James Todd Annals/James Tod on Jats

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James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume III, Publisher: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1920 Ref - •Read Online • Text Format

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James Tod on Jats

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Here is the content from James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan about Jats.

James Tod on Jats

We are quoting here what James Tod has written about Jats in his Annals in various sections.

Simplicity of the Jat communities: The patriarchal simplicity of the Jat communities, upon whose ruins the State of Bikaner was founded, affords a picture, however imperfect, of petty republics — a form of government little known to eastern despotism, and proving the tenacity of the ancient Gete's attachment to liberty. (See - James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume I, James Todd Annals/Preface by the Editor, p.lxix)

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Saharan the Tak - James Tod writes that by an adventurer of the same race from which the Agnikulas were originally converts, though Saharan the Tak hid his name and his tribe under his new epithet of Zafar Khan, and as Muzaffar ascended the throne of Gujarat, which he left to his son. His grandson was Ahmad, who founded Ahmadabad, whose most splendid edifices were built from the ancient cities around it. Zafar Khan embraced Islam, and became viceroy of Gujarat. According to Ferishta, he threw off his allegiance to Delhi in 1396, or rather maintained a nominal allegiance till 1403. (James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume I, James Todd Annals/Chapter 7 Catalogue of the Thirty Six Royal Races, p.118)

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Jat, Jāt - James Tod is a pioneer historian on Jats who thoroughly scrutinized the bardic records of Rajasthan and Gujarat and also brought to light over a dozen inscriptions on the Jats. We reproduce the Chapter 7 Catalogue of the Thirty Six Royal Races from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume I, Publisher: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1920, p. 127-133:

Jat, Jāt.

[p.127]:In all the ancient catalogues of the thirty-six royal races of India the Jat has a place, though by none is he ever styled 'Rajput' ; nor am I aware of any instance of a Rajput's intermarriage with a Jat.¹ It is a name widely disseminated over India, though it does not now occupy a very elevated place amongst the inhabitants, belonging chiefly to the agricultural classes.

In the Panjab they still retain their ancient name of Jat. On the Jumna and Ganges they are styled Jats, of whom the chief of Bharatpur is the most conspicuous. On the Indus and in Saurashtra they are termed Jats. The greater portion of the husbandmen in Rajasthan are Jats ; and there are numerous tribes beyond the Indus, now proselytes to the Muhammadan religion, who derive their origin from this class.

Of its ancient history sufficient has been already said. We will merely add, that the kingdom of the great Getae, whose capital was on the Jaxartes, preserved its integrity and name from the period of Cyrus to the fourteenth century, when it was converted from idolatry to the faith of Islam. Herodotus [iv. 93-4] informs us that the Getae were theists and held the tenet of the soul's immortality ; and De Guignes,² from Chinese authorities, asserts that at a very early period they had embraced the religion of Fo or Buddha.

The traditions of the Jats claim the regions west of the Indus as the cradle of the race, and make them of Yadu extraction ; thus corroborating the annals of the Yadus, which state their migration from Zabulistan, and almost inducing us to [107] dispense with the descent of this tribe from Krishna, and to pro-

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1 [Though apparently there is no legal connubium between Jats and Rajputs, the two tribes are closely connected, and it has been suggested that both had their origin in invaders from Central Asia, the leaders becoming Rajputs, the lower orders Jat peasants. The author, at the close of Vol. II., gives an inscription recording the marriage of a Jat with a Yadava princess.]

2 " The superiority of the Chinese over the Turks caused the great Khan to turn his arms against the Nomadic Getae of Mawaru-l-nahr(Transoxiana), descended from the Yueh-chi, and bred on the Jihun or Oxus, whence they had extended themselves along the Indus and even Ganges, and are there yet found. These Getae had embraced the religion of Fo " (Hist. Gen. des Huns, tom. i. p. 375).

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[p.128]: nounee it an important colony of the Yueh-chi, Yuti, or Jats.

Of the first migration from Central Asia of this race within the Indus we have no record ; it might have been simultaneous with the Takshak, from the wars of Cyrus or his ancestors.

It has been already remarked that the Jat divided with the Takshak the claim of being the parent name of the various tribes called Scythic, invaders of India ; and there is now before the author an inscription of the fifth century applying both epithets to the same prince¹ who is invested moreover with the Scythic quality of worshipping the sun. It states, likewise, that the mother of this Jat prince was of Yadu race : strengthening their claims to a niche amongst the thirty-six Rajkulas, as well as their Yadu descent.

