1 MINOR LAND-OWNING AND AGRICULTURAL CASTES. 203
2 494. The Mahtam (Caste No. 51). — ^There has been a confusion in the
3 figures of Table VIIIA owing- to the fact that the Mahtams are also called
4 Bahrupias. The Mahtams of Gujrat and Sialkot returned themselves under
5 that name, and were included under Bahrupia in Table VIIIA. I have
6 restored them to their proper place in Abstract No. 85, j^age 266.* The Mah-
7 tams, or as they are called in the Jalandhar division Mahton (nasal n), are
8 found chiefly in the Satluj valley, and along the foot of the hills between
9 Jalandhar and Gujrat. They are of exceedingly low caste, being almost out-
10 casts ; by origin they are vagrants, and in some parts they apparently retain
11 their wandering habits, while everywhere they are still great hunters, using
12 nooses like those of the Bawarias described in section 575, But in many
13 districts, and especially on the middle Satluj, they have devoted themselves to
14 husbandry and are skilful and laborious cultivators. The great majority of
15 them are classed as Hindus, but about one-fifth are Musalman, and as many
16 again Sikh. But the Musalman section, even in the Multan division, eat
17 wild pig and retain most of their Hindu customs, and are consequently not
18 admitted to religious equality by the other Musalmans. They appear, how-
19 ever, to bury their dead. They live, in iluzaffargarh, in grass huts on the
20 river banks, whence the saying — " Only two ilahtam huts and calls itself
21 Khairpur." Mr. Purser thus describes the jMahtams of Montgomery : —
22 "They are a low Hindn caste, and are looked down on by their neighbours. Their story Ls
23 " that they were Rajijuts, and one of their ancestors was a knnungo. Akbar was then on the
24 " throne. Kanungos were called mahta, and thus they got their name. The first miihta was dis-
25 " missed, and then Fettled at JIahtpur in Jalandhar. His descendants emigrated and settled along
26 " the banks of the rivers as they found quantities of sjrr in such situations, and working iu sarr
27 " was their chief occupation. It was not till the Nakkai chiefs held sway that they settled down
28 " permanently in this district. They adopted the custom of marriage with widows according to the
29 "form of cA<!(f(?a;' «("7na, and so became Sudras. They are also called ' Bahrupias/ which name
30 " Is a corruption of ' Sha-riip-ias' and means people of many modes of life, because they turned
31 " their hands to any business they could find (yet cf. Select Glossary, I, 17 & 54). Cunningham
32 " (History of the Sikhs, page 17) says, ■ the hardworking Hindu Mahtams are still moving family
33 " ' by family and village by village eastward away from tlie Ravi and Chanab.' This would seem
34 " to give the Mahtams a western instead of eastern origin as claimed by them. They own a good
35 " many villages (19), most of which are in good condition. Where they are not proprietors of the
36 " whole village, they reside iu a separate group of huts at some distance from the main dbddi.
37 " They are srreat hands at catching wild pigs ; but it is in cutting down the jungle on inundated
38 " lands that they excel. Though industrious tlicy do not care much for working wells, and prefer
39 " cultivating lands flooded by the rivers. They are quarrelsome and addicted to petty thieving.
40 " They are of medium stature and stoutly made. "
41 495. There is a Bahriip tribe of Banjaras or, as they are called in the
42 Pan jab, Labanas ; and the Laljanas and ilahtams of the Satluj appear closely
43 to resemble each other. Elliott's description of the Bahrup Banjaras at page
44 54, Volume I of his Races of the North- West Provinces, tallies curiously in
45 some respects with that of the Bahrupia Mahtams of Gujrat given by Captain
46 Mackenzie at section 71 of his settlement report of that district ; and on the
47 whole it seems probable that the Mahtams are Banjaras or Labanas, in which
48 case it is possible that the Satluj group have come up from Rajputana, while
49 the sub-montane group are merely a western continuation of the Banjaras of
50 the lower hills. This is the more probable as I fijid that the Jalandhar
51 Mahtams trace their origin fi-om Jammu, conquered Rahon from the Gujars,
52 and were in turn deprived of it by the Ghorewaha Rajputs probably not less
53 than five centuries ago. At the same time I should note that the Mahton of
54 Hushyiirpur and the neighbourhood appear to hold a much higher social
55 position than the Mahtams of the Satluj ; and it may be that the two are
56 really distinct. Sardar Gurdial Singh indeed goes so far as to say that the