1 CASTE IN THE PANJAB. 17
2 castes is aocouuted for by the people themselves. The CLauhan GiijarSj for
3 instance, will tell vou that their ancestor was a Chauhan Rajput who married
4 a Gujar woman ; and that his descendants retained the tribal name, while sink-
5 ing-to the rank of Giijars owing to his infi-ingeraeiit of caste regulations. ^
6 Indeed this is simply the process which we see in actual operation Ijefore oni'
7 very eyes. As I have already remai'ked, the same tribe is known as Rajput iu
8 a tract where it has, and as Jat in a tract where it has not risen to political
9 importance ; but the tribal name, indii ating a far stronger and more enduring
10 bond than that of common caste, still remains to both. Sir Henrv Maine
11 has pointed out how two considerations gradually tend to be substituted
12 for or added to the tie of common descent as the basis of tribal unity,
13 common occupation of land, and common subjection to tribal authority. He
14 writes : —
15 " From the'' moment when a tribal community settles down fiuHlIy upon a definite space of
16 " land, the land begins to be the basis of society instead of the kinship. Tlie change is exceed-
17 " ingly gradual, and in some particulars it has not even now been fully accomplished; but it has
18 " been going on through the whole course of history. The coustKution of the family through
19 " actual blood relationship is of conrse an observable fait ; but for all groups of men larger than
20 " the family, the land on which they live tends to become the bond of union between them, at
21 " the expense of kinship ever more and more vaguely conceived." And again — "Kinship as the
22 " tie binding commnnities together tends to be regarded as the same thing with subjection to com-
23 " mon authority. The notions of Power and Consanguinity blend, but they in nowise supersede
24 '• one another."
25 The institution of Jiamsdi/afi among the Biloches and Pathans, by which
26 refugees from one tribe who claim the protection of the chief of another
27 tribe are atfiliated to, and theii* descendants become an integral part of the
28 latter, is an admirable example of the second of these two processes ; and in
29 the substitution of land for blood as the basis of tribal unity, we verv probably
30 find the explanation of that standing- puzzle of Indian tribal tradition, how the
31 common ancestor managed to conquer the tribal territory single-handed, or
32 how, if he had followers, it happens that all the living members of the tribe
33 trace their descent from him, while the lineage of those followers is nowhere
34 discoverable.
35 350. "Within the tribe the same basis of sub-division is often found to
36 exist, the clans being- apparently territorial, while the smaller septs are pro-
37 bably founded upon real descent. In fact it is exceedingly difficult to draw
38 the line between tribe and clan, except where the two ai-e connected by the
39 present occupation of common ten-itory and subjection to a common tribal
40 authority. When a section of a great tribe siteh as the Punwar Rajputs
41 separates from the parent tribe and acquires for itself a new territoi-y as did
42 the Sials, the section becomes for all jaactical pm-poses a new and indepen-
43 dent tribe, and the memory of the old trilie is to the new one what caste is
44 to tribes in the west, a mere tradition of origin. So when a member of a
45 tribe rises to such importance as to become independent of tribal authority,
46 he practically founds a new tribe, even though he may still occupy the
47 temtory formerly held as part of the old tribal domain ; as, for instance,
48 appears to have been the case with the Barar section of the Sidhu Jats.
49 Perhaps the most striking instance of the degree in which tribal divisions
50 depend upon political and territorial independence, is afforded by the Biloch
51 1 There is another possible explanation of the tradition, and that is that the caste was inherited
52 in the female line. There is no inconsiderable weight of evidence to show that this was the
53 custom, at any rate among certain classes, within comparatively recent times. But ths matter,
54 like all other similar matters, needs further examination.
55 0