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If you really want to know the history of punjabis, dont bother is my advise. Punjabis dont have a history. They have been mauled, conquered for thousands of years. Punjab during the times of invasion of Alexander is totally different from todays punjab in terms of inhabitants. Mass migrations during Muslim invasions and it being the gateway to India has caused considerable change in its demographics over centuries. only Sikhs, irrespective of castes/tribes have a definite history as Guru being their source of origin and father, histroy of others is clouded and untraceable in Punjab.

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If you really want to know the history of punjabis, dont bother is my advise. Punjabis dont have a history. They have been mauled, conquered for thousands of years. Punjab during the times of invasion of Alexander is totally different from todays punjab in terms of inhabitants. Mass migrations during Muslim invasions and it being the gateway to India has caused considerable change in its demographics over centuries. only Sikhs, irrespective of castes/tribes have a definite history as Guru being their source of origin and father, histroy of others is clouded and untraceable in Punjab.

That is the best that I think i could do. But me and my cousin sister didn't know where to look for answers and got lil' obsessed with name thing nd to dig out some stuff in our heads.

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Hello everyone,

What's happening at your end of the world? : ) I'm Sarina and I've joined this forum to ask few questions related to someone's name in our extended family. Please be humble when you reply to my questions as I've no knowledge of Sikh culture.

Can someone tell me who are 'Gorayas' ? My cousin sister's family is Punjabi (Jatt I guess ) and they all use this as their surname. Also in our family is some girl named 'Sujaan'. Her parents say its pure punjabi name but we don't know the origin and meaning of this name. She was once at airport and everyone thought of her as Indian Punjabi and some lady told her 'Goraya' is some village in Punjab, India. But why people in our family uses it as their surname ?? Lady said 'Sujaan' as in Sikh culture was some Saint etc ...

One day, our family was all gathered and we raised this topic (we are all punjabis with Lahore's origin) Some say Gorayas purely belong to Indian Punjab and during partition some had to stay in Lahore etc etc ...but me and my cousin want to know exact facts. We should know little about this but want true facts and history. Also what exactly 'Sujaan' name means? We searched all web but nahhh no freaking result.

So we decided to join forum for our questions. Hope you guys respond us humbly:)

Many Thanks !

-Sarina

Sarina; In my reply, I am assuming that your background is from Pakistan side of Punjab.

Regarding Goraya, the town:

Goraya is a village ( Now a big industrial town and designated a sub tehsil. Tehsil is administrative headquarters for an area within a district). It is in Jalandhar district . It is situated on Grand Trunk Road, and also on the main railway line, about 13 miles north of Ludhiana ( Ludhiana is the biggest industrial town in India side of Punjab). Many villages in Punjab were named after the sub-caste of people who founded those. My Grand father ( he belonged to one of neighboring villages) told me that Goraya used to be a small village - only a few houses. In 1860s a railway station was established there for the convenience of much larger towns just off the GT road. However in 1930s, taking advantage of the railway station, small scale industry started to setup and the town started to grow. As it was a small village and had only a small land in its jurisdiction , most of the development is taking place in the adjoining villages such as villages Atta ( dominated by Sohal clan), Gohar, Rurka Klan’ ( dominated by Sandhu clan) , Sang Dhesian (Dominated by Dhesi clan), Rurka Kurd , Bara Pind, Dhulleta (These three villages dominated by Sahota clan), and Dullewal.

Regarding the sub- caste Goraya:

Most of the Punjabis with Goraya sub-caste are Sikhs. But many sub castes extend both among the Sikhs and Muslims in Punjab (Like Cheema, Chattha, Bajwa, Bhatti, Randhawa, Mann and many more). My maternal grandfather belongs to Dhesi sub-caste of the village Dhesian. I was a bit surprised when I was introduced to an important business man from Pakistan whose sub caste is also Dhesi. Also it is a common practice among Sikhs to use the name of their village or the city as their last name, instead of their own sub-caste as the last name. One or two Goraya that I know, are using Goraya as their last name because they come from the town of Goraya, but their sub-caste is different.

