1 MINOR LAND-OWNING AND AGRICULTURAL CASTES. 175
2 up to tlieir present territory. There are now very few In tlie Multan district ;
3 but the fact of their being found along- the Satluj, though in small numbers
4 only, lends some support to the story of their having come upwards from
5 below. Captain Elphinstone thus describes the Kharrals in his Gugaira
6 Report : —
7 " The ' Kharrals ' are tlie most northernly of the ' Great Ravi ' tribes. They occupy a great
8 " portion of the land between Gugaira and the I.alijre district, on both sides of the river, and
9 " extend some distance into tie Gujranwala district. In turbulence and courage they have been
10 " always considered to excel iill the others except the Kfithias ; but the tract occupied by them
11 " has been gradually denuded l>y the rapid extension of cultivation, of what formerly constituted
12 " their greatest strength, — heavy jungle. In case of disturbances, therefore, they have had at more
13 " recent periods to evacuate their own lands on the approach of large military forces, thus
14 " sustaining much damage by the destruction of their villages. Their most celebrated leader,
15 " Ahmad Khan, who was l;illed in September 1857 by a detachment under Captain Black, headed
16 " the combined tribe.:, however, in no less than five insurrections, which to a certain extent all
17 " proved successful, their chief object — the pilunder of the Khatris and Hindus — having usually
18 " been accomplished at the expense of a moderate fine imposed on them under the name of
19 " ' Nazarana,' after the conclusion of peace. This success bad spread his renown far and wide,
20 " and had given him a great influence over the whole of the ' Great Ravi,' as was proved by the
21 " outbreak of 1857, which appears to have been maiidy planned and oi'ganized by him. In
22 " stature the Kharrals arc generally above the average height, their features are very marked, and
23 " their activity and endurance are remarkable. Like all the other .Tats they pretend to a descent
24 " from the Rajputs, and like that class look down with some contempt upon men who handle the
25 " plough. The cultivation in their villages is, therefore, almost exclusively left to the Vysiwi'ms
26 " and inferior castes, the Kh.irral proprietors contenting themselves with realizing their share of
27 " the produce. They only possess land in tracts inundated by the rivers, mere well-cultivation
28 " being too laborious a task even for their dependants."
29 Mr. Purser adds that they are wasteful in marriage expenditure, hospi-
30 table to travellers, thievish, and with little taste for agriculture ; and that they
31 still follow many Hindu customs, especially on the occasion of marriage. In
32 Lahore they appear to bear a no better character than in Montgomery ; and
33 there is a Persian proverb : " The Dogar, the Bhatti, the Wattu, and the
34 " Kharral are all rebellious and ought to be slain." Sir Lepel Griffin
35 writes of them: "Through all historic times the Kharrals have been a
36 " turbulent, savage, and thievish tribe, ever impatient of control, and
37 " delighting in strife and plunder. More fanatic than other Mahomedan
38 " tribes, they submitted with the greatest reluctance to Hindu rale ; and
39 " it was as much as Diwan Sawan Mai and the Sikhs could do to restrain them ;
40 ■••' for whenevi-'r an organised force was sent against them they retired into the
41 " marshes and thick jungles, where it was almost impossible to follow them."
42 In Gujranwiila they are said to be " idle, trouldesome, bad cultivators and
43 " notorious thieves, their persons generally tall and handsome, and their habits
44 " nomad and prtedatory."
45 472. The Kathia, Khagga, and Hans.— The Kathia is another of the
46 Great Eiivi tribes, and comes next in importance among them to the Kharral.
47 It is not shown in our tables as a separate caste, and nobody seems to have
48 returned himself as Kathia. But there are 3,878 men in Montgomery and
49 1,972 in Multan who have returned their caste as Punwar ; and as the Kathias
50 claim to be Punwar Rajputs, and were so entered in the settlement, it is pro-
51 bable that these are the Kathias. This is the explanation given by the Deputy
52 Commissioner of Montgomery after local inqiiiry. Tliese men have been in-
53 eluded under the head Rajput in our tables. The Kathias are almost confined
54 to the Ravi valley of the Multan and Montgomery districts ; but they hold a
55 considerable area in the south of Jhang, which they are said to have acquired
56 from the Sial in return for aid afforded to the latter against the Nawab of