CXXVi Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. (July, 
of the Khas-people.’’ The main cultivating population of 
Kumaun and Garhwal belongs to the Khas tribe. Western 
Pahari is the name given to the group of dialects between 
arhwal, on the east, and Jammi and Kashmir, on the west. 
It includes the vernacular language of the country round Simla. 
e tract over which Central and Western Pahari are 
spoken closely corresponds to the ancient Sapadalaksha,! the 
country from which in old times the Gurjaras migrated to 
populate North-Eastern Rajputana (Méwat and Jaipur). Dr. 
Bhandarkar has shown that the Rajpits are the modern 
representatives of ancient Gurjaras who adopted the profession 
f arms, the remainder, who adhered to the tribal pastoral life, 
retaining the old name of ‘‘ Gurjara,’’ or, in modern times, 
** Gujar.’”’ 
The Khas tribe of the Central Pahari tract represents the 
ancient Khasas, regarding whom much has been written, but 
little definitely proved. The cultivating population of the 
Western Pahari tract calls itself ‘‘ Kanét,’’ not ‘‘ Khas’’; but 
the Kanéts are divided into two classes, one of which. the lower 
in status,bears the name of ‘‘ Khas.’’ The other class, of 
higher status, calls itself ‘‘Rao,’? and claims, as the name 
implies, to be of impure Rajpit descent. 
The language spoken in the three Pahari tracts is, as is 
well known, connected with Rajasthani, and when the Pahari 
volume appears, it will be seen that it agrees most closely with 
the dialects of North-Eastern Rajputana—Méwati and Jaipuri. 
But throughout there are traces of another form of speech 
belonging to the North-Western group, which I call ‘‘ Pigacha.’’ 
These traces are slight in Eastern Pahari, strong in Central 
Pahari, and very strong in Western Pahari. 
The state of affairs is further complicated by the fact that 
in the extreme north-west, amongst Pisacha-speaking peoples— 
in the distant hills of Swat and Kashmir—there are at the 
present day wandering tribes of Gijar cattle tenders and shep- 
herds, who have a language of their own quite different from 
that of the people among whom they dwell. This language also 
closely resembles the Rajasthani of Méwat and J aipur. 
Although it is unsafe to base ethnological theories on 
I suggest that the earliest known Indo-Aryan, or Aryan 
inhabitants of the Himalaya tract, known as Sapadalaksha, 
were the Khasas These spoke a language akin to what are 
now the Pisacha languages of the Hindi Kush. They are now 

I See Dr. Bhandarkar, in Indian Antiquary, XI. (1911), 28. The 
name still survives in the ‘*‘ Sawalakh ’’ Hills 
