Khatri

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Khatri (IPA: [kʰət̪ɾiː]) is a caste originating from the Malwa and Majha areas of Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, and in small numbers in Pakistan. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantile professions such as banking and trade. In late-medieval India they were the dominant commercial and financial class, while in Punjab some were hereditary landholding agriculturalists and others worked as artisans, such as silk weavers. The Khatris of Punjab, specifically, were scribes and traders during the medieval period, with the Gurumukhi script used in writing the Punjabi language deriving from a standardised form of the Lāṇḍa script used by Khatri traders; the invention of the script is traditionally ascribed to Guru Angad. During the medieval period, with the rise of Persian as an elite vernacular due to Islamic rule, some of the traditional high status General caste literate elite such as the Khatris, Kashmiri Brahmins and Kayasthas took readily to learning Persian from the times of Sikandar Lodi onwards and found ready employment in the Imperial Services, specifically in the departments of accountancy (siyaq), draftsmanship (insha) and offices of the revenue minister (diwan). In the 15th century, the Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak, a Bedi Khatri. The second guru, Guru Angad was a Trehan Khatri. The third guru, Guru Amar Das was a Bhalla Khatri. The fourth through tenth gurus were all Sodhi Khatris. During the Sikh Empire, many Khatris formed the military vanguard of the Khalsa Army and its administrative class as Dewans of all the provinces. Hari Singh Nalwa, the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army, was an Uppal Khatri and responsible for most of the Sikh conquests up until the Khyber Pass. Others such as Mokham Chand commanded the Sikh Army against the Durrani...