Note 97 — G

Tribal organisation. 6. Like many castes which have a preference for seven or one of its multiples, the Gûjars pretend to have eighty-four exogamous gotras or sections. It has been found impossible to procure any consistent or definite list of these. In the appendix to this article three lists are given, two of the Hindu Gûjars of the Upper Duâb, one from Bulandshahr, and the other collated from Sir H. M. Elliot’s account of the tribe; the third of the Musalmân Gûjars of Sultânpur. The Census lists contain no less than 1,178 gotras of the Hindu and 380 of the Muhammadan branch. Of these those locally of most importance are the Batar, Buchar, Chhotkana, Hamar, Kanas, Khatâna, Khûbar, Rathê, and Râwal, in Sahâranpur: the Kalsiyân and Khûbar, of Muzaffarnagar, the Adhâna, Bhatti, Chandela, Dhandhal, Hela, Kasâna, Kharê, Khûbar, Marsi, and Nagari, of Meerut: the Adhâna, Bhadâna, Bhatti, Kasâna, and Nagari, of Bulandshahr: the Tomar, of Mathura: the Dalel and Pomar, of Agra: the Lohâr, of Jâlaun. It will be seen that the names differ almost all through the lists. Most of these names are said to be derived from the titles of tribal leaders or from the villages in which their early settlements were formed. It is now impossible to identify many of these with any degree of certainty. The most important sections in the Upper Duâb are the Bhatti, who claim descent from Bhatti Râjputs, and date their settlement from the time of Prithivi Râja. One of them was given the office of “thief taker” (chormâri) by the Emperor Shâh Alam. The Nagari say that they are the illegitimate descendants of Râja Nâgrâj, fourth in descent from Anikpâl Tomar of Delhi. They date their immigration from Hastinapur in 799 A.D., when they expelled the aboriginal Botiyas, with whom and the Gûjars they intermarried and thus became degraded. The Nadwasiya claim to be Panwâr Râjputs, and are said to have come from Badli in the thirteenth century, and settled on the banks of the Kâlinadi, whence they take their name.97 It also appears that hypergamy occurs among some of the sections; thus in Sahâranpur the Kalsiyân, Khaprâê, Râthi, and Rausê sections hold the highest rank and intermarry, while the Kalsiyân will not give their daughters to the Chhokar, Diveru, and Dâpu sections. The sections, as already stated, are exogamous; but they have an additional formula of exogamy, which is thus stated by the Sahâranpur branch of the tribe. A girl may be married who is not of the gotra of the paternal or maternal ancestors of the boy within six generations, or who is not shown by her family name to be of the same stock as his father or mother. But this rule seems not to be of general application. In Bulandshahr a man will not marry within his own section or that of his maternal uncle; but the chief rule which seems to be most generally observed is that a man will not marry in his own village and will not give a bride to a family from which within ordinary memory they have received a bride. On the other hand, there seems no doubt that Gûjars are very lax in their matrimonial arrangements. The infanticide reports swarm with instances of those clans, who used to practice this form of crime, supplying the resultant want of wives by the introduction of women of other castes, and even now-a-days when infanticide has practically disappeared, as is believed, among them, they take concubines freely from other castes, and their offspring are in most cases recognised as legitimate.98