The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s9.15

c31.s9.15

It seems to be clearly established that the Hun group of tribes or hordes made their principal permanent settlements in Rājputāna and the Panjāb. The most important element in the group, after the Huns themselves, was that of the Gurjaras, whose name still survives in the spoken form Gūjar as the designation of a widely diffused middle-class caste in North-Western India. The Gūjars, primarily a pastoral people, are, of course, like almost all Indian castes, largely engaged in agriculture. The Jāts or Jats, more exclusively agricultural, are recognized universally to be akin to the Gūjars, although it is impossible to define the relationship. Neither Jats or Gūjars are accounted to rank as Rājpūts or Kshatriyas, but most of the Panjāb Jats claim Rājpūt descent.¹