The fifth century of the Christian era, to which this inscription belongs, is a period of interest in Jat history. De Guignes, from original authorities, states the Yueh-chi or Jats to have established themselves in the Panjab in the fifth and sixth centuries, and the inscription now quoted applies to a prince whose capital is styled Salindrapura in these regions ; and doubtless the Salivahanpur² where the Yadu Bhattis established themselves on the expulsion of the Tak.

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1 " To my foe, salutation ! This foe how shall I describe ? Of the race of Jat Kathida, whose ancestor, the warrior Takshak, formed the garland on the neck of Mahadeva." Though this is a figurative allusion to the snake necklace of the father of creation, yet it evidently pointed to the Jat's descent from the Takshak. But enough has been said elsewhere of the snake race, the parent of the Scythic tribes, which the divine Milton seems to have taken from Diodorus's account of the mother of the Scythac :

" Woman to the waist, and fair ;

But ended foul in many a scaly fold ! " (Paradise Lost, Book ii. 650 f.)

Whether the Jat Kathida is the Jat or Getae of Cathay (da being the mark of the genitive case) we will leave to conjecture [?]. [Ney Elias (History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, 75) suggests that the theory of the connexion between Jats and Getae was largely based on an error regarding the term jatah, ' rascal,' applied as a mark of reproach to the Moguls by the Chagatai.]

2 This place existed in the twelfth century as a capital ; since an inscription of Kamarpal, prince of Anhilwara, declares that this monarch carried his conquests " even to Salpur." There is Sialkot in Rennell's geography, and Wilford mentions " Sangala, a famous city in ruins, sixty miles west by north of Lahore, situated in a forest, and said to be built by Puru.'

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[p.129]: How much earlier than this the Jat penetrated into Rajasthan must be left to more ancient inscriptions to determine : suffice it that in a.d. 440 we find him in power.¹

When the Yadu was expelled from Salivahanpura, and forced to seek refuge [108] across the Sutlej among the Dahia and Johya Rajputs of the Indian desert, where they founded their first capital, Derawar, many from compulsion embraced the Muhammadan faith ; on which occasion they assumed the name of Jat,² of which at least twenty different offsets are enumerated in the Yadu chronicles.

That the Jats continued as a powerful community on the east bank of the Indus and in the Panjab, fully five centuries after the period our inscription and their annals illustrate, we have the most interesting records in the history of Mahmud, the conqueror of India, whose progress they checked in a manner unprecedented in the annals of continental warfare. It was in 416 of the Hegira (A.D. 1026) that Mahmud marched an army against the Jats, who had harassed and insulted him on the return from his last expedition against Saurashtra. The interest of the account authorizes its being given from the original.

" The Jats inhabited the country on the borders of Multan, along the river that runs by the mountains of Jud.³ When Mahmud reached Multan, finding the Jat country defended by great rivers, he built fifteen hundred boats,⁴ each armed with six iron spikes projecting from their prows, to prevent their being

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1 At this time (A.D. 449) the Jut brothers, Hengist and Horsa, led a colony from Jutland and founded the kingdom of Kent (qu. Kantha, ' a coast,' in Sanskrit, as in Gothic Konta ?). The laws they there introduced, more especially the still prevailing one of gavelkind, where all the sons share equally, except the youngest who has a double portion, are purely Scythic, and brought by the original Goth from the Jaxartes. Alaric had finished his career, and Theodoric and Genseric (ric, ' king,' in Sanskrit [?]) were carrying their arms into Spain and Africa. [These speculations are valueless.]

2 Why should these proselytes, if originally Yadu, assume the name of Jat or Jat ? It must be either that the Yadus were themselves the Scythic Yuti or Yueh-chi, or that the branches intermarried with the Jats, and consequently became degraded as Yadus, and the mixed issue bore the name of the mother.

3 The Jadu ka Dang, ' or hills of Yadu,' mentioned in the sketch of this race as one of their intermediate points of halt when they were driven from India after the Mahabharata.

4 Near the spot where Alexander built his fleet, which navigated to Babylon thirteen hundred years before.

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[p.130]: boarded by the enemy, expert in this kind of warfare. In each boat he placed twenty archers, and some with fire-balls of naphtha to burn the Jat fleet. The monarch having determined on their extirpation, awaited the result at Multan. The Jats sent their wives, children, and effects to Sind Sagar,¹ and launched four thousand, or, as others say, eight thousand boats well armed to meet the Ghaznians. A terrible conflict ensued, but the projecting spikes sunk the Jat boats while others were set on fire. Few escaped from this scene of terror ; and those who did, met with the more severe fate of captivity." ²

Many doubtless did escape ; and it is most probable that the Jat communities, on whose overthrow the State of Bikaner was founded, were remnants of this very warfare [109].

