Kamboj

The Kambojs (Hindi: कम्बोज Kamboj, Urdu: کمبوہ‎ ALA-LC: Kamboh, Punjabi: ਕੰਬੋਜ Kamboj), also Kamboh, is a community mainly in the Northern India and eastern Pakistan.

During Muslim rule

During the early years of Islam in India, one of the groups of this clan embraced Islam at the instance of Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya Suhrawardi (of Multan) and his son Shaikh Sadruddin.

Some Kamboj, such as Shahbaz Khan Kamboh, occupied key military and civil positions during the Turkic and the Moghul reign in northern India. The historian M. Athar Ali said that "The Sayyids and the Kambohs among the Indian Muslims were specially favoured for high military and civil positions during Moghul rule".

Muhammad Umar writes:

Present day

The Kambojs/Kambohs practiced weapon-worship in the past but the practice is now going out of vogue.

Traditions

Hindu Kambohs claim to be related to the Rajputs. They came in the period of Mahabharat to the regions where they live now.

Agriculturists

Numerous foreign and Indian writers have described the modern Kambojs/Kambohs as one of the finest class of agriculturists of India.

Chhimba

The Chhimba are a Sikh clan. Their traditional occupation in the Samba district of India was dying and hand-printing calico fabric. It was probably some of these people who moved to areas of Himachal Pradesh, where they created a somewhat different style of printing cloth that was much favoured by the Gaddi people of the region.

See also

References