Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c29.t1.2

v2.c29.t1.2

Of this celebrated and widely spread race we have already given a succinct account.² It appears to have been the most numerous as well as the most conspicuous of the tribes of ancient Asia, from the days of Tomyris and Cyrus to those of the present Jat prince of Lahore, whose successor, if he be endued with similar energy, may, on the reflux of population, find himself seated in their original haunts of Central Asia, to which they have already considerably advanced.³ In the fourth century we find a Yuti or Jat kingdom established in the Panjab;⁴ but how much earlier this people colonized those regions we are ignorant. At every step made by Muhammadan power in India it encountered the Jats. On their memorable defence of the passage of the Indus against Mahmud, and on the war of extirpation waged against them by Timur, both in their primeval seats in Mawaru-l-nahr,⁵ as well as east of the Sutlej, we have already enlarged; while Babur, in his Commentaries, informs us that, in all his irruptions into India, he was assailed by multitudes of Jats⁶ during his progress through the Panjab, the peasantry of which region, now proselytes to Islam, are chiefly of this tribe ; as well as the [180] military retainers, who, as sectarian followers of Nanak, merge the name of Jat, or Jāt, into that of Sikh or ‘ disciple.’¹