1869.] The District ofLudidna. 97 



sect. Scandals have arisen, culminating in the murder of Ram Sing's 

 own daughter by her husband, it is supposed, on suspicion of unchas- 

 tity. But the sect is still of importance ; the disciples regard Ham 

 Sing as the incarnation of the deity, as the same being who animated 

 in succession the ten preceding gurus. A very worthy Kuk-a known 

 to the writer, expressed himself as confident that this was the case 

 because of the wonderful and ecstatic thrill which pervaded the 

 disciple, when he heard the sacred "mantra" from his teacher's 

 lips. 



We now proceed to give a short account of the prevalent local 

 castes and a few phrases exemplifying the local dialect. 



Out of a total of 879 villages, 532 belong to Hindu Jats ; 76 to 

 Muhammadan Jats, 98 to Muhammadan Rajputs, 87 to Gujars, and 42 

 to Raians. The statistics of the more important Gots are as follows : 

 among Hindu Jats,— Gil 97 villages, Dhaluval 95, Sandhu 82, Garewal 

 55, Punaich 41, Upal 22. Among the Muhammadan Jats— Kursa 27 

 villages, Tar 10, Moliwval 9. Among the Rajputs — Manj 52 villages, 

 Ghorewal 13. Among the Raians — Karu 22 villages, Rahil 12, 

 Narii 10. These constitute the agricultural population. Here, as 

 to the west of the Satlaj, the Khattris are the great commercial class. 

 Their principal gots are Chirimunj, Nande Khullar, Jerath at 

 Ludiana itself ; Bahl, Kapur, Mahre, Seth, Beri, Senchar, and 

 Dhir at Jagraon ; Batte, Sohndi and Karir at Machiwara, and 

 Bahlolpur ; Sahgal and Thapar at Raikot ; Had and Cham at Khanah. 

 But the gots of Khattris are innumerable. There are a great many 

 Mnias of the gots Gar, Goyal, Sital, Mital, Eran, Dheran, Basal, and 

 Kasal. The brahmins are mostly engaged in retail trade, and are not 

 influential. Leaving out of view a few Roras and other castes, the 

 two most important commercial castes remaining to be noted are 

 the " Suds" and the " Bhabras." As they have not been described 

 in Campbell's ethnological sketch, our readers may be interested in 

 a short account of them. 



The caste Bhabra is of the Jain sect, and except a few Mnias here 

 and there, I have not heard of any " Jains" in the Panjab other than 

 these " Bhabras." The following account is by one of themselves. 



About eleven hundred years ago, there was a holy man at Osanag- 

 gari in the country of Gujrat. His name was Rattan Deo. He changed 



