INTRODUCTION:

Medieval India was a period of transition during which several marginalized Social groups restructured their foundations and modes of existences, and accrued considerable economic and social advantages offered by the contemporary changes. The Jats were one of such people who significantly moved from the periphery into the mainstream and brought about substantial changes in their social and economic position. The study of the Jats is primarily based on the Perso-Arabic sources that contain useful references to contemporary communities, particularly those who resided in nodal areas of imperial territories or resisted the imperial masters. The asymmetrical information provided by these sources do not adequately compensate the need for reliable historical evidence on the Jats, and therefore, a fair amount of speculation continue to dwell at certain points, particularly where precise information is completely missing.

However, it is increasingly being realized that the unrecorded episodes of Jat history can be retrieved by a judicious utilization of their oral traditions.

This paper has an objective is to trace the origins and historical roots of the Jats to provide a meaningful basis to support the theoretical framework of mobility and change.

Etymological Roots of 'Jat’:

The nomenclature of the 'Jat’ is complicated by the fact that more than two scores of the variants of this term have been reported from a wide range of sources from diverse regions. The 6th century Pali inscription in nail-headed character spells this race as 'Jit'.¹ Etymologically the term seems to have originated from the epithet of their supposedly first King, JitSalindra, mentioned in this inscription. In the opinion of Tod, in Punjab and Rajasthan, the people of this race retained their original name ‘Jit’.² According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the term 'Diatt’ ('Jatt') is employed by the Persian translator of Chachnama, the author of the Tarikh i-Sind and Shah Wali Allah al-Dihalwi in his Persian letters.The term 'Jat is also referred by Delhi Sultanate chroniclers Alberuni.Gardezi, Baihaqi, and Isami. For the Arabicized form, the term 'Zat' or 'Zutt' was employed because in Arabic the letter ']' is changed into 'Z.' The Arab geographer, IbnHauqal also describes the Jats as 'Zat’.³ It has been reported that a ‘Diat’ (Zutt) physician, who was apparently well-versed in witch-craft also, is said to have been called in to treat Hazrat Muhammad's wife Aisha when she fell seriously ill.It has been argued that the name 'Diat' (Zutt) is basically an Indo-Aryan form which has a post Sanskritic Indian origin and wide distribution over the Indo-Pak subcontinentparticularly Punjab, Sind, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.

It may be noted that the regional variation is amply clear by the differences in pronunciation in two distant but analogous regions namely the present day Punjab, Pakistan and Afghanistan where they are pronounced as 'Jatt' or 'Jutt’ and north India where they are called 'Jat' with long vowel and a long phonetic 'a’.⁴ In the Sindi dialect, the Jats are pronounced and written as 'Dyat' which means 'a camel driver or breeder of camels’.⁵ An interesting fact of phonetic significance reported by some scholars⁶ is that in Pakistan, the camel-men and graziers among the Baloch are shown as a Jat clan within the tribe of the same name, but their name is pronounced with a soft 't' as opposed to the hard 't'used for the cultivator. In the poetic legends of Punjab, they were expressed as 'Jatta’.

The author of Mujmalu-t Tawarikh tells us that by the Arabs the Hindus are called 'Jatts’. Ibbetson also suggests that on the Lower Indus the word 'Jatt' is applied generically to a congeries of tribes, Jatts proper, Rajput’s lower castes, and mongrels, who have no points in common save their Mahomedan religion, their agricultural occupation, and their subordinate position.

The author of Dabistan-i Mazahib⁷ (c. 1655) mentions that in the dialect of Punjab 'Jatt' means a villager or a rustic.'The Deccani chronicler Ferishta describes them as 'Juts' with short vowel 'u' and emphasis on 't.' The first historical reference to these people as Jats with long vowel 'a' and hard 't' is found in A'in-i-Akbari.⁸ Since then, in the Gangetic Doab, these peasant classes are known as Jats.

Origins of the Jats:

Down from the colonial period, a fair amount of scholarship and speculation has been attempted over the problem of Jat origin.But the rigidity of opinions and the inability to accommodate scientific interpretations and the results of new findings have resulted in historically incompatible notions about their origin and antiquities. However, for our purpose the origin of the Jats raises two main questions- the question of their foreign origin and their ethnological connections with the Rajputs. Here, an attempt would be made to put their origin into a process of historical investigation, test the validity of existing opinions and situate the Jat origin and evolution in correct historical framework.