Not long after this event the original empire of the Getae was overturned, when many fugitives found a refuge in India. In 1360 Togultash Timur was the great Khan of the Getae nation ; idolaters even to this period. He had conquered Khorasan, invaded Transoxiana (whose prince fled, but whose nephew. Amir Timur, averted its subjugation), gained the friendship of Togultash, and commanded a hundred thousand Getae warriors. In 1369, when the Getic Khan died, such was the ascendancy obtained by Timur over his subjects, that the Kuriltai, or general assembly, transferred the title of Grand Khan from the Getic to the Chagatai Timur. In 1370 he married a Getic princess, and added Khokhand and Samarkand to his patrimony, Transoxiana. Rebellions and massacres almost depopulated this nursery of mankind, ere the Getae abandoned their independence ; nor was it till 1388, after six invasions, in which he burnt their towns, brought away their wealth, and almost annihilated the nation, that he felt himself secure.³

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1 Translated by Dow, ' an island.' Sind Sagar is one of the Duabas of the Panjab. I have compared Dow's translation of the earlier portion of the history of Ferishta with the original, and it is infinitely more faithful than the world gives him credit for. His errors are most considerable in numerals and in weights and measures ; and it is owing to this that he has made the captured wealth of India appear so incredible.

2 Ferishta vol. i. [The translation in the text is an abstract of that of Dow (i. 72). That of Briggs (i. 81 f.) is more accurate. In neither version is there any mention of the Sind Sagar. Rose (Glossary, ii. 359) discredits the account of this naval engagement, and expresses a doubt whether the Jats at this period occupied Jud or the Salt Ranges.]

3 [By the ' Getae ' of the text the author apparently means Mongols.]

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[p.131]: In his expedition into India, having overrun great part of Europe, " taken Moscow, and slain the soldiers of the barbarous Urus," he encountered his old foes " the Getae, who inhabited the plains of Tohim, where he put two thousand to the sword, pursuing them into the desert and slaughtering many more near the Ghaggar." ¹

Still the Jat maintained himself in the Panjab, and the most powerful and independent prince of India at this day is the Jat prince of Lahore, holding dominion over the identical regions where the Yueh-chi colonized in the fifth century, and where the Yadus, driven from Ghazni, established themselves on the ruins of the Taks. The Jat cavalier retains a portion of his Scythic manners, and preserves the use of the chakra or discus, the weapon of the Yadu Krishna in the remote age of the Bharat. James Todd writes - The various tribes inhabiting the desert and valley of the Indus would alone form an ample subject of investigation, which would, in all probability, elicit some important truths. Amongst the converts to Islam the inquirer into the pedigree of nations would discover names, once illustrious, but which, now hidden under the mantle of a new faith, might little aid his researches into the history of their origin. He would find the Sodha, the Kathi, the Mallani, affording in history, position, and nominal resemblance grounds for inferring that they are the descendants of the Sogdoi, Kathi, and Malloi, who opposed the Macedonian in his passage down the Indus ; besides swarms of Getae or Yuti, many of whom have assumed the general title of Baloch, or retain the ancient specific name of Numri ; while others, in that of Zjat Jat, preserve almost the primitive appellation. We have also the remains of those interesting races the Johyas and Dahyas, of which much has been said in the Annals of Jaisalmer, and elsewhere ; who, as well as the Getae or Jats, and Huns, hold places amongst the " Thirty-six Royal Races " of ancient India.

Haihaya, Takshak and Jat

The tribes here alluded to are the Haihaya or Aswa, the Takshak, and the Jat or Getae; the similitude of whose theogony, names in their early genealogies, and many other points, with the Chinese, Tatar, Mogul, Hindu, and Scythic races, would appear to warrant the assertion of one common origin. (Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume I, Chapter 6 Genealogical history of the Rajput tribes subsequent to Vikramaditya,p.68)

Origin of Scythian

James Todd writes that the origin of the Scythic nations, as related by Diodorus; . when it will be observed the same legends were known to him which have been handed down by the Puranas and Abulghazi.

