The Ethnology of India. 79 
latterly other races have dominated and the higher classes among the 
Jats have lost somewhat of their position. In the south and west of 
the Punjab too they have long been subject to Mahommedan rulers, 
but latterlyjas Sikhs they became rulers of the whole Punjab and of 
the country beyond as far as the upper Jumna, in all which territories 
they are still in every way the dominant population. Over great tracts 
of this country, I should say that three villages out of four are Jat, and 
that in each Jat village the Jats constitute perhaps two-thirds of the 
entire population, the remainder being low caste Helots, with a few 
traders, artisans, Wc. 
The Juts of the Indus seem on the map to be separated from the 
Jauts of Bhurtpore and Agra by the whole breadth of Rajpootana, but 
the fact is that the ordinary geographical nomenclature gives rise to 
much misconception on the subject. By far the greater part of what 
we call Rajpootana is, ethnologically speaking, much more a Jat than 
a Rajpoot country. The great seat of Rajpoot population and ancient 
power and glory is on the Ganges, and it is said that since the Mahom- 
medans conquered them there, the chief Rajpoot houses have as it were | 
doubled back on the comparatively unfruitful countries which now bear 
their name, but where, notwithstanding, the most numerous section 
of the population is Jat. Col. Tod expressly tells us that northern 
Rajpootana was partitioned into small Jat republics, before the 
Rajpoots were driven back from Ajoodea and the Ganges. It is clear 
then that the Jats extend continuonsly east from the Indus over 
Rajpootana. They do not seem to have occupied (or at least do not 
now occupy) lower Scinde, nor are they found in Goozerat, although 
in the history of the latter country mention is made of incursions of 
Jat horsemen on the frontier in conjunction with Katties. Their line 
of settlement lies farther north. They may have arrived on the 
Saraswatee, before its banks lost their moisture, and if so, their passage 
to the east would be comparatively easy. Throughout the more open 
parts of Rajpootana they share the soil with the Aboriginal or semi- 
Aboriginal Meenas, the remains of the Bramin population, and the 
dominant Rajpoots ; the Jats having, I gather, the largest share of the 
cultivation. The southern and more hilly parts of Rajpootana (where 
Mhairs, Meenas, and Bheels so much hold their own,) are not Jat, but 
in Malwa again they are numerous, and seem to share that Province 
with Rajpoots and Koonbees, 