James Tod and Alexander Cunningham were the pioneer scholars who formulated the argument that the Jats belonged to the Indo-Scythian stock. Cunningham "identifies the Jats with the Xanthii of Strabo and the Jatii of Pliny and Ptolemy, and fixes their parent country on the banks of the Oxus river between Bactria, Hyrkania and Khorasmia”.⁹ He holds that the Jats "probably entered Punjab from their homeland on the Oxus soon after the Meds or Mands, who were also Indo-Scythians, and who moved into the Punjab about 100 BCE The Jats possibly first occupied the Indus valley as far as Sind, whither the Meds followed them about the beginning of the present era. But before the earliest Mahomedan invasion the Jats had spread into the Punjab proper, where they were firmly established in the beginning of the 11th century. By the time of Babur, the Jats of the Salt-range tract had been subdued by the Gakkhars, Awans and Janjuas, while as early as the 7th century the Jilts and Meds of Sind were ruled over by a Brahmanadynasty.¹⁰ James Tod considers the Jats as one of the great Rajput tribes, and extends his identification with the Getae to both races. But here Cunningham differs, holding the Rajputs to belong to the original Aryan stock, and the Jilts to belong to a later wave of immigrants from the North-West, probably of Scythian race.¹¹ The theory of the Scythian origin of the Jats was based on a premise that the Scythians were foreign invaders and racially distinct from the Aryans. Therefore, the identification of the Jilts with the Scythians led to a natural belief that the Jilts are also non-Aryans, non-Indians and invaders. This theory found another distinguished adherent- Vincent Smith¹² who argued that when the invaders such as Indo-Scythian, Huns etc. settled down in India, their military leaders and royal houses were absorbed as Rajputs, their cultivating communities were accepted as Jats while their cattle-breeders were adopted as Gujars.

From the beginning of the 20th century, the theory of Scythian origin of the Jats received a major challenge from the new discoveries and developments in the fields of Philology. History and Anthropology Grierson, Trump and Beames, taking cue from the language and physical types, argued that the Jats are the pure descendants of the Indo-Aryan.¹³ According to GriersonLahnda is the language of Western Punjab which is also known by several other names such as Western Punjabi, Jatki (language of the Jat tribe), Uchi and Hindki.Taking 74° Long E as the line roughly dividing Lahnda-speaking areas from Punjabi-speaking areas, and taking cue from the traces of Sindi in Multan area, Grierson suggests northward migration of the Jats from Sind into southern Punjab.¹⁴ Trump and Beames argued that 'both in consideration of their physical type and language, which has been authoritatively pronounced as a pure dialect of Hindi without the slightest trace of Scythian, the Jats are the pure descendants of the Aryans.¹⁵ Though these scholars outright rejected the Scythian origin of the Jats, they shared the notions that Scythians were foreign invaders and hence could not have been the progenitors of the Jats. But the main drawback among these authorities was that they were primarily philologists and philology cannot be trusted in ethnological questions. The voice of the philologists was silenced by the advancement in ethnology, when Cuno remarked'Language is neither the proof of a race nor is a race coextensive with language which is stable whereas race is persistent.¹⁶ The debate between philology and ethnology complicated the problem of the Jat origin mainly because both of them failed to recognizethe significance of anthropology which could claim to possess important clue to the origin of races as well as correct and corroborate the conclusions of the two sciences. The Scythian theory of Jat origin received another setback from Herbert Risley,¹⁷ an anthropologist who conducted physical measurements of the people of India with his anthrometrical apparatus and identified the Jats, Rajputs and others as the true representatives of the Indo-Aryans.Similarly some other anthropologists also argued that the Scythians invaders with brachycephalic and monocephalic heads, straight eyes,plaything noses, short stature and high cheek bones could never have been the progenitors of the dolichocephalic, leptorhine, tall-statured, broad-shouldered and fair complexioned Jats, Rajputs and Khatris who share with the Indo-Aryans the same physical features. However, these anthropologists too shared the perception of their predecessors that the Scythians were racially different from the Aryans.

The Scythian theory received a heavy drubbing at the hands of the anthropologists yet it cannot be denied that it possessed an 'inherent truth' which was not completely visualized by its antagonists. On the other hand, HS Pawar interpreted the Scythian theory in reverse form by arguing that the Scythians were the progenitors of the Jats, not as foreign invaders but as pure Indo-Aryans. To him the confusion of this theory has largely been at the level of the identification of the Scythians who originally belonged to the Aryan stock but due to false notions incorrectly perceived as non-Aryans.The main argument that supports Pawar's hypothesis is that the Scythians were actually Aryanswho on account of their acclimatization to new ecological areas developed certain brachycephalic features.

