1 144, PANJAB CASTES.
2 of Punwar and Bbatti; who have held ):)etwceu them from time immemorial
3 the country of the lower Satluj and the deserts of Western Kajjiutana. They
4 are the parent stocks whence most of the other tribes have sprung, though as
5 they have moved up the river valleys into the Panjab plains they have taken
6 local tribal names which have almost superseded those of the original race.
7 Thus the figures for all these tribes are more or less imperfect, some having
8 returned the local and some the original tribe only, while others have shown
9 both and are entered in both sets of figures. Next to these races follow the
10 Wattu, Joya, Khichi, and Dhiidhi, who hold the Satluj valley somewhat in
11 that order. They are followed by the Hiraj and Siiil of the Chenab and
12 Lower Jahlam, and these again by the tribes of the Upper Jahlam and the
13 Shiihpur bar. Of these last the Riinjha, Gondal, and Mekan would pro-
14 bably not be recognised as Rajputs by their neighbours the Tiwana, Janjua,
15 and the like. Last of all come five tribes who have already been considered
16 under Jats. From what has already been said as to the confusion between
17 Jat and Rajput in these parts, it might be expected that many of these
18 people will have been retm-ncd as Jats ; and in such cases the figures are
19 shown side by side. But in the case of at any rate the Bhalti and Punwiir,
20 it does not follow that these men are not Jats ; for in many instances they
21 Lave given their Jat tribe, and added to it the Rajput tribe from which they
22 have a tradition of origin.
23 448. Rajput tribes of the Western Plains. The Punwar (No. 1).— The Pnnwar or Pr.umra
24 was once the ir.ost importniit of all the Agnil;ula Eiijputs. '■ The world is the Pramara's " is
25 an ancieut saying denoting their e.ttensive sway ; and the A'flH Kot Mdriisthali, extending along
26 and below the Satluj from the Indus almost to the Jamnat signified tlie vtaru asfhal or arid
27 territory occupied by them, and the nine divisions of which it consisted. But many centuries
28 have passed since they were driven from their possessions, and in 1826 they held in iiidojiendent
29 sway only the small State of Dhat in the desert. It will be seen from the Abstract that the
30 Punwar ure found in considerihle numbers up the whole course of the Satlu.i and along the
31 Lower Indus, though in the Dcrajat all .ind in the Mult.an division many of them are shown as
32 Jats. They have also spread up the Heas into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. There is also a very
33 hirge colony of them in Rohtak and Hissiir and on the confines of those districts ; indeed they
34 once held the whole of the Rohtak, D;idrl, and Gobana country, and their rpiarrels with the Jatu
35 Tunwar of Hiss.ar have been noticed under the head Jiitu.
36 The Bhatti (No. 2).— Bhatti, the Panjab fom of the Rajput;iua word Bhati, is the title of
37 the great modern representatives of the ancient Jadubansi royal Rajput family, descendants of
38 Krishna and therefore of Lunar race. Their traditions tell that they were in very early times
39 driven across the Indus; but that returning, they dispossessed the Langah, .Toya, and others of
40 the country south of the Lower Satluj some seven centuries ago, and founded Jaisalmer. This
41 State they still hold, though their territory lias been greatly circnm-cribcd since the advent of
42 the Rathor; but they still form a large proportion of the Rajput subjects of the Ruthor Rajas
43 of Bikaner. At one time their possessions in those varts included the whole of Sirsa and the
44 adjoining portions of Hissar, and the tract is still knoivn as Bbatliana. The story current in
45 Hissar is that Bhatti, the leader under whom the Bhattis reoro-sed the Indus, had two sons Dusal
46 and .laisal, of whom the latter founded .laisalmer while the furraer settled in Bhattiana. From
47 Dusal sprang the Sidhu and Barilr ,Jat tribes (see section 436), while his grandson Raipal was
48 the ancestor of the Wattu. (But see further, section 449 infra.) According to General Cun-
49 ningham the Bhattis originally held the Salt-range Tract and Kashmir, tleir capital being
50 Gajnipur, or the site of modern Rawalpindi ; but about the sccoud ctntury before Christ they
51 were driven across the Jahlaai by the Indo-Scythians, and their loader, the Raja Rasalu of
52 Panjab tradition, founded Sialkot. The invaders however followed them up and dispersed them,
53 and drove them to take refuge in the country south of the Satluj, though their rule ''n the
54 Kashmir valley remained unbroken till 1339 A.D.
55 The Bhatti is still by far the largest and most widely distributed of the Raput tribes of the
56 Panjab. It is found in immense numbers all along the Lower Satluj and Indus, though on the
57 former often and on the latter always classed as Jat. It is hardly le-s numerous on the Chenab,
58 the Upper Satluj, and the Beas, it is naturally strong in Bhattiana, there is a large colony in the
59 Dehli district, while it is perhaps most numerous of all in the seats of its anclt nt power, in Sialkot,
60 Gujrat and the Salt-range country. And if we reckon as Bhatti the Sidhu and Barar Jats of the
61 Maiwa, who are admittedly of Bhatti origin, we shall leave no portion of the Panjab proper in