The Scythians had their first abodes on the Araxes. Their origin was from a virgin born of the earth of the shape of a woman from the waist upwards, and below a serpent (symbol of Budha or Mercury) ; that Jupiter had a son by her, named Scythes," whose name the nation adopted. Scythes had two sons, Palas and Napas (qu. the Nagas, or Snake race, of the Tatar genealogy ?), who were celebrated for their great actions, and who divided the countries ; and the nations were called after them, the Palians (qu. Pali ?) and Napians. They led their forces as far as the Nile on Egypt, and subdued many nations. They enlarged the empire of the Scythians as far as the Eastern ocean,

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[p. 71]: and to the Caspian and lake Moeotis. The nation had many kings, from whom the Sacans (Sakae), the Massagetae ( Getae or Jats), the Ari-aspians (Aswas of Aria), and many other races. They overran Assyria and Media . [59], overturning the empire, and transplanting the inhabitants to the Araxes under the name of Sauro-Matians.

As the Sakae, Getae, Aswa, and Takshak are names which have crept in amongst our thirty-six royal races, common with others also to early civilization in Europe, let us seek further ancient authority on the original abodes.

Strabo says : " All the tribes east of the Caspian are called Scythic. The Dahae next the sea, the Massagetae (great Gete) and Sakae more eastward ; but every tribe has a particular name. All are nomadic : but of these nomads the best -known are the Asii, the Pasiani, Tochari, Sacarauli, who took Bactria from the Greeks. The Sakae (' races ') have made in Asia irruptions similar to those of the Cimmerians ; thus they have been seen to possess themselves of Bactria, and the best district of Armenia, called after them Sakasenae." .

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[p.72]:

shall not now stop to inquire, limiting our hypothesis to the fact of invasions, and adducing some evidence of such being simultaneous with migrations of the same bands into Europe. Hence the inference of a common origin between the Rajput and early races of Europe ; to support which, a similar mythology, martial manners and poetry, language, and even music and architectural ornaments, may be adduced.

Herodotus (iv. 12) says : " The Cimmerians, expelled by the Massagetae, migrated to the Crimea." Here were the Thyssagetae, or western Getae [the lesser Getae, Herodotus iv..22]; and thence both the Getae and Cimbri found their way to the Baltic. Rubruquis the Jesuit, describing the monuments of the Comani in the Dasht-i Kipchak, whence these tribes, says : " Their monuments and circles of stones are like our Celtic or Druidical remains " (Bell's Collection). The Khuman are a branch of the Kathi tribe of Saurashtra, whose paliyas, or funeral monumental pillars, are seen in groups at every town and village. The Chatti were one of the early German tribes. [Needless to say, the German Chatti had no connexion with the Kathi of Gujarat.]

Jat and Getae

Alexander Cunningham advocated, "Jat is the same word as Getæ, in all probability."

James Tod writes that the tribes here alluded to are the Haihaya or Aswa, the Takshak, and the Jat or Getae; the similitude of whose theogony, names in their early genealogies, and many other points, with the Chinese, Tatar, Mogul, Hindu, and Scythic races, would appear to warrant the assertion of one common origin.

James Todd writes that At this period (A.D. 1330), under the last prince of Getic race, Tuglilak Timur Khan, the kingdom of Chagatai was bounded on the west by the Dasht-i Kipchak, and

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[p.75]: on the south by the Jihun, on which river the Getic Khan, like Tomyris, had his capital. Kokhand, Tashkent, Utrar,probably the Uttarakuru of ancient geography, Cyropolis, and the most northern of the Alexandrias, were within the bounds of Chagatai.

The Getae, Jut, or Jat, and Takshak races, which occupy places amongst the thirty-six royal races of India, are all from the region of Sakatai. Regarding their earliest migrations, we shall endeavour to make the Puranas contribute ; but of their invasions in more modern times the histories of Mahmud of Ghazni, and Timur abundantly acquaint us.

