Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s7.7

c48.s7.7

§ 106. (c) **The Paṭhān and Balūc** (4,287,000). If the hypothesis of the identity of the Paṭhān with the Paktyes of Herodotus be true, as is now generally believed, these tribes must have been from time immemorial neighbours of India, and even occupants of some part of the territory which is now included in that country. Some of them, again, were people amongst whom Brāhmanism found a favourable reception, and then, Buddhism, the latter especially lingering long in these secluded valleys and on the high road to India which passes near them. The Paṭhān, however, accepted with equal zeal and devotion the exceedingly narrow and superstitious form of Islām now current amongst them, and anything less like the mild and tolerant character of the Indian Buddhist than the present temperament and habits of the frontier men of nowadays can hardly be imagined. At the same time, the Paṭhān, like all highlanders in the tribal stage, has his charm in his virile independence and his strict observance of the national code of hospitality and asylum, even towards an enemy — the great solace of his life. It cannot be denied, however, that the epithet of "faithless", universally appended to his name by those who have to deal with him, is, like most of the proverbial sayings of the country-side, very well deserved, by at all events the hillmen. Those who have settled in the plains of the Panjāb, even though within easy reach of their fellow tribesmen of the highlands, are soon softened by their circumstances, and the more they prosper the less respect they show for the hard life they have left behind. In the interior of India there is no Province or State without its quota of this race, and, no doubt, looking at the extent to which soldiers of fortune were settled by their victorious employers upon the land overrun by them, there is a good deal of real Paṭhān blood disseminated amongst them, but not to anything like the amount indicated on the face of the returns for regions like Bengal or the peninsula. In the former, indeed, the title of Paṭhān is regarded as the right of a converted member of a Brāhmanic military caste, and the further detail of selecting a tribe or clan presents no more difficulty to him than that of a Rājput clan does to an aspiring Kōl.