudhan Gali has derived from a Pashto tribe Saduzai who came here for Jihad at Dogra raj and settled here after that. About 40,000–60,000 Sudhans were recruited and served in the British Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars.

Sudhan Education Conference is a non-governmental organization which was formed in 1939 to further the education for Sudhans.

The Sudhan tribe has been described as "a main and martial tribe of dissident Poonch" by Christopher Snedden, a political analyst. Sardar Ibrahim Khan, formerly a little-known barrister, was among the Sudhan people who rose to significance from 1947 as a result of a campaign and later rebellion against the Maharaja of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, Hari Singh. Khan led a significant faction of the Muslim Conference in their demands that Singh should join with Pakistan rather than accede to India. Together with Muslims from Bagh, it was the Sudhans who were at the heart of this campaign. The rebels were directed by the Pakistan Army, and with the support of Pashtun tribal lashkars sent in from the Khyber and Waziristan tribal agencies and although Kashmir state acceded to India, they were able to 'liberate' a portion called Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir/controlled by Pakistan).

Sudhan Gali, also spelled as Suddhan Gali, is a village located in Bagh District, Azad Kashmir. Interestingly the name Gali, like many other Kashmiri tribes' names, is very similar to the western Lost Israelite Gallics' names. It lies on the main road that connects the district Bagh to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir and also connects the town of Chikkar with Bagh city. It is located at the height of 7000 feet.

Sudhans were not given security clearance until 1972, and were not accepted in the Pakistan Military Academy regular course until 1965.

Together with the Rajputs, it is the Sudhans who dominate the politics of Azad Kashmir in the present day, although the Gujjar community is probably the largest among the population.

Barwala

Barwala could come from the Aramaic bar, meaning son & the Hebrew bala meaning to destroy, to confuse... The Children of Israel were destroyed for dissobedience too their God. W, v & b correspond to the same character in the Hebraic language, so the change of bala for wala is not really a change.

These cities of Barwala may have founded by olden Barwalas: Barwala (Urdu:بروالا ), is a city and a municipal committee in Hisar district, in the state of Haryana, India; Barwala, Panchkula, Haryana, India; Barwala Taluka, Gujarat, India; Barwala Ghelasa, an area located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

It's not clear if they are Kashmiris ethnically or they are just inhabitants of Kashmir.

The Barwala people belong to a Dalit class in the northern part of India. They live in India's far northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.

What Are Their Beliefs? Most of the Barwala are Hindu & Muslim.

Barwala (Hindu traditions) in India

The Barwala people belong to a Dalit class in the northern part of India. They live in India's far northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.

What Are Their Lives Like? Most of them live in rural areas. Traditionally they have worked as village watchmen and messengers, overseeing the work of coolies, bearing torches and carrying palanquins at weddings. Today most of them are engaged in agriculture or as unskilled laborers. As far as their families are concerned the Barwalas live mainly in nuclear households. The oldest son becomes the head of the household. They allow for divorce and remarriage.

Population in India 90,000 World Population 91,000

Alternate Names Barwar, Dalwatia, Doom, Dum Bantwal, Mandla, Narwalia, Payaliya, Radha, Radhthiya, Sanjwal, Soniyal.

Jammu and Kashmir (61,000) Uttar Pradesh (27,000) Himachal Pradesh (1,000) Delhi (800) Uttarakhand (600) Haryana (100) Maharashtra (80) Rajasthan (50) Punjab (40) West Bengal (10)

Barwala (Muslim traditions) in Pakistan

Punjab (466,000) Sindh (55,000) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (4,600) Islamabad (400) Balochistan (300) Federally Administered (100) Gilgit-Baltistan (30)

Population in Pakistan 527,000 World Population 528,000

Primary Language: Punjabi, Western (404,000 speakers) Secondary Languages: Urdu (58,000) Saraiki (17,000) Sindhi (16,000) Bagri (1,900) Marwari (1,000) Koli, Wadiyara (900) Kacchi (200) Hindko, Northern (200) Pashto, Northern (200) Shina

Mahasha

The verb מחה (maha) means to wipe. It's used for wiping the mouth (Proverbs 30:20), tears from the face (Isaiah 25:8), or a city like a dish (2 Kings 21:13). Following the latter usage, this verb is also used to denote a wiping or blotting out: Moses' name from God's book (Exodus 32:32), a memory (Deuteronomy 9:14), or all living things (Genesis 7:23).

"Sha", among other meanings, means Salvation in Hebrew.