From the mountains of Jud to the shores of Makran, and along the Ganges, the Jat is widely spread ; while the Takshak name is now confined to inscriptions or old writings. Jadu ka dang, the Joudes of Rennell's map ; the Yadu hills high up in the Panjab, where a colony of the Yadu race dwelt when expelled Saurashtra. The Salt Range in the Jhelum, Shahpur, and Mianwall districts of the Panjab, was known to ancient historians as Koh-i-Jud, or ' the hills of Jud,' the name being applied by the Muhammadans to this range on account of its resemblance to Mount Al-Judi, or Ararat. The author constantly refers to it, and suggests that the name was connected with the Indian Yadu, or Yadava tribe

Inquiries in their original haunts, and among tribes now under different names, might doubtless bring to light their original designation, now best known within the Indus ; while the Takshak or Takiuk may probably be discovered in the Tajik, still in his ancient haunts, the Transoxiana and Chorasinia of classic authors ; the Mawaru-n-nahr of the Persians ; the Turan, Turkistan, or Tocharistan of native geography ; the abode of the Tochari, Takshak, or Turushka invaders of India, described in the Puranas and existing inscriptions.

The Getae had long maintained their independence when Tomyris defended their liberty against Cyrus. Driven in successive wars across the Sutlej, we shall elsewhere show them preserving their ancient habits, as desultory cavaliers, under the Jat leader of Lahore, in pastoral communities in Bikaner, the Indian

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[p.76]: desert and elsewhere, though they have lost sight of their early history. The transition from pastoral to agricultural pursuits is but short, and the descendant of the nomadic Getae of Transoxiana is now the best husbandman on the plains of Hindustan.

The invasion of these Indu-Scythic tribes, Getae, Takshaks, Asii, Chatti, Rajpali, Huns, Kamari, introduced the worship of Budha, the founder of the Indu or Lunar race.

Herodotus says the Getae were theists, ³ and held the tenets of the soul's immortality ; so with the Buddhists.

Before, however, touching on points of religious resemblance between the Asii, Getae, or Jut of Scandinavia (who gave his name to the Cimbric Chersonese) and the Getae of Scythia and India, let us make a few remarks on the Asii or Aswa.

Getic Asii

According to James Todd The Getic Asii carried this veneration for the steed, symbolic of their chief deity the sun, into Scandinavia : equally so of all the early German tribes, the Su, Suevi, Chatti, Sucimbri, Getae, in the forests of Germany, and on the banks of the Elbe and Weser. The milk-white steed was supposed to be the organ of the gods, from whose neighing they calculated future events ; notions possessed also by the Aswa, sons of Budha (Woden), on the Yamuna and Ganges, when the rocks of Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic were yet untrod by man. It was this omen which gave Darius Hystaspes ¹ (hinsna, ' to neigh,' aspa, ' a horse ') a crown. The bard Chand makes it the omen of death to his principal heroes. The steed of the Scandinavian god of battle was kept in the temple of Upsala, and always " found foaming and sweating after battle." " Money," says Tacitus, " was only acceptable to the German when bearing the effigies of the horse." ²

In the Edda we are informed that the Getae, or Jats, who entered Scandinavia, were termed Asi, and their first settlement As-gard. ³

Pinkerton rejects the authority of the Edda and follows Torfaeus, who " from Icelandic chronicles and genealogies concludes Odin to have come into Scandinavia in the time of Darius Hystaspes, five hundred years before Christ."

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1 [Hystaspes is from old Persian, Vishtaspa, ' possessor of horses.' The author derives it from a modern Hindi word hinsna, ' to neigh,' possibly from recollection of the story in Herodotus iii. 85.]

2 [He possibly refers to the statement (Germania, v.), that their coins bore the impress of a two-horse chariot.]

3 Asirgarh, ' fortress of the Asi ' [IGI, vi. 12].

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[p.78]: This is the period of the last Buddha, or Mahavira, whose era is four hundred and seventy-seven years before Vikrama, or five hundred and thirty-three before Christ.

The successor of Odin in Scandinavia was Gotama ; and Gautama was the successor of the last Buddha, Mahavira, ¹ who as Gotama, or Gaudama, is still adored from the Straits of Malacca to the Caspian Sea.

" Other antiquaries," says Pinkerton, " assert another Odin, who was put as the supreme deity one thousand years before Christ" [65].

Mallet admits two Odins, but Mr. Pinkerton wishes he had abided by that of Torfaeus, in 500 A.C.

It is a singular fact that the periods of both the Scandinavian Odins should assimilate with the twenty-second Buddha [Jain Tirthakara], Neminath, and twenty-fourth and last, Mahavira ; the first the contemporary of Krishna, about 1000 or 1100 years, the last 533, before Christ. The Asii, Getae, etc., of Europe worshipped Mercury as founder of their line, as did the Eastern Asi, Takshaks, and Getae. The Chinese and Tatar historians also say Buddha, or Fo, appeared 1027 years before Christ. " The Yuchi, established in Bactria and along the Jihun, eventually bore the name of Jeta or Yetan, ² that is to say, Getae. Their empire subsisted a long time in this part of Asia, and extended even into India. These are the people whom the Greeks knew under the name of Indo-Scythes. Their manners are the same as those of the Turks . ³ Revolutions occurred in the very heart of the East, whose consequences were felt afar." ⁴

The period allowed by all these authorities for the migration of these Scythic hordes into Europe is also that for their entry into India.

