A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

8

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. I

to the south of that river. The one tract is pre-eminently
called Manjha or the middle land, and the other is known
as Malwa, from, it is said, some fancied resemblance in
greenness and fertility to the Central Indian province of
mixed with that name. Many other people are, however, intermixed,
GUjpars, as Bhutis and Dogras, mostly to the south and west, and
Pathans, Rains, Rurs, and others, mostly in the east. Gujars are
and others. everywhere numerous, as are also other Rajputs besides
Bhutis, while Pathans are found in scattered villages and
towns. Among the Pathans those of Kasir have long been
numerous and powerful, and the Rajpiuts of Rahon have
Relative a local reputation. Of the gross agricultural population of
proportions this central tract, perhaps somewhat more than four-tenths
of some
principal may be Jat, and somewhat more than one-tenth Gujar,
races. while nearly two-tenths may be Rajputs more or less pure,
and less than a tenth claim to be Muhammadans of foreign
origin, although it is highly probable that about a third of
the whole people profess the Musalman faith.'
In every town and city there are, moreover, tribes of
religionists, or soldiers, or traders, or handicraftsmen, and
thus whole divisions of a provincial capital may be peopled
by holy Brahmans 2 or as holy Saiyids, by Afghan or
Kshattri- Bundela soldiers, by Kshattriyas, Aroras, and Banias enrSorandof gaged in trade, by Kashmir! weavers, and by mechanics and
the cities. dealers of the many degraded or inferior races of Hindustan.
None of these are, however, so powerful, so united, or so
numerous as to affect the surrounding rural population,
although, after the Jats, the Kshattriyas are perhaps the
most influential and enterprising race in the country.3
The wan- Of the wandering houseless races, the Changars are the
deringS most numerous and the best known, and they seem to
deserve notice as being probably the same as the Chinganehs
1 See Appendix II.
2 In the Punjab, and along the Ganges, Brahmans have usually
the appellation of Missar or Mitter (i. e. Mithra) given to them, if not
distinguished as Pandits (i. e. as doctors or men of learning). The
title seems, according to tradition, or to the surmise of well-informed
native Indians, to have been introduced by the first Muhammadan
invaders, and it may perhaps show that the Brahmans were held to
be worshippers of the sun by the Unitarian iconoclasts.
3 See Appendix III.