Kham Magar - History

History

Due to their oral mythology and distinctive shamanistic practices, Kham are thought to have originally migrated from Siberia but to have lived in their present location for a long time.

The present Kham homeland in the Rapti highlands lies just east of valleys in the Karnali-Bheri basin that were the original homeland of the Khas, an Iranian-Aryan people who were mainly rice farmers. Kham-Khas also suggests a duality of living in symbiotic proximity, perhaps zoned by elevation with Khas occupying alluvial river bottoms suitable for rice cultivation while Kham lived above, growing crops such as barley and tree fruit not needing intensive irrigation infrastructure. Indeed Nepal's Chhetri caste seems to derive more from khasas and also from intermarriage between the two than from Indian Rajput origins (as is frequently claimed by Nepal's Chhetri and Thakuri elites)

Beginning in the late Middle Ages Khas peoples progressively settled eastward across the smaller Rapti basin into the more productive Gandaki basin, again settling in the lower valleys where rice could be grown, thus displacing the indigenous Kham from the best farmland. The Khas formed new confederations called Baise Rajya (twenty-two kingdoms) in the Karnali region and Chaubisi Rajya (twenty-four kingdoms) in the Gandaki region that eclipsed the Kham politically.

In their turn the Baise and Chaubisi were conquered and unified into Nepal by Chaubisi prince Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha between 1743 AD and the end of the 18th century. Kham and other Magars participated as soldiers under Prithvi Narayan, then in armies of the unified state he founded. After expansion of this state came into conflict with the British Raj and was defeated, part of the Sugauli Treaty settlement gave the British the right to recruit Magars (along with other martial tribes) as Gurkha mercenaries.