Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.155

v3.c40.155

The Dhāti Tribe.—Dhat, or Dhati, is another Rajput, inhabiting Dhat, and in no greater numbers than the Kauravas, whom they resemble in their habits, being entirely pastoral, cultivating a few patches of land, and trusting to the heavens alone to bring it forward. They barter the ghi or clarified butter, made from the produce of their flocks, for grain and other necessaries of life. Rabri and chhachh, or ‘porridge and buttermilk,’ form the grand fare of the desert. A couple of sers of flour of bajra, jùar, and khejra is mixed with some sers of chhachh, and exposed to the fire, but not boiled, and this mess will suffice for a large family. The cows of the desert are much larger than those of the plains of India, and give from eight to ten sers (eight or ten quarts) of milk daily. The produce of four cows will amply subsist a family of ten persons from the sale of ghi; and their prices vary with their productive powers, from ten to fifteen rupees each. The rabri, so analogous to the kouskous of the African desert, is often made with camel’s milk, from which ghi cannot be extracted, and which soon becomes a living mass when put aside. Dried fish, from the valley of Sind, is conveyed into the desert on horses or camels, and finds a ready sale amongst all classes, even as far east as Barmer. It is sold at two dukras (coppers) a ser. The puras, or temporary hamlets of the Dhatis, consisting at most of ten huts in each, resemble those of the Kauravas.