1 198 PAN JAB CASTES. :
2 Reports. He identifies tliem with the Kunindas or Kuliudas of the Sanskrit i
3 classics and of Ptolemy, and is of opinion that they lielong to that great '
4 Khasa race which, before the Aryan invasion, occupied the whole Sub-
5 Himalayan tract from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, and which, driven up
6 into the hills by the advancing wave of immigi'ation, now separates the
7 Aryans of India from the Turanians of Tibet. But the Kanets are divided
8 into two great tribes, the Khasia and the Rao, and it is probable that the j
9 Khasias are really descended from intercom'se between the Aryan immigrants j
10 and the women of the hills. The process by which the great Khas tribe of |
11 Nepal thus grew up is admirably described by Mr. Hodgson in his Essay in j
12 the Military tribes of that country, which is quoted at some length by ]
13 General Cunningham, and, less fully, by me at page 236* supra. The *P. 131.!
14 distinction between Khasia and Rao is still sufficiently well marked. A •
15 Khasia observes the period of impurity after the death of a relation prescribed I
16 for a twice-born man ; the Rao that prescribed for an outcast. The Khasia ,
17 wears the janeo or sacred thread, while the Rao does not. But the dis- J
18 tinction is apparently breaking down, at least in Kiilu where the two i
19 tribes freely eat together and intermarry, though the Khasia, if asked, will ■■
20 deny the fact. '
21 488, Mr. Lyall thus describes the Kanets of Kiilu : —
22 " The Kanets are often classed by other Hinditt as on a par with the Rathis of Kangra. Just i
23 " as the Kathis claim to be Eajputs who have hist grade by taking to the plough, or the offspring '
24 "of Eajputs by Sudra women, so tlie Kanets say that tliey are the children of women of the hills j
25 '' by Rajputs who came up from the plains. By one story both Kanets and Dagis were originally .'
26 " of the same stock. Two sous of the demi-god, Bhim Sen Pandab, had each a son by the
27 '' daughter of a Kulu rakhas or demon, One of these sons married a Bhotanti, or woman of Tibet, I
28 " who fed him with yak's flesh, so he and his children by her became Dagis. The other son was j
29 ''ancestor of the Kanets. j
30 " Both of these stories perhaps point to the conclusion that the Kanets and Dagis are of mixed
31 " Mughal and Hindu race. General Cunningham says as much of the Kanets of Kanawar, and j
32 " connects the caste name with the word Karina, which implies mixed blood. The Kanets are j
33 " divided into Kassiyas and Kaos. The Raos say that the origin of this division was that a Raja !
34 " of Kulu ordered the Kanets to reform their loose practices, and conform altogether to Hinduism ; i
35 " those who obeyed were called Kassiyas, and those who stuck to their old ways Raos. It is a fact '
36 " that at the present day the former are more Hindu in all observances than the latter, and the story I
37 " is otherwise probable, as one can see that the foreign priests round the Rajas were always i
38 " striving to make the Kulu people more orthodox Hindus, greater respecters of Brahmins, and ''
39 " less devoted to the worship of their local divinities. The Kassiyas wear the janeo, and pretend '
40 " to some superiority, which, however, is not admitted by the Raos. They intermarry and cat '
41 " and drink together out of the same cooking pot, but not out of the same dish or plate."
42 He adds that they are not tall, but strong and active, and generally have [p. 270'
43 handsome figures. Some are hardly darker than Spaniards in complexion,
44 with a iniddy coloui- showing in their cheeks ; others are as dark as the ordi- j
45 nary Panjabi. Of the " so called Kanets of Lahul " he writes that they " are '
46 " a mixed race, but the Mongolian element predominates over the Indian. \
47 " Many of those who live in the lower valley are no doubt descendants of \
48 " Kanet settlers fi'om Kulu and Bangahal ; the rest are pure Tibetan, or nearly 1
49 " so." In Lahul the Kanets, like all other classes of the people, will eat cows i
50 and bullocks which have died a natural death. They never wear the sacred ]
51 thread. The social status of the Kanet appears to be very low. A Sunar i
52 will marry a Kanet woman, but he will not give his daughter to a Kanet, :
53 nor will he eat from the hand of a Kanet, though his wife will do so. In
54 Lahul even a Brahman or Thakar will take a Kanet woman as a second-class
55 wife, and the offspring of the latter, who are known as Garu, will in a few
56 generations rauk as Thakar. Those of the former however can never rise to full i