Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.4.1

c48.s2.4.1

Reverting to the castes of upper India, the Rājput has been dealt with in a former paragraph sufficiently for the purposes of this review. An important point in connection with the subject immediately in hand is the close connection between the Rājput and the Jāṭ, who ranks next to him both in numbers and position throughout the Panjāb plains, Rājputāna, and the upper Ganges and Jamnā valleys. It has been conjectured by some that the difference between the two communities is social, not racial, the Rājput being a Jāṭ leader who, after being successful in the field or on his estate, bound himself and his family to the strict observance of Brāhmanic rules and thus attained the pinnacle of orthodox repute, whilst the rest of his tribe remained Jāṭ in name and in their traditions and practice. In the circumstances of the two castes in the Panjāb in the present day there is much to support this view. Others hold that the Jāṭ belongs to a later wave of immigration than the Rājput, and entered the Panjāb from the west, by way of Sindh and the Indus, whilst the Rajputs were still in Rājputāna and its eastern neighbourhood. However this may be, the northern stock has now been fused, and though the Jāṭ no longer becomes a Rājput, the same tribe is found Rājput in one village and Jāṭ in the next. In the Jamnā tracts this is not the case.