The Ethnoldgy 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 corn- 

 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, Me war, Guzerat and Kattywar into Lower Scinde. 



There remains in tlio centre of this circuit the greater part of Raj- 

 pootana which I have described as ethnologically more Jat than 

 Rajpoot, though tlie 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, I 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 despotic 

 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 tejiure. 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 (heir 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 Gangelic Bramin. In a Sepoy Regiment, setting 

 aside caste marks, &c, I 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 



