Nayar or Nayyar is a surname that is found among Khatri community which are majorly Hindus with a minority of Sikhs and Muslims. The belong to the "Sareen" division among the Khatris. [1] They were mostly concentrated in the Majha region especially in the districts of Gujrat, Lahore, Okara, Nankana Sahib and Sialkot before 1947. Nayyar families were known to have been qanungos (governors) in the town of Kunjah in Gujrat district, Punjab. [2]
As a custom, milk is never churned in Nayyar families because one of their ancestors died of drinking whey in which a snake had got accidentally churned. [3]
Punjab is a province of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest by population. Lahore is the capital and the largest city of the province. Other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan.
The Punjabis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. They generally speak Standard Punjabi or various Punjabi dialects on both sides.
Khatri is a caste originating from the Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations and some were scribes learned in Sanskrit or Persian.
Gujrat is a district in the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is geographically located between the Chenab and Jhelum rivers and headquartered at the city of Gujrat.
Haqiqat Rai Baghmal Puri was an 18th-century martyr from Sialkot, who was executed in Lahore during the time of Zakariya Khan.
Hari Singh Nalwa was Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar and Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was responsible for expanding the frontier of Sikh Empire to beyond the Indus River right up to the mouth of the Khyber Pass. At the time of his death, the western boundary of the empire was Jamrud.
Maharaja Gulab Singh Jamwal (1792–1857) was the founder of Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which was a part of Panjab and Sikh Empire became the largest princely state under the British Raj, which was created after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the First Anglo-Sikh War. During the war, Gulab Singh sided with British to protect himself and his family after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. and He was the Prime Minister of Sikh Empire. The Treaty of Amritsar (1846) formalised the transfer of all the lands in Kashmir that were ceded to them by the Sikhs by the Treaty of Lahore.
Puri is an Indian Punjabi surname of Kshatriya Varna, derived from a Chandravanshi Indo Aryan Puru tribe of King Porus.
Bindra is a Punjabi surname found among Khatris and Jats. Many Bindra Khatris were located in Rawalpindi district.
Sethi is a surname that is found among the Punjabi Khatris of India. They are a part of Khukhrain sub-caste among the Khatris which also includes the clans of Anand, Bhasin Chadha, Kohli, Ghai, Sahni, Sethi, (Sawhney) and Suri. The surname is also found among Arora which is another sub-caste of Khatris. Historian Kamal Shankar Srivastava writes that all Khukrains including Sethis were originally found near the banks of Indus and Jhelum river especially in the towns of Pind Dadan Khan, Peshawar and Nowshera.
Mehta is an Indian surname, derived from the Sanskrit word mahita meaning 'great' or 'praised'. It is found among several Indian religious groups,including Hindus (mostly), Jains, Parsis, and Sikhs. Among these, it is used by a wide range of castes and social groups, including Yadavs, Khatris, Rajputs, Oswals and (caste). Mehta is also a common surname found among the Koeri caste of Bihar, who are commonly known as Kushwaha.
Diwan Mokham Chand was one of the chief commanders of the Sikh Empire. He conquered Attock from the Durrani Afghans in 1813 and subdued the Rajputs in the Hills of Himachal and in Jammu at Jasrota, Chamba, and Basroli. He also commanded one of the early Sikh expeditions to conquer Kashmir that ended in failure due to bad weather blocking the passes to the valley. Mokham Chand was born in a Hindu Khatri family origin.
Kunduana, is an offshoot of Khatana clan or gotra of the Gujjars found in Pakistan and India.
The Afghan–Sikh Wars spanned from 1748 to 1837 in the Indian subcontinent, and saw multiple phases of fighting between the Durrani Empire and the Sikh Empire, mainly in and around Punjab region. The conflict's origins stemmed from the days of the Dal Khalsa, and continued after the Emirate of Kabul succeeded the Durrani Empire.
Chopra is a Ror and Punjabi Khatri surname. They belonged to the Barah-Ghar / Bahri family-group of the Khatris, which also includes the clans of Dhawan, Kakkar, Kapoor, Khanna, Mehra, Malhotra, Sehgal, Seth, Tandon, Talwar, and Vohra.
Bajaj is a Punjabi Arora surname.
Kochhar or Kochar is a surname that is found among the Khatri and Charan communities of India.
Uppal is an Indian surname. The Khatris have a clan and the Jats have a tribe called Uppal. According to BN Puri, Uppal is derived from the Sanskrit term "utpalarana" which means "one who leaps upon their enemies". Puri further mentions it to be a part of the Bunjahi and Sareen subcaste of Khatris. However, as per R.C. Dogra, Uppal means "stone". Uppals have origins in the districts of Montgomery, Amritsar and Ludhiana.
Trehan is a Punjabi Khatri surname.