Origin of the Damara tribes is till shrouded in uncertainty as it is not exactly clear what the term refers to. Damaras are generally held to refer to a rebellious tribal group in the northern hilly region of Kashmir. However, it is also held by many scholars without doubt that the Damara tribes were actually feudal landlords.

Mention of the Damaras has been made in number of significant ancient Kashmiri texts. It has been mentioned time and time again in the Rajatarangini of Kalhana, and these people are believed to have played a rather significant role in the history of Kashmir. Varahamihira in his Brihat Samhita mentions Damara in the list of the countries of the North Eastern region along with Meruka, Nastafajyer, Pasupala, Kira, Kasmira, Abhisarada, Tangana, Trinetra, Kuluta, Saicindha Rastra, Brahmapura, Dana etc. In this list there are names of people like Pasupala and Trinetra, which are epithets of Lord Shiva. Damara, as already stated above, is the name of a Tantra in Shaivite Tantric religion and Damara tribal community is also the name of one of the attendants of Shiva.

In Kashmir one finds many references to people named after their tribal epithets, such as Lavanya, Bolahara, Tantrin and the like. Tracing these words to Sanskrit roots does not always help with the identification of the people to whom they refer. They may well be based on words in no way connected with Classical Sanskrit. Some of the names of Varahamihira`s list occur in the Rajatarangini. One comes across Darvabhisara, a clear reference to Darva and Abhisara as a joint name, and it has been identified by Stein with the lower hills between Jhelum River and Chenab River. It has been recognized by a certain scholar that tribes such as Abhisaras, Darads, Darvas, Khasas, Kiras and even the distant Kulutas and Kaunindas or Kaulindras were some tribes that undoubtedly must be located in the immediate neighbourhood of Kashmir. As we have such people inhabiting the North-Eastern division of India according to Varahamihira`s classification, and as some of them have been identified by Stein, we can take Damara as one of them. Moreover, the Brihat Samhita was written much earlier than the Rajatarangini.

Damaras and Lavanyas
There are references in the Rajatarangini wherein Damara and Lavanya are indiscriminately used for separate groups of people or for one and the same person. Kalhana gives us no evidence to show what the term Lavanya originally meant or how it came to be applied. The term Lavanya is a tribal name still surviving to this day in the Kram name Lun, borne by a considerable section of the agricultural population of Kashmir. Judging from the way in which Kalhana has used the term Damara in his works and from the various other passages in which the term Lavanya is used, it seems that the mass of Damaras was recruited from that tribal section. If this was the case the indifferent use of the ethnic and class designations is easily accounted for.

It is believed that the Lavanyas must have formed an important tribal section of the rural population of Kashmir and their name, like that of the Tantrins, survives in a modern Kram name of frequent occurrence, that of Lun. He further adds that though the passages referring to them do not tell us anything of their origin, they show that many of them must have held a position of influence as landowners or tribal headmen. Their tribal name thus seems to have originated from their being landowners. Luns are found throughout the valley and according to villagers` statement recorded by Lawrence they are said to have come from Cilas. Stein, however, could not trace any such tradition and suggested that the mass of the Damaras was recruited from the Lavanya tribal section and, therefore, the indifferent use of the ethnic and class designations became common.

It has been suggested by some scholars that based on the geographical view of the Damaras in the entire valley of Kashmir and the mention of the name Lavanya for the first time in the reign of Harsha Vardhan, the Damara did not belong to a particular tribe. As it is seen from the Rajatarangini and as B. P. Majumdar has himself stated, the term Lavanya occurs for the first time in the reign of King Harsha, while king Lalitaditya`s time is much earlier. There is clear evidence in the case of the minister Sura and King Chakravarman that much earlier than Kalhana`s own time Damaras had become quite powerful and were a terror to the rest of the population. One can find characteristic indication of their growing influence during the period of comparative consolidation which followed Yasaskara`s accession (9 9-48) and queen Didda`s advent to power. Both under Unmattavanti (937-39) and Didda (980-1003) special mention is made of the success of the royal commanders-in-chief in coercive measures against the Damaras.

Thus from the foregoing discussion and references to tribal names, it can be safely assumed that the term `Damara` initially emerged as a kind of reference to a group of people and from the special characteristics of this people, it was later applied to all those people who attained a certain position in society. In other words, beginning as a tribal name it became later used as a class name, as is shown by the fact that Lavanyas are sometimes termed Damaras. Moreover, in Kashmir to day we have Lons {Lavanyas) and Dars (Damaras) as two separate castes.