Cunningham¹⁸ has tried to identify the Jats with the Xanthii ofStrabo and the Jatti of Pliny and Ptolemy and on this basis has tried to locale their homeland on the banks of the Oxus river between Bactria, Hyrkania and Khorasmia. According to Pliny, the original home of the Jattis or Jats happened to be Zotale or Y othale, irrigated by Margusriver. "Their course from the Oxus to the Indus may, perhaps be dimly traced in the Xuthi of Dionysius of Samos and the Zuthi of Ptolemy who occupied the Karmanian desert on the frontier of Drangiana They may have been best known in early times by the general name of their horde as Abars instead of by their tribal name as lats. According to this view, the main body of the Jatti would have occupied the district of Abiria and the towns of Pardabathra and Bardaxema in Sind, while the Punjab was principally colonised by their brethren the Meds." In this context Pritchard observed. The supposition that the Jats or Jats of the Indus are descendants of the Yuetschi does not appear altogether preposterous, but it is supported by no proof except the very trifling one of a slight resemblance of names. The physical characters of the Jats are very different from those attributed to the Yuetschi and the kindred tribes by the writers cited by Klaproth and Abel Rem us at, who say they are of sanguine complexions with blue eyes."Some of the scholars have tried to identify the Jats with the Ksatriya tribe of the Jatharas; but in opposition to this Growse¹⁹ argues that their home is always placed in a south-east quarter. while it is certain that the lats came from the West. Another theory identifies them with the lartika who with the Bahika and Takka aresaid to have been the original inhabitants of the Punjab. During the time of Justin, the Jars were known as Aratta, i.e. Arashtra, or "people without a king", and are represented by the Adraistae of Arrian, who places them on the banks of the Ravi.²⁰ According to Nestield'stheory²¹ the word Jat is nothing more than the modem Hindi pronunciation of Yadu or Jadu, the tribe in which Krishna was born, which is now represented by the modem JadonRajputs.

It has been argued that the Jats contributed to some extent in the formation of Gypsies. These linkages of the Jats with Gypsies have been traced on grounds of language as well as the movements of the Jars. There are some indications about six westerly movements of the races of the North-western Frontier, who are often collectively called as Jats.²² There are some blurred references to a transplanting of Kerks, Sindis, Kolis, Meds, and other West Indian tribes before the Christian era It is also evident that the Indian musicians (Luris) were brought to Persia by BahramGor in c. 450 CE, from where they dispersed. It is also known that a body of Kerks, Sangars and Jats were deported from the Persian Gulf to Asia Minor. [n the wake of the invasion of India by Mahmud Ghazni in 1025, a body of the Jars were deported westward.

Similarly, the Jats were again deported westwards following the conquest of the Seljuks in the 12th century and those of OsmanIi Turks in the 14th century. A westward movement of the Jats was again reported after Timur carried out ravages in India.

Origin Myths:

Myth is generally regarded as a 'sacred' narrative, from which legends and fairy tales are not always clearly distinguishable. In a common tradition of analysis, myth is above all explanatory, i.e. how something came to be as it is? It is believed that the meaning of a myth lies below the narrative surface, being detectable by a close analysis of the individual incidents and items in the narrative, by their regrouping, and by their study in the context of the transformations they undergo in all versions of the myth. They then reveal an endless struggle to overcome 'contradictions'. If study of myth is linked with psychological, literary, and classical and sociological studies, it may no longer remain a 'sacred' narrative but tends to become a whole value-bestowing area of belief.

The origin of ancient communities, as determined by modern historical investigation, tends to diverge from the picture framed by mythology. The mutually contradicting positions and the polarization of the results produced by history and mythology respectively add to the confusion and distract us from arriving at a generally acceptable conclusion. The main difficulty is not in the difference of the nature of the two disciplines but rather from the failure to recognize the inherent ability of mythology to contribute to the process of unveiling the remote past.

The value of a tradition like myth is not determined by the mode of its expression because a simple society may be prone to mythical narrative instead of historical narrative. Here, when a tradition is expressed in the form of a sacred narrative, its significance cannot be reduced merely by dismissing it as a non-historical narrative. In mythological traditions too, both the purpose of action as well as the agency of action are as human as in the case of historical traditions, despite differences in their relative importance.²³ Since the efficacy of the historical traditions is restricted to the immediate past, the events occurring in the more remote periods often take the form of a myth. Myth is in a sense a prototype history since it is a selection of ideas composed in narrative form for the purpose of preserving and giving significance to an important aspect of the past.²⁴ Hence, the analysis and interpretation of myths can reveal the more emphatic assumptions of a society as well as some 'grand events' of the past, such as the creation of the world, the origin of man and gods, the justification of kinship etc.²⁵ Myths can also be seen as charters of validation in which the aim was to provide a sanction for current situations. Owing to their social under-pinnings, myths become very important for the study of social history.

