Kalirai

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Kalirai(Pronounced: Cali-Rye) is a surname that belongs to the Jat clan, and the Kalirai people are believed to have originated from the village of Khankhana.

There are also people who use the surname 'Kallirai' which is just the same but with the extra 'L', after careful research the reason for this is because Lawyers made a mistake during name changes on documentation in the 1970's and this had not been noticed. This had been left too late to change and people did not want to go through the hassle of having to change it again so decided to let it remain the way it was.

There are often Kalirai people who shorten down their surnames to 'Rai'.

1 Legend
2 Khankhana
3 Other Villages
4 Notable people with the surname Kalirai
5 In Music
6 Books
7 See also
8 References

[edit] Legend

There are many theories of the history surrounding this name, the most recent being that Kalirai is a modified version of the last name Kalrai which in turn is the modified version of Kalra. In the middle ages, the Kalra's have been traced to the jungles of Afghanistan where they bred cattle and sold goat cheese for a living. Legend states that a group of Kalra's preferred cow cheese to goat cheese. In the ensuing battle between the goat cheese people and the cow cheese people, the goat cheese people won. The cow cheese people were banished and started another sect in the name of Kalrai. Kalrai subsequently turned in to Kalirai. It is also said that this surname has been traced back to a generation when it was split from the jatt surname Bains.

There is a theory that the surname 'Kalirai' is a surname that comes from the words Kali(Black) and Rai(Mustard Seed) and it is said that earlier ancestors were merchants/travellers from the middle east dating back to over 300 years ago.

[edit] Khankhana

The village of Khankhana is a pind built and named after the famous poet Abdur Rahim Khan-khana. It is located in the Nawanshahr district of the state of Punjab in northwest India. The village had a population of 485 people in the early 1990s. The nearest main road to this pind is Garhshankar-Balachaur which is at a distance of 4 kilometres and the nearest railway station, Garhshankar, is located 19 kilometres away. Khankhana is very close to the town of Banga (Nawanshahr).

Khankhana was previously known as 'Gadee'(donkey) pind, the reason behind this is unclear but one reason which is strongly believed is that there are a lot of Kumhaars (potters) in this Village who kept donkeys to bring in the clay for making earthernware and also carry their products for sale,to sell on donkey back. It is true to say that Khankhana was named after a famous poet but there is also another theory that a king visited the village after hearing from people that it was a village of 'weird' and 'backward' people, but after his stay he was surprised at how wrong people were and he himself said that the village was the 'best of the best' which relates to the meaning of the pind's name (Khankhana).

[edit] Other Villages

Although the Kalirai people are originally from Khan-khana there are also other Kalirai pinds, these are:

Ghunachur - many people of Khankhana origin who returned after the 1947 divide of Pakistan and India were allocated land in ghunachur. Ghunachur is on the other side of khankhana on the Banga(Nawanshahr) - Makandpur Road, next to Raja Sahib Da Mazara.

Bhoot - 3km from Banga on the road to Nawanshahr, next to Khatkar Kalan (Bhagat Singh's pind).

Lakhpur - near Maluporta Train Station, about 3km from Banga (Nawanshahr).

Garhi - In Nawanshahr District, originally in Jallandhar District (Changed a few years ago due to re-structuring and the creation of the new district 'Nawahshahr').

[edit] Notable people with the surname Kalirai

Harmage Singh Kalirai (Director, Actor)
Jasvir Ghunachuria (Song-writer)

[edit] In Music

The hit song by Specialist & Tru Skool titled 'Mawan De Put Sher Gabru' mentions a line in the final verse about the village of Khankhana.

[edit] Books

There was supposedly a book that was published named 'The Book of Kalirai's' which listed the names, and addresses of Kalirai people all across the world.