Chhettri

The Chhetri are largest ethnic group of Nepal making up 23.5% of the country's population.

They are predominantly Hindus and are of eastern Indo-Aryan stock. The word "Chhetri" is actually a corruption of the Sanskrit word "Kshatriya", meaning hereditary warriors and rulers who are below the priestly Brahman caste but above the merchant and farmer/craftsman castes that altogether make up Hinduism's four "clean" or touchable castes. The royal family belongs to the Thakuri-subcaste of Chhetris.The Nepalese history even though has experienced the rulers of different castes and ethnic groups other than chhetris, but the present royal regime of the shah's also belongs to the chhetri caste. However, this notion has fundamental flaws and lacks historical as well as ethnographical evidence, thus it is severely disputable among the scholars of the Nepalese history.Modern Anthropologists believe majority of chhetris are descendents of KHAS people, and some are product of the union between the khas males and indigenous ethnic females(Prof Dor Bahadur Bista).According to Prof Surya Mani Adhikari(Ref KHAS KINGDOM),present Chhetris are descendents of Khasas or Khas who were Indo-Iranian Aryans mountain dwellers.They had an empire which included Kasmir,Part of Tibet and West Nepal(Karnali region).

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