Kinnaur District - People

People

"It is said that two great Rishis (Saints) from Satyuga will reincarnate in Kalyuga in Kinnaur to spread goodwill and some wits in Kinnauri people. These two saints will have birth near Nichar Valley and Akpa. Though these two saints will be devoid of any wits in this yuga but one of their "mitra" will take care of them and help them to shape the life of Kinnauri people."

According to myth, the Kinners are descendants of the Pandavas: beings halfway between men and gods that possess supernatural powers. They also claim descent from the Rajput, Khosias, and Beru castes.

The Kinners speak a dialect of the Tibeto-Burman family known as Kinnauri or Kanauri. The distinctive feature of Kinnarui dialect is the use of Hindi elements. The Tibetan Jangram dialect is spoken by the Kinners living in Pooh and Sangla. Two thousand speakers of the old Zhang Zhung dialect in the Sutlej valley still remain today.

Another theory is that Kinnars are not the Indo Aryans but the extension of Darads who were spread on the high mountains of western Himalayas, who belong to the Iranic stock. Darads speak a language which is related to Persian language. Speculation is that in ancient times the Kinnars may have spoken a language close to the language of the Darads. later when Tibet annexed the Himalayan region and captured the areas of Kinnour, Spiti and Ladakh, they may have had to adopt the language of the new rulers and abandon the their old language. Otherwise why would an ethnically Indo European tribe speak a language from the Tibeto-Burman family?

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