Sikligar

The Sikligar are a community found in the states of Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab in India. They are also known as the Panchal. They are Hindu in Gujarat and Sikh in Punjab, partly Hindu and partly Sikh in Haryana and Muslim in parts of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The Arabic word saiqal means a polisher, and the Sikligar are those people who had the hereditary duty of polishing weapons. Many administrators of the British Raj period who also wrote books  - such as H. A. Rose, Denzil Ibbetson and William Crooke - referred to the blacksmith communities as Lohars, although in fact that term refers to a specific group of people and is not the synonym that they supposed. The Sikligar were possibly one such case of mistaken identity.

They are a nomadic community, often having encampments at the edges of towns and cities. The community claim to have been Rajputs, who had fled to Muslim invading armies, and took their ancient occupation to disguise themselves from their Muslim foes. Their ancestral home to said to be the city of Kannauj. They now speak Gujarati. The community is strictly endogamous and divided into twelve clans of equal status. These are the Kanthiwala Bhand, Mole Bhand, Gandhiwala Bhand, Jumarwala, Jilpatia, Pathlerde, Juni, Mat and Bardika.

In Haryana, according to their traditions, during the period of the Hindu deity Rama, there were people called the Chakreli. These Chakreli were the traditional manufacturers of swords and shields. These Chakreli lived in Chitor, in Rajasthan. Their ancestors then fled their home to flee Muslim invaders, and the ancestors of the Haryana Sikligar moved into the region in the distant past. Other traditions make the community of Rajput origin. According to this traditions, they were Rajput soldiers in the army of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, and subsequent to his defeat at the hands of Mohammed Ghori, the community took to blacksmithing.

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