1 JAT, RAJPUT, AND ALLIED CASTES. 145
2 whicli a large Bhatti population is not to be found. Many of those returned as Bhatti are also
3 returned as belonging to other tribes, but these form a wholly insignificant fraction of the whole ;
4 and the only large numbers appearing twice over appear to be the 1,100 Naipal of Fi'rozpuv already
5 alluded to,' 2,000 Bhatti Txinwar (sic) in Rawalpindi, 2,400 Khokhar and 1,600 Kharral in
6 Eahawalpur, 1,700 Kashmiri Jats in Giijranwala. In this last case the word is probably Bhat,
7 a great Kashmir tribe, and not Bhatfi. But if the Bhatti formerly held Kashmir, it is not
8 impossible that the two words are really identical. Perhaps also Bhatti has in many oases been
9 given as their tribe by .Tats or low-class Eajputs, or even by men of inferior castes who returned
10 themselves as Jats or Eajputs for their own greater exaltation. But if this be so, it only shows
11 how widespread is the fame of tlie Bhatti witliin tho Panjab. Almost every menial or artisan
12 caste has a Bhatti clan, and it is often tho most numerous of all, ranking with or above tho
13 Khokhar in this respect.
14 Yet it is strange, if the Bhatti did hold so hirge a portion of the Panjab as General Cunningham
15 alleges, how almost universally tliey trace their origin to Bhatner in Bhattiana or at least to its
16 neighbourhood. Either they wore expelled wholly from the Upper Panjab and have since returned
17 to their ancient seats, or else the glory of their later has overshadowed that of their earlier
18 dynasties, and Bhatner and Bhattiana have become the city and country of the Bliatti from which ali
19 good Bhatti trace their origin. The subject population of Bi'kaner is largely composed of Bhatti,
20 while Jaisalmer is a Bhatti State ; and it seems impossible that if the Bhatti of tlie Higher Satluj
21 are immigrants and not the descendants of tho residue of the old Bhatti who escaped expulsion,
22 they sliould not have come largely from both these States, and moreover should not have followed
23 the river valleys in their advance. Yet the tradition almost always skips all intennediate steps,
24 and carries us straight back to that ancient city of Bhatner on the banks of the long dry Ghaggar,
25 in the Bi'kaner territory bordering on Sirsa. Tlie Wattu Bhatti of Montgomery, while tracing
26 their origin from Raja Salvahan, the father of Raja RaSalu of Si'iilkot, say that their more
27 immediate ancestors came from Bhatner ; the Nun Bhatti of Multan trace their origin to the
28 Debli country; while the Bhatti of Muzaffargarh, Jljang, Giijriinwilla, Si'alkot, Jahlam, and
29 Pindi, all look to Bhatner as the home of their ancestors. It is probable either that Bhatner is
30 used merely as a traditional expression, or that when the Ghaggar dried up or the Rathor con-
31 quered Bikaner, the Bhatti were driven to find new homes in the plains of the Panjab. Indeed
32 Mr. Wilson tells me that in Sirsa, or the old Bhattiana, the term Bhatti is commonly applied to
33 any Musalman Jat or EAjpiit from the direction of tlie Satluj, as a generic term almost
34 synonymous with Rath or Pachhada.
35 In Multan the Nun, a Bhatti clan, are the dominant tribe in the Shi'ijiibad tahsU, where they
36 settled some four or five hundred years ago. The Mittru Bliatti of MnltAn came from Bikaner.
37 The Bhatti of Montgomery are probably Wattu and Khichi who will bo descrilied presently. Tlie
38 Bhatti of Jhang hofd a considerable tract called Bhattiora in the Chiniot uplands north of the
39 Chanab. They came first from Bhatner to the right bank of the Jahlam near the Shdhpur border,
40 and tlience to Bhattiora. They are described as " a fine race of men, industrious agriculturists,
41 " hardly at all in debt, good horse-breeders, and very fond of sport. They do very little cattle-
42 " lifting, hut are mucli addicted to carrying off each other's wives." The lihatti of the Giijranwala
43 bir, where they are the " natural enemies of the Virk," are descended from one Dhir who eighteen
44 generations ago left Bhatner, and settled in the Niir Mahal jungles as a grazier and freebooter. His
45 grandson went further on to the banks of the Ravi, and his son again moved up into the uplands
46 of Giijranwala. The modern descendants of these men are described as " a muscular and noble-
47 " looking race of men, agriculturists more by constraint than by natural inclination, who keep
48 " numerous herds of cattle which graze over the pasture lands of tlie hdr, only plough just sufficient
49 " to grow food for their own necessities, and are famous as cattle-lifters and notorious thieves."
50 The IShatti of Giijranwala enjoyed considerable political importance in former times, and they
51 still hold 86 villages in that district. In Sialkot the Bhatti claim descent from Bhoni seventh in
52 descent from their eponymous ancestor Bhatti, wlio came to Giijranwala from Bikaner, and thence
53 to Sialkot. None of these Bhatti of the heir will give their daugliters to the neighbouring Jat
54 tribes, though they will take wives from among them without scruple. In the Salt-range Tract
55 the Bhatti seem to hold a very subordinate position as Bhatti, though it may be that some of the
56 innumerable R.ijput tribes of those tracts may consider themselves Bhatti as well as whatever
57 their local name may be. In Kapnrthala and Jalandhar they have lost position greatly in
58 recent times. Till dispossessed by the Ahliiwalia Sikhs, the Eais of Kapurthala were Bhatti
59 Rajputs.
60 449. Rajput Trihes of the Satluj.— The Wattu (No. 3).— The Wattu are a Bhatti clan,
61 of whose origin the Hissar story has been given in section 448 above. The Sirsa tradition appears
62 to be that one Raja Jiinhar, a descendant of the Bhatti Eaja Salvdhan of Si'akot, was settled in
63 Bhatner, wbefe he had two sons Achal and Batera. From the latter sprang the Sidhu and Barar
64 Jats. The former again had two sons Jaipal and Rajpal, of whom Jaipal was the ancestor of the
65 Bhatti proper, and Rajpiil of the Wattu. Tlie Wattu date their conversion to Isldm by Baba Fand,
66 from the time of Kbiwa who ruled at Havcli in Montgomery, and was succeeded by the famous
67 Wattu Chief Lakhe Khan. They hold both banks of the Satluj in the Sirsa district, and the