Mahasha could be a combination of the Hebrew words maha & sha. The resulting meaning would be something like "wiped out salvation", a consequence that Israel had to suffer for their dissobedience to God. 

Dara Clan & Meaning

Dara was a biblical male descendant of Judah known for his wisdom. Dara is also a Hebrew name for girls meaning Compassionate & Mother-of-pearl. In the Bible means "the arm". 1 Chronicles 2:6

It could also be a contraction of the name Darda, a descendant of Judah. 1 Kings 5:11 Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol (types of wise men, but Solomon wiser than they); = 1  Chronicles 2:6

It's also an Irish, Khmer, Indonesian, Swahili, Persian, Urdu, Lao & Thai name.

Dara (IAST: Ḍārā, Hindi: डारा) is a clan of Jats found in Districts Sikar, Pali, Hanumangarh and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India. Did Sikar district receive from the Israelite tribe of Issachar?

They are found in Garinda village in Sikar district; kishorpura injhunjhunu district Chandawal Nagar, Mandiyan villages in Pali district; Degana, Kalwa villages in Nagaur district in Rajasthan khairmpur, hisar, sadhu Dara.

The Auranitis (Hauran) Plateau (or Hauran-Druze Plateau) is in Southwest Syria. It roughly corresponds to the Syrian governorate of Daraa (being Daraa the capital).

It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land." In geographic and geomorphic terms, it extends from near Damascus and Mount Hermon in the north to the Ajloun mountains of Jordan in the south. It includes the Golan Heights in the west and is bounded there by the Jordan Rift Valley; it also includes Jabal al-Druze in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains. The Yarmouk River drains much of the Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River.

During Roman dominium (under Herod) was Known as Auranitide. And it was called Bashan in Old Testament's times. Manassah's tribe held it & even the kingdom of Israel did, but its possesion wasn't lasting.

Nowadays there are many Druzes especially concentrated Jabal al Druze. The name Druze comes from  Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazī (from Persian darzi, "seamster") who was an early preacher. Although the Druze consider ad-Darazī a heretic, the name has been used to identify them.

Before becoming public, the movement was secretive and held closed meetings in what was known as Sessions of Wisdom. During this stage a dispute occurred between ad-Darazi and Hamza bin Ali mainly concerning ad-Darazi's ghuluww ("exaggeration"), which refers to the belief that God was incarnated in human beings, especially 'Ali and his descendants.

Does this Jat clan called Dara receive its name from the Judahite clan Dara or the also Judahite clan of Darda? The Jats are regarded as Lost Israelites.

As seen above its name could come from the current area of Syria once in possesion of the Israelite tribe of Manassah.

Today's Jews receive its name from Judah. They're not regarded as Lost Israelites because, contrary to Lost Ten Tribes, they never lost their identity to themselves nor to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless a large part of Judah never came back from their Mesopotamian lands of captivity. Eventually they were lost to their fellow Juda & to the world, together with the rest of the hosts of Israel.

Dara, also known as Gbaya-Dara, is a Central Sudanic language of South Sudan spoken by Gbaya people. South Sudan has many people with Israelite origin. Do Gbayas come from the Judahite clan of Dara or Darda?

The Thirty-six Royal Races of Rajput

Tribe/ Group/ Notes

1 Pramara/ Fire-born/ 35 branches from Dhar. 2 Agnipala/ Fire-born 3 Chouha/ Fire-born/ 24 branches from Ajmir, Brahmins, Chonan. 4 Solanki/ Fire-born or Baghela or Chalukya/ 16 branches.

5 Parihara/ Fire-born or Pritihara or Pawar of Kanauj. 6 Gehlote/ Children of the Sun or Gohil/ 24 branches from Udaipur. 7 Rahtor/ Children of the Sun/ 24 branches from Jodhpur (Rathors).
8 Kachwaha/ Children of the Sun descended from Kush/ 12 branches, Jaipur. 9 Birgujar/ Children of the Sun descended from elder brother of Rama. 10 Balla/ Children of the Sun from Multan. 11 Byce/ Children of the Sun from the Doab. 12 Dahirya/ Children of the Sun from the Desert. 13 Suruja/ Children of the Sun from Sawrashtra. 14 Yadu/ Children of the Moon/ 8 branches. 15 Jereja/ Children of the Moon descended from Krishna. 16 Tuar/ Children of the Moon from Delhi or Tomara.
17 Nicumpa/ Children of the Moon 18 Sikerwal/ Children of the Moon from the Jumna. 19 Jits/ Children of the Moon or Jats, or Juts, from Bikamir, Jodhpur 20 Chaura/ Scythians and other Scythians. 21 Jhala/ Scythians and other Scythians. 22 Gherwal/ Scythians and others from Bundelkhand. 23 Dahima/ Scythians and others connected with Lahore. 24 Johya/ Scythians and others from the Indus. (any relation with the Hebrew name Jahya, John?) 25 Sarwya/ Scythians and others 26 Mohil/ Scythians and others from Bikanir. 27 Sengar/ Scythians and others from the Jumna.

