Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/147

RAJPOOTS. had conquered the Deccan and Southern India, and these provinces were garrisoned by imperial armies, colonies of Rajpoots were left in the positions in which their descendants are now found, as garrisons of forts, or in the military stations of that period, and continue, with their character and traditions unchanged, and their purity of descent apparently uncorrupted, up to the present time.

What remain of the original Kshuttrie or Rajpoot kingdoms, are the principalities of Rajpootana, which have survived the revolutions of centuries, and the efforts of the Mahomedan emperors to subdue them. They were often brought low, but never entirely broken. They seem to have possessed not only inherent vitality, but the faculty of bending after a haughty fashion, of winning respect, and thus to have maintained their national existence while others perished. After the Mahomedans, they had to sustain the shocks of Mahratta leaders, who were no respecters of race or creed. But they have survived the disappearance of the Mahrattas, as they did the destruction of the Mahomedan power, and are now the loyal allies of the crown of England. A strange destiny if its course be traced; and a still stranger instance of how little tribal constitution and character can be affected during three thousand years, whether by successive waves of conquest, or revolutions of local powers, if its original constitution had elements of cohesion, even in human pride and exclusiveness.

The present tribes of Rajpoots are found for the most part in the independent states of Jyepoor, Oodeypoor, Ajmere, Joudpoor, and in the great area between the Sutlej and Indus to the west, the Ganges and Jumna to the east and north, and the Nerbudda to the south, where they form a large and important portion of the general population. The chief clans are the Chohan or Chowhan, the Rahtore, Hara, Jhareja, and Ratoch. Of these the Chohans are most numerous in Mynpoorie, the Haras in Harowtce, their especial province, the Jharejas in Cutch and Guzerat. In Oude the Rajpoots form the almost exclusive military population, although engaged in agricultural pursuits; and it was from this province that the Bengal army used chiefly to be recruited. The Rajpoots of Oude, as the descendants of those who were led by King Rama to the conquest of Ceylon, are as proud and haughty as the Chohans and Haras of Rajpootana, but are not considered so pure. Among these are the Siraet and Visen clans; also the Kausika, Gautamiya, all Soorujbunsi, or children of the solar race. The Sirnet (a Mahomedan title), profess to be descended in a direct line from the Bharata or princes of Hastinapoor, near Delhi, the earliest Hindoo kingdom and the scene of the Mahabharat. Again in Bengal are found the Bais, Bhojpooris, Bughela, Rughbunsi, Gowtura, and some others affected more or less by impure descent, but as yet distinct. Of all these the Visens are the purest.

Of the Soma, or Chundrabunsi, the children of the lunar race, there arc the Kausika, portions of the Gautama, Chandel and Rahtore, Maharori and Gaharwar clans, with Nagbansi, or serpent children, and many others. It would be quite