Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s7.6

c48.s7.6

§ 105. (b) Mongol (394,600). Of the two races which entered India with the Ghaznavides and later, the Turk and the Mughal, it is hard to say which is the more unduly magnified in the Census returns. The inclusion among the former of the Turkiyā sub-caste of Banjārā has been mentioned. Then, too, in Bihār and round Delhi, Turk is the equivalent amongst the peasantry for any official, especially if he be of the creed of Islām, and Mughal serves the same purpose in Orissa and the east Dekkan. The real Turk in the north is the traveller or merchant from Turkistān, who is a temporary sojourner in Kashmir and Peshāwar. The only permanent colony is that left by Timur in Hazāra at the end.of the 14th century. In the west coast, in Bombay and a few other towns, and in Haidarābād, there are probably a few families of Osmanli. The Mughal element, in the south and east is better defined, as the convert of those parts does not affect the title, and those who bear it are probably correctly described, being as they are, the representatives of families brought into Bengal and the south Dekkan by the semi-independent Viceroys of Delhi. In the north there is the tendency already mentioned to assume the title of Mughal on conversion or on rising in the world, which is found in the parts of the Panjāb where Islām predominates but the Paṭhān influence is not supreme. Along the Jamnā, however, there are considerable numbers of true immigrants, settled upon estates conferred upon their family by the Turk Emperors, from Bābar downwards. The distinction between Turk and Mughal, however, is not in such cases very clearly drawn, and subdivisions are returned which are common to both, as, for instance, Turkman, Qizilbaṣ, and even Caghatāi, the tribe of Bābar. As a rule, the Mughal and Paṭhān, assuming them to be of really pure descent, are not considered, away from the frontier, at all events, as equal in rank to the Saiyad and Ṣēkh, and their position, consequently, depends a good deal upon that of the family in its neighbourhood. In the interior, too, there is a tendency to introduce endogamous subdivisions, or more correctly, perhaps, to make existing sections endogamous. There is also, at the lower edge of these communities, a fringe of dependents who are either bastards of the upper classes, as among the Rājputs, or have taken the title of their employers and patrons on conversion. These do not intermarry with the Mughal or better families of the Sēkh. In the west of India, in addition to the Caghatai, there is a considerable sprinkling of Persian settlers and refugees, who go by the name of Mughal. They are strict Sī'ah and do not intermarry with Indian Muslim. Most of them have engaged in trade. The Caghatai, on the other hand, have become almost an integral part of the Muslim masses, and are Sunnī, with the customs, language, and religious observances of their neighbours.