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228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
a note prefixed to the Selections on Kachh, and in Dr. Wilson's History of the Suppression of Infanticide under the Bombay Government.
Next in importance to the ruling classes in Peninsular Gujarât and their various Grásiás are the mercantile classes, both Hindus and Jainas, who are often more opulent than the highest class of the Chiefs, and unitedly viewed are reckoned at 84 castes, a number actually smaller than what can be enumerated. As commercial dealers on a large scale, as shopkeepers, and as money-dealers, they evince greater activity in business than can be elsewhere witnessed in our exterior. Indian provinces.
To the provinces now mentioned, the British districts and those of the Gaikawad on the continent have yet to be added and illustrated by the results of the last census. Their Mercantile classes (many of whom are Jainas) are the most important and intelligent in Western India. A similar remark may be safely made respecting the Agricultural and Pastoral classes, both Kulam bis and Ahirs. The Kulis or Kolis, who denominated themselves Talabdát (Stahalodbhva), in Sanskrit the 'Indigenous,' are making rapid advances upon them. Of the Kulis, of many local designations, the B&brias (the Barabaras of the books) are the most rude and uucivilized, even worse in these respects than the wildest Bhills and the Nâyakaḍyas, or Naikras, of the Bâriâ jungles. The higher artizans are of a respectable character. The Dheds correspond with the Mahars and Mângs. Under the British Government they are certainly rising in their position, as the corre sponding classes in other parts of the country. The Kachhi.
The tongue-land of Kachh is distinctively marked by its natural boundaries on all our maps. It contains a population which in round numbers may be stated at half a million of souls. Its provincial language is nearly identical with the Sindhi spoken on the lower banks of the Indus, from which the immigration of population into Kachh seems principally to have taken place.
The Kachhi is now but little used in any form
"This date (A.D. 940), given to Mr. Raikes by the parties whom he diligently interrogated in connection with his interesting Memoir on Kachh, is obviously erroneous. At page 8 Mr. Raikes states that on the death of Lakha, the son of Fool or Phul (commonly known by the name of Lakha Phulaui), and of Puraji, by whom he was succeeded, Lakha the son of Jard, or Jadd, was sent for from Sind and introduced into Kachh. Of Lakha Phulanf he says, in a note which follows, that he was killed at Adkot in Samvat 901 (A.D. 844). If Lakh, the son of Jâdâ, came into Kachh in A.D. 940, as Mr. Raikes intimates, nearly 100 years must be reserved for the reign of Purájt, which all the MSS. represent as of very short duration.
"Mr. Raikes, in furnishing me a few months ago with a memorandum of the chronology of the Jadejas nearly in the words of this portion of his memoir, and from inform ation given to him by H. H. the Reo of Kachh, says 'Lakha
[AUGUST, 1874.
in literature or business. The only portion of the Scriptures ever rendered into this dialect is the Gospel of Matthew, translated by the Reverend James Gray, Chaplain at Bhuj, who came to India at an advanced period of life, and who was tutor to His Highness Desalji, Rão of Kachh. It was edited for the Bible Society in 1834 by Dr. Wilson, who in 1835 presented a copy of it to the prince, who viewed it with much interest, but who said that "while the language in which it is written is generally understood, and spoken by the lower orders of the people, it is not now used, even for a single note, and, of course, never taught in schools." He added, that "Gujarâtî and Hindustâni are spoken by great numbers of the people; understood by all except those in the north, who follow a pastoral life and have no villages; taught in the schools; and used, more particularly the former, in all correspondence." In these circumstances it was not thought expedient to multiply copies of the first book that has been understood to have appeared in Kachhí, though the small edition printed in it was a help to the acquisition of the dialect by some of our political and military officers who first rendered service during the course of and after the Afghan war. It may be added that the Kachhi is to a small extent spoken in the territories of the Jâ deja Râjpûts in the north of Kathiawaḍ.
The Tribes and Castes of Kachh much resemble those of Kathiawâd, though they are not so numerous. The Râo or Prince and his B hâiyad or 'Brethren of the Tribe,' as has been already hinted, are Jadejas. Among the nobles, or rather land-proprietors, are a few who are Waghela Rajpats, and also Sodha Raj. pats, who reside in the arid and waste country (with a few cultivated spots) between Kachh and Sindh, and whose daughters are frequently espoused by J & dejas. The mercantile community of Kachh was long distinguished for enterprise; but since the opening of the Indus, the British occupation of Sindh, and the alteration of the routes leading to and from Kachh and Western Rajputana, its sphere of action has been consider
is supposed to have cone into Kachh about A.D. 843.' On this I have made the following remark in my History of the Suppression of Infanticide in Western India, page 168, note: The son of this Lakha (Lakha Jadani, misprinted Phulant) was the Red Raidhan, who was the Jam of Kachh at Vinjan in A.D. 1464, or Sahvat 1521 of the MSS. of the Jaina priests in Bombay. The discrepancy between the Rao's chronology and our own here brought to notice is great indeed; but we are able to solve it. The 8th century of the Rio (in which he says Lakha Ghurkra was in power in Sind) is the 8th century of the Hijra of Muhammad, and the "about A.D. 843" should be about A.H. 843, the equivalent of which, Samvat 1521, is given as the year of the ascent of the gadi by Ráidhan, the son of Lakha Jadani." (pp. 8, 9, note.)
+ In Khandesh, Talabde is the name of a village ser. vant.-ED.
