Lone ( ks, लोन (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

), لون ( Nastaleeq)), historically known as Lavanya is a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Barua ...

surname found in the

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

n administered union territory of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

and the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i administered province of

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...

. Kashmiris with this surname are also found in other parts of India and in the Pakistani Punjabi areas of Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot.

Background

Scholars like

Jan Gonda Jan Gonda (14 April 1905 – 28 July 1991) was a Dutch Indologist and the first Utrecht professor of Sanskrit. He was born in Gouda, in the Netherlands, and died in Utrecht. He studied with Willem Caland at Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht (since 199 ...

and Walter Roper Lawrence have stated that the Lone belong to the

Vaishya Vaishya (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of caste hierarchy. The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly of agriculture, taking care ...

order, being Hindu agriculturalists and traders prior to their conversion to Islam. In the view of

Kalhana Kalhana ( sa, कल्हण, translit=kalhaṇa) was the author of ''Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be ...

: ''In narrating the war of extermination by which Harsa, endeavoured to rid the eastern portion of the valley of the powerful Damaras. Kalhana indiscriminately also uses the term LAVANYA to designate them. This becomes quite evident by a comparison of the verses quoted below. The same observation holds good for a series of passages in later portions of the Chronicle. The explanation is not far to seek. Lavanya, as shown in note vii. 1171, is a tribal name still surviving to this day in the Kram name Lun, born by a considerable section of the agriculturist population of Kashmir.Kalhana's Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir, Page 306'' The Lone Tribe is considered to be the direct descendant of the survived

Damaras The Damara, plural Damaran (Khoekhoegowab: ǂNūkhoen, ''Black people'', german: Bergdamara, referring to their extended stay in hilly and mountainous sites, also called at various times the Daman or the Damaqua) are an ethnic group who make ...

who later adopted different professions and blended into the Kashmiri society. Today The Lone tribe is based mainly in northern Kashmir, although in the past few centuries there has been gradual diffusion of the tribe throughout the valley of Kashmir and other parts of India. Some members of this caste are also found in the Pakistani-administered Kashmir, they are said to have migrated there in 1947 or in the 1990s when militancy was at its height in the valley. However, the place of origin of the tribe and the area where the tribe is said to be mostly concentrated in is the northern

Kupwara Kupwara is a town and a municipal council in Kupwara district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Municipal council Kupwara is an Urban Local Body with 13 elected members (also in Delimitation in progress for wards), which ad ...

district of the Kashmir Valley. Although the vast majority of the Lone tribe speak

as their mother tongue, significant numbers speak Shina, especially those who live in the Gurez valley. The majority of the people of the Lone tribe follow Islam as their religion and are predominantly

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

References

{{Pakistan-ethno-stub Kashmiri tribes Social groups of Jammu and Kashmir Social groups of Pakistan