Lau Clan

Mohyal community histories record that the Laus trace their ancestry to Rishi Vasishtha, remembered as the Raj Guru of King Dashratha. Some traditions also connect the Lau name with Lav, son of Ram, but this is best presented as one school of thought rather than settled fact.

This page keeps those inherited traditions visible while inviting families to strengthen the archive through village names, oral testimony, and documentary additions.

Lau is one of the seven Mohyal clans and part of the same shared kinship structure that binds Mohyal families together across time and geography.

The Lau page is not meant to be thin or uncertain. It is meant to hold together lineage memory, loyalty, regional history, later dispersal, and the family records still waiting to be gathered.

Mohyal community histories record that around 997 AD a ruler named Bijaipal appeared in Lau tradition and founded Bajwada in District Kangra, which later became an important Dheri of the clan. Bijaipal is remembered as the father of Lopal and Bhopal, and Lopal is remembered as the successor who extended Lau influence toward Multan and is associated with Lodhra as another stronghold.

Published community writing also remembers the Langas and Lohanas as neighboring warrior groups with an older affinity to the Laus, with later traditions saying that many eventually converted to Islam. Vishav Rai, son of Lopal, is remembered for sagacity and valor.

In 1191, when Raja Jaichand convened the Rajsu Yajna at Kannauj, Mohyal community histories record that Rai Inder Sain Lau represented the Lau family among the seven Mohyal patriarchs. The Lau dynasty at Bajwada is remembered as lasting nearly 300 years before being uprooted during Aurangzeb's reign.

According to community tradition, the Laus refused to support Aurangzeb against the Sikhs, leading to military action against them. Bajwada was destroyed, surviving Laus dispersed across Punjab, and a later major concentration is remembered at Kauntrila village in District Rawalpindi. These accounts are preserved in Mohyal community histories and oral tradition. Families are invited to help strengthen this archive with documents, photographs, village names, and corrections.

Community memory places Lau roots across Bajwada in Kangra, Lodhra, Multan-linked memory, Kauntrila in Rawalpindi district, and later Punjabi and diasporic settlement patterns shaped by displacement and rebuilding.

Family village names, Mohyal Saraswat Mandal records, saint traditions, ritual memory, and service records may prove especially valuable here because they can recover detail that short printed summaries cannot hold on their own.

Lau families, like the wider Mohyal community, rebuilt after 1947 through migration, adaptation, and intergenerational continuity.

This page especially welcomes Bajwada memories, Kauntrila and Rawalpindi records, routes of departure and resettlement, and the family records still held across India and abroad.

Family tradition remembers Bajwada, Kauntrila, elder testimony about loyalty and displacement, Sidh Shyam Lau traditions, and the names of households that carried Lau memory across upheaval.

Some community writing connects many members of the Mohyal Saraswat Mandal with Lau ancestry and describes them as separated from the mainstream due to an earlier catastrophe. The most valuable next additions for this page are likely to come from Mohyal Saraswat Mandal family records, oral interviews, photographs, and genealogy notes.

This page draws on Mohyal community memory, oral history, the 1938 Mohyal history, later community writing, and family contributions. Corrections, photographs, village names, and additional sources are welcome.