When did the Chibs come to Bhimber? The oldest written answer, in Thakur Major Singh’s Tarikh-e-Chibhal (c. 1926), is “at the end of the thirteenth century Bikrami”, about 1240 AD, when Raja Narain Chand and his son Raja Chib Chand (راجہ چب چند) arrived from Kangra. Most later historians preferred dates between about 1350 and the early fifteenth century, and a check within Major Singh’s own chronicle, seven rajas down to Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, points to the fourteenth century.
At a glance
- The question
- When Raja Chib Chand, founder of the Chib dynasty, came from Kangra to Bhimber
- Oldest written date
- “End of the thirteenth century Bikrami”, about 1240 AD (Major Singh, p. 21)
- Range in the sources
- About 1230 to the first quarter of the fifteenth century
- Most-cited date
- About 1400 or the early fifteenth century
- Kangra clue
- Megh Chand, Chib Chand’s great-grandfather, ruled Kangra at Timur’s invasion in 1398 (per the 1997 history)
- Bhimber clue
- Raja Dharam Chand, seventh raja after Chib Chand, was summoned by Ibrahim Lodi (r. 1517–1526)
- What the clues suggest
- Later than 1240; the fourteenth century or the years around 1400 fit best
When did the Chibs come to Bhimber?
Every Chib family traces its descent to Raja Chib Chand, the Katoch prince of Kangra who married the daughter of Raja Sri Pat, the Thakial ruler of Bhimber, and founded the dynasty of the Chib Rajputs. Bhimber, today in Azad Jammu and Kashmir near the Pakistani Punjab, remained their capital until the nineteenth century. The story of his coming is told in much the same way by every source; its date is not. The proposals span two centuries, and the oldest written history of the Chibs, now being published chapter by chapter, gives one of the earliest.
What the oldest history says
Thakur Major Singh Chib of Dewa Vatala printed his Tarikh-e-Chibhal in 1983 Bikrami, about 1926. Its second chapter opens with a date: “at the end of the thirteenth century Bikrami”, Raja Narain Chand set out from Kangra for conquest, passed below the hills of Jammu and entered the state of Bhimber with his four sons, Chib Chand, Dhru Chand, Ambu Chand and Aji Chand (Major Singh (c. 1926), p. 21). The Bikrami (Vikram Samvat) era runs about 57 years ahead of the Christian era, so the end of its thirteenth century, around 1300 Bikrami, falls about 1240 AD.
The first chapter sets the journey in its family context without a date. When the line of Karam Chand took the throne of Kangra, Major Singh writes, the other brothers each resolved to found a state of their own, and Partab Chand’s son Narain Chand led a small band of soldiers west along the Jammu hills to Mughlora, near Bhimber (p. 9). In the book’s numbered list of rulers Megh Chand is No. 455, Partab Chand No. 456, Narain Chand No. 457 and Chib Chand No. 458, so Chib Chand is Megh Chand’s great-grandson (p. 18; see The Chib Shajra).
Sources differ
Two different books are called Tarikh-e-Chibhal, and their dates for Chib Chand are more than a century and a half apart. Major Singh’s (c. 1926) says the end of the thirteenth century Bikrami, about 1240 (p. 21). Mian Onkar Singh’s later book of the same name (2nd ed., Delhi, 1984), quoted in the 1997 history of Raja Muhammad Iftikhar Ali Khan, says the beginning of the fifteenth century AD (Iftikhar Ali Khan (1997), p. 65). Later writers who cite “Tarikh-e-Chibhal” for the early fifteenth century mean Onkar Singh’s book. The 1997 history does cite Major Singh’s p. 21, but for the names of Chib Chand’s brothers, not for his date (p. 32).
