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290
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
SEPT. 6, 1872.
the Kshatriyas, a pregnant girl escaped from thu massacre and took refuge with a Sarsut Brahman. He gave her shelter, and when asked by the purBuerg concerning her, replied that she was his cook (Khatrat een ?) and to prove it ate bread from her hand. The tradition is deserving of notice as attempting to explain the meaning of the name Khattrf and the peculiar custom of the Purohit and Jajmans eating in common. But I do not think the internal evidence of truth is intrinsically worth much. My own opinion is, that this question of the origin of the Khattris is intimately connected with the, at present, unknown history of the arrival of the Jats in India. I mean that there will be found to exist some close analogy between the histories of the two races. The Khattrîs themselves allow that they have comparatively lately come westwards, and this is conclusively proved by the distribution of their sub-divisions. Ignorant village Jats (Pachhadé or Dhé) have incidentally compared to me the history of the Khattris with their own, and the facts shewing that both races were very considerably influenced by the Musalman propaganda are numerous. Thus the sehra, not the mor, is used in marriages by both races; the Fhattrf women alone of Hindus wear shoes though this custom down east here is dying out and the only observance of it is the sending of a pair of shoes among the wedding presents of the bride. The Khattris deny that they ever had the custom of rikábi kchaná (viz., eating from vessels) or that their women ever wore turké kapra; while the Pachhade Játs still opealy practice both customs at marriage feasts. The connexion of the Khattris with the great reformer Nanak Shah is curious : their own account is that Nanak Shah was & Khattri who attempted to reconcile Hinduism and Islam together, and to this day travelling Nanakshahi fakirs are much respected and well taken of in all Khattri households. It is stated in the A'râish-iMahfil that the successor of Nanak Shih was a Khattri disciple named Lahna.
The question of the origin of the Tagas-another subject of controversy-is connected again without doubt with the history of the Khattris. Sir Henry Elliot gives & quotation from the Mirat-i-Sikandart in his Supplementary Glossary, page 109, which states that the Tagas were expelled from their caste by the Khattris for drinking. The Tagas ridicule the theory, but the tradition is still held by the Khattris. I hope that some of your Panjabi oorrespondents will be able to illustrate these points of difficulty with facts which have come under their own notice.
The Koh-i-Núr (vernacular journal) of 16th June 1872 has a classification of Khattrt sects, I believe, but I have not been able to examine it. Futtehpur, N.W.P.
J. WAITE, 4th August, 1872.
Assistant Collector.
Query 10, Concerning Chaturanga. In' my paper on Chaturanga, I have identified (p. 61) the Radhacant' on whose information the treatise of Sir W. Jones on the Indian Game of Chess, in the As. Res. vol. II. pp. 159-165, is based, with Radhakanta Deva, the author of the Sabdakalpadruma. But after more mature consideration, I have become more than doubtful of the correctness of this identification, or, I should rather say, I am convinced already of its impropriety.
As Sir W. Jones speaks of his Radhakant as my friend" (p. 161), acknowledges that the passage " was copied for me by Radhacant and explained by him" (p. 163), and says that, "Radhacant and his preceptor Jagannath are both employed by Government in compiling a digest of Indian laws (p. 165) --we are led to assume, that this Radhakant was already & young man of distinction when the paper was written (about 1790). Now Raja Radhakanta Deva died on the 19th of April 1867. To have been the same person with the friend of Sir W. Jones, he ought to have been more than a hundred years old at the time of his death ; but we have the distinct statement in the preface to the Parisishta-vol. of his Sabda kalpadruma that he was born Sake 1705 i. e. A. D. 1783 (vånambararshibamanasamâyâm Saka bhupateh Gopimohanadevasya goshthîpati mahîpateh Srirâdhakanta deveti nammâ putro 'bhyajậyata). And H. H. Wilson, in the preface to his Sanskrit Dictionary (1819), speaks of the author of the Sabdakalpadruma as "a young gentleman of fortune and family"-words which might well apply to a man of 36 years, but not to one who was the "friend" of Sir W. Jones (cir. 1794).
But now the question remains, who was the Radhakant of Sir William ? are there any other traces of his literary achievements? They ought not to have been small after what Sir William says of his accomplishments.
I take this occasion to express beforehand my deep obligations to any one who may be able to point out -
1. The passage in an ancient treatise of Law," in which Colebrooke (Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p. 504) found mentioned, -"the elephant, horse, and chariot as pieces of the game of Chaturanga";
2. The very passage on Chaturanga given in Raghunandana's Tithitattva (ed. Serampore, I. 88, 89), and stated by the Radhakant of Sir W. Jones to be a part of the Bhavishya Purana;" or
3. Any other passage on Chaturangakride on the occasion of the Kojägare of the Kaumudi festi. val, or at any other festivity. Berlin, 4th July 1872.
A. WEBER
