Kak (clan)

Kak (Kashmiri: काक (Devanagari), کاک (Nastaleeq); Hindi: काक) is an Indian name that can refer to a caste living in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.

Jammu and Kashmir

Kak is also a family name of Kashmiris. There are two families of Kaks — one from Kaksoth, and the other from Rainawari. Most of the Kaks were driven out of Kashmir in 1947 due to political affiliations with Ram Chandra Kak, the then prime minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Some Kaks are Kashmiri Pandits, who have a long tradition of Indian administrative service based on fluency in a link language - Persian under the Mughals and English under the British.^[1] In light of this fact, the Kak family historically became a prominent administrative family in other parts of India, namely in Jodhpur.^[1]

Notable Kashmiri Kaks

• Kapil Kak
• Subhash Kak
• Manju Kak
• Mushtaq Kak
• Amar Nath Kak
• Ram Nath Kak
• Ram Chandra Kak
• Khemendra Kak
• Sanjay Kak
• Siddharth Kak

Uttar Pradesh

Indian gotra of Jats found in Uttar Pradesh. The Kak Jats have 52 villages in Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh and about 100 villages in other parts of India. These people called themselves descendants of the Nagas or Yadu and worship Balram. Their ancestors ruled over Anhalwara in Ajmer. On being driven out from there, they settled down in Brij. They have 40 villages in the district of Gonda.

History

The first King of Ayodhya was Ikshvaku whose son was Vikukshi. Vikukshi's son was Kakustha, who started the vansha Kak or Kakustha. They are mentioned in Vayu Purana. They are mentioned in Allahabad Pillar Inscriptions of Samudragupta, along with Khara, Salkalan, etc. - all Jat clans.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 3, Part 6: The Indian Princes and their States. Cambridge University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=ohnfWmSgFkAC&pg=PA183&dq=Haksar+caste+Kashmir&hl=en&ei=lP_xTLWqDsP38Ab_ppnkCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2007–03–25. "Kashmiri brahman pandits who, like the Bengali kaayasths, had a long tradition of administrative service based on fluency in a link language - initially Persian under the Mughals and then English under the British - had migrated to Delhi, Lucknow and Lahore from the late eighteenth century onward. By the 1820s they had entered princely states as educators and administrators. The Haksar family was prominent in Indore and Gwailor, the Kak family in Jodhpur, and others in Bharatpur." 
2. ^ Indian Antiquity, Vol. II