The origin of the Jats is interwoven with a good deal of historical and mythological material. About a dozen theories on the mythical origin of the Jats were expounded by the end of the 19th century. Here, an attempt would be made to analyse these theories in order to extract corroborative evidence which can enlighten some dark areas of the Jat origin and enable us to situate the Jat community in a correct historical perspective.

The first attempt at tracing the Jat origin comes from a Jat Sanskrit scholar and Raja of Beswa, Aligarh, PanditGiribar Prasad. He employed a Sastri named Angad Sharma to find the origin of the Jats in the light of orthodox literature. Angad Sharma, relying mainly on the similarity of sound, lighted upon the Jatharas. as the hypothetical ancestors of the Jats; and propounded the Jathara theory in 1869 in his bookJatthrotpatti. It is a catena of all the ancient texts mentioning the tribe of Jatharas, whose origin is related as follows in the Padma Purana.²⁶

“When the son of Bhrigu [i.e.,Parshuram] exterminated the warrior-class, their daughters, seeing the world empty of the Ksatriya and being desirous of getting sons, laid hold of the Brahmans and carefully cherishing the seed sown in their womb [Jathara] brought forth Ksatriya sons called Jatharas.”

Angad Sharma based himself on PadamaPurana, BrahmandPurana, ViiyuPuranaVayouPurana and BhagvataPurana from where he collected the accounts of the birth of the new Ksatriya race and the JatthraMountain. The Parsurama myth occurs in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, BhagvataPurana, PadamaPurana and Agni Purana.²⁸ Angad Sharma, impressed by the similarity of sounds of Jatthra (womb), Jathara(mountain) and Jat developed a link between the three.Growse remarks 'There is no great intrinsic improbability in the hypothesis that the word Jathara has been shortened into Jat, but if one race is really descended from the other, it is exceedingly strange that the fact should never have been so stated before. This difficulty might be met by replying that the Ja!s have always been, with very few exceptions, an illiterate class, who were not likely to trouble themselves about recording their mythological pedigrees; while the story of their parentage would not be of sufficient interest to induce outsiders to investigate it. But a more unanswerable objection is found in a passage, which the Shastri himself quotes from the BrhatSamhita (xiv. 8). This places the home of the Jatharas in the south-eastern quarter, whereas it is certain that the Jats have come from the west.²⁸

The second attempt at shedding light over the mystery of Jat origin also comes from a Jat pleader of Meerut, ChaudharyLahiri Singh at the request of the census officials of 1883. In his booklet, The Ethnology of the Jats, he propounded another Jathara theory of Jat origin. He derives the word Jat from Jathara, but he differs from Angad Sharma by making the Jatharas a foreign people deriving their name from the mountain Jathara, mentioned in the Mahabharata, VisnuPurana and BhagwatPurana. The first two mention the country of the Jatharas along with Kalinga, Kashi and Aparkashi.²⁹

However, the Jats cannot be held to be the same people as the ancient Jatharas, because the doubtful testimony of the similarity of sounds breaks down in the face of the significant absence of any tradition whatsoever, connecting the two peoples. One might close his eyes against the irrationality of the case, if the Jatharas had been altogether an extinct people. But they still survive in Southern India, without claiming any connection with Jats. These Jatharas belong to a subsection of the Deccani Maratha Brahmans called Karhadas.

Another mythological theory of Jat origin is that from the Jata (matted locks) of Lord Shiva, propounded by GorakhSinha in his early medieval work Deva-Samhita.

However, the theory of matted locks finds support from a 6th century Pali inscription of Jit kings a part of which reads. " ... Again what does it resemble, where the hissing-angered serpents dwell? What may this Jit'ha be compared to from whose root the roaring flood descends? Such is the Jit'h; by it may thou be preserved .... , This theory cast spell on the minds of the Jat folk and soon became popular with them. Almost every Jat village in north India is sanctified with a Shiva temple. The Jats feel nearer to Siva than to other incarnations, he being their chief deity whom they worship regularly and pray to. The theory of matted locks has been quoted and criticised by a number of scholars.³⁰ According to YP Shastri the theory was propounded to win back the Jats who had en masse embraced Buddhism to neo- Hinduism as preached by Sankaracharya.