28 Gor/ Scythians and others connected with Lucknow. 29 Jaitwar/ Scythians and others or Camari.

30 Hun/ Scythians and other Scythians. 31 Katti/ Scythians and other Scythians. 32 Makwahana/ Scythians and others from Jhalawar. 33 Silar/ Scythians and others from Patan. 34 Pala/ Scythians and other Scythians. 35 Tak/ Scythians and other Scythians. 36 Dabi/ Scythians and others not now important.

The Rajputs proper were of mixed origin pre-Muslim invaders such as Scythians, Bactrians, Parthians, Hunas and Gurjaras who came in before, say, the end of the 7th century. They were reputed descendants of the Kshatrinjas (warriors and rulers) mentioned in the Rig Veda (Rajanya), the occupational caste of all clans of Hindus who undertook the act of Government. They were derived from three sources, the sun, the moon and fire, and should be of warrior status from princely lineage. 

So far we have only found four tribes from each source. Legend says that when Rama with the Axe destroyed all Kshatrinjas, the gods went to Mount Abu and from the sacred fire-pit produced five fire-born tribes.

In Page 8, line 13, Kipling mentions two of them, Chohan (Chouhan) and Rahtor, who became sworn enemies, the latter holding Kanauj on the Ganges river some 200 miles S.E. of Delhi, until it became too large to hold against the Chohans. The last known of this dynasty of Rajput Kings of Ajmir was Rai Pithora or Prithiraj, who was defeated, captured and executed by the Moslems In 1192 A.D. at Tarain.

Tod increased his five original states to seven by adding Bikanir and Jodhpur in the desert. These he broke up not only into 36 races, but also into tribes numbering three figures. Dotah became Kotah, but was combined with Bundi to make Haravati the state of the Haras. Jaipur, which Kipling describes, is the modern capital of Dhundar, the home of the race of Kachwahas or children of Kush, the second son of Rama, the hero of legend and of the epic Ranmayana which has been transformed into one of the Hindu scriptures.

Those who would like to know more are referred to Tod's two volumes of 1829, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan.

Telugu Jews: Are the Dalits of coastal Andhra going caste-awry? 

Yulia Egorova yulia.egorova@durham.ac.uk Shahid Perwez sperwez@gmail.com

In the context of religious conversion movements of low castes in India, many Dalit groups have embraced Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and even Jainism in order to restore egalitarian traditions. However, their conversion to Judaism is relatively unheard of in the academia. This essay throws light on the nature of these conversions by looking at a section of Dalit population in the coastal Andhra, who embraced Judaism two decades ago by declaring their community to be the descendants of the Children of Ephraim – one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Who are the Bene Ephraim?

In 1991, two Madiga brothers, Shmuel and. Sadok Yacobi, established a synagogue in the village of Kothareddypalem in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. According to the Yacobi brothers, their parents in private identified as descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and passed on this knowledge to their children.

However, in public, they practiced Christianity, like the rest of their Madiga neighbours.

Initially, they were joined by about thirty Madiga families. Subsequently, they introduced a number of Jewish rites into the practice of their congregation – the community started observing a number of Jewish festivals and rites of passage, and meeting weekly in the synagogue for Sabbath. This meant avoiding work on Saturdays, which most community members found difficult to follow due to the nature of their work as agricultural laborers.

Registering a synagogue in Kothareddypalem meant for the Yacobis a formal break from Christianity and an end to the support provided by foreign Christian donors.

What is the social background of the Bene Ephraim? Madiga untouchables – the community they stem from – probably have the lowest status in Andhra Pradesh. Madigas have traditionally been associated with shoe-making and agricultural labor and continue to do so even today.

