1 Rob cians.
2 Sagwal
3 1,848
4 Maipla
5 1,567
6 Khiclii
7 1,207
8 Jogran
9 1,193
10 MINOR LAND-OWNING AND AGRICULTURAL CASTES, 179
11 connect themselves with their neighbcnivs the Chauhan Rii.iputs, who certainly
12 came fi'om there. But almost all the Rors alike
13 seem to point to Badli in the .Thajjar tahsil of
14 Rohtak as their immediate place of origin, though
15 some of them say they ca'.r.e from Rajputana.
16 Their social status is identical with that of Jats ;
17 and they practise karewa or widow-marriage,
18 though only, they say, within the caste. Their
19 sub-divisions seem to he exceedingly numerous. A
20 few of the lai-gestare given in the margin. The Ambala Rors would appear to
21 be mostly Sagwal.
22 477. The Taga (Caste No. 86).— The Tagas of the Jamna Khadir of Dehli
23 and Karnal, the only part of the Province in which they are found, are said to
24 be Gaur Brahm:nis by origin, and to have acquired their present name liecause
25 they " aliandnned " [tacj dena) priestly functions and took to agriculture.
26 Their origin is discussed at great length in Vol. I of Elliott's Tiaeei of flie
27 lyorth- West Provinces, pages 1 06 to 115; and they are there identified with
28 the Takkas, a possibly Scythian race who had tlie snake for their totem, and
29 whose destmction by Raja .Tanamajaya is supposed to be commemorated
30 in tlie tradition of that monarch's holocaiist of serpents. The difficulty felt
31 by Sir H. Elliott in accounting for their tracing their origin to Hariiina
32 is perhaps explained liy the fact tliat they give Safidon in .Tind on the border
33 of Hariana as the place where the holocaust took place ; and the name of the
34 town is not improbably connected w ith saw. n or snake. The Tagas are probably
35 the oldest inhabitants of the upper .Tamna Khadir, holding \allagcs which have
36 been untoiiched by changes in the com-sc of the stream for a far longer period
37 than most of their neighbours. They are of superior social standing and
38 seclude their women, but are l)ad cultivators, especially the Mahomedans.
39 About three-fourths of the total number have adopted Islam and ceased to
40 wear the sacred thread. Tlie Hindus still wear it, but Brahmans do not
41 intermarry with them, and they employ Bralimans to officiate for them in the
42 usual manner. They are poor agriculturists. They must be carefully distin-
43 guished from the Tagus or criminal Brahmans of the same tract discussed in
44 section 586.
45 478. The Meo (Caste No. 34). — The Meos are the people who have given
46 its name to Mewat or the hill country of Alwar, Gurgaon, and Bhartpur.
47 They are found within thi' Panjab chiefly in Gurgaon. though a considerable
48 number have spread into the south of the Dehli district. They are all Mabo-
49 medan, though, as will be seen presently, their religion is of a very impure
50 type. They are so excellently described by Captain Powlett in his Gazetteer
51 of Alwar, that I cannot do better that quote the passage almost in full, adding
52 to it Mr. Channing's remarks upon it. Captain Powlett writes as follows : —
53 " The Meos are nimierically tlie first race iu tlie State, and the agricultural portion of them is
54 " consirlerahly more than douhle any otlier class of cultivators except Chamars. They occupy about
55 "half the Ulwar territory, and the portion they dwell in lies to the north and cast.
56 " They are divided into fifty-two clans, of which the twelve largest are called ' Pals,' and the
57 " smaller ' Qots.' Many of these are not settled in Ulwar, hut would he found in Mathra, Bhartpur,
58 "and Gurgaon. Of the 448 villages helonging to the Meos the G-h.iseria clan holds 112, the
59 "BMnqal 70, the Landdmal 64, the Nat 63, the Sinaal 54, the Dulot 53, and the Pundlof 22.
60 " It has already hcen set forth in the historical sltetch that the Meos — for they no doubt are
61 " often included under the term Mewatti — were, during the Muhammadan period of power, always
62 "notorious for their turbulence and predatory habits: however, since their complete subjection ijy
63 n2