26

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[JANUARY, 1873.

withdraws himself to allow us almost constantly to converse with the Indian writers, which secures

Indian Classes, the Jains, and the Muhammadans— from the second. Messrs. Higginbotham & Co. of Madras have now issued a careful reprint of Cole brooke's own edition, which, except in the Sanskrit,

for these abridged expositions of the philosophical

is not only page for page but line for line and lite

systems of India the highest amount of confi Colebrooke himself published a selection of his Miscellaneous Essays in two volumes in 1837, but

ratim the same as the original. This will render the work very useful to those who have occasion to turn up the references to these Essays by more recent writers. We cannot help regretting, however, that

the work soon became scarce, and in 1858 a reprint

references to other sources of information have not

in small type appeared simultaneously at Leipzig

been added.

memoirs—precious models of exposition and philo

sophical analysis—in which the European scholar

dence and accuracy possible."

and London, containing thirteen of them, or the whole of the first volume, and three essays–On

CORRESPONDENCE

-

A memoir of the author from the Asiatic Journa

is prefixed.

AND MISCELLANEA.

RHATRIS,

to the Akhada of Nirmal fakírs some lakhs of

To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. SIR-I have perused the letter about Khatris, con tributed by Mr. J. White, Assistant Collector of Futtehpur,” and being myself a member of that caste (Dehliwál Khatri), I beg to offer a few remarks. The story of Parasuram and the escape of a

rupees. Its management rests with the Mahant and Pánchs of that large body. They lend the money on good security to Rājas and Mahārājas. The ex penses of food, &c., of the whole body, which contains

pregnant Kshatriya woman in the house of a Brah

bad and Haridwar fairs.

man is generally believed as the origin of the Khatris. Every one of that caste looks to the Panjāb as his home, and up to the present time it contains the largest proportion of the Khatri popula tion, which gradually lessens as you descend towards the east, until it almost totally disappears beyond Patna. Only very recently a number of Panjābi Khatris have, for purposes of trade, settled in Calcutta. Khatris are dispersed throughout almost all the large towns of Upper India, but a Khatri family will scarcely be found south of the Vindhya range. Half a century ago a few families settled at Hydrabad when Chandu Lál Khatri was the Nizam's

the ten successors of Nānak were Khatris. Nānak

Mr. White says—“ Khatris themselves allow that they have comparatively lately come from westward, and this is conclusively proved by the distribution of their sub-divisions” (the Panjābi, Lahori, Dehliwāl, Purbi, and, I may add, by one more—the Agrâwāl). Panjāb, meaning towns beyond Lahor, and Purab, meaning towns in the east of Allahabad, Mirzapur, Banaras, Patna, &c., which are mostly inhabited by Purbi Khatris, are all situated in Hindustan Proper. There is no ground for Mr. White's conjecture that they have, like the Jats, come from some country beyond the Indus. Had such been the case, Khatris, like Jats, would have been denominated by the Brahmans Sudras or Mlechhas. No pious Brahman eats food cooked by a Jat, but most will if prepared by a Khatri. I once asked an elderly member of our family why we, though living at Agra, are called Dehliwāls. He explained that his great-great-grand father, having fled from Dehli with his family on the general massacre of its inhabitants by Nadir Shah, settled at Agra, consequently by the way of distinction people called them “Dehliwāls.' It may be fairly conjectured that Khatris, among whom—in order to preserve purity of blood—family relations are still most scrupulously enquired into before forming marriage connections, might split into divisions, when, from the want of facility of com munication, intercourse with one another had par tially stopped for hundreds of years. Khatris of Lahor, Dehli, Agra, and Purab married, dined, attend

shahi fakirs are reverentially received in our

ed social ceremonies with those of their own or

families.

adjacent towns only, and in the lapse of time have grown into distinct divisions. They all have the same stories and traditions of their origin, the same

prime minister.

Judging from their physiognomy, they are of pure Aryan blood. Next to Kashmiris they are the fairest race in Hindustan ; next to Brahmans they are the most religious class, reading much of the Hindu scrip tures. As Guru Nānak belonged to this caste, he is regarded as the patron or national saint of the Khatris. His and his successors' compositions

(q I aſgå) are looked upon with great reverence and respect, and generally read. The deistical doctrines and tenets inculcated by the great Khatri reformer have considerably influenced their morals, manners, and customs, weaning them to a great degree from many superstitions still clung to by other Hindu tribes. This leads some to suspect their being genuine Hindus. Not only Lahna but almost all

Chandu Lāl used to feed thousands of

fakirs every day. When he had reached the height of his prosperity at the Nizam's Court, he presented

several thousand members, dispersed all over Hin

dustan, are defrayed from the proceeds at the Allaha

• Ind. Ant., vol. I., p. 289.