Note 22 — Chapter I

Occupational origin of the Râjputs. 16. Still less homogeneous is the mass of septs grouped under the name of Kshatriyas or Râjputs. We have already seen how the Dravidian Gond races have been in quite recent times enrolled as Râjputs. The Râja of Singrauli, in Mirzapur, nearly a pure Kharwâr, has within the last generation or two come to rank as a Benbansi Chhatri. Colonel Sleeman gives the case of an Oudh Pâsi, who within the memory of man became a Râjput by giving his daughter to a man of the Puâr sept.22 The names of many septs again, such as the Baghel, Ahban, Kalhans, and Nâgbansi suggest a totemistic origin which would bring them in line with the Chandrabansi, who are promoted Dravidian Cheros and other similar septs of undoubtedly aboriginal race. Mr. Carnegy went perhaps too far in assuming a similar development of many of the Oudh septs; but the traditions of many of these, which will be found in the special articles dealing with them, such as the Bhâlê Sultân, Bisen, Chandel, Gaur, Kânhpuriya and Bandhalgoti, afford significant evidence that their claims to blue blood must be accepted with caution. The same inference arises from the fact, of which evidence is given elsewhere, of the impossibility of drawing the line between the Jât and Râjput of the Western Districts, and the Bhuînhâr and Chhatri of the East: in fact many of the septs of the latter claim indifferently to belong to both races, and some, like the Bisen, have an admitted Kurmi branch.