The Kthnology of India. 91 
Looking back, it will be seen that (as I before said would be the 
case) I have traced the Rajpoots all round the edge of the more com- 
pact mass of the Jat population ;—from the Salt Range through the 
Northern Punjab and adjoining hills to Rohilcund, Oude and the 
Centre Doab; thence by Bundlecund through Scindia’s territory, 
Malwa, Mewar, Guzerat and Kattywar into Lower Scinde. 
There remains in the centre of this circuit the greater part of Raj- 
pootana which I have described as ethnologically more Jat than 
Rajpoot, though the Rajpoots now rule, after doubling back from the 
Ganges. They form a numerous and dominant aristocracy, organised 
on the feudal principles necessary to domination. 
Though a full and complete Rajpoot village mainly inhabited by 
Rajpoots is democratic in its constitution, 1 have never heard of a 
Rajpoot Republic on a larger scale ; and whether it be from long habits 
of domination by means of a feudal system, from the imbibing of a 
Hindu spirit, or from their original genius, they seem to be more than 
the Jats given to suffer the rule of Rajas and Chiefs. In Rajpootana, 
however, the chief seems generally to be but a chief, and not a despotie 
ruler. Numerous fiefs are held by subordinate chiefs, who are again 
surrounded by Military followers holding many petty jagheers and 
grants of land on a hereditary service tenure. It may well be sup- 
posed that under such circumstances, when the British peace-preserv- 
ing power is at all relaxed, the authority of the chiefs is very apt to 
collapse. They never could hold their own against the Marattas. 
But still, as a quasi-chivalrous aristocracy, with their bards, and 
genealogies, and military get-up, and contests about the possession 
of high-caste young ladies, they make a very pretty picture, 
The normal Rajpoot, however, to my view is, as I have said, the 
cultivator of the Gangetic valley, where, at the eastern extremity of 
the horse-shoe which I have described, they spread out in a broad 
region into a large population. Physically I do not know any strik- 
ing features which broadly distinguish the Gangetic Rajpoot from 
his neighbour the Gangetic Bramin. In a Sepoy Regiment, setting 
aside caste marks, &c., LI doubt whether they could be distinguished, 
They are both in fact the type of the higher class of the modern 
Hindustanee population. Both are tall men, though in the native 
army Commanding Officers went in too much for height, and many 