There is general agreement among the observers that with respect to social and religious images the Jats do not differ much from other Hindu communities of Aryan origin. But to firmly establish this contention it is now increasingly becoming necessary to identify the Jats with some ancient Aryan tribe mentioned in Sanskrit literature. Unfortunately, authentic data required for this investigation is tost forever and therefore the scholars are left with no choice but to adopt convenient tools such as the similarity of sound. to pursue their objectives.

Another theory, ascribed to NN Vasu and VN Vasu attempts to trace the origin of the Jats from the Rajput-Gujjar union. This theory is based on a story, "A Rajput king fascinated by the health and beauty of a Gujjar damsel married her. The issues of their union came to be known as' the Jats."

The theory has been criticized on various grounds. In the patrilineal society of the Rajput, the off springs of Rajput-Gujjar union are likely to be called Rajput and not Jats or Gujjars. The theory is also exposed by historical evidence. The Rajput appeared in the 8th century CE and the word 'Rajput' in its ethnic sense was not used until 10th century CE.71 Similarly the word 'Gujjar' did not appear before 7th century CE, whereas historical evidence speak of the existence of the Jat ruling dynasty over Kota-Bundi as early as 400 CE.72 During this period about 12,000 talented Jats are said to have been invited byBahramGour to participate in the Iranian National celebrations. Even earlier, AS Basum Ansari finds the Jats moving up the shores of the Persian Gulf in the second and third centuries CE According to KR Qanungo the Jats were the earlier occupants of lands from where they were ousted by the Rajputs; from Malwa, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Delhi, the Jats were displaced by the Paramaras,Bhattis, Rathors and Tanwarsrespectively. In view of the pre-existence of the Jats over the Rajputs and Gujjars for about four centuries, it is not feasible to accept the two as the ancestors of the Jat people.

An etymological attempt to trace the Jat origin has been made by PanditSagarDutta Gaur, a lawyer of Rohtak, who claims that the word 'Jat' is derived from the word 'ajaat' (casteless). The rational basis for the Ajaat theory is drawn from the contention that the surnames or the subcastes (gotras or gots) of the Jats are found among all other communities in northern and north-western India This fact is applicable to almost all communities of India and there are common surnames or subcastes particularly among the Brahmans, Rajputs. Banias, Gujars, Khatrisetc. The most commonly found surnames among the non-Jat communities include Muhar, Bhargava, Mudgil, Sandil, Nagar etc. What seems more plausible is that in the event of migration of communities confusion might have arisen in caste name when a whole or a part of a tribe following its on occupation settled down in new areas and gets mixed up occupation-wise with its original population, but bearing their erstwhile ethnic nomenclature and known by the same in the new social setup.³¹ The problem is also complicated by the lack of uniformity over the definition and differences between 'caste', 'subcaste', 'gotra' and 'pravar' as well as the multiplication of caste-names over the ages. Hence, attempts to derive final conclusions on the origins of communities from the proliferation of castes may not stand the test of validity.

The theory of Yadava origin of the Jats gained currency among a number of Indian and non-Indian scholars. At the beginning of the 11th century, AI-Beruni, in his Tahqiq-i-Hind, recorded his observation-

“A messenger of this kind is, according to the belief of the Hindus, Vasudeva, who was sent the last time in human shape, being called Vasudeva. It was a time when the giants were numerous on earth and the earth was full of their oppression; it tottered, being hardly able to bear the whole number of them and it trembled from the vehemence of their treading. Then there was born a child in the city of Mathura to Vasudeva by the sister of Kamsa, at that time ruler of the town. They were a lap: family, cattle-owners, and low Sudra people.”³²

This theory enjoys wide support and a sixth-century inscription also refers to the marriage of Jit prince with Yadu princess.³³ The Yadus though somewhat above the Jat status of 'low Sudra' of the 11th century, were well-nigh approaching it, being little esteemed by the more orthodox Aryan tribes with monarchical constitution.³⁴

Thus it is obvious that serious attempts have been made from time to time to dig into mythological past in order to cater to a long-standing urge for a dignified ritually sanctioned and socially acceptable origin of the Jat community. These attempts reveal an extreme polarity of perception ranging from crude logic to higher rationalism. We have seen that except the theory of Yadava origin of the Jats, which is supported by inscriptional evidence of 6th century, none of the above-mentioned hypotheses are strong enough to be put to the test of historical investigation. However attempt will be made to integrate the subject matter of these theories into a picture that is likely to emerge after a comparative analysis of all kind of arguments over the Jat origins.

