1 202
2 PANJAB CASTES.
3 rogues {hadzdt)," and Mr. Benton of Karnal describes them as "notoriously
4 deceitful and treacherous. " On the other hand Sardar Gm-dial Singh stales,
5 I know not on what authority, that " during the reign of terror in India, it
6 " was the Kambohs who were trusted by the rich bankers for carrying-
7 '' their cash in the disguise oifaqirs." The Kambohs are said to be exception-
8 ally numerous in IMirat. Their loca-
9 tion under the hills lends some slight
10 support to their tradition of origin
11 from Kashmir.
12 Eambob
13 OI-AyS.
14 1.
15 Thiiid ..
16 . 10,394
17 6. Sandc .,
18 4,321
19 2.
20 Jausan ..
21 6,635
22 7. Jaiiimun
23 2,515
24 3.
25 Jaura . .
26 5,420
27 8. Jhantle ..
28 2,028
29 4.
30 Dahiit ..
31 4,963
32 9. Unmill ,.
33 2,001
34 B.
35 Urahrok.,
36 . 4,880
37 The Kambohs seem to have return-
38 ed very few large sub-divisions. The
39 figures for the nine largest are given ii;
40 the margin.
41 493, The Ahir (Caste No. 27).— The Ahirs are properly a pastoral caste,
42 their name being derived fi-om the Sanskrit Abhira, or " milkman.'' But in
43 the Panjab they are now almost exclusively agricultural, and stand in quite the
44 first rank as husbandmen, being as good as the Kamboh and somewhat
45 superior to the Jat. They are of the same social standing as the Jat and
46 Gujar, who will eat and smoke with them ; but they do not seem ever to have
47 been, at any rate within recent times, thn dominant race in any considerable
48 tract. Perhaps their nearest approach to such a position was in Rewaii and
49 the country to the west of it still locally known as Hirwati, where they held
50 nearly three quarters of the parganah in 18.38. A very full description of
51 them will be found in Elliott's Races of the North-Wtst Provinces, and also
52 in Sherring, I, 3o2jf. The west coast of India and Gujarat would apjiear to be
53 their ancient homes, hut they are numerous in Behar and Gorakhpur, and at
54 one time there was an Ahir dynasty in Nepal. In the Panjab they are chiefly
55 found in the south of Dehli, Gurgaon, and Rohtak and the Native States
56 bordering upon these districts, and in this limited tract they form a consider-
57 able proportion of the whole population. They are almost all Hindus, and
58 are said to trace their origin from ilathra. They are industrious, patient,
59 and orderly ; and though they are ill spoken of in the proverbs of the country-
60 side, yet that is probably only because the Jat is jealous of them as being
61 even better cultivators than himself. Thus they say in Rohtak : " Kosli (the
62 head village of the. Ahirs) has fifty brick houses and several thousand swag-
63 gerers." So in Dehli : " Rather be kicked by a Rajput or stumble uphill,
64 '' than hope anything from a jackal, spear grass, or an Ahir;" and again;
65 " All castes are God's creatures, but three castes are ruthless. When they
66 " get a chance they have no shame ; thj whore, the Banya, and the Ahir. "
67 But these stigmas are now-a-days at least wholly undeserved.
68 The Ahirs of the North-West Provinces have three great sections, the
69 Nandbans of the central dodb, the Jadubans
70 of the upper dodb and the Mathra coimtry,
71 and the Gweilbans of the lower dodb at
72 Benares. The Ahirs of the Panjab have
73 returned themselves as shown in the margin.
74 Of the Gwalbans more than 16,000 are
75 found in Patiala. Within these tribes they
76 have numerous clans, among which the Kosali of Rohtak and Gurgaon
77 number 7,322.
78 Ahib teibes.
79 Jadubans
80 Nsndbans
81 Gwdlbans
82 43,961
83 24,998
84 25,187
85 [P.