Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c29.t1.10

v2.c29.t1.10

At what period these Jats established themselves in the Indian desert, we are, as has been already observed, entirely ignorant ; but even at the time of the Rathor invasion of these communities their habits confirmed the tradition of their Scythic origin. They led chiefly a pastoral life, were guided, but not governed by the elders, and with the exception of adoration to the ‘ universal mother ’ (Bhavani), incarnate in the person of a youthful Jatni, they were utter aliens to the Hindu theocracy. In fact, the doctrines of the great Islamite saint, Shaikh Farid,² appear to have overturned the pagan rites brought from the Jaxartes ; and without any settled ideas on religion, the Jats of the desert jumbled all their tenets together. They considered themselves, in short, as a distinct class, and, as a Punia Jat informed me, “ their watan was far beyond the Five Rivers.” Even in the name of one of the six communities (the Asaich), on whose submission Bika founded his new State, we have nearly the Asi, the chief of the four tribes from the Oxus and Jaxartes, who overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria.³