1 156 PAN JAB CASTES. ]
2 " other caste. ' Among themselves the same salutation u interchanged ; and as there are endless \
3 " gradations even among the Miaus, the inferior first repeats the salutation and the courtesy is i
4 " usually retm'ued. In former days great importance was attached to the Jai I'ya: uuautho- J
5 " rized assumption of the privilege was panislied as a misdemeanour by lieavy tine and imprison- j
6 " ment. The Rdja could extend the honour to high-horn Rdjpvits not strictly belonging to a Royal '
7 " clan, such, for instance, as the Soukla or the Manliiis. Any deviation from the austere rules ,
8 "of the caste was sufficient to deprive the offender of this salutation, and the loss was
9 " tantamount to excommunication. Tlie Eajpiits delight to recount stories of the value of
10 "this honour, and tlie vicissitudes endured to prevent its abuse. The Raja Dhiiin Singh, the
11 " Sikh Minister, himself a Jamwal Mian, desired to extort the Jai Dya from Raja Bhir Singh, i
12 " the fallen chief of Nurpur. He held in his possession the grant of a jagi'r valued at Rs. 25,000, i
13 " duly signed and sealed by llanjit Singli, and delayed presenting the deed until the Niirpur ;
14 " chief should hail him witli this coveted salutation. But Blii'r Singh was a Raja by a long line |
15 "of ancestors, and Dliian Singh was a Raja only hy favour of Ranjit Sinn;li. The hereditary ,
16 "chief refused to compromise his lionoiu-, and preferred beggary to affluence I'ather than
17 " accord the Jai Dya to one who by tlie rules of the brotherhood was his inferior. The derivation gio-i'
18 " of the phrase is supposed to bo Jai, victory, and Deb, l;ing ; being synonymous, when used L"- ^*^Jj
19 " togetherj to the national expression of Vice le Roi, or ' tlie king for ever.'
20 " A Mian, to preserve his name and lionour unsullied, must scrupulously observe four fundamental
21 " maxims -.^irst, he must never drive tlie plough ; secondly, he must never give his daughter in
22 " marriage to an inferior, nor marry himself much below his rank ; thirdly, he must never accept money
23 " in exchange for tlie betrothal of his daugliter ; and lastly, his female household must observe strict
24 "seclusion. The prejudice against the plough is perliaps the most Inveterate of all ; that step can
25 " never be recalled. The offender at once loses the privileged salutation ; he is reduced to the second
26 " grade of Rajputs ; no JVL'iin will marry his daughter, and he must go a step lower in the social scale
27 " to get a wife for himself. In every occupation of life he is made to feel his degraded position. In
28 " meetings of the tribe and at marriages the Rajputs uudetiled hy the plough will refuse to sit at
29 " meals with the Hal Bah, or plough driver, as he is contemptuously styled ; and many, to avoid the
30 " indignity of exclusion, never appear at public assemblies. This prejudice against agriculture is as
31 " old as the Hindu religion ; and I have licard variouj reasons given in explanation of it. Some
32 " say it is sacrilegious to lacerate the bosom of mother-earth with an iron plough-share ; others de-
33 " clare that tlie offence consists in subjecting sacred oxen to labour. The probable reason is that the
34 " legitimate weapon of the Kshatria, or military class, is the sword ; the plough is the insignia of a
35 " lower walk in life, and the exchange of a noble for a ruder profession is tantamount to a renuncia-
36 " tion of the privileges of caste.
37 " The giving one's daughter to an inferior in caste is scarcely a more pardonable offence than
38 " agi'iculture. Bven Ranjit Singh, in the height of his prosperity and power, felt the force of
39 " this prejudice. The Raja of Kaugra deserted his hereditary kingdom rather than ally his
40 " sisters to Dhiau Singh, himself a Mian of the Jammu stock, but not the equal of the Katoch
41 " prince. The Rajputs of Katgarb, iu the Nurpur parganah, voluntarily set fire to their houses
42 " and immolated their female relatives to avoid tlie di-grace of Ranjit Singh's alliance ; and when
43 " Mian Padma, a renegade Pathania, married his daughter to the Sikh monarch, his brethren, un-
44 " deterred by the menaces of Ranjit Siugli, deprived him and his immediate connexions of the Jai
45 " Dya, and to this day refuse to associate with his descendants. The seclusion of their women
46 " is also maintained with severe strictness. The dwellings of Rajputs can always be recognised by
47 " one familiar with the country. The houses are placed in isolated positions, either on the crest of
48 " a hill which commands approaches on all sides, or on the verge of a forest sedulously preserved
49 " to form an impenetrable screen. When natiu'al defences do not exist, an artificial growth is promot-
50 " ed to afford the necessary privacy. In front of their dwellings, removed about fifty paces from
51 " the house, stands the ' maudi ' or vestibule, beyond whose precincts no one unconnected with the
52 " household can ventui'e to intrude. A privileged stranger who has business with the master of the
53 " house may by favoui' occupy the vestibule. But even this concession is jealously guarded, and
54 " only those of decent caste and respectable character are allowed to come even as far as the
55 " ' maudi.' A remarkable instance of the extremes to which this seclusion is carried occurred under
56 " my own experience. A Katoch's house in the Maudi territory accidentally cauglit fire iu broad
57 " day. There was no friendly wood to favour the escape of the women, and rather than brave
58 " the public gaze they kept their apartments and were sacrificed to a horrible death. Those who
59 " wish to visit their parents must travel in covered palanquins, and those too poor to afford a con-
60 " veyance travel by night, taking unfrequented roads tlu-ough thickets and ravines.
61 " It is melancholy to see with what devoted tenacity the Rajput clings to these deep-rooted
62 " prejudices. Their emaciated looks and coarse clothes attest the vicissitudes they have undergone to
63 " maintain their fancied purity. In the quantity of waste land which abounds in the hills, a
64 " ready livelihood is offered to those who will cultivate the soil for their daily bread ; but this
65 " alternative involves a forfeitiu'e of their dearest rights, and they would rather follow any pre-
66 1 Hence the' word Jaikaii commonly used to denote first-class Rajputs in the hilla.