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| Laus |
| General Mohyal Sabha - Members of Mohyals | |
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The Laus sprang to life in the epoch of the Ramayana and Vasishtha,\" the Raj Guru of King Dashratha the father of Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu), was their progenitor. They derive their Vasishth gotra from the name of the same ancestor. Some scholars have imputed the Vats gotra to Laus but their hypothesis suffers from credibility. There is another school of opinion which traces the origin of the Lau caste to Lav, the redoubtable son or Rama. But this assumption appears irrelevant because the hero of Ramayana was a kshtriya whereas theMohyals are brahmins decended from a constellation of Raj Rishis. In the haze of the dashing centuries, we don\'t come across any Lau veteran or see the trail of any event connected with this clan, till the closing of the tenth century. It was around 997 AD that a dauntless ruler named Bijaipal appeared on the firmament. To perpetuate his name, he built a new town eall_d Bajwada in District Kangra. As time rolled on, this place became the prestigious Dheri of the Lau sect in the same manner as Mamdot and Samba were the Dheris of Mohan and Vaid castes. Bijaipal had two sons, Lopal and Bhopal. Lopal ascended to the gaddi on the passing away of his father. Being a man of high ambitions, he went on a stint of fighting to conquer new territories and extended his fiefdom upto Muhan. Lodhra was another stronghold of the Laus probably founded by Lopa!. The surrounding territory was inhabited by the two warrior tribes, Langas and Lohanas, who had strong racial affinity with Laus. The Langas are believed to have ruled over Mullan and were expelled from there by the hordes of the Mughal King Babar. The Lohanas had their regency in Brahmanabad and during their heyday had marital relations with Chhibbers during their imperial days in Sind. Both these sects were later converted to Islam faith. After the death of Lopal his son Vishav Rai became the titular head. He earned great name and was eulogised in kal\'irs for his sagacity and valour. A period poet wrote an anthology under the title of \'Fishav Rai Nirr full of adulation for his qualities of head and heart. This book also chronicled the legend of the Lau clan. Vishav Rai begot four sons named Chhaja. Abbad, Aahi and Ghiga. They established their individual hierarchies which acquired the status of Thammas, the pinnacle of family aristocracy amongst the olden Mohyals. In 1191. when Raja Jai Chand convened his famous Rajsu Yajna in Kannauj, he invited prominent Hindu rulers and leaders of the brahmin Community including Mohyals. The Mohyal community was represented in this historic convention by their seven patriarchs hailing from its even different castes and the honour of representing the Lau family fell on Rai hIder Sain Lau. The following episode which took place during the reign of Aurangzeb led to a traumatic cleavage in the MohyaI community: seven leading Mohyal families, one from each caste, took voluntary banishment from the pale of the Mohyaldom on the advice of Gosain Bhoj Raj Vaid, to oblige Aroras who were in great distress after having been ostracizedy the Kshatris. The Lau veteran amongst the expatriates was Shyama ao Lodhra whose descendants later on came to be known as Shamu Potras. In the Urdu histories it is described that Tnder Sain Lau, the valiant grandson of Shyama Rao Lodhm, was involved in a war with notorious Sultan Mahmud and drove the tyrant back to Ghazni. His paeans have been sung by the bards in many kavits but these kavits throw no light on the lineage of hIder Sain. Obviously, there is a faux pas in the story because Mahmud Ghazni and Shyama Rao were out-distanced from each other by almost seven centuries. According to Islah-e-Mohyali, in 1398, when Amir Timur Gorjani was neeing to Samarkand after indulging in blasphemy of loot and murder, he followed a hilly route along the Shivalik Hills instead of going by plains. He took this step hecause he had been earlier severely mauled by the Hindus near Haridwar. Curiously, he was offered hospitality, given souvenirs and provided with escort for his safe journey upto the river Beas, by Rai Balar Sain the son of Rai Inder Sain Lau. Timur was so pleased by this cordiality that he bestowed on Balar Sain the township of Bajwada, as a perpetual jagir. This sounds rather incredible that a vanquished man, on the run for his life, will show such magnanimity. It will be observed that the name of Inder Sain appears with a bewildering frequency in the brief saga of the Laus. It is highly inconceivable that the bravo who battled with Mahmud Ghazni around 1,000 AD, the personage who attended the Rajsu Yajna of Jai Chand in I 191 and the man whose son lavished hospitality on the brigand Timur in 1398, were not three different characters bearing the same name. No writer, worth his salt, can vouchsafe for absolute veracity of the dates and happenings or on the names of persons and places involved based on the pathetically skimpy information available at his elbow. The Mohyal history is such a despair land for the wary chronicler. No wonder that even a conscientious author like Russell Stracey, with his deep commitment to authenticity, has blundered in quoting dates and the like. Coming back to the annals of the Laus, their dynasty continued to prosper in Bajwada for nearly 300 years till it was uprooted during the tyrannical reign of Aurangzeb. The Mughal titan had challenged the Sikhs in a bid to subjugate them but met with fierce resistance. He tried to enlist the support of Laus against the Sikhs but they did not oblige and instead stood squarely behind their own compatriots. This roused the monarch\'s ire and in reprisal he detailed a big force to crush them. In the disastrous battle, the microscopic Lau community and their prize possession of Bajwada, were obliterated. The surviving Laus fled to different parts of the Punjab and settlcd in places like Nawan Shahar, Gujranwala, Jhelum, rind Dadan Khan, Pindi and Hazara. Their main concentration, however, was in a village called Kauntrila in District Rawalpindi. In the time of King Mohammed Shah (1719-1748), Sur Sain Lau, a descendant of Balar Sain, was a high ranking dignitary. A Lau astrologer belonging to Gujranwala near Lahore shot to fame for his accurate predictions. He was offered a high post and awarded jagir by the mythical Hari Singh Nalwa. During the Sikh period, Mehta Daya Ram Lau of Rajouri (J & K) held an exalted position in the revenue department. His son Ram Chand was Aide-de-Camp to prince Pishora Singh. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh when inglorious fighting erupted amongst his successors, Ram Chand saved the life of Pishora Singh at great personal risk, when the latter was cornered by his enemies near Campbellpur. Among the Lau luminaires of the modern time may be mentioned the names of Rai Sahib Braham Dass who was Revenue and Home Minister of Mandi State and Rai Sahib Bhag Rai Lau who was a senior member of the Jammu and Kashmir State Council. The Laus by themselves constitute about 10% in the numerical chart of the Mohyal community. If the members of the Mohyal Saraswat Mandai who are mostly Laus are also included. they become a formidable group. These people are genuine Mohyals but were separated from the mainstream due to some catastrophe in the past. Their induction will not only boost-up the overall numerical strengtH of the Mohyal community. it will also help in easing the chronic matrimonial situation. They :noe :nodent followers of their saint ancestor Sidh Shyam Lau, whose resting place situated on the eastern bank of Jamuna near the old railway bridge is a hallowed spot for their fraternity. The land is believed to have been gifted to the spiritual man by the Emperor Aurangzeb.
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