Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/17

 HARA RAJPOOTS. (342)

N the preceding volumes, illustrations of Rajpoots, with descriptions, have been given in Plates 119, 120, 137, and 199, the article annexed to the latter being a general description of Rajpoots of all classes. No. 199 is a representation of a group of Chohan Rajpoots, and the present is one of the Haras, who claim to be the purest in descent of all the tribes. In this respect, however, the Chohans, the Rahtores, the Jharejas, and Kutoch, are equally pertinacious as to their claim to be first; nor can it be decided which of them has the pre-eminence of being descended from the warrior who arose from, the cauldron of the Brahmins of Mount Aboo (vide 199). There is no doubt, however, that the Haras are still in possession of their original province or state, and it may be inferred from this fact that, having maintained their original position from a period of unknown antiquity to the present period, through all changes and revolutions of dynasties, their purity has been least affected. The Haras are the descendants of the Kshettrya warriors, who, from the same locality, marched to join the heroes who fought in the battle of the Mahabharat. They opposed the successive invaders of India till they met the Greeks in the fourth century before Christ. Ancient Sassanian, Persian, and Mahomedan hosts, before and after the irruptions of Mahmood of Ghuznee, had overrun the north-western portions of India in succession; but the Rajpoots were never conquered, and though they became feudal dependants of the Emperors of Delhi, were yet united and free. It is not wonderful then that a proud and martial. class has maintained the position of its illustrious ancestry, and whether Hara or Chohim, Rahtore or Jahreja, claims to be pre-eminent above all. The Official Report which accompanies the Photograph says of the Haras:

"The Hara tribe of Rajpoots inhabit that part of Rajpootana named Haraotee. They claim descent from the family that ruled in Ajmere before the Mahomedans, and settled in their present possessions in 1342, of which Boondee is the capital, and out of which has sprung the separate state of Kotah. They are chiefly