76 
ON THE OEIGINAL INHABITANTS 
called Rajputs, for the name of Rajput or Rajaputra confers 
only a social, and not an ethnological distinction. The 
term Rajput is generally applied to an Aryan Ksatriya, 
though everybody knows that the victors intermarried freely 
"with the vanquished non- Aryans, who were never totally 
annihilated, and that the Mars and other non-Aryan tribes 
claim relationship with the Rajputs. 
No real ethnological difference between a Mar (Mhar, 
Mahar) and a Mhaix (Mer) has been found to exist. It 
has been previously mentioned that, according to Colonel 
Dalton, " Mar or Mala is a very uncertain name applied 
" to or assumed by ditferent people in different parts of India, 
" but it may be that there is some affinity between all the 
" tribes who bear it."*^ 
Many Mars (Mhars) have clung to their hills as strong- 
holds ; some have comfortably settled down as cultivators, 
while by far the greater part are exposed in consequence of 
their indigence to severe oppression, and are treated like 
Pariahs. In fact, the history of the Mar (Mhar) resembles 
that of the Bhar and the Pariah, and, like the latter, he 
has also retained in the Dekhan a small amount of influ- 
ence. For, according to Mr. R. N. Gooddine, " he is the 
" watchman and guardian of the village and the living chro- 
" nicle of its concerns. His situation or his curiosity makes 
" him acquainted with everybody's affairs, and his evidence 
" is requii'ed in every dispute. Should two cultivators quaiTel 
" respecting the boundaries of their fields, the Mhar's evidence 
" ought to decide it, and should a similar quari'el happen 
" between two villages, the Mhars are always the chief actors 
See Tod's Emjast/iaii, vol. I, 6SI ; Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer of 
India, vol. T, 97: "All the inhabitants of Mhairwtov hear the common 
title of Mairs or hillmen, vrhich, however, must he regarded Kither as a 
geogTaphieal than as a social or religious distinction ;" and VII, 514, " Most 
of these (the Minas and IMhairs) claim irregular descent by half-hlood from 
Rajputs, while some of them arc closely connected with the Bhils." 