The sixth century is that calculated for the Takshak from Sheshnagdesa ; and it is on this event and reign that the Puranas declare, that from this period " no prince of pure blood would be

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1 The great [maha) warrior [vir). [Buddha lived 567-487 b.c. : Mahavira, founder of Jainism, died about 527 B.C.]

2 Yeutland was the name given to the whole Cimbric Chersonese, or Jutland (Pinkerton, On the Goths).

3 Turk, Turushka, Takshak, or ' Taunak, fils de Tnrc ' (Abulghazi, History of the Tatars).

4 Histoire des Huns, vol. i. p. 42.

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[p. 79]:

found, but that the Sudra, the Turushka, and the Yavan, would prevail."

All these Indo-Scythic invaders held the religion of Buddha : and hence the conformity of manners and mythology between the Scandinavian or German tribes and the Rajputs increased by comparing their martial poetry.

Similarity of religious manners affords stronger proofs of original identity than language. Language is eternally changing — so are manners ; but an exploded custom or rite traced to its source, and maintained in opposition to climate, is a testimony not to be rejected.

Inscription of the Geta or Jat Prince of Salindrapur

In an inscription of the Geta or Jat Prince of Salindrapur (Salpur) of the fifth century, he is styled " of the race of Tusta " (qu. Tuisto ?). It is in that ancient nail-headed character used by the ancient Buddhists of India, and still the sacred character of the Tatar Lamas : in short, the Pali. All the ancient inscriptions I possess of the branches of the Agnikulas, as the Chauhan, Pramara, Solanki, and Parihara, are in this character. That of the Jat prince styles him " Jat Kathida " (qu. of (da) Cathay ?). From Tuisto and Woden we have our Tuesday and Wednesday. In India, Wednesday is Budhwar (Dies Mercurii), and Tuesday Mangalwar (Dies Martis), the Mardi of the French. (Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume I, Chapter 6 Genealogical history of the Rajput tribes subsequent to Vikramaditya,p.79)

Inscriptions about Jats by Col Tod

For details see - Inscriptions about Jats by Col Tod

The Jats of Bharatpur

Ref- James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume II, Publisher: Madras: Higginbotham and Co. 1873. Annals of Amber,pp.341-343

[p.341]: The Jats¹ are a branch of the great Getic race, of which enough has been said in various parts of this work. Though reduced from the rank they once had amongst the ' thirty-six royal races,' they appear never to have renounced the love of independence, which they contested with Cyrus in their original haunts in Sogdiana. The name of the Cincinnatus of the Jats, who abandoned his plough to bad his countrymen against their tyrants, was Chooramun. Taking advantage of the sanguinary civil wars amongst the successors of Aurangzeb, they erected petty castles in the villages (whose lands they cultivated) of Thoon and Sinsini, and soon obtained the distinction of kuzzaks, or 'robbers,' a title which they were not slow to merit, by their inroads as far as the royal abode of Ferochsar. The Syeda, then in power, commanded Jey Sing of Amber to attack them in their strong-holds, and Thoon and Sinsini were simultaneously invested. But the Jats, even in the very infancy of their power, evinced the same obstinate skill in defending mud walls, which in later times gained them so much celebrity. The royal astronomer of Amber was foiled, and after twelve months of toil, was ingloriously compelled to raise both sieges.

Not long after this event, Buddun Sing, the younger brother of Chooramun, and a joint proprietor of the land, was for some misconduct placed in restraint, and had remained so for some years, when, through the intercession of Jey Sing and the guarantee of the other Bhomia Jats, he was liberated. His first act was to fly to Amber, and to bring its prince, at the head of an army, to invest Thoon, which, after a gallant defence of six months, surrendered and was razed to the ground. Chooramun and his son, Mohkum Sing,

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1 It has been seen how the Yadu-Bhatti princes, when they fell from their Rajpoots, assumed that of Jits, or Jats, who are assuredly a mixture of Baipeotaod Yuti, Jit, or Gete races. Seep. 204.

