THE RAJPUTS.
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Punjab. 1 A similar descent has been assigned to certain ofthe Rajput tribes. Colonel Tod, still the standard historian ofRdjasthan, strongly insisted on this point.
The relationship between the Jats and the Rajputs ,although obscure, is acknowledged; and although the justonnubii no longer exists between them, an inscription seemsto show that they intermarried in the 5th century a.d . 2Professor Cowell, indeed, regards the arguments for theScythic descent of the Rajputs as inconclusive. 3 But authoritiesof weight have deduced, alike from local investigation 4 5 andfrom Sanskrit literature, 6 a Scythic origin for the Jats andfor certain of the Rajput tribes. The question has latelybeen discussed, with the fulness of local knowledge, by Mr.Ibbetson, Census officer for the Punjab in r88r. His conclu-sions are—First, that the terms Rajput and Jat indicate in thePunjab a difference in occupation and not in origin. Second,that even if they represent distinct waves of migration, sepa-rated by an interval of time, ‘ they belong to one and the sameethnic stock.’ Third, ‘ that whether Jats and Rajputs wereor were not originally distinct,’ ! the two now form a commonstock; the distinction between Jat and Rajput being socialrather than ethnic.’ 6 We shall see that earlier migrations of
1 It should be mentioned, however, that Dr. Trumpp believed them tobe of Aryan origin ( Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellsch. xv. p. 690). SeeMr. J. Beames’ admirable edition of Sir Henry Elliott’s Glossary of theRaces of the North-Western Provinces, vol. i. pp. 130-137, ed. 1869.
2 Inscription discovered in Ivotah State ; No. I of Inscription Appendixto Colonel Tod’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 701,note 3 (Madras Reprint, 1873). Although Tod is still the standardhistorian of Rajputana, and will ever retain an honoured place as anoriginal investigator, his ethnical theories must be received with caution.
3 Appendix to Elphinstone’s Hist. hid. pp. 250 et seq., ed. 1866.
4 Tod’s Rajasthan , pp. 52, 483, 500, etc., vol. i. (Madras Reprint,1873 ).
5 Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall's edition of Professor H. H. Wilson ’s VishnuParana, vol. ii. p. 134. The Iiunas, according to Wilson , are ‘thewhite Huns who were established in the Punjab , and along the Indus, aswe know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy , confirmed by recent dis-coveries of their coins and by inscriptions.’ ‘ I am not prepared,’ saysDr. Fitz-Edward Hall, ‘to deny that the ancient Hindus when they spokeof the Hunas included the Huns . In the Middle Ages, however, it iscertain that a race called Iluna was understood by the learned of India to form a division of the Kshattriyas.’ Professor Dowson’s Diet. Hind .Mythology , etc., p. 122.
6 See the ethnographical volume of the Punjab Census for 1881, paras.421, 422 et seq., by Mr. Denzil Jelf Ibbetson, of the Bengal Civil Service,p. 220 (Government Press, Calcutta , 1883).