1 CASTE IN THE PANJAB. 27
2 and throughout the cis-Iudus districts of the Western PlainSj excepting
3 Mnzaffargarh which goes with the trans-Indus group, the Rajput to a great
4 extent takes the place of the Jat. In the Hill States, with the exception of
5 Charaba, Rajputs are few, and are important by their social and political
6 position rather than by their numbers. But the figures are of no very certain
7 significance, since the line of demarcation between Thakar and Rathi who
8 have been classed with Rajputs, and Kanets and GIraihs who have been
9 classed as minor agricultural tribes, is exceedingly difficult to draw, and the
10 abnormal figures for Chamba are due to this cause. The proportion of minor
11 dominant tribes naturally varies from district to district, and their distribution
12 is discussed in the section devoted to their consideration. The same may be
13 said of thi minor agrlcultui'al castes, the group being too miscellaneous in
14 its comjwsition for its distribution to present very general features. But it
15 is noticeable that where the Jat, who prefers to do his own cultivation is
16 numerous, these castes are found only in small numbers, while they bear
17 the highest propoi-tion to total population in those tracts where the Hill
18 Rajput, who looks upon agriculture as degi-ading, is most largely represented.
19 Taking the landowning and agricultural castes as a whole, they form the
20 largest proportion of the population in the trans-Indus districts; and this
21 is due to the freedom from occupational restraints which I have already
22 noticed as prevailing on the frontier, a very large proportion of the industrial
23 and menial work being done on the fi'ontier by mcmljers of the dominant
24 and agricultural tribes, and not, as in the rest of the Province, by separate
25 castes. They arc least numerous in the sub-montane tract and in the
26 ilastern Plains, where they are assisted in the culiivation by a numerous
27 class of village menials, and where, the Hindu religion being most prevalent
28 and commerce most important, the religious and mercantile elements of
29 societies are most numerous.
30 361. General distribution of professional castes. — The next great group
31 consists of the priestly, ascitic, professional, and mercantile castes, and includes
32 people of very different social positions, from the priestly Brahman to the
33 wandei'lng pedlar. As a whole they occupy a position superior to that of the
34 landowning classes if measured by a religious standard, for the great mercan-
35 tile castes come next after the Brahmans in strictness of religious observance ,
36 but indefinitely inferior if the comparison be made from a social or political
37 standpoint. The Brahmans are naturally most numerous in the Hindu and
38 ttie Saiyads in the Musalraan portions of the Province, the former being
39 extraordinarily numerous in the hills where Hinduism is stronger than in
40 any other part of the Panjab. The ascetic orders are chiefly to be found
41 in the eastern and central districts, partly perhaps because they are more
42 common among Hindus than among Mahomedans, but still more I suspect
43 because it is in these districts that the w'calth of the Province is concentrated,
44 and in them that there is most hope for an idle man who wishes to live at
45 the expense of his fellows. The minor professional group consists of Nais,
46 Mirasis, Jogis, and the like, and its numbers are tolerably constant throughout
47 the cis-Indus Panjab, while beyond the Indus it is hardly represented. Taking
48 the professional group as a whole, and especially the religious element, its
49 numbers decrease steadily from east to west ; chiefly because the Brahmans,
50 who form an integral portion of the stock from which the Hindu population
51 has chiefly sprung, are naturally far more numerous than the Saiyads, who are
52 but foreign immigrants in the Panjab. The mercantile castes are found in