History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c82.s1.2

v5.c82.s1.2

At the same time, the long caravans of merchandise, State revenue, army provisions, and the families and property of the nobles, so frequently making their way to the far-off South under slender escort, offered an irresistible temptation to robber tribes. The great royal road, leading from Delhi to Agra and Dholpur and thence through Malwa to the Deccan, passed directly through a country inhabited by a people whose predatory instinct can be kept in check only by the terror of superior force. These are the Jats, a race of hardy peasants whose bodily vigour and growing numbers had made them spread rapidly from the north-eastern frontier of Rajputana to the bank of the Jamuna, filling the present Agra, Mathura and Aligarh districts as well as the Bharatpur and Alwar States. Northwards their settlements dotted south-eastern Panjab, and southwards the adjacent parts of Malwa. Whether the Jats were really descendants of the ancient nomadic Getae is uncertain, but though they are to-day essentially agriculturists, their many affinities with the wandering predatory tribe of Gujars have for many centuries made them, equally with the latter, the greatest enemies of public peace and private property. The Jat population in a province requires strong government and constant vigilance on the part of the ruler. As the proverb runs, "The Jat, like a wound, is better when bound."