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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1873.
memoirs-precious models of exposition and philo- Indian Classes, the Jains, and the Muhammadanssophical analysis-in which the European scholar from the second. Messrs. Higginbotham & Co. of withdraws himself to allow us alınost constantly Madras have now issued & careful reprint of Coleto converse with the Indian writers, which secures 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 litesystems of India the highest amount of confi- ratim the same as the original. This will render dence and accuracy possible."
the work very useful to those who have occasion to Colebrooke himself published a selection of his turn up the references to these Essays by more recent Miscellaneous Essays in two volumes in 1837, but writers. We cannot help regretting, however, that the work soon became scarce, and in 1858 a reprint references to other souroes of information have not in small type appeared simultaneously at Leipzig been added. and London, containing thirteen of them, or the A memoir of the author from the Asiatic Journal whole of the first volume, and three essays-On 1 is prefixed.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. KHATRIS.
to the Akhada of Nirmal fakírs some lakhs of To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. rupees. Its management rests with the Mahant SIR, I have perused the letter about Khatris, con- and Panchs of that large body. They lend the money tributed by Mr. J. White, Assistant Collector of on good security to Råjas and Mahârâjas. The exFuttehpur, and being myself a member of that penses of food, &c., of the whole body, which contains caste (Dehliwal Khatri), I beg to offer a few remarks. several thousand members, dispersed all over Hin
The story of Parasuram and the escape of a dustan, are defrayed from the proceeds at the Allahapregnant Kshatriya woman in the house of a Brah- bad and Haridwar fairs. man is generally believed as the origin of the Mr. White says" Khatris themselves allow that Khatris. Every one of that caste looks to the they have comparatively lately come from westward, Panjab as his home, and up to the present time it and this is conclusively proved by the distribution contains the largest proportion of the Khatri popula- of their sub-divisions" (the Panjabi, Lahori, Dehliwal, tion, which gradually lessens as you descend towards Purbi, and, I may add, by one mors--the Agrawal). the east, until it almost totally disappears beyond Panjab, meaning towns beyond Lahor, and Purab, Patna. Only very recently a number of Panjabi meaning towns in the east of Allahabad, Mirzapur, Khatris have, for purposes of trade, settled in Banaras, Patna, &c., which are mostly inhabited by Calcutta. Khatris are dispersed throughout almost all the large towns of Upper Indie, but a Khatri There is no ground for Mr. White's conjecture that they family will scarcely be found south of the Vindhya have, like the Jats, come from some country beyond range. Half a century ago a few families settled at the Indus. Had such been the case, Khatris, like Jats,. Hydrabad when Chandu Lal Khatri was the Nizam's would have been denominated by the Brahmans prime minister.
S'udras or Mlechhas. No pious Brahman eats food Judging from their physiognomy, they are of pure cooked by a Jat, but most will if prepared by a Aryan blood. Next to Kashmiris they are the fairest Khatri. I once asked an elderly member of our race in Hindustan ; next to Brabmans they are the family why we, though living at Agra, are called most religious class, reading much of the Hindu scrip- Dehli wals. He explained that his great-great-grandtures. As Guru Nanak belonged to this caste, he is father, having fled from Debli with his family on regarded as the patron or national saint of the the general massacre of its inhabitants by Nadir Khatris. His and his successors' componitions Shah, settled at Agra, consequently by the way of (QT HITT) are looked upon with great reverence and distinction people called them 'Dehliwals.' It may respect, and generally read. The deistical doctrines be fairly conjectured that Khatris, among whom-in and tenets inculcated by the great Khatri reformer order to preserve purity of blood-family relations have considerably influenced their morals, manners, are still most scrupulously enquired into before and customs, weaning them to a great degree from forming marriage connections, might split into many superstitions still clung to by other Hind: divisions, when, from the want of facility of comtribes. This leads some to suspect their being munication, intercourse with one another had pargenuine Hindus. Not only Lahna but almost all tially stopped for hundreds of years. Khatris of the ten successors of Nanak were Khatris. Nånak- Lahor, Dehli, Agra, and Purab married, dined, attendshahi fakirs are reverentially received in our ed social ceremonies with those of their own or families. Chandu Lal used to feed thousands of adjacent towns only, and in the lapse of time have fakirs every day. When he had reached the height grown into distinct divisions. They all have the of his prosperity at the Nizam's Court, he presented same stories and traditions of their origin, the same
• Ind. Ant., VOL. I., p. 289.