Demographically, the Madigas constitute 46.94% of the total scheduled caste population of the state, which, according to the 2001 census, is placed at twelve million. Like many Dalit histories, the history of Madigas is hidden and obscure too. Madiga legends of origin connect the community to Jambavant, a figure in the epic of Ramayana, and explain that the low status of his descendants was due to a mistake or a curse. In the twentieth century, the Madiga leaders revised some of these legends to improve the image of the community. The new origin narratives emphasise the antiquity and aboriginality of the Madiga, portraying them as the oldest inhabitants of the region and as former rulers of the country, who were defeated and had to accept the subordinate position in which they stayed until today.

New narratives of origin?

The claims of the Bene Ephraim could be considered a variation of such new narratives. Their account of the Israelite past of the community is detailed in a book called ‘Cultural Hermeneutics’, written by Shmuel Yacobi after a decade of library research and travel to Israel and the USA. It is asserted in the book that all the scheduled castes of southern India, and possibly even of the entire sub-continent, are the descendants of the Bene Ephraim (Yacobi 2002). The book contains three principle themes which have informed the problematic of the community’s current self-identification – the story of their migration from ancient Israel, narratives explaining how the Bene Ephraim became untouchables, and representations of their relationship with caste Hindus. Each theme can be linked to broader discourses, which emerged outside of the historical and social boundaries of the

community, such as the centuries-old Lost Tribes discourse, constructions of a ‘higher status’ origin produced by different scheduled castes of India, and anti-caste rhetoric of the Dalit movement.

‘Cultural Hermeneutics’ suggests that the ancestors of Bene Ephraim are the descendants of some of the Tribes of Israel, who in 722 BCE were exiled from the ancient kingdom of Israel by Assyria. After a sojourn in Persia, they were moved to the northern part of the subcontinent, which was then populated by Dravidian groups including Telugu speaking communities. As Bene Ephraim, they established good relations with them and made an impact on their religions and cultures. A
large part of the book is devoted to the description of the alleged similarities between Hebrew and Telugu languages, which according to Shmuel Yacobi, was a result of this influence. The story continues in the seventh century BCE, when the ‘Aryans’, who established the caste system and relegated both the Dravidians and Bene Ephraim to the positions of Shudras and untouchables respectively, conquered the subcontinent. They were later moved to the South of India, where they reside at the moment as untouchables, along with other Dravidians. According to Yacobi, the ancient texts that laid the foundation of the current Hindu tradition, such as the Vedas and the Upanishads, contain the knowledge that was ‘stolen’ by ancient Aryans from the Dravidians and the Bene Ephraim.

The current state of affairs in the community is explained as an unfortunate result of the further
advance of the ‘Aryan rule’ under which the Bene Ephraim lost their status and political significance, were reduced to extreme poverty, and, left with no means of maintaining their tradition, almost forgot it.

Jews or Dalits?

Should the Judaizing movement of this Madiga group, therefore, be understood as a novel strategy to raise their social status in the local hierarchy by creating a story about more distinguished origins and a prestigious status, which for one reason or another had been lost?

Writing about Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism, Gauri Viswanathan conceptualizes it as a process through which social classes who were denied access to power sought ‘a course of action that preserved rather than eradicated difference’. Viswanathan describes Ambedkar’s conversion as ‘a form of political and cultural criticism’ and as ‘a clear political statement of dissent against the identities constructed by the state’. At the same time, she contends that Ambedkar was not just reacting to the authorities, but ‘exploring the possibilities offered by conversion (especially to “minority” religions) in developing an alternative epistemological and ethical foundation for a national community’. Robinson and Kujur similarly posit that conversions in India are often associated with dissent and resistance.

The Yacobi brothers refuse to describe the Judaization of the Bene Ephraim as a conversion movement. Shmuel, in particular, prefers to call it a teshuvah, or a process through which Jews who discontinued practicing Judaism in the past are rediscovering the tradition of their ancestors. The brothers, as well as other Bene Ephraim we talked to, are also adamant that their Judaization should not be viewed as a mere attempt at escaping the caste system. However, it appears that Shmuel’s research into the Israelite past of his community was partly motivated by his desire to free the Bene Ephraim from caste inequality.

Shmuel often recounted to us how, like other Madiga, he was discriminated against in the job
market with very few occupations being open to him, despite the fact that he had achieved good results at school. In the village, the dominant Reddy caste tried to prevent the appointment of his father to the post of English teacher. His mother told him stories of how she was made to sit separately in school, often outside the classroom, and forced to use the sand floor to write, instead of writing on a slate or a board. The local tea and food shop keepers in the village served them through the backdoor of the shop – if they ever served them at all –, fearing a backlash from high caste villagers.

