Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/148

RAJPOOTS. impossible, indeed, within the hmits of an ordinary article, to notice all the clans of Rajpoots, and a mere enumeration of them, without details of their distinguishing legends and traditions, would only be wearisome.

The tradition in regard to the origin of the Chohans has been already detailed (ante 137); and some other particulars respecting the clan are mentioned in Buchanan's report on Bengal, and are as follows. The Chohans were rajahs of Chittore, a place memorable in the annals of Rajpoot valour. The last king of Delhi was of the tribe, and thus numbers of his own clan settled in his dominions, where their descendants still exist. According to an ancient manuscript there were twelve rajahs of Chittore, of which Rutna Sena was the last; and, on the capture of the city by the Mahomedans, his four sons retired to different districts. Thus, the Chohans of Gorukpoor claim descent from Nâg Sen, the eldest son; another brother settled at Kangra, in the lower Himalayas of the Punjab; another in the Mahratta country, where several Mahratta families claim descent from him; and the youngest brother at Oodeypoor, whose descendants are still reigning princes. The Chohans, therefore, continue to preserve their high hereditary rank, and with a few other clans, as Haras, Rahtores, and Amorhas, &c., are esteemed the purest of Rajpoots at the present period. It is strange how perfectly the great ramifications of Rajpoot clans are understood by themselves, and how the necessary distinctions are kept up. The great depositaries of clan genealogy are the Bhâts, or bards, who, even in a far more minute degree than the old Scottish bards, preserve the history of the families to which they belong, and are, as it were, guardians of its genealogical honour. It is these men by whom marriages are decided, as they are able, it is said, to trace and detect the least taint of impurity or illegitimacy. Of the two, indeed, the latter is the most pardonable; but the former, by legitimacy or illegitimacy, entirely impossible of reconciliation with the higher castes, and those tainted by it, sink into special classes and clans of their own.

In regard to religion and ceremonial observances, the Chohans have no particular distinctions. As next in rank to Brahmins, their marriage rites are in all respects similar; and for the rest, they are under Brahmin guidance in all things, and affect the same exclusiveness. The Chohans have not, it is said, been as much addicted to infanticide as other clans; but the Haras have always been the most inveterate offenders in this particular, and the Chohans being higher than them in rank, and more exclusive, can hardly, perhaps, be innocent. Of late years, although Rajpoots need not deny themselves animal food, and especially the flesh of wild hog, yet those who are most associated with Brahmins have wholly given up the use of it, considering it impure; and by others it is becoming less and less used. Rajpoots, therefore, are in by far the greatest number, vegetarians, subsisting upon farinaceous food, with vegetables, pulse, ghee,