Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s7.9

c48.s7.9

The modern Paṭhān inhabitants of upper India were first introduced by the Lōdī and Sūr dynasties, and consisted chiefly of Ghilzāi, who were not Afghān, nor, at that time, Paṭhān. They were soon followed, however, by large bands of other tribes, who were generously endowed with estates by the Ghaznī Chiefs and also by Bābar, whose original army grew like a snowball as he moved it across the hills to the plains of promise. The tribes most numerously represented in this distribution were the Yūsufzāi, the Orakzai, Lōdī, Kākar and Karlānrī. The tribal organisation gets weaker, as is only to be expected, as the distance from the frontier increases, and is scarcely to be found in its original form east of the Jamna, where the Rohilla community, well known in history, is probably the best-knit, as it is the most prosperous, of the larger settlements of this race. In addition to the Paṭhān colonies and the converts arrogating to themselves that title, there is a floating population of from 100,000 to 150,000 Powindah, or itinerant traders of Paṭhān nationality. They belong chiefly to the Ghilzāi tribes, though, owing to their nomad life, their connection with their kinsfolk is of the loosest. Large caravans assemble in the autumn to the east of Ghaznī, and march in armed bodies through the dangerous country of the Wazīrī and Kākar, to the Indus at Dēra Ghāzī Khān. Here they deposit their arms, leave their families encamped on the grazing grounds along the river, under the guardianship of a detachment of their fighting men, and wander off across upper India, often as far as Bihār, selling the goods and horses they have brought from Kandahār and Central Asia. When these have been disposed of, the Powindah act as pedlars on behalf of merchants in the larger towns. In the spring they re-assemble on the Indus, and wend their way back to Kandahār, dispersing from that centre by their various routes through Herāt and Kābul to the north. Some few of the band engage in contract labour for the season. There are gangs, also, but not belonging to the regular Powindah, which remain longer in India, taking up work as it suits them, and usually affecting tracts well known for their prosperity and the unwarlike character of their population. In these lush pastures their superior size and strength, added to their loud and gruff voices provide them with a living until they are moved on by the police towards a region where those qualifications are sufficiently familiar to fail to extort respect or alimony.