Note 66 — Volume II.

1. Bhot, Bot, Bhotiya66—(Sanskrit, Bhota).—A tribe originally of Hill origin. In the Panjâb, those who in the Spiti and Lahûl Districts returned themselves as Bot, merely imply that they are Tibetans. The proper name of the tract of Chinese territory, which we call Tibet, is Bodyul, or Bod land, and the people Bodpas, corrupted by the Indians into Bhotiyas—a name now applied to the Tibetans living on the borders between India and Tibet, while the people of Tibet Proper are called Huniyas, and the country Hundes. Boti is the name for the language, and Bot for the people; but they rarely apply it to themselves. “If they did,” says Mr. Diack, “it would be like a Panjâbi describing himself as an Asiatic.” There they consist of four classes—Jocho, Lonpa, Chhazang, Loban.67 In these Provinces a tribe of the same name is found in small numbers in the Kumâun Division. There they usually call themselves Raghubansi Râjputs, and trace their origin to Bhutwal in Nepâl. They fix their emigration into Northern Oudh in the reign of Nawâb Asaf-ud-daula (1775–1797). They now present a curious instance of a tribe of non-Aryan origin, who have in a very short time become completely Brâhmanised. Among some of them the rule of exogamy is that they do not marry their sons into families to which, within the memory of man, they have given daughters as brides. But others have adopted the complete Hindu law of exogamy, and the creation of a full set of Brâhmanical gotras is probably only a question of time.