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[p.342]: effected their escape, and Buddun Sing was proclaimed chief of the Jats, and installed, as Raja, by Jey Sing, in the town of Deeg, destined also in after-times to have its share of fame.

Buddun Sing had a numerous progeny, and four of his sons obtained notoriety, viz., Soorajmull, Subharam, Pertap Sing, and Beernarain. Buddun Sing subjected several of the royal districts to his authority. He abdicated his power in favour of his elder son, Soorajmull, having in the first instance assigned the district of Wayr, on which he had constructed a fort, to his son Pertap.

Soorajmull inherited all the turbulence and energy requisite to carry on the plans of his predecessors. His first act was to dispossess a relative, named Kaima, of the castle of Bhurtpoor, afterwards the celebrated capital of the jats. In the year S. 1820 (A.D. 1764), Soorajmull carried his audacity so far as to make an attempt upon the imperial city ; but here his career was cut short by a party of Baloch horse, who slew him while enjoying the chase. He had five sons, viz., Jowahir Sing, Ruttun Sing, Newul Sing, Nahur Sing, Rinjeet Sing, and also an adopted son, named Hurdeo Buksh, picked up while hunting. Of these five sons, the first two were by a wife of the Koormi¹ tribe ; the third was by a wife of the Malin, or horticultural class ; while the others were by Jatni's, or women of his own race.

Jowahir Sing, who succeeded, was the contemporary of Raja Madhu Sing, whose reign in Jeipoor we have just reached ; and to the Jats determination to measure swords with him were owing, not only the frustration of his schemes for humbling the Mahratta, but the dismemberment of the country by the defection of the chief of Macherri. Jowahir Sing, in A.H. 1182, having in vain solicited the district of Kamona, manifested his resentment by instantly marching through the Jeipoor territories to the sacred lake of Pushkur, without any previous intimation. He there met Raja Beejy Sing of Marwar, who, in spite of his Jat origin, condescended to " exchange turbans," the sign of friendship and fraternal adoption. At this period, Madhu Sing's health was on the decline, and his counsels were guided by two brothers, named Hursae and Goorsae, who represented the insulting conduct of the Jat and required instructions. They were commanded to address him a letter warning him not to return through the territories of Amber, and the chiefs were desired to assemble their retainers in order to punish a repetition of the insult. But the Jat, who had determined to abide the consequences, paid no regard to the letter, and returned homewards by the same route. This was a justifiable ground of quarrel, and the united Kotribunds marched to the encounter, to maintain the pretensions of their equestrian order against the plebeian Jat. A desperate conflict ensued, which, though it terminated in favour of the Cutchwahas,

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1 The Koormi (the Koolmbi of the Dekhan) is perhaps the most munerous, next to the Jats, of all the agricultural classes.

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[p.343]: and in the flight of the leader of the Jats, proved destructive to Amber, in the loss of almost every chieftain of note.¹

Formation of Macheri state:

This battle was the indirect cause of the formation of Macherri into an independent state, which a few words will explain Pertap Sing, of the Narooka clan, held the fief of Macherri ; for some fault he was banished the country by Madhu Sing, and fled to Jowahir Sing, from whom he obtained sirna (sanctuary), and lands for his maintenance. The ex-chieftain of Macherri had, as conductors of his household affairs and his agents at court, two celebrated men, Khooshialiram² and Nundram, who now shared his exile amongst the Jats. Though enjoying protection and hospitality at Bhurtpoor, they did not the less feel the national insult, in that the Jat should dare thus unceremoniously to traverse their country. Whether the chief saw in this juncture an opening for reconciliation with his liege lord, or that a pure spirit of patriotism alone influenced him, he abandoned the place of refuge, and ranged himself at his old post, under the- standard of Amber, on the eve of the battle, to the gaining of which he contributed not a little. For this opportune act of loyalty his past errors were forgiven, and Madhu Sing, who only sarvived that battle four days, restored him to his favour and his fief of Macherri.

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1 Having given a slight sketch of the origin of the Jats, I may here conclude it. Rattan Sing, the brother of Jowahir, succeeded him. He was assassinated by a Gosain Brahmin from Bindrabund, who had undertaken to teach the Jat prince the transmutation of metals, and had obtained considerable sums on pretence of preparing the process. Finding the day arrive on which he was to commence operation, and which would reveal his imposture, he had no way of escape but by applying the knife to his dupe. Kesuri Sing, an infant, succeeded under the guardianship of his uncle, Newul Sing. Runjeet Sing succeeded him, a name renowned for the defence of Bhurtpoor against Lord Lake. He died A.D. 1815, and was succeeded by the eldest of four sons, viz. Rundheer Sing, Baldeo Sing, Hurdeo Sing, and Luchmun Sing. The infant son of Rondheer succeeded, under the tutelage of his uncle, to remove whom the British army destroyed Bhurtpoor, which plundered it of its wealth, both public and private.