Regarding the name Sujaan:

In Punjabi language - pure Punjabi , the word "sujaan" means someone with high awareness, mentally alert, and wise ( with religious connotation ). One time it was a popular name among Sikhs (not so much among Muslims), especially those from the area that is in Pakistan now. Now a days, among the “modern” Sikhs it is trend to use Hindu, Christian and western sounding names. They consider name “Sujaan” to be old fashioned. ( one of my most respected teachers was Sardar Sujaan Singh). I understand Muslim still use this as name for what it means

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Goraya is a small town in Punjab on Jalandhar/Phagwara-Ludhiana in Punjab. Goraya and Sujaan are both 'Tarkhan' (Carpentars) castes i think.

Nahey veer goraya are not tarkhans but belongs to jatt tribe.. Most of the Goraya surname resides in Gurdaspur district (Kadiyaan etc..)

though we don't believe in any caste thingy but just wanna point it out as our pind is close to the kadiyaan and knows lot of gorayass.. :)

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Goraya is a small town in Punjab on Jalandhar/Phagwara-Ludhiana in Punjab. Goraya and Sujaan are both 'Tarkhan' (Carpentars) castes i think.

Nahey veer goraya are not tarkhans but belongs to jatt tribe.. Most of the Goraya surname resides in Gurdaspur district (Kadiyaan etc..)

though we don't believe in any caste thingy but just wanna point it out as our pind is close to the kadiyaan and knows lot of gorayass.. smile.gif

Aww thats nice to know and yeah caste rubbish is a huge turn off ....... :)

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Sarina; In my reply, I am assuming that your background is from Pakistan side of Punjab.

Regarding Goraya, the town:

Goraya is a village ( Now a big industrial town and designated a sub tehsil. Tehsil is administrative headquarters for an area within a district). It is in Jalandhar district . It is situated on Grand Trunk Road, and also on the main railway line, about 13 miles north of Ludhiana ( Ludhiana is the biggest industrial town in India side of Punjab). Many villages in Punjab were named after the sub-caste of people who founded those. My Grand father ( he belonged to one of neighboring villages) told me that Goraya used to be a small village - only a few houses. In 1860s a railway station was established there for the convenience of much larger towns just off the GT road. However in 1930s, taking advantage of the railway station, small scale industry started to setup and the town started to grow. As it was a small village and had only a small land in its jurisdiction , most of the development is taking place in the adjoining villages such as villages Atta ( dominated by Sohal clan), Gohar, Rurka Klan' ( dominated by Sandhu clan) , Sang Dhesian (Dominated by Dhesi clan), Rurka Kurd , Bara Pind, Dhulleta (These three villages dominated by Sahota clan), and Dullewal.

Regarding the sub- caste Goraya:

Most of the Punjabis with Goraya sub-caste are Sikhs. But many sub castes extend both among the Sikhs and Muslims in Punjab (Like Cheema, Chattha, Bajwa, Bhatti, Randhawa, Mann and many more). My maternal grandfather belongs to Dhesi sub-caste of the village Dhesian. I was a bit surprised when I was introduced to an important business man from Pakistan whose sub caste is also Dhesi. Also it is a common practice among Sikhs to use the name of their village or the city as their last name, instead of their own sub-caste as the last name. One or two Goraya that I know, are using Goraya as their last name because they come from the town of Goraya, but their sub-caste is different.

Regarding the name Sujaan:

In Punjabi language - pure Punjabi , the word "sujaan" means someone with high awareness, mentally alert, and wise ( with religious connotation ). One time it was a popular name among Sikhs (not so much among Muslims), especially those from the area that is in Pakistan now. Now a days, among the "modern" Sikhs it is trend to use Hindu, Christian and western sounding names. They consider name "Sujaan" to be old fashioned. ( one of my most respected teachers was Sardar Sujaan Singh). I understand Muslim still use this as name for what it means

I really want to thank you for taking time to post detailed info. Finally, I hv some sense nockd in to me loll ...I can share all this with my family smile.gif I needed to know all this for so long now you've made it sound soo simple for me.

Everyone loves my cousin sister's name and people always ask for meaning etc of Sujaan. Now I can tell them the meaning with confidence. Sujaan is certainly unique name esp for us but it has profound meaning for sure. Our whole family is full of Gorayas nd use as our surnames loll and we happen to know loads Cheemaz , chattahz etc too

Anyway, I'll bookmark this info & thanks heaps & tons for replying: )

Best Regards.

-Sarina

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