When Shmuel was a young man, he himself was once refused a glass of water by a Hindu neighbor, who belonged to a higher caste. He describes this episode as a starting point for his research into the Bene Ephraim past: ‘When I started my education, one day I was thirsty. I went to a nearby Hindu house and asked, ‘Give me some water’. They know my parents, my grandmother. But some of them are uneducated Hindu people. They may not recognize me or my parents. They said, ‘Who are you?’ It is a general question in Andhra Pradesh… We have to tell our caste. I said, ‘I am the son of the headmaster.’ They said, ‘Oh, you are Madiga’. They brought some water and poured it like this [to make sure I don’t touch the cup]. That was the first time in my life to face those things. Before that my parents would tell me, but I did not know what it was like for them in practice…

From that day I took it as a challenge. I started praying to God and I started asking several people, ‘What is this caste system? What is this discrimination? In Babylonian exile the Jewish people had to say, ‘We are unclean’. The same situation was here…

So, that’s how that began... It was thus a protest against caste inequality that marked the beginning of his return to Judaism. His teshuvah became both a way of connecting to the wider Jewish community and a socio-cultural critique of the caste system, a critique which (to build on Viswanathan’s terms) preserved and expanded the idea about the Madiga being different from the ‘pure’ castes.

To succeed in the project of embracing Judaism, the Bene Ephraim do not need to seek the endorsement of higher castes. Their movement is outwardly oriented enough to be overly dependent on local caste relations. ‘Mahatmaji, I have no country’, uttered Ambedkar as he left his first meeting with Gandhi in 1931, when the latter opposed the demands of the untouchables on sharing political power with the Indian National Congress. The discourse of Shmuel Yacobi echoes Ambedkar’s words of desperation. In the context of the Bene Ephraim movement these words acquire a literal meaning. If Ambedkar encouraged Indian Dalits to convert to a religion which was different from that of Indian society’s dominant layers, but had still originated on the subcontinent, Shmuel Yacobi took a step further. Judaism is a religion which is not just ‘foreign’ to India, but a religion which can potentially set the community on a path towards leaving India and obtaining citizenship in a different country. Like Ambedkar and other Dalit leaders, Shmuel Yacobi feels that his community is politically disempowered in India. He is pessimistic about dominant groups responding to the demands of the untouchables and refuses to leave the project of Dalit liberation in the hands of the
upper castes. However, unlike Ambedkar and other Dalit leaders, he is prepared to take a new and distinctly radical step to fight inequality.

He does not just dissociate the Bene Ephraim rhetorically from the tradition of the higher castes, but prepares them to leave India for a different state, a place where, he argues, they won’t feel they have no country.

And yet, though the community’s Judaization can be read as a way of rejecting the tradition of the dominant groups (to the extent of possible emigration), it also provided the Bene Ephraim with a means to honor and celebrate those features of their cultural practices of which higher castes are contemptuous. Shmuel Yacobi has conjectured that ancient Israelite theology and practices of
his ancestors were stolen from them by the ‘Aryans’ and thus shaped the whole of Hinduism. For instance, he argues that many Telugu Hindu festivals have their analogues in the main Jewish holidays – the Hindus first learnt about these festivals from the Bene Ephraim, and once the latter came to be declared untouchables as a punishment for their resistance to the caste system, the Hindus prohibited them to practise these rites. In Shmuel Yacobi’s view, by celebrating Jewish holidays, the Madiga are returning to their roots and reclaiming what was theirs in the first place. However, Shmuel Yacobi also suggests that the Madiga and other Dalits did manage to remember and keep at least two Jewish traditions which later became the main markers of their untouchability – the customs of beef- eating and of burying their dead.

Most community members claim to command the knowledge of shehitah, and say that they can make any meat kosher. However, in the discourse of the Bene Ephraim, kashrut means much more than Jewish dietary laws.

When talking about the Bene Ephraim practice of eating kosher meat, the Yacobis particularly stress their knowledge of how to make buffalo meat kosher. According to Shmuel Yacobi, the fact that the Scheduled Castes of India possessed the knowledge about beef-eating – a practice which caste Hindus consider to be ritually polluting – is further evidence of their connection to the ancient Israelites.

Similar instances of Dalit groups reinterpreting practices associated with untouchability into positive ‘identity markers’ have been well documented by anthropologists of South Asia. David Mosse has described the way Christian Dalit thinkers participate in honoring Dalit cultures through the reconceptualization of ‘outcaste’ practices – for instance, introducing drumming into Christian liturgy and promoting beef-eating and drumming in Jesuit schools.

