112 The Ethnology of India. 



I suspect, of some Khatree sect. The Khatrees do not seem as a rule 

 to reach the western Coast ; the Guzerat and Cutch traders appear 

 to be Bunneeahs (or Banians) not Khatrees, and in the Bombay 

 market I cannot find that they have any considerable place. In 

 Scinde, however, I find (in Captain Burton's book) an account of a 

 race of " pretended Khsatryas who are really Banians of the 

 Nanuk-Shahi (Sikh) faith," and who trade and have a large share 

 of public offices. These are evidently Khatrees. I had supposed the 

 Lohanee merchants to be Pathans coming under much the same cate- 

 gory as the " Povindeahs," but again Captain Burton makes mention 

 of the " Lohanos, a Mooltanee caste of Banians," a robust and good- 

 looking race who trade with Central Asia, and also with the Arabian 

 Coast, who form a very large proportion of the Government servants 

 in Scinde, and who also do some agriculture and labour. I cannot at 

 this moment ascertain whether these Lohanos are really Banians or 

 Khatrees, probably I think the latter. Palgrave again mentions 

 among the Indian traders of the Arabian Coast, as distinguished from 

 Banians, people whom he calls ' Loothians' or Loodianah men. I 

 take it that these must be Khatrees, unless indeed they may possibly 

 be Kashmeree shawl merchants. Loodianah is a large and thriving 

 town of mercantile Khatrees, with a numerous colony of Kashmeree 

 shawl-weavers. 



The Khatrees claim to be the descendants of the old Kshatryas, 

 and I am inclined to think that they really have the best claim to 

 that honour. With all their enterprise, it is difficult to imagine them 

 so completely domiciled in Afghanistan, among so alien a people, if 

 they are entirely foreigners in that country. It is well known that 

 the Pathans themselves have advanced into the North Eastern por- 

 tion of the country which we call Afghanistan, within comparatively 

 recent and historical times ; and although the upper valleys of the 

 Indian Caucasus have probably all along been held by pre-Hindu 

 tribes, there seems to be little doubt that the lower valleys of the 

 Cabul country were once Hindu. To this day the peaks of the 

 ' Sufed Koh' between Jalalabad and Cabul bear the palpably Hindu 

 names of " Seeta Ram" and such like. 



The old Sanscrit books make the.Bramins and Khsatryas to have 

 remotely sprung from a common origin. May it not be that in early 



