Khas

Originally the Khas were the mountain dwellers living in the south shadow of the Himalayan range from Kashmir to Bhutan, but mostly in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nepal, North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan, (specially the parts of then Greater Nepal). This Indo-Iranian Aryan tribe is believed to have settled a vast expanse of the western, central, and eastern Himalayas as early as the 2nd millennium B.C.

The Khas are typically thought to be descendants of the ancinet Kamboj people who being of Iranian origin settled in India's North-west and then a branch of them migrated towards Bengal in the 1st millenium AD.It is believed that Kashmiri Pandits also belong to this sub-clan of the Kambojas.

In Nepal, the Khas were rice-growing settlers in the Karnali-Bheri basin of far western Nepal since prehistoric or early historic times.Then perhaps 2500 years ago, Khas peoples migrated eastward, bypassing the inhospitable Kham highlands to settle in the lower valleys of the Gandaki basin suited to rice cultivation. One notable extended family settled in Gorkha, a petty principality about halfway between Pokhara and Kathmandu. Then in the late 1700s a king named Prithvi Narayan Saha raised an army of Chetri. Gurungs, Magars and possibly other hill tribesmen and set out to conquer and consolidate dozens of petty principalities in the himalayan foothills. Since Gorkha had replaced the original Khas homeland as the center of political and military initiative, Khaskura was redubbed Gorkhali, i.e. language of the Gorkhas. Now it is as called Nepali the national language of Nepal.

The Khas are also believed to have arrived from Tajikistan and share some physical traits with the Tajik population. As part of Indo-Iranian trait many Khas exhibit yellow complexion, are generally tall or medium stature with glowing facade and develop grey hairline at young age. modern Tajiks also exihibit some of these hallmark traits.

Main sub casts of the Khas.
* Chetri
*Thakuri
*Gharti
*Bahun (Brhamn)

Main Title of Kashmiri Pandits
*Razdan
*Zutshi
*Rana
*Mitra
*Pande
*Gharti Chetri (GC)
*Khatri Chetri (KC)
*Chand
*Singh
*Malla
*Bohora

Similar titles between Chetris and Brhamn (Bahun) and other casts.
*Baral (Bahun,Chetri and Magar)
*Lamichane (Bahun, Chetri and Gurung)
*Budha (Magar and Chetri)
*Adhikari (Chetri and Bahun)