Re: Arain Caste?? Help solving the mystery?
In the Punjab Census Report (1911), Harikishan Kaul
Kaul also states that the term ‘Arain’ is, “derived probably from Rain or Rahin, equivalent to Rahak (tiller of soil).” This is consistent with the Arains traditionally being chiefly associated with market-gardening. As Alison Shaw states in Kinship and Continuity, “Jats and Rajputs from Jhelum consider that the Arain are a service caste, ranked ‘lower’ than the zamindars and refer to the Arain by the term Maliar, which is apparently used in Jhelum to refer to people who traditionally grow vegetables around wells.”
The census reports of 1883 AND 1892 record their Hindu origins and kinship with the Kamboh and Saini caste groups .
“Almost to a man Muhammadans and strongly inclined to orthodoxy the Rians came to be immigrants from Uch and have some affinities with the Kambohs. On the other hand some of the Arain and Hindu Saini clan names are identical , and those not always mertely names of other and dominant tribes . From Uch they migrated to Sirsa and thence into the Punjab . [12]](Arain - Wikipedia)”
“In Sirsa the Sutlej Arains meet those of the Ghaggar. The two do not intermarry , but the Arains of thye Ghaggar valley say they were Rajputs living on the Panjnad near Multan who were ejected some four centuries ago by Sayad Jalal-ul-din of Uch .They claim some sort of connection with Jaisalmer [13]](Arain - Wikipedia)”
“The Sutlej Arains in Sirsa say they are , like the Arains of Lahore and Montgomery connected by orign with the Hindu Kambohs. Mr Wilson thinks it probable that both classes are really Kambohs ,who have become Musalmans , [14]](Arain - Wikipedia)”“The nucleus of this caste was probably a body of Hindu Saini or Kamboh cultivators who were converted to Islam at an early period . Thus in Jullundur the Arains say they came from Sirsa , Rania , and Delhi and claim descent from Rai Jaj (grandson of Lau founder of Lahore )who ruled Sirsa ; that they were converted in the 12th century and migrated to the Jullundar Doab about 300 years ago . But the Bhuttas claim descent from Raja Bhutta fifth in descent from Raja Karn and say they were forcibly converted even earlier by Mahmud of Ghazni –and driven from Uch [15]](Arain - Wikipedia)