Still has discussed how beef-eating is celebrated by the Madiga of coastal Andhra, who re-signify it from a repudiated practice into a positive symbol of Dalit culture. Similarly, when the Yacobis speak about the importance of observing the laws of kashrut, they not only try to establish a ritual connection with other Jewish communities around the world, but also to glorify the Madiga tradition. Buffalo meat becomes both a way into symbol of their rediscovered Jewish past, and a site of Dalit activism.

Marking the end of life with a burial is another practice that, according to the Yacobis, connects Dalits to Judaism. ‘This is what the Madiga used to do even before Christian missionaries arrived, and it is a Hebrew custom’, Shmuel Yacobi told us. We did not observe any funerals in the village, yet we were taken to the local Christian Madiga cemetery where the tombs of deceased Bene Ephraim are marked with the same Jewish symbols as their houses – Stars of David, signs symbolizing the menorah, the words ‘Zion’ and ‘Shaddai’ written in Hebrew. The Madiga cemetery in itself is described by the Bene Ephraim as further evidence for their Hebrew origin. They pride themselves on their practice of burying their dead, which is different from the cremating practice of caste Hindus, reinterpreting this practice as a tradition passed down to them by their Israelite ancestors. As it is the case with observing kashrut, the Madiga cemetery symbolizes for the Bene Ephraim both their Jewish past and their Dalit heritage.

It becomes both a new site in what Shalva Weil described as ‘Indian Jewish topographies’, and a prominent place of Madiga cultural history.

Shmuel Yacobi’s attempts at establishing a connection of belief and practice between untouchables and Judaism could be considered in the context of other Dalit conversion movements, as well as against the backdrop of Dalit activists’ rhetoric associating the cultures of Scheduled Castes with ‘non-Indian’ traditions and dissociating them from Hinduism. As the Dalit activist Kancha Ilaiah put it denouncing the Hindutva (Hindutva, which could be translated as 'Hinduness', is a term used to describe Hindu nationalism. The term was coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923.) ideologues’ anti-Muslim and anti-Christian stance.

What do we, the lower Sudras and Ati-Sudras… have to do with Hinduism or with Hindutva itself?.. We heard about Turukoolu (Muslims), we heard about Kirastaanapoolu (Christians), we heard about Baapanoolu (Brahmins) and Koomatoolu (Baniyas) spoken of as people who are different from us. Among these four categories, the most different were the Baapanoolu and the Koomatoolu. There are at least some aspects of life common to us and the Turukoolu and Kirastaanapoolu. We all eat meat, we all touch each other…

Like Kancha Ilaiah, Shmuel Yacobi explicitly dissociates Dalit culture from Hinduism, but he also distances it from Christianity with its Universalist message which did not help his ancestors to escape the stigma of untouchability. Instead, he offers his Madiga followers a religion that has its own tradition of applying different laws of ritual purity to different categories of persons. To return to the ethnographic context of the community’s life in the village, insisting on eating kosher provides the Bene Ephraim with a mechanism to separate their congregants ritually from the Christian Madiga and ensures that their neighbors are more likely to become aware of their Jewishness.

We could sometimes observe Bene Ephraim refusing to eat in the houses of other villagers on the grounds that the food prepared in their homes was not kosher. Just like caste Hindus refuse food prepared by the Madiga, the Bene Ephraim now have dietary prohibitions of their own to which they subject their non-Jewish neighbors. Towards the end of his fieldwork Shahid observed another example of the Bene Ephraim trying to gradually distance themselves from other villagers. Sadok Yacobi arranged for a separate building to be constructed in the synagogue courtyard – the building was supposed to serve as an office where non-Jewish visitors would report upon arrival. Sadok Yacobi explained to Shahid that it was not appropriate for the ‘outsiders’ to enter the synagogue if they wanted to see him, and he needed to have a specially dedicated structure to accommodate such visits. He thus constructed a new spatial boundary to separate his house of worship from the rest of the village, which allowed him to grant entry rights to some villagers and deny them to others, just like the Hindus would refuse to let him into their temples.

In seeking ways to rediscover the lost tradition, the Bene Ephraim thus both deploy the tropes of ‘Jewish difference’ borrowed from Western discourses. In the Bene Ephraim discourse – which emerged in the writings of Shmuel Yacobi but rapidly spread in and outside the village –being Jewish, amongst other things, means being Madiga. It means to eat beef and to bury one’s dead, to denounce inequality and to fight caste discrimination.