Bhim Singh Dahiya writes about this clan that a part of Khionites/white Hunas, the Chahlas (Chols of European historians) in the fourth century AD, were settled on the east of Caspian sea. This was the period when Jauvlas/Johls were occupying Zabulistan in Ghazni area. In 438-39 AD the Iranian Emperor Yazdegirel II led an expedition against the Chahls to the north of Gurgan. It was at Gurgan in steppes of Dahistan that Yazdegird I had been killed by the Jats in 420 AD, even in his own military headquarters, as Gurgan really was.^[3] The Chahls must have come to India in the fifth century AD.^[4]

H.A. Rose^[5] writes that Chahal (चाहल), or more correctly Chahil (चाहिल).— One of the largest Jat tribes in the Punjab. They are found in greatest numbers in Patiala, but are very numerous inAmbala and Ludhiana, Amritsar, and Gurdaspur, and extend all along under the hills as far west as Gujranwala and Sialkot. It is said that Raja Agarsen Surajbansi had four sons, Chahil, Chhina,Chima, and Sahi, and that the four Jat tribes who bear these names are sprung from them : (yet they intermarry). Their original home was Malwa, whence they migrated to the Punjab. According to another story their ancestor was a Tunwar Rajput called Raja Rikh, who came from the Deccan and settled at Kahlur. His son Birsi married a Jat woman, settled at Matti in the Malwa about the time of Akbar, and founded the tribe.

In Amritsar the Chahil say that Chahal was a son of Raja Khang, who once saw some fairies bathing in a tank. He seized their clothes and only restored them on condition that one of them became his bride. One Ichhran was given him, on condition that he never abused her, and she bore him a son, but one day he spoke harshly to her and she disappeared.^* But to this day noChahil ever abuses his daughter ! Settled first at Kot Gadana near Delhi, the Chahil migrated to Pakhi Chahilan near Ambala and there founded Rala Joga or Jogarla in the Malwa.

The Chahil affect Jogi Pir, originally Joga, son of Rajpal, who is said to have been killed, after fighting with the Mughals even when he had been decapitated. Jogi Pir is their chhara {?jathera), and a fair is held in his honour on the 4th nauratra in Asauj. In Jind the Chahil claim descent from Bala, a Chauhan Rajput who took a Jat wife, and so lost caste, but he acquired influence by accepting offerings made to Guga, and Chahils, whatsoever their caste, still take these offerings.! In Jind the Chahil worship Khera Bhumia.

They are probably, says Mr. Pagan, Bagris, originally settled in Bikaner.

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