The later dates compared
At least seven other accounts, all quoted in the 1997 history, either date Chib Chand or place him in time.
| Source | What it says | About |
|---|---|---|
| Thakur Major Singh, Tarikh-e-Chibhal (c. 1926), p. 21 | “End of the thirteenth century Bikrami” | 1240 |
| Raja Wilayat Khan of Thotha Rai Bahadur, unpublished (pp. 29–31) | Sri Pat died “about 1230 AD” and Bhimber passed to Chib Chand | 1230 |
| Family history of the Pothi, Kasgumah and Lehri Rajgan (p. 165) | Chib Chand settled at Maghlora “around 1350 AD”; his sixth-generation descendant was summoned by Ibrahim Lodi | 1350 |
| Griffin and Massy, The Chiefs of the Punjab (p. 156) | Chib Chand left Kangra “around 1400 AD” | 1400 |
| Mian Onkar Singh, Tarikh-e-Chibhal, 2nd ed. 1984 (p. 65) | Narain Chand left Kangra “at the beginning of the fifteenth century” | early 1400s |
| Iftikhar Ali Khan (1997), pp. 25, 32, 36, 352 | Accession in “about the first quarter of the fifteenth century” | 1400–1425 |
| Settlement of District Gujrat, 1868 (pp. 19–20) | No date; an ancestor at the court of Alauddin Khilji (r. 1296–1316); conversion in the seventh generation, under Humayun | not stated |
| H. A. Rose, Glossary, 1911 (p. 26) | “Fourteen centuries earlier”, as printed in the Urdu translation | unclear |
The two earliest dates, Raja Wilayat Khan’s 1230 and Major Singh’s 1240, agree closely; whether the one drew on the other, the sources do not say. The settlement report’s Iranian pedigree, which both Major Singh and the 1997 history reject, is discussed in Where did the Chibs come from?
The Kangra clue: Megh Chand and Timur
The 1997 history rejects the earliest dates on one ground. When Amir Timur invaded India in 1398, its compiler writes, the ruler of Kangra was Raja Megh Chand, Chib Chand’s great-grandfather, and on Timur’s way back from Delhi his troops skirmished with Megh Chand’s in the Beas valley; a great-grandson of that raja cannot have taken Bhimber about 1230 (Iftikhar Ali Khan (1997), p. 32). The history of the hill states by Hutchison and Vogel (1933) likewise dates the founding of Guler by Megh Chand’s son Hari Chand to about 1405, as our article on Guler and Kangra explains. The compiler aimed his argument at Raja Wilayat Khan, but it applies just as strongly to Major Singh’s c. 1240, which he does not mention.
Major Singh’s own narrative points the same way. In his account Narain Chand left Kangra only after Karam Chand’s line had taken the throne, and he was already an old man when he reached Bhimber, where he died a few days after his son’s wedding (pp. 9, 22). If Megh Chand was ruling in the 1390s, his grandson’s migration belongs to the fifteenth century rather than the thirteenth. The Kangra background is told in From Kangra to Bhimber.
The Bhimber clue: seven rajas to Ibrahim Lodi
Major Singh supplies a second check himself. His third chapter opens by saying that after Chib Chand seven more rajas sat on the throne of Bhimber, the seventh being Raja Dharam Chand, remembered as Baba Shadi Shaheed (p. 26), and his chart numbers them from Chib Chand (No. 458) to Dharam Chand (No. 465) (pp. 18–19). On p. 29 the same Dharam Chand is summoned to Delhi to cure Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, who reigned from 1517 to 1526.
Counting back is simple arithmetic. If Dharam Chand was on the throne by about 1520, the seven reigns before his, from Chib Chand to Goja Chand, would have lasted some 280 years on Major Singh’s date, an average of about forty years each. At twenty to thirty years a reign, a more usual span, the same seven reigns place Chib Chand between about 1310 and 1380, in the fourteenth century. The Pothi, Kasgumah and Lehri family history, with Chib Chand about 1350 and his sixth-generation descendant under Ibrahim Lodi (p. 165), fits this pattern, and so does the 1868 Settlement’s conversion in the seventh generation under Humayun (p. 20). The succession itself is set out in The Rajas of Bhimber.
The early-fifteenth-century date is harder to square with this check. An accession between about 1410 and 1425 leaves roughly a century for seven reigns, some fourteen to sixteen years each; short reigns are not impossible, but the fit is less comfortable.
