1 194i PANJAB CASTES.
2 " the names denoting occupation rather than caste, and ai-e invariably held in
3 " very low reunite." The Maliar of the Rawalpindi division for the most part
4 retm'ned their elan as Janjiia, Qutbshahi (Awau), Khokhar, or Bhatti, though
5 some of them give what are apparently true Arain clans, such as Wahand.
6 Table VIII A gives no Arains or Baghban? in the Rawalpindi district, but
7 the fact is that by an unfortunate en'or, not detected till after the tables were
8 in print, the Maliars of Rawalpindi and Jahlam were entered as Maniars
9 under Caste No. 47. I have added them to the figures for Baghban in the
10 Abstract, and it follows that all the Rawalpindi and Jahlam Baghbans of the
11 Abstract were returned as Maliai', and not as Baghban. So too, the figures
12 for INIuzaffargarh and the two Derahs are very imperfect, as Abstract No. 72
13 on page 224* shows that some thousands of Ai-ains or Maliars in those districts
14 returned their caste as Jat. On the whole it would appear that IMali and Arain
15 are time castes in the eastern half of the Province, but that in the Western
16 Panjab, Arain, Maliar, and Baghban are commonly used as mere names of
17 one aud the same occupation. The detailed clan tables, when published, will
18 throw much light upon the real affinities of these three castes.
19 486. The Arains are found in great numbers throughout the northern,
20 central, and western portions of the Eastern Plains and throughout the Ra-
21 walpindi and Multan divisions ; but west of Lahore the name must be taken
22 to refer, except on the Satluj, to an occupation rather than a caste. Their
23 strongholds are the Jalandhar, Amritsar, and Lahore divisions, and more
24 especially the districts of Jalandhar and Lahore and the State of Kapiirthala
25 where they form respectively 17"4, lOS, and 16-3 per cent, of the total popu-
26 lation. They are admirable cultivators, skilful aud industrious, but like all
27 vegetable growers of low standing among the cultivating classes. Where,
28 however, they are found in very large numbers their position is higher, as there
29 they are general cultivators rather than market gardeners. They are almost
30 without exception Musalmans, and would appear to be a true Panjab tribe, to
31 have come from the neighbourhood of Multan, and to have some affinity with
32 the Kamboh. ]\Ir. Pm'ser writes : " The Arains of Montgomery know nothing
33 " of their origin. Tliey claim to be Surajbansi Rajputs, and to have come
34 " up to this district from the Dehli part of the country. They are usually
35 "supposed to be Mahomedan Kambohs, and the latter undoubtedly came
36 "from the west, so it is likely the Arains did too. This is rendered more pro-
37 " bable by the fact that the Arains of Saharanpur are said to have come fi'Om
38 " Afghanistan. They do not seem to have got much below the Lahore border.
39 " Their chief divisions are Gahlan, Chandor, Chachar, Sindhu, and Barar." I
40 find that the Arains of Firozpur and Lahore also trace their origin fi-om Uchh
41 or Multan, and are supposed to be akin to the Kamboh. In Sirsa the Satluj
42 Arains meet those of the Ghaggar. They two do not intermany, but the
43 Aritins of the Ghaggar valley say they were Rajputs living on the Panjnad
44 near Multan, but were ejected some four- centuries ago by Saiyad Jalal-ud-din
45 of Uchh. They claim some sort of connection with Jaisalmer Till the great
46 famines of 1759 and 1783 A.D. they are said to have held all the lower valleys
47 of the Choya and Ghaggar, but after the latter date the Bhattis harassed the
48 Sumras, the country became distm-bed, and many of the Aiaius emigrated
49 across the Ganges and settled near Bareli and Rampui-. They marry only with
50 ♦-he Ghaggar and Bai'eli Arains. The Satluj Arains in Sirsa say that they ai-e,
51 like the Arains of Lahore and Montgomery, connected hy origin with the
52 Hindu Kambohs. Mr. Wilson thinks it probable that both classes are really