1881 Punjab Census (Volumes I, II, III)

· 1883 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1THE RACES, CASTES, AND TRIBES OF THE PEOPLE. [ нё.

2Part III.—The Jat, Rajput, and Allied Castes.

3a ee ee a ус,

4part of the Panjab, and the difficulty of drawing any line between him and the Jat of the neighbou

5Here the great Rájpit tribes have spread up the river valleys as conquerors. осер et

6manual labour and looking upon the touch of the plough handle as especially degrading, they have been

7wont to content themselves with holding the country as dominant tribes, pasturing their great herds in the

8broad grazing grounds of the west, fighting a good deal and plundering more, and leaving agriculture to the

9Ardin, the Mahtam, the Kamboh, and such small folk. The old tradition is not forgotten ; but the rule of

10the Sikh, if it afforded ample opportunity for fighting, destroyed much of their influence, and the order and

11equal justice which have accompanied British гше have compelled all but the most wealthy to turn their

12attention, still in a half-hearted sort of way, to agriculture.

13Abstract No. Во on the next page shows the distribution of these tribes. They are roughly arranged

14according to locality. First come the royal races of Punwár and Bhatti, who have held between them from

15time immemorial the country of the lower Satluj and the deserts of Western Rájpátána. They are the

16arent stocks whence most of the other tribes have sprung, though as they have moved up the river valleys

17into the Panjab plains they have taken local tribal names which have almost superseded those of the original

18race. "Thus the figures for all these tribes are more or less imperfect, some having returned the local and

19some the original tribe only, while others have shown both and are entered in both sets of figures. Next to

20these races follow the Wattu, Joya, Khichi, and Dhádhi, who hold the Satluj valley somewhat in that order.

21They are followed by the Hiráj and 5141 of the Chanáb and lower Jahlam, and these again by the tribes of

22the upper Jahlam and the Sháhpur ddr. Of these last the R4njha, Gondal, and Mekan would probably not

23be recognised as Rájpüts by their neighbours the Tiwána, Janjáa, and the like. Last of all come five tribes

24who have already been considered under Jats. From what has already been said as to the confusion be-

25tween Jat and Rájpüt in these parts, it might be expected that many of these people will have been returned

26as Jats; and in such cases the figures are shown side by side. But in the case of atany rate the Bhatti and

27Punwár, it does not follow that these men are not Jats; for in many instances they have given their Jat

28tribe, and added to it the Rajput tribe from which they have a tradition of origin.

29448. Rajput tribes of the Western Plains. The Panwar (No. 1).—The Punwár or Pramara was once the most impor-

30tant of all the Agnikula Rájpúta, “The world ix the Pramara’s” isan ancient saying denoting their extensive sway ; and tbe Nau kot

31Méstisthali, extending along and below the Satluj from the Indus almost to the Jamna, aignified the máru asthal or arid terri

32occupied by them, and the nine divisions of which it consisted. But many centuries have passed since they wore driven from their

33possessions, and in 1826 they held in independent sway only the small State of Dhát ia the desert. It will be seen from the Ab-

34stract that the Punwdr are found in considerable numbers up the whole course of the Satluj aad along the lower Indus, though ia the

35Deraját all and in the Multán division many of them are shown ав Jats. They have aleu spread up the Beds into Jélandhar and

36Gurdéspur. There is also a very large colony of them in Rohtak and Ніввќг and on the confines of those districts; indeed they once

37held the whole of the Rohtak, Dádri, and Gohána country, and their quarrels with the Játu Tánwar of Нізвќг have been noticed

38under the head Játu.

39The Bhatti (No. 2).—Bhatti, the Panjáb form of the Réjputdnd word Bháti, ie the title of the great modern representatives

40of the ancient Jéddbansi royal Réjpát family, descendants of Krishna and therefore of Lunar race. Their traditions tell that they

41were in very early times driven across the Indus; but that returning, they disposseased the Langd&h, Joya, and others of the country

42south of the lower Satlnj some seven centuries ago, and founded Jaisalmer, This State they still hold, though their territory has been

43greatly circumscribed since the advent of the Réthor ; but they still form a large proportion ofthe Rájpát subjects of the Ráthor Rájas

44of Bikdner. Atone time their possessions in those parta included the whole of Sirsa and the adjoining portions of Hissdr, and the tract

45ів still known as Bhattiána. The story current in. Hissdr is that Bhatti, the leader under whom the Bhatia veorossed the Indus, had