Historical Roots of the Origins of the Jats:

The earliest historical evidence of the Jats is a 6th century inscription in Nail-headed characters that refers to Raja JitSalindra as ruler of Salpoora (Punjab), Malwa and parts of Rajasthan. It may be noted that this inscription which appears in the Appendix of James Tod'sAnnals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, is yet to receive validity by the historians as a historical document of the Jats. The remarkable thing about this classic inscription is that it provides us a good amount of information on chronology, dynastic history, ethnological clues and religious matters and helps us to extricate Jat antiquities from the realms of speculation.

Elsewhere it has also been argued that the Jats trace their origin from the far North-West and claimed ancient GarhGajni(Rawalpindi, Pakistan) as their original homeland.³⁵ Persian chronicler Ferishta also corroborates this information when he says that the Juts were 'residing in the Koh-I Jud (Salt Range) in North-West Punjab. Therefore, in the 4th century, we find a Jit kingdom established in the Punjab; but how much earlier this people colonised those regions we are ignorant³⁶ it can be speculated that at least two centuries elapsed between the lit colonisation of Punjab and the lit kingdom of Punjab. During this period, Jits seem to have extended their power in Indus region, settled down on both banks of Indus and occupied Multan. By the turn of the 5th century, the Jit kingdom flourished not only in Punjab but also extended to Malwa and parts of Rajasthan.

Among the more acceptable formulations regarding the Jats is the 7th century account of Hiuen Tsang. Describing an unnamed pastoral population in Sin-Tu (Sind).It may be noted that Hiuen Tsang did not mention the name of this pastoral population of Sind. Here, circumstantial evidence may provide important clues in identification of this pastoralist population. However, the Chachnama describes a people in Sind with similar kind of characteristics whom he clearly refers as Jatts.³⁷ On this basis, the cattle-herders of Sind may also be regarded as pastoral people mentioned by Hiuen Tsang as the Jats of Sind.³⁸

In the 8th century we come across Chachnama, a superb chronicle by an unknown author which gives an account of the Arab invasion of Sind (712 CE) along with other important matters pertaining to the Jats.

Significantly, the author ofChachnama gives direct reference to the Jilts whom he calls 'Jatts.' This text is the chief source of our information about the settlements, spatial spread, occupations, social organization and socio-economic position of the Jatts in the 8th century.The Jilt settlements now extended to Siwistan (Sehwan) and Bodhiyain the north, and in the south to the port of Debal. Their population was mainly concentrated in the central part of Sind, in the territories of Brahmanabad, Lohana,Lakha and Samrna. They inhabited both the banks of the river Indus and according to the site of their location, they were divided into 'western Jats' (Jattan-i-gharhi) and 'eastern Jats' (Jattan-i-Sharqi). They were also called Jattan-i-dashti, i.e. the Jatts living in the steppes or wastes. The references to Jat tribes, chiefs, elders,headmen and Rana suggest that they were probably at the level of chiefdom ship and the differences in power had not yet sharpened. There was 'no distinction of high and low among them’ and their social structure was apparently egalitarian or semi-egalitarian. The main occupation of the Jatts was cattle-herding but they also engaged, In other kind of occupation such as soldiers, royal bodyguards, guides, spies, caravan guides, travellers' assistants, boatmen and royal firewood suppliers. There are instances of punitive tributes from the Jats by the Arab rulers but the only tribute the Jats were able to pay was in the form fuel-wood or by providing meals to travellers and strangers within their limits. Under the rule of Chacha and his successors, the Jats were subjected to harsh social restrictions such as prohibition on carrying swords, horse-riding and wearing soft clothes of silk or velvet. On the contrary, they were forced to wear rough black blanket and rough coarse cotton-scarfs, to walk bare-headed and bare-footed and to take dogs with them as a mark of identification and humiliation. However, these harsh impositions on the Jatts are reminiscent of the constraints imposed by Manu on the Chandalas-"But the dwellings of Kandalas and Svapakas shall be outside the village, they must be made Apapatras, and their wealth (shall be) dogs and donkeys. However, the practise of social constraints on the Jatts was not discontinued by the Arab conquers of Sind and the social position of the Jats seems to have remained unchanged despite the change in the regime.

