1 ItU PANJAB CASTES.
2 Mallahs, 7,500 MochiSj 2,700 Machhis, aud so forth. In no other district does this confusion
3 prevail to anything like so great an extent ; hut it does in-evail in a smaller degree throughout
4 the sonth-westcrii districts ; and till the detailed clan tahles are complete it will be impossible to
5 separate these incongruous items, or to find out with exiutiiess what our figures do and what they
6 do not include. The contusion is not wholly due to the entries in the schedules. On the Lower
7 Indus and Chanab tlie entries in tlie caste column were numbered by thousands, tribe being there
8 the recognized unit rather than tlie more comprehensive caste ; and it was alxolutely necessary to
9 allow the staff of the divisional otficcs, all picked men drawn from the \'ery district with' the
10 tigures of which they were dealing, some discretion in classifying these entries under larger heads.
11 Thus in .Ihang the Sial will have been rightly classed as Rajputs, while in Derah Ghazithey will,
12 with equal correctness ^o tar as local usage is concerned, have been very probably cla-sed as Jats.
13 Thus our tigures are far from complete ; but I have done my best to indicate" in the following
14 paragraphs the uncertainties aud errors in classification as far as I could detect them. I had
15 indeed hoped to treat the subject more fully, and especially more systematically than I have done.
16 I had intended to attempt some sort of grouping of the great Jat tribes on the basis of their
17 ethnic affinities, somewhat similar to that which I have attempted for the Pathans. But I was not
18 allowed the time necessary for such an undertaking ; and I have therefore roughly grouped the
19 tribes by locality so far as my figures served to indicate it, and hurriedly stated the leadiug facts
20 of which I was in possession regarding each, leaving any more elaborate treatment for a future
21 occasion. The figures for tribes are, as already explained in section 369, nece-aarily imperfect, and
22 mast only be taken as approximations.
23 426. Distribution of the Jats.— Eeyond the Panjab, Jats are chiefly found
24 in Sindh where they form the mass of the population; in Bikaner, Jaisalmer,
25 and Marwar, where they probably equal in numbers all the Rajput races put
26 together, and along the upper valleys of the Gauges aud Jamna from Bareli,
27 Farrukhiibad, aud Gwiilior upwards. Within the Province theij' distribution
28 is shown in Abstract No. 71 on page 219.* They are especially numerous in
29 the central Sikh dislricts and States, in the south-eastern districts, and in the
30 Derajat. Under and among the hills and in the Rawalpindi division Rajputs
31 take their place, while on the fi-outicr both upper and lower, they are almost
32 wholly confined to the cis-Indus tracts and the immediate Indus riverain on
33 both sides of the stream. The Jats of the Indus are probably still in the
34 country which they have occupied ever since their first entry into India,
35 though they have been driven back from the foot of the Sulemftns on to the
36 river by the advance of the Pathiin and the Biloch. The Jats of the Western
37 Plains have almost without exception come up the river valleys from Sindh
38 or Western Rajputtiua. The Jats of the western and central sub-montane
39 have also in part come by the same route ; but some of them retain a tradi-
40 tional connection with Ghazni, which perhaps refers to the ancient Gajnipur,
41 the site of the modern Rawalpindi, while many of them trace their origin
42 from the Jammu Hills.
43 The Jats of the Central and Eastern Panjab have also in many cases
44 come up the Satluj valley ; but many of them have moved from Bikaner
45 straight into the Malwa, while the great central plains of the jMiilwa itself
46 are probably the original home of many of the Jat tribes of the Sikh tract.
47 The Jats of the south-easlern districts and the Jamna zone have for the most
48 part worked up the Jamna valley from the direction of Bhartpur, with which
49 some of them still retain a traditional connection ; thougli some few have
50 moved in eastwards from Bikaner and the Malwa. The Bhartpur Jats are
51 themselves said to be immigrants who left the banks of the Indus in the time
52 of Aurangzeb. Whether the Jats of the great plains are really as late immi-
53 grants as they reju'esent, or whether their story is merely founded upon a wish
54 to show recent connection with the country of the Rajputs, I cannot sav. The
55 whole question is one on which we are exceedingly ignorant, and which would
56 richiy repay detailed investigation.