1 100 PANJAB CASTES.
2 It may be that the original Rajput and the original Jat entered India at
3 different periods in its history, though to my mind the term Rajput is an
4 occuj)ational rather than an ethnological expression. But if they do originally
5 represent two separate waves of immigration, it is at least exceedingly pro-
6 bable, both from their almost identical physique and facial character and from
7 the close communion which has always existed between them, that they belong
8 to one and the same ethnic stock ; while whether this be so or not, it is almost
9 certain that they have been for many centuries and still are so intermingled
10 and so blended into one people that it is practically impossible to distinguish
11 them as separate wholes. It is indeed more than probable that the process of
12 fusion has not ended here, and that the people wlio thtis in the main resulted
13 from the blending of the Jat and the Rajput, if these two ever were distinct,
14 is by no means free from foreign elements. We have seen how the Pathan
15 people have assimilated Saiyads, Turks, and Mughals, and how it was sufficient
16 for a Jat tribe to retain its political independence and organisation in order to
17 be admitted into the Biloch nation ; we know how a character for sanctity and
18 social exclusiveness combined will in a few generations make a Quresh or a
19 Saiyad ; and it is almost certain that the joint Jat-Rajput stock contains not
20 a few tribes of aboriginal descent, though it is probably in the main Aryo-
21 Scythian, if Scythian be not Aryan. The ]\Ian, Her, and Bhular Jats (section
22 4)35) are known as asl or original Jats because they claim no Rajput ancestry,
23 but are supposed to be descended from the hair [jnt) of the aboriginal god
24 Siva; the Jats of the south-eastern districts divide themselves into two
25 sections, Shivgotri or of the family of Siva, and Kasahgotri who claim connec-
26 tion with the Rajputs ; and the names of the ancestor Bar of the Shivgotrls
27 and of his son Barbara are the very words which the ancient Brahmans give
28 us as the marks of the barbarian aborigines. Many of the Jat tribes of the
29 Panjab have customs which apparently point to non-Aryan origin, and a rich
30 and almost virgin field for investigation is here open to the ethnologist.
31 422. Are the Jats and Rajputs distinct ? — But whether Jats and Rajputs
32 were or were not originally distinct, and whatever aboriginal elements may
33 have been affiliated to their society, I think that the two now form a common
34 stock, the distinction between Jat and Rajput being social rather than ethnic.
35 I believe that those families of that common stock whom the tide of fortune
36 has raised to political importance have become Rajputs almost by mere virtue
37 of their rise ; and that their descendants have retained the title and its priv-
38 ileges on the condition, strictly enforced, of observing the rules by which the
39 higher are distinguished from the lower castes in the Hindu scale of prece-
40 dence ; of preserving their purity of blood by refusing to marry with families
41 of inferior social rank, of rigidly abstaining fi-om widow marriage, and of
42 refraining from degrading occupations. Those who transgressed these rules
43 have fallen from their high position and ceased to be Rajputs ; while such
44 families as, attaining a dominant position in their territory, began to affect
45 social exclusiveness and to observe the rules, have become not only Rajas, but
46 also Rajputs or " sons of Rajas.''-' For the last seven centuries the process of
47 elevation at least has been almost at a stand-still. Under the Dehli Emperors
48 king-making was practically impossible. Under the Sikhs the Rajput was
49 overshadowed by the Jat, who resented his assmnption of superiority and his
50 refusal to join him on eqiral terms in the ranks of the Khalsa, deliberately per-
51 secuted him wherever and whenever he had the power, and preferred his title
52 of Jat Sikh to that of the proudest Rajput. On the frontier the dominance of