1 KELIGIOUS, PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER CASTES. 247
2 of Jalandhar attribute their name to their refusal to wear the janeo or sacred
3 thread at the solicitation of one Bir Swami, who thereupon said that their
4 faith [blii'i) w;is great. This would separate them from the Banyas. On the
5 other hand many of the Gnrdaspnr Bhiiliras are said to l)e Oswal and Kan-
6 del wal Banyas; and Mr. Wilson says that in Sirsa the Sikh immigranls
7 from Patifila call the Oswiil Banyas Bliabra. The Bhiiljras have a uurious mle
8 against one man marrying two wives under any cu'cumstances whatever.
9 539. The Khatri (Caste No. 16). —The Khatri occupies a very diffe-
10 rent position among the people of the Panjiib from that of the castes
11 which we have just discussed. Superior to them in physique, in manliness,
12 and in energy, he is not, like them, a mere shop-keeper. He claims, indeed,
13 to be a du'ect representative of the Kshatriya of Manu, ))ut the validity of
14 the claim is as doubtful as are most other matters connected with the four-
15 fold caste system. The following extract from Sir Gcorg-o Campbeirs Eth-
16 nolofji/ of India describes the position of the Khatri so admiral )ly that I
17 shall not venture to spoil it by condensation. The Aroras whom he classes
18 with the Khatris I shall describe presently : —
19 " Trade is their main occupation ; but in fact they have broader and more distinguishing
20 " fcatui-es. Besides monopolising the trade of the Panjab and tlie greater part of Afghanistan,
21 " and doing a good deal beyond those limits, they are in tlie Panjab the chief civil administiators,
22 " and have almost aU literate work in their iiands. So far as the Sikhs have a priesthood, they
23 " are, moreover, the priests or gurus of the Sikhs. Both Nanak and Govind were, and the
24 " Sodis and Bedis of the present day are, Khatris. Thus then they are in fact in the Panjab,
25 '■ so far as a more energetic race will permit them, all that Mahratta Brahmins are in the Mah-
26 " ratta country, besides engrossing the trade wliich the Mahratta Brahmins ha^'e not. Tliey arc
27 " not usually military in their charactei', but are quite capable of using the sword when necessary.
28 " Diwau Sawan Mai, Governor of ilultan, and his notorious successor Miilraj, and very many
29 " of Ranjit Singh's chief functionaries, were Kliatris. Even under Mahomedan rulers in the
30 '' west, they have risen to high administrative posts. There is a record of a Khatri Dcwan of
31 '' Badakshan or Kuuduz ; and, I believe, of a Khatri Governor of Peshawar under the Afghans.
32 '■■ The Emperor Akbar's famous minister, Todur Mai, was a Khatri ; and a relative of that man
33 " of undoubted energy, the great Commissariat Contractor of Agra, Joti Parshad, lately in-
34 " formed me that he also is a Khatri. Altogether there can be no doubt that these Khati'is are
35 " one of the most acute, energetic, and remarkable races in India, though in fact, except locally
36 " in the Panjab, they are not much known to Europeans. The Kliatris are stauncli Hindus ;
37 " and it is somewhat singular that, while giving a religion and priests to the Sikhs, they them-
38 " selves are comparatively seldom Sikhs. The Khatris are a very fine, fair, handsome race.
39 '' And, as may be gathered from what I ha\'e already said, they are very generally educated.
40 " There is a large subordinate class of Khatris, somewhat lower, but of equal mercantile
41 " energy, called Rors, or Roras. The proper Khatris of higher grade will often deny all con-
42 " nexion with them, or at least only admit tliat they have some sort of ba-tai'd kindred with
43 " Khatris j but I think there can be no_ doubt that they are ethnologically the same, and they
44 " are certainly mixed up with Khatris in their avocations. I shall treat the whole kindred as
45 " generically Khatris.
46 " Speaking of the Khatris then thus broadly, they have, as I have said, the whole trade of
47 " the Panjab and of most of Afghanistan. No village can get on without the Khatri wlio keeps
48 " the accoimts, does the banking business and buys an 1 sells the grain. Tliey -com, too, to get
49 " on with the people better than most traders and usurers of this kind. In Afghanistan, amoni
50 " a rough and alien people, the Khati-is arc as a rule confined to the position of humble dealers,
51 " shop-keepers, and money-lenders ; but in tliat capacity the Pathaus seem to look at them as a
52 "kind of valuable animal ; and a Pathan will steal another man's Khatri, not only for the sake
53 " of ransom, as is frequently done on the Peshawar and Hazara frontier, but also as he might
54 " steal a milchcow, or as Jews might, I dare say, be carried off in the middle ages mth a view to
55 " render tlicni profitable.
56 " I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the west, but certainly in all
57 •• Eastern Afghanistan they seem to be just as much a part of the established community as they
58 " are iu the Panjab. They find their way far into Central Asia, but the further they get the
59 " more dex)resscd and humiliating is their position. In Turlfistan, Vambery speaks of them with
60 " great contempt, as yellow-faced Hindus of a cowardly and sneaking character. Under Tur-
61 " coman rule they could hardly be otherwise. They are the only Hindus known in Central
62 .4.