Every name below, its place in the line and every relationship are taken from the shajra above. Names are written in a readable form, with the shajra’s own English spelling in brackets where it differs, and details that come only from historical records are marked as such. Select any name to find it in the tree.

The Katoch rajas of Kangra

The shajra opens with fifteen rajas of the Katoch dynasty of Kangra, each with a date and the deed for which he is remembered. They are not father and son: the line that joins them in the chart spans the many generations it does not name.

• c. 4300 BC Rajanaka Bhumi Chandra, founder of the Katoch line.
• 3000 BC Nanamel Chandra, who fought against Laxman in the Ramayana.
• 1500 BC Susharma Chandra II, who fought against Arjun in the Mahabharata.
• 320 BC Parmanand Chandra I, known as Porus, who fought against Alexander the Great.
• 280 BC Udaivan Chandra, who fought against Ashoka and lost Multan.
• AD 150 Tripur Chandra, who fought Ram Deo of Kanauj and made a marriage alliance with Kanauj.
• AD 643 Adam Chandra, a contemporary of Harsh Vardhan of Kanauj, who was visited by the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang.
• AD 1009 Jagdish Chandra III, who fought against Mahmud Ghazni.
• AD 1150 Laxmi Chandra II, in whose time the lands of Jalandhar were lost.
• AD 1315 Jai Singh Chandra II.
• AD 1330 Prithvi Chandra II, who issued the Pithana coins.
• AD 1341 Purab Chandra, who issued the Bul Asharfi coin.
• AD 1360 Rup Chandra V, who issued the Rupmudra coins and looted villages up to the gates of Delhi.
• AD 1375 Shringar Chandra IV, who issued the Singa coins and received the title of Miyan.
• AD 1391 Megh Chand (Megh Chandra II), who issued the Meghmudra coins and fought against Timur.

Megh Chand and his three sons

The shajra gives Megh Chand (Megh Chandra II) three sons:

• Hari Chandra I (AD 1405), who founded Guler, of which Dada Siba is an offshoot;
• Raja Partab Chand, founder of Bhimber (Chibhal);
• Karm Chandra II (AD 1420), who received the title of Bada Raja and issued the Karam mudra coins.

Historical recordsThe Kangra chronicles tell that Hari Chand fell into a well while hunting and was given up for dead, so that Karam Chand was crowned at Kangra in his place; when Hari Chand was found alive, he founded Guler instead. Hutchison and Vogel call Partab Chand the third son of Megh Chand, and say that he settled at Malura near Bhimber, married the daughter of its ruler and in time succeeded him.

The rajas of Chibhal

From Raja Partab Chand the shajra follows a single line, each raja the son of the one before: Raja Chib Chand, Raja of Chibhal State, Bhimber, from whom the Chibs take their name; Raja Kalas Chand (Klas Chand); Raja Ropaal Chand; Raja Pheeri Chand; Raja Shaanti Chand; and Raja Gor Paal Chand.

Historical recordsHutchison and Vogel also name a younger son of Partab Chand, Kharak Chand, who founded Khari-Khariali with its seat at Mangla Fort, and a Raja Hans of Bhimber who turned back a force from the Punjab in 1486. Neither appears on our shajra, which follows the line of Chib Chand.

Baba Shadi Shaheed and his descendants

Raja Gor Paal Chand’s son was Raja Shadab Khan, also called Sandeep Chand or Raja Dharam Chand and known as Baba Shadi Shaheed. He embraced Islam, and with him the names in the shajra change from Chand to Khan. His sons were Raja Rupo Khan, Raja Mal Khan and Raja Bhom Khan, and Bhom Khan’s sons were Raja Ghaghi Khan (Ghghe khan) and Raja Ghani Khan (Ghnye khan).

The shajra continues through Raja Ghani Khan. His son Raja Jamshed (jmshaid) had three sons: Raja Qasim Khan, who died without children; Raja Saleem Khan, whose descendants are the Khori family; and Raja Tughu Khan. Tughu Khan’s sons were Raja Kasib Khan (Qasab khan), whose descendants are the families of Bandi, Mughlora, Salam Kot and Samangla Sarsala, and Raja Haj Khan (Hajh khan). Haj Khan’s son Shah Muhammad Khan was the father of Raja Madan Khan (Madn khan).

Historical recordsHutchison and Vogel place the family’s acceptance of Islam probably not later than the time of Babar, and the Punjab glossary of tribes names septs of the clan after Shadi Khan’s descendants, among them the Rupyal, the Ghaniyal and the Ghaghial.

The five sons of Raja Madan Khan

Raja Madan Khan had five sons: Mirza Idhar Baig Khan, Khan Parda Khan, Khan Jewal Khan (Jyewl khan), Ismail Khan and Darya Khan, jagirdar of Ali Malot. The last rajas of Bhimber descend from Ismail Khan, and the Chibs of Malot from Darya Khan.

The last rajas of Bhimber

From Ismail Khan the shajra traces the ruling line from father to son: Raja Chowk Jannat Khan, known as Raja Jogu Khan; Raja Rehmatullah Khan (Rehmtullah khan), known as Raja Roop Singh; Raja Karamullah Khan; Raja Shair Safdar Khan; Raja Mian Ji Khan (MIan Ge khan); Raja Naeem Khan; Raja Suleman Khan; and Raja Sultan Khan, whom the shajra calls Akhri Wali-e-Bhimber, the last ruler of Bhimber.

Historical recordsRaja Sultan Khan defeated a Sikh army above Bhimber in 1812, was held prisoner at Lahore and was later killed at Jammu. Hutchison and Vogel record that his nephew Faiz Talab Khan held the chiefship until 1840. Read his story in Raja Sultan Khan: The Last Ruler of Bhimber.

Records of the early twentieth century describe how the Bhimber kingdom was shared among the royal family. The throne passed to the eldest son, but younger sons had a right to a share, and the kingdom was divided into four great fiefs, the mandis of Mahlot (Malot), Bundala, Kahawalian and Rajal, each held by a prince of the blood. Four strongholds, the garhs of Dewa, Butala, Ambarial and Kadhala, were held by the Ghaghial, and some eighty-four smaller fiefs, the dheris, went to younger sons. From this order came the three grades of Chib families: Mandial, Garhial and Dherial.

The same records list fourteen septs of the Chibs descended from Shadi Khan, most named after an ancestor: the Rupyal (from Rup Khan), Barwana (Baru Khan), Daphral (Daphar Khan), Dhural (Dhaur Khan), Darwesal (Darwesh Khan), Jaskal (Jaisak Khan), Maindal, Baranshahia (Baran Khan), Samwalia, Miana, Malkana, Malkal (Malik Khan), Ghaniyal (Ghani Khan) and Ghaghial (Ghaghi Khan). Several of these ancestors appear in our shajra: Raja Rupo Khan was a son of Baba Shadi Shaheed, and Raja Ghani Khan and Raja Ghaghi Khan were his grandsons, the sons of Raja Bhom Khan.

Names follow the family’s shajra, written in a readable form with the shajra’s own English spelling in brackets where it differs; spellings vary between Urdu and English records, and the Katoch part of the chart passes over many generations. Families who keep their own shajra are warmly invited to share it with us. Sources: Shajra-e-Nasab of the Chib Rajputs of Malot; J. Hutchison and J. Ph. Vogel, History of the Panjab Hill States, vol. II (1933); H. A. Rose, Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, vol. II (1911).