Jatni's opinion to Birsingdeo

Ref- James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume II, Publisher: Madras: Higginbotham and Co. 1873. Annals of Amber, p.364

Birsingdeo had seven sons, of whom the heir-apparent, Bahadoor Sing, remained at Khundaila ; while estates were assigned to his brothers, namely, Amur Sing, Siam Sing, Jugdeo, Bhopal Sing, Mokri Sing, and Paim Sing, who all increased the stock of Raesilotes. While the Raja was performing his duties in the Dekhan, intelligence reached him that his son at home had usurped his title and authority ; upon which, with only four horsemen, he left the army for his capital. When within two coss of Khundaila, he alighted at the house of a Jatni, of whom he requested refreshment, and begged especial care of his wearied steed, lest he should be stolen ; to which she sharply replied,

"Is not Bahadoor Sing ruler here ? You may leave gold in the highway, and no one dare touch it."

The old chieftain was so delighted with this testimony to his son's discharge of a prince's duties, that, without disclosing himself or his suspicions, he immediately returned to the Dekhan, where he died.

Buhadoor Sing succeeded, and on his father's death repaired to the armies in the south, commanded by Aurungzeb in person. Being insulted by a Mooslem chief bearing the same name with himself, and obtaining no redress from the bigoted prince, he left the army in disgust, upon which his name was erased from the list of munsubdars.

Rising of Jat power

Ref- James Tod: Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Volume II, Publisher: Madras: Higginbotham and Co. 1873. Annals of Amber, p.369

This occurrence was in A.D. 1716, when the Jats were rising into power, and when all the minor Rajas served with their contingents under the great Jey Sing, as lieutenant of the emperor. Along with the princes of Kerowli, Bhadorea, Sheopoor, and many others of the third rank, was Oodi Sing of Khundaila. During the siege of Thoon, the Shekhawut chief was reprimanded for neglect of duty, and although he owed a double allegiance to Jey Sing, as his natural liege lord and lieutenant of the king, he would not brook the censure from one of his own race, and indignantly withdrew from the siege. Chooramun the Jat, having contrived to make his peace with the Syed vizier, when Thoon was upon the eve of surrender, and Oodi Sing being implicated in this intrigue, Jey Sing, who was mortified at an occurrence which prevented the gratification of a long-cherished , resentment against the upstart Jats, determined that the Khundaila chief should suffer for his audacity. Attended by the imperialists under Bazeed Khan, and all his home clans, he laid siege to the citadel called Oodigurh. Oodi Sing held out a month in this castle he had constructed and called by his own name, when his resources failing, he fled to Nuroo in Marwar, and his son, Sowae Sing, presented the keys, throwing himself on the clemency of the conqueror. He was well received, and pardoned on condition of becoming tributary to Amber. He followed the example of the Kasulli chief, and signed an engagement to pay annually one lakh of rupees. From this a deduction, of fifteen thousand was subsequently made. and in time being reduced twenty thousand more, sixty-five thousand continued to be the tribute of Khundaila, until the decay of both the parent state and its scion, when the weakness of the former, and the merciless outrages of the predatory powers, Pathan and Mahratta, rendered its amount uncertain and difficult to realize. Moreover, recalling his promise to Deep Sing, he restored the division of the lands as existing prior to the murder of Futteh Sing, namely, three shares to Sowae Sing, with the title of chief of the Shekhawuts, and two to Dheer Sing, son of Futteh Sing.

The young cousin chieftains, now joint-holders of Khundaila, attended their liege lord with their contingent; and Oodi Sing, taking advantage of their absence, with the aid of a band of outlawed Larkhanis, surprised and took Khundaila. Attended by the Jeipoor troops, the son performed the dutiful task of expelling his father from his inheritance, who again fled to Nuroo, where he resided upon a pension of five rupees a day. given by his son, until his death. He, however, outlived Sowae Sing, who left three sons : Bindrabun, who succeeded to Khundaila; Simboo, who had the appanage of Ranolli ; and Koosul, having that of Piperolli:

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