In the 9th century, the main references to the Jats come from Futuhu-L Buldan one of the earliest Arab chronicles written by AI Biladuri (d. CE 892-93). This work contains an account of the first conquest of the Arabs in West Asia, Egypt, and India etc. and throws precious light on the position of the Jats of Sind.³⁹

The evidence provided by Biladuri further testifies the presence of the Jats in Sind during the 9th century. The main settlements of the Jats are found at Kikan and Alrur in the region of Multan in Upper Sind. This evidence highlights the constant movements of the Jats into Upper Sind from the Central Sind in previous century. This is the first account of the imposition of Jiziya on the Jats by Amran, the Arab governor of Sind in CE 836. The payment of Jiziya by the Jats somewhat altered their social status as now they were regarded as protected subjects (Zimmis). However, the governor's order that 'every man of them should bring a dog with him' shows that the prevailing social prohibitions against the Jats were not lifted. It can be anticipated that the employment of 'the chief men of the Jats' by the Arab governor in the expeditions against the Meds might have reduced the restrictions on sword-wielding and horse-riding. It is also a matter of speculation that the Jat manpower was utilized in digging a canal from the sea to the tank of the Meds to make their water salty. But it cannot be denied that the greater role was assigned to the Jats in the prevailing uncertain situations which must have helped the Jats to become more and more acceptable in the eyes of the rulers and the ruled.

The growing Jat existence in Punjab is further testified by another 11th century Ghaznavid scholar Baihaqi who described in his work Tarikh i-Baihaqi that these "seditious Hindus" had supported Sultan Masud's officers against the rebel Yanaltigin.⁴⁰

Another 11th century chronicler-traveller, Alberuni (c. 1030), also yield precious information on the Jats-"Then there was born a child in the city of Mathura to Vasudeva by the sister of Kamsa, at that time ruler of the town. They were Jat family, cattle-owners, low Sudra people.⁴¹

Alberuni's observation of the Jats was historically remarkable as it happens to be the first reference to the Jats as 'Sudra'. This piece of evidence throws abundant light on the social phenomenon that despite the Jats having gained economic and military strength by the 11th century, they were yet regarded as the 'Sudra' and 'low' people. This also shows that their ritual status was not consistent with their newly acquired economic and military advancement.⁴² Alberuni's observation about the intermarriage of the Jats with Yadus corroborates the similar kind of evidence supplied by the 6th century Paliinscription and provides basis for considering the Jats as one of the thirty-six royal races of India.

From the mid-12th century, we find that the Jats began to appear in the Upper Gangetic Doab. The Jat existence in this Doab is attested by the historical narratives written by the Khap and Sarva-khappanchayats of the Jats of Meerut division. These narratives are based on the records and minutes of khap and Sarva-khappanchayats, royal firmans of the Mughal emperors issued to various Jat khaps, private papers of office-bearers ofkhappanchayatsand the gotraSakhas containing both Jat traditions and some historical data.⁴³

The value of this evidence is unmistakable as it provides important clues to the process of migration and expansion of the Jats into the Gangetic valley. A historical trend of an eastward migration of the Jats from the south-east Punjab to the Gangetic Doab is clearly visible from the 12th century onwards which continued unabated till the early 16th century. But these records about the Khap and Sarva-KhapPanchayats are under doubt. Some historian like SurajbhanBhardwaj has raises his doubt on their authenticity.

These are the historical roots of the origin of this peasant community. The records regarding Jats are not in the well-arranged form. But the descriptions related to Jats are found in some main stream history writings of medieval India which are very helpful to trace the origin of the Jats in medieval India.On the basis of these records which are discuss above anyone can say that the origin of Jats taken place in a long period and till 16^th century Jats become peasants par excellence.

Re ference:

1. Tod, James, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan or the Central and Western Rajput States of India, Ed. William Crooke.2 vols. Delhi, 1971. pp. 914-17.

2. Tod. Annals, i. p. 85; ii, pp. 138. 180, 299

3. IbnHauqal, KitabMasalikWa al-Mamalik. (tr.) Elliot and Dowson.History of India as told by its own Historians. Delhi. 200 I. vol. i, p. 40.

4. GA Tiemann, The Jats - An Ethnographic Survey (Unpublished thesis, Univ. of Oxford, 1962), p. I.

5. Richard F Burton. Sind and the Races that inhabit the valley of the Indus with notices of the Topography and History of Province, New Delhi, 1992, p. 411.