Weighing the evidence
No single date satisfies every clue. Major Singh, the oldest written source, gives one of the two earliest dates, about 1240, and it is very probably too early: it clashes both with the dating of Chib Chand’s great-grandfather Megh Chand to Timur’s time and with Major Singh’s own synchronism with Ibrahim Lodi. Most later historians, Griffin and Massy, Onkar Singh and the 1997 history among them, prefer about 1400 or the first quarter of the fifteenth century, a dating the 1997 history defends with Megh Chand’s place in Timur’s time. The count of seven reigns down to Ibrahim Lodi points rather to the fourteenth century.
Until more evidence comes to light, perhaps in the pages of Major Singh’s book still being located, the careful answer is that Raja Chib Chand came to Bhimber some time between the early fourteenth and the early fifteenth century, with the fourteenth century or the years around 1400 fitting the evidence better than the thirteenth.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Chibs come to Bhimber?
The sources disagree. Thakur Major Singh’s Tarikh-e-Chibhal (c. 1926), the oldest written Chib history, dates Raja Chib Chand’s arrival to the end of the thirteenth century Bikrami, about 1240 AD, while most later historians prefer about 1400 or the first quarter of the fifteenth century. A check within Major Singh’s own book points to the fourteenth century.
Why do historians reject a date of about 1230 or 1240?
Chib Chand was the great-grandson of Raja Megh Chand of Kangra, who according to the 1997 Chib history was ruling Kangra when Timur invaded India in 1398. A great-grandson of a ruler of the 1390s cannot have taken Bhimber about 1230 or 1240, and Major Singh’s own count of seven rajas before Ibrahim Lodi also implies a later date.
What does Ibrahim Lodi have to do with dating Chib Chand?
Major Singh says that Raja Dharam Chand, the seventh raja after Chib Chand, was summoned to Delhi to cure Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, who reigned from 1517 to 1526. Counting back seven reigns of twenty to thirty years each places Chib Chand in the fourteenth century.
Which Tarikh-e-Chibhal dates Chib Chand to the early fifteenth century?
Mian Onkar Singh’s Tarikh-e-Chibhal, whose second edition appeared in Delhi in 1984, says Narain Chand left Kangra at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Thakur Major Singh’s older book of the same name, printed about 1926, gives the end of the thirteenth century Bikrami instead.
How do you convert a Bikrami date?
The Bikrami or Vikram Samvat calendar runs about 57 years ahead of the Christian era, so subtracting 57 gives the approximate year AD. The end of the thirteenth century Bikrami, around 1300 Bikrami, is therefore about 1240 AD, and 1983 Bikrami, when Major Singh’s book was printed, is about 1926.
Sources
- Thakur Major Singh Chib, Tarikh-e-Rajgan-e-Bhimber wa Qaum-e-Chibhal (Tarikh-e-Chibhal; Urdu, c. 1926), pp. 9, 18–22, 26, 29.
- Raja Muhammad Iftikhar Ali Khan, Raja Shadab Khan alias Hazrat Baba Shadi Shaheed (Urdu, Barhang/Karachi, 1997), pp. 19–23, 25–26, 29–32, 36, 65, 156, 165, 352.
- Mian Onkar Singh Chib, Tarikh-e-Chibhal, 2nd ed. (Delhi, 1984), pp. 34–39, as quoted in Iftikhar Ali Khan (1997), pp. 65–67.
- Raja Wilayat Khan of Thotha Rai Bahadur, unpublished history of the Chibs; L. Griffin and C. F. Massy, The Chiefs of the Punjab (Urdu translation); Settlement of District Gujrat (1868); H. A. Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, vol. II (1911); all as quoted in Iftikhar Ali Khan (1997).
- J. Hutchison and J. Ph. Vogel, History of the Panjab Hill States (Lahore, 1933), vol. I, on Kangra and Guler.
This article is part of our series on the oldest Chib history; see Tarikh-e-Chibhal, chapter by chapter. Spellings of names follow the book; readings marked “uncertain” could not be read with certainty in the old lithograph.
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