Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c41.s1.31

v3.c41.s1.31

A distinction is made in the orthography and pronunciation of the designation of this race: *Maina*, meaning the *asl*, or ‘unmixed class,’ of which there is now but one, the *Usara*; while *Mina* is that applied to the mixed, of which they reckon *barah pal*,² or twelve communities, descended from Rajput blood, as Chauhan, Tuar, Jadon, Parihar, Kachhwaha, Solanki, Sankhla, Guhilot, etc., and these are subdivided into no less than five thousand two hundred distinct clans, of which it is the duty of the Jaga, Dholi, or Dom, their genealogists, to keep account. The unmixed Usara stock is now exceedingly rare, while the mixed races, spread over all the hilly and intricate regions of central and western India, boast of their descent at the expense of ‘legitimacy.’ These facts all tend strongly to prove that the Rajputs were conquerors, and that the mountaineers, whether Kolis, Bhils, Minas, Gonds, Savaras or Sarjas, are the indigenous inhabitants of India. This subject will be fully treated hereafter, in a separate chapter devoted to the Mina tribes, their religion, manners, and customs.