6. Baluchistan District Gazetteer Series, vol. iii. Sibi District, Bombay, 1907, p. 71; Sigrid WestphaHellbusch and Heinz Westphal, The Jat of Pakistan. Berlin, 1964, p. 48; Ibbetson, Punjab Castes, pp. 97-131

7. ZulfaqarMubed, Dabistiin-i Maiahib, (tr.) David Shea and Anthony Troyer as Hinduism. During the Mughal India of the 17th century, Patna, 1993, p: 252.

8. AbulFazl, Ain-i-Akbari, (ed.) H. Blochmann, vol. ii, Delhi, 2006, p. 193.

9. Crooke, William. The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western India. vol. iii (1975), Delhi,, p. 26

10. Ibbetson, DenziI. Punjab Castes, Delhi, 1993,, p. 97.

11. Ibid.

12. Vincent Smith, Early History of India. 1924. p. 411

13. Pawar (Pauria). Hukam Singh. The Jats: Their Origin. Antiquity and Migrations.Manthan Publications, Rohtak, 1st edition, 1993. p. 176

14. GA Grierson,Linguistic Survey of India.vol. i, Delhi. 1990, p. 136.

15. Elliot, Memoirs of Races of North West Province of India, vol. i, p. 135

16. Ibid.

17. Herbert Risley, Peoples of India, London, 1915, p. 289

18. Cunningham, Joseph Davey. History of the Sikhs from the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej. Ed. H.L.O. Garret, Reprinted in Low Price Publishers, Delhi, 1997. p. 55.

19. FS Growse,Mathura District Memoirs. 1874. p. 21.

20. Cunningham. Bhilsa Topes, p. 89; Cited Pawar, op. cit., p. 179.

21. Nesfield.Brief View of the Caste System of North West Provinces. Allahabad, 1931, p. 52.

22. Bombay Gazetteer. xiii. p. 714. Cited by Crooke.op. cit., p. 30.

23. RomilaThapar,Ancient Indian Social History - Some interpretations, Hyderabad. 1984, pp. 294-95.

24. Ibid, p. 294

25. Ibid.

26. Qanungo, Kalika-Ranjan. [Foreward: JadunathSarkar], History of the Jats: Contribution to the History of Northern India.Surajmal Memorial Education Society, New Delhi, reprint 1982. p. 8.

27. Pawar.op. cit.. p. 3.

28. Growse, op. cit.. pp. 21-22. Cited Qanungo, op. cit.. pp. 8-9.

29. Qanungo, op. cit., p. 9.

30. YP Shastri, JotonkaUtkarsh. Kankhal. 1962. p. 40; GC Dwivedi, 'Origin of the Jats'. Journal of Indian History,vol. xlviii.pt. ii, 1970.; V Russell and HiralalTribes and Castes of Central Provinces a/India. Delhi, 1975, vol. iii, pp. 232-233, AB Mukherjee. 'The Jats of the Upper Ganga·-Jamuna Doab'.Deccan Geographer.vol. i, Jan. 1968, pp. 32-33; BS Dahiya, Jats-The Ancient Rulers. Delhi. 1980. p.IS.; NS Chaudhary,Jat Questions and Answers.Vrindavan, pp.6-7. Cited in Pawar, op. cit..p. 39.

31. Pawar, op. cit ..p. 68.

32. Alberuni 's India, pp. 400-40 I.

33. Tod, Annals, pp. 914-15.

34. HH Wilson (tr.), Vishnu Purana, London, 864-70, pp. 602-03. Cited Qanungo, op. cit., p. 10.

35. Elliot. Memoirs on the History, Folklore and Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India. (ed.) JohnBeames. London. p. 137

36. Tod, Annals. Vol. i, p. 138.

37. MirzaKaJichbegFredunbeg (tr.), TheChachnama-An Ancient History of Sind, Delhi, 1979. pp. 169-171

38. Habib, op. cit., p. 94

39. AI Biladuri, Futuhu-L Buldan in ED i, op. cit., p. 128

40. AI-Baihaqi, op. cit., pp. 523-34.Cited Habib, op. cit., p. 94

41. Alberuni's, p. 401

42. Ibid.

43. PragyanChoudhry, CASTE MOBILITY AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN MEDIEVAL INDIA, C. 9TH TO 16TH CENTURY: CASE STUDIES OF SOME PEASANT COMMUNITIES (JATS, MEOS AND VELLALAS), Unpublished PhD Thesis (Jawaharlal Nehru University) New Delhi, p. 53

Received on 10.10.2017 Modified on 11.11.2017

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2017; 5(4):223-230.

Origins of the Jats: Myth and Reality