46two sons рива! and Jaisal, of whom the latter founded Jaisalmer while the former settled in Bhattiána. From Dusal aprang the

47Sidhu and Barár Jat tribes (see eection 436), while hia grandson Rájpél was the nneestor of the Wattu. (But see further,

48section 449 infra). According to General Cunningham the Bhattis originally held the Salt-range Tract and Kashmir, their capital being

49Gajnipur, or the eite of the modern Rawalpindi; but about the second century before Christ they were driven across the Jahlau by

50the Indo-Seythiane, and their leader, the Raja Rasdlu of Panjdb tradition, founded Sidikot. The invaders however fullowed them

51up and dispersed them, and drove them to tale refuge in the country south of the Satluj, though their rule in the Kashuír

52valley remained unbroken till 1339 A.D.

53The Bhatti is still by far the largest and most widely distributed of the Rdjpdt tribes of the Panjéb. It ів found in immenae

54numbers all along the lower Satluj and Indus, though on the former often and on the latter always classed as Jat, It is hardly less

55numerous on the Chanáb, the upper Satluj, and the Beds, it is naturally strong in Bhattidoa, there is a large colony in the Dehli

56district, while it ia perhaps most numeronsa of all in the seats of ita ancient power, in Sidlkot, Güjrát and the Salt-range country.

57And if we reckon as Bbatti the Sidhu and Barr Jats of the Mélwa, who are ndmittedly of Bhatti origin, we shall leave no

58portion of the Panjdb proper in which a large Bhatti population ів not to be found. Many of those returned as Bhatti are

59also returned вя belonging to other tribes, but these form a wholiy insignificant fraction of the whole; and the only large

60numbers appearing twice over appear to be the 1,100 Naipál of Fírozpur ulrendy alluded to, 2,000 Bhatti Tünwar (sic) їп

61Rawalpindi, 2.400 Khokhar and 1,600 Кһотга in Babáwelpur, and 1,700 Kashmíri Jats in Güjránwála. In this last case

62the word is probably Bhat, a great Kushmír tribe, and not Bhatti, But if the Bhatti formerly held Kashmir, it ia not

63impossible that the two words are really identical, Perhaps also Bhatti has iu many cases been givon as their tribe by

64Jats or low-class Rájpüts, or even by men of inferior castes who returned themselves as Jats or Rájpüts for their own greater

65exaltation, But if thie be во, it only ahows how widespread is the fame of the Bhatti within the Panjéb. Almost every

66menial or artisan ceste has a Bhatti clan, aud it is often the most numerous of all, ranking with or above the Khokhar in this

67respect.

68Yet it is strange. if the Bhatti did hold so large a portion of the Paujéb ns General Cunningham alleges, how almast

69universally they trace their origin to Bhatner in Bhattidna, or at least to its neighbourhood. Either they were expelled wholly

70from the upper Panjdb and have since returned to their nucient seats, or else the glory of their later has overshadowed

71that of their earlier dynasties, and Bhatner and Bhattiána have become the city and country of the Bhatti from which all good

72Bhatti trace their origin, The subject population of Bíkáner is largely composed of Bhatti, while Jaisalmer is в „Bhatti

73State; and it seems impossible that if the Bhatti of the higher Satluj are immigrants aud not the descendants of the residue of

74the old Bhatti who escaped expulsion, they should not have come largely from both these States, and moreover should not

75have followed the river valleys in their advance. Yet the tradition almost always skips all intermediate steps, and carries us

76straight back to that ancient city of Bhatner on the banks of the long dry Ghaggar, in the Bikduor territory bordering on

77Sirsa. The Мана Bhatti of Montgomery, while tracing their origin from Rája Salváhan, the father of Raja Résalu of Sialkot,

78say that their more immediate anceators came from Bhatner; the Nún Bhatti of Multan trace their origin to the Dehli country ;

79while the Bhatti of Muzaffargarh, Jbang, Gújráuwáła, Síülkot, Jahlun, and Pindi, all look to Bhatner as the home. of their

80ancestors. It is probable either that Dhatuer is used merely as a traditional expression, or that when the Ghaggar dried up or

81the BÁthor conquered Bikdner, the Bhatti were driven to find new homes in the plains of the Panjéb. Indeed Mr. Wilson tells

82me that in Sirsa, or the old Bhatlidna, the term Bhatti is commonly applied to avy Musaluáu Jat or Rajpdt from the

83direction of the Satluj, as а generic term almost synonymous with Ráth or Paehbáda.