Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s5.1.1

c48.s5.1.1

community for the plough and for milking. These, for the most part, are either stationary, or, when they move, merely camp for a few months of the dry season on recognised grazing grounds not far from their village. The Cāraṇ, mentioned in connection with the duties of Bard and Genealogist, is, undoubtedly a nomad in some of its sections, and, in this respect, it shares the habits of the Banjārā, to whom it is probably akin. The latter, with its branch known as the Lavāṇā, Lambhāni, Lambāḍi or Labāṇā, is the great bullock-dealer and carrier by pack-animal for the whole of upper India, and colonies of it have settled in the Dekkan and as far south as Mysore. The use of bullocks as a means of transport is an ancient custom in India but it received its great impetus from the Muslim invaders, who engaged large gangs of Banjārā to accompany their forces from north to south. Similarly, the British armies in their earlier campaigns trusted to the Banjārā trains for their commissariat and forage supplies, and found the Nāik, or gang-leaders, fully up to the work and worthy of confidence. It is not certain how the Banjārā came to be settled in Rohilkhaṇḍ and its neighbouring Tarāi, but their own tradition is that they belong to northwest Rājputāna, and were driven out of their native country. They also once settled in Oudh, but were displaced by Rājputs. In their present capacity, however, they emerged into notice from their Tarāi home.