1 MINOR LAND-OWNING AND AGRICULTURAL CASTES. 211
2 tory indeed the villagers, accustomed to describe the Mughals of the Empire
3 as Turks, use the word as synonymous with " oiBcial " ; and I have heard my
4 Hindu clerks of Kayath caste described as Turks merely because they were
5 in Government employ. On the Biloch frontier also the word Turk is com-
6 monly used as synonymous with Mughal. The Turks of the Panjab are prac-
7 tically confined to the Hazara district^ and are doubtless the representatives
8 of the colony of Karlagh Turks who came into the Panjab with Tamarlane
9 (1399 A.D.) and possessed themselves of the Pakhli tract in the Hazara
10 district, which apparently included the Tanawal, Dhamtaur, and Swati coun-
11 try, and was politically attached to Kashmir. These men were dispossessed
12 of their territory by Swatis and Tanaolis fi'om across the Indus about the
13 beginning of the 18th century ; and the Turks now returned are doubtless
14 their descendants. The word Turk is a Tartar word meaning a " wanderer " ;
15 thus in poetry the Sun is called "the Tiirk of China," that is of the East,
16 or " the Turk of the Sky." The Turks of Gurdaspur are said to be rope-
17 makers by occupation (see fiirther sections 4<l:i and 416).
18 507. The Mughal (Caste No 37). — The Jlughals proper or Mongols,
19 for the two words are only different forms of the same name, probably either
20 entered the Panjab with Babar, or were atti-acted thither under the dynasty
21 of his descendants. They are proliably to be found in greatest number in the
22 neighbourhood of Dehli, the capital of that dynasty ; and I Ijelieve that the
23 great majority of those who have returned themselves as Mughals in the
24 Eastern Punjab really belong to that race. They are also numerous in the
25 Rawalpindi division and on the upper frontier, along the route of the Mughal
26 armies, and where they find a more kindred people than in the great Panjab
27 plains. But as will be presently explained, the number of true iMughals in
28 these parts is certainly much smaller than would appear from our figures.
29 The Mughals of Gujrat are described hy Mr. IMonckton as " an unhappy
30 " race. Puffed up with pride of birth, they account themselves above all
31 " other classes except Saiyads, and even among themselves each house reckons
32 " itself higher than its neighbour. Among the clans, though of high descent,
33 "they are now at a discount. Those that might be admitted their equals,
34 " such as Chibs or Gakkhars, despise them ; while to lower classes they
35 "themselves will not stoop; and the consequence is that social relations are
36 " sometimes at a dead-lock." The description applies with equal trath to the
37 Mughals of the Dehli territoiy. Even on the frontier the Mughals do not
38 bear a good name. " The Mughals tyi-annize over the cultivator, and the
39 " cultivator over the earth " ; and again : " Trust not the MughaPs letters.
40 " Of the Mughals, first letters, then armies."
41 The Mughals are distributed very widely over the Province ; but are,
42 excepting Dehli, most numerous in the western districts, and more especially
43 in Rawalpindi, Jahlara, and Hazara. It is certain that a very large number
44 of these men are not Mughals at all. Some, probably a considerable number
45 of them, belong to agricultural tribes locally known by tribal names, such
46 as Gakkhars, Sattis, Ghebas, and the like, who have set up an almost certain-
47 ly groundless claim to Mughal origin. Many of these have already been
48 noticed. But more than this, there is a tendency, apparently confined to
49 Dehli and the Rawalpindi and Peshawar divisions, for men of low caste to
50 call themselves IMughals just as throughout the Province they call themselves
51 Shekhs. Thus we find among the sub-divisions of those returned as Mughals
52 1,-)12 Kahars in Hazara, and in Rawalpindi 3,665 Sainis and 1,263 Rawals;
53 p2