A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej

· 1853 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1342 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. [App. II.

2done by the Raja of Putteeala. J As instances of the narrow

3and confused state of our knowledge regarding the people of

4India, it may be mentioned that the Birks (or Virks), one of

5the most distinguished tribes of Juts, is admitted among the

6Chalook Eajpoots by Tod (i. 100.), and that there are Kuhker

7and Kahur Juts, Kukher Kokur, and Kahur Afghans, besides

8Guhkers, not included in any of the three races. Further

9the family of Oomerkot in Sindh is stated by Tod {^Rajasthan,

10i, 92, 93.) to be Pram^r (or Powar), while the Emperor

11Humayoon's chronicler talks of the followers (i. e. brethren)

12of that chief as being Juts. {Memoirs of Humayoon, p. 45.)

13The editors of the Journal of the Geographical Society (xiv.

14207, note) derive Jut from the Sanscrit Jyestha, old, ancient,

15and so make the term equivalent to aborigines ; but this ety-

16mology perhaps too hastily sets aside the sufficiently esta-

17bhshed facts of Getse and Yuechi emigrations, and the cir-

18cumstance of Tymoor's warfare with Jettehs in Central Asia.

19Some of the most eminent of the Jut subdivisions in the

20Punjab are named Sindhoo, Cheeneh, Vuraitch, Chuttheh,

21Sidhoo, Kurreeal, Gondul, &c. &c. For some notices of the

22Juts bf the Indus by early Mahometan writers (about 977

23and 1100 a.d.), see Sir H. M. EUiot's Historians of India,

24pp. 69. and 270.

25APPENDIX II.

26PKOPORTIONS OF KACES AND FAITHS : POPULATION OF

27INDIA.

28Out of 1030 villages lying here and there between the

29Jumna and Sutlej, and which were under British manage-

30ment in 1844, there were found to be forty-one different

31tribes of agriculturists, in proportions as follows, after adding .A^:,

32up fractions where any race composed a portion only of the

33whole community of any one village.