1 11* PANJAB CASTES.
2 rose to absoliTte power, and the Rajput who had despised them was the
3 peculiar object of their hatred. Their general policy led them to cut off such
4 poppy heads as had not spmng from their own seed ; and their personal feeling
5 led them to treat tlie Rajput, who as a native-born leader of the people should
6 have joined them, and who would if he had done so have been a very import-
7 ant element of additional strength to the cause, with especial harshness. The
8 old Settlement Reports are full of remarks upon the decadence if not the
9 viiiual disappearance of the Rajput gentry in those districts where Sikh sway
10 was most absolute. Thus the Jats we are considering are far more clearly
11 marked off from the Rajputs than are those of the Western Phiins where
12 everybody is a Jat, or of the Salt-range Tract where everybody who is not an
13 Arab or a Mughal calls himself a Rajput ; indeed there is if anything a
14 tendency here to call those Jats who are admitted to be Rajputs fm'ther west.
15 Only on the edge of the group, on the common Ijorder line of the Sikh tract,
16 the Salt-range, and the great plains, do the Mekan, Gondal, Ranjha, and Tarar
17 claim some to be Jats and some to be Rajputs. The first two I have decided
18 to describe under Rajputs, the last under Jats ; but this is more a matter of
19 convenience than of ethnic classification. The Jat tribes now to be considered
20 are, except perhaps on the confines of the Gujranwiila Idr, essentially agricul-
21 tural, and Occupy the same social position as do those of the Eastern Plains,
22 whom indeed they resemble in all respects.
23 The most extraordinary thing al)Out the group of Jat tribes found in
24 Sii'dkot is the large nnmlier of customs still retained by them which are, so far
25 as I know, not shared by any other people. They will be found described in
26 Mr. Roe's translation of Arain Chand's History of Sidlkot, and I shall notice
27 one or two of them in the following paragraphs. Nothing could be more
28 instructive than an examination of the origin, practice, and limits of this
29 group of customs. They would seem to point to aboriginal descent. Another
30 point worthy of remark is the frequent recm-rence of an ancestor Mai, which
31 may perhaps connect this group of tribes with the ancient ]\IallI of jMultan.
32 Some of their traditions point to Sindh ; while others ai"e connected with the
33 hills of Jammu. The whole group strikes me as being one of exceeding
34 interest, and I much regret that I have no time to treat it more fully.
35 432. Jat tribes of the western sub-montane.— The figures for the ti'ihe will be found in Ab-
36 sti'act 'So. 74 on the next page.* I have already explained that the first seven tribes, which belong *P.
37 to the Salt-range and it-- vicinity, will be treated as and dircnsseil with Eajpiits. 17.
38 The Tarar (No. 8). — This is the only one of the tribes to be here discussed of which any con-
39 siderable number of the members have returned themselves as Rajputs, about half the Ciujranwala
40 and nearly all the Shahpur Tarar having adopted this course. The Tarar claim Solar Rajput origin,
41 apparently from the Bhatti of Bhatner. They say that their ancestor Tarar took service with Mahraud
42 dhaznavi and returned with him to Ghazni ; but that his son Lohi, from whom they are descended,
43 moved from Bhatner to Gujrat whence the tribe spread. Another story dates their settlement from
44 the time of Humayun. They intermarry with Gondal, Varaich, Gil, Virk, and other leading Jat
45 tribes of the neighbourhood ; and they have lately begun to intermarry within the tribe. Some of
46 them are still Hindus. They hold land on both sides of the Upper Chauab, about the junction and
47 within the boundaries of the three districts of Gujrat, Giljranwala, and Shahpm-. They are describ-
48 ed as " i n vari.ably lazy, idle and troublesome."
49 The Varaich (No. 9).— The Varaich is one of tlie largest Jat tribes in the Province. In
50 Alvbar's time they held two-tliirds of the Gujrat disti'ict, tliough on less favourable terms than those
51 allowed to the Giijars who held the remainder ; and they still hold 170 villages in that district. They
52 have also crossed the Chauab into Gujrauwala where they held a tract of 41 villages, and have
53 spread along under the hills as far as Ludhiana and Maler Kotla. They do not always even
54 pretend to be Rajputs, but say that their ancestor Dhudi, was a Jat who came into India with
55 Mahmiid Ghaznavi and settled in Gujrat, where the tribe grew powerful and partly dispossessed the
56 original Giljar lords of the soil. Another story is that their ancestor was a Sui-ajbausi Bajpxit who
57 came from Ghazni to Gujrat; while according to a third account their ancestor was a descendant of
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