<P> Gurjar or Gujjar are a pastoral agricultural ethnic group with populations in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and a small number in northeastern Afghanistan . Alternative spellings include Gurjara, Gurjjar, Gojar and Gūjar . </P> <P> Gurjars are linguistically and religiously diverse . Although they are able to speak the language of the region and country where they live, Gurjars have their own language, known as Gujari . They variously follow Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism. The Hindu Gurjars are mostly found in Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab Plains and Maharashtra, while the Muslim Gujjars are mostly found in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indian Himalayan regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Garhwal and Kummaon divisons of Uttarakhand . </P> <P> The Gurjars are classified as Other Backward Class (OBC) in twelve of India's thirty - six States and UTs; however, only Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of Himachal Pradesh are categorised as a Scheduled Tribe . Hindu Gurjars were assimilated into various varnas in the medieval period . </P> <P> Historians and anthropologists differ on issue of Gurjar origin . According to one view, the ancient ancestors of Gurjars came from central Asia via Georgia from near the Caspian Sea; that Sea's alternate name of the Bahr - e-Khizar caused the tribe to be known as Khizar, Guzar, Gujur, Gurjara, or Gujjar . According to this view, between 1 BCE and 1 CE, the ancient ancestors of Gurjars came in multiple waves of migration and they were initially accorded status as high - caste warriors in the Hindu fold in the North - Western regions (modern Rajasthan and Gujarat). Aydogdy Kurbanov states that some Gurjars, along with people from northwestern India, merged with the Hephthalites to become the Rajput clan . </P>

Who used the word gujar bhasa for the first time