1 RELIGIOUS, PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER CASTES. 255
2 oculist, so at least Mr. Baden-Powell states. (See further nnder Mahtara,
3 section 49.5 lupra.)
4 548. The Labana (Caste No. 52).— These men are generally associated with
5 the caste jnst discussed. With the excei^tion of MuzafPargarh" and Baluiwal-
6 pnr, which will he discussed presently, they are almost wliolly confined to the
7 hill and sub-montane districts. They are the earners and hawkers of the hills,
8 and are merely the Panjahi representatives of that class of Banjaras already
9 alluded to who inhaljit tlie sulj-montane tracts east of the Ganges. The
10 Laljanas of Gujnit are thus described by Captain Mackenzie : —
11 " The L.ibaiias are also a peculiar people. Their sfcitus amongst Sikhs is mnch the same as
12 " that of the Mahfcims. Tljey correspoiul to the Banijaras of Hindustan, carrying on an e.xtensive
13 " trade hy means of large herds of laden bullccks. Latterly they have taken to agriculture, but
14 " as an additional means of livelihood, not as a substitute for trade. As a section of tlie com-
15 " munity they deserve every consideration and encouragement. They arc generally tine substan-
16 '• tially built people. They also possess much spirit. In anarchical times when the freaks or
17 " feuds of petty Governors would drive the Jtits or Gujars to seek a temporary abiding place .-vway
18 " from their ancestral village, the Labanas would stand their ground, and pei haps improve the
19 " opportunity by extending their grasp over the best lands in the village, in which their shorter-
20 " sighted and less provident lords of the Jlanor had, in some former period, permitted them to
21 " take up their abode for pui-poses of commerce. Several cases of this nature came to light during
22 " settlement, and in most of them the strength and spirit of progress were as apparent in the
23 '• Labanas as were the opposite qualities conspicuous in thcii- Gujar opponents Their principal
24 " village is Tanda (which means a large caravan of laden bullocks ) and is an instance of what I
25 " have above alluded to. .Allowed to reside by the Gujar proprietors of Mota, they got possession
26 "of the soil, built a kasba, and in every imint of importance swamped the original proprietors.
27 " Tliey have been recognized as proprietors, but feudal ory to their former landlords the Gujars of
28 " llota, paying t.i them annually in recognition thereof, a sum equal to one-tenth of the Govern-
29 " ment demand."
30 There is a ciu'ious colony of Labanas on the lower Indus who are said to
31 have settled there nnder the Sikh rule, and who are almost all ^Munna Sikhs
32 or followers of Baba Niinak, though many of thera are returned in the Baha-
33 walpur tables as Hindus. These men have almost entirely given up traffic
34 and trade, and settled on the banks of the river where they lead a sort of senii-
35 snvage life, hunting and making ropes and grass mats for sale. They hardly
36 *P. 256- cultivate at all. Their numbers are much under-stated in Abstract No. 94, * as
37 tP 106- Abstract No. 73 (page 2 241) shows that 4,317 of the Bahawalpur Labanas
38 107. were returned as Jats. The Labanas of Jhang are said to have come from
39 Jaipur and Jodhpur, and to be the same as the Mahtams of ^lontgomery.
40 On the whole the Labanas appear to be by origin closely allied with, if not
41 actually belonging to, the vagrant and probably aboriginal tribes whom we
42 shall discuss in the next part of this chapter ; and it may be that at leas<i some
43 sections of the Labanas are of the same stock as they. (See furt^- under
44 Mahtam, section 49.j supra.) About 30 per cent, of the Laban*' retmncd
45 as Sikhs and almost all the rest as Hindus, there being <" jOme 1,jOO
46 3Iusalmans among them. Little is known of the sub-d" .jns of the caste.
47 The largest seems to be the Ajrawat with 4,-100 souls, cL ..y in Giijrat and
48 Lahore; the Datla with 4,173 souls, chiefly in Lahore ; the Maliana with
49 2,537 and the Bhagiana with 2,015 persons, both in the Amritsar and Lahore
50 divisions ; and the Gahri with 1,925 persons along the whole foot of the hills.
51 But the greater part of the caste have returned no large divisions.
52 [P. 301] 549- The Rahbari (Caste No. 122).— This is a camel-breeding ca.ste found
53 only in the eastern and south-eastern districts of the Panjab and in the ad-
54 joining Native States. In the extensive jungles of these tracts they pasture
55 large herds of camels, while they also cany merchandise from place to place