290
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
the Kshatriyas, a pregnant girl escaped from the massacre and took refuge with a Sarsut Brahman. He gave her shelter, and when asked by the pur suers concerning her, replied that she was his cook
[SEPT. 6, 1872.
Query 10, Concerning Chaturanga.
her hand. The tradition is deserving of notice as attempting to explain the meaning of the name Khattri and the peculiar custom of the Purohit and
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 Sabdakalpa druma. But after more mature consideration, I
Jajmans eating in common. But I do not think
have become more than doubtful of the correctness
the internal evidence of truth is intrinsically worth
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 ex plained by him” (p. 163), and says that, “Rad hacant and his preceptor Jagannāth are both employ ed by Government in compiling a digest of Indian laws (p. 165),=-we are led to assume, that this Radhakant was already a young man of distinction when the paper was written (about 1790). Now Rāja Rādhakanta. 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 Sabdakalpadruma that he was born Sake 1705 i. e. A. D. 1783 (vānāmba
(Khatriºt Gai º) and to prove it ate bread from
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 Khattris 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 con
siderably influenced by the Musalman propaganda are numerous. Thus the sehra, not the mor, is used in marriages by both races; the Khattri women alone of Hindus wear shoes though this custom down east here is dying out and the only observ ance 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 rikābi khānd (viz., eating from vessels) or that their women ever wore turki kapra ; while the Pachhäde Játs still openly practice both customs at marriage feasts. The connexion of the Khattris with the great reformer Nänak Shah is curious :
rarshibúmānasamāyām Saka bhāpateh Gopimo hanadevasya goshthipati mahipateh Srirádhakanta deveti námmāputro'bhyajāyata). 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,
their own account is that Nának Shah was a Khattri
who attempted to reconcile Hinduism and Islam together, and to this day travelling Nānakshahi fakirs are much respected and well taken of in all
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 2 are there any other
Khattri households. It is stated in the A'raish-iMahfil that the successor of Nānak Shāh was a
Khattri disciple named Lahna. The question of the origin of the Tāgas—another subject of controversy—is connected again without -
traces of his literary achievements 2 They ought not to have been small after what Sir William says of his accomplishments.
doubt with the history of the Khattris. Sir Henry I take this occasion to express beforehand my deep obligations to any one who may be able to
Elliot gives a quotation from the Mirat-i-Sikandar; in his Supplementary Glossary, page 109, which states that the Tagas were expelled from their caste by the Khattris for drinking. The Tagas ridi cule the theory, but the tradition is still held by the Khattris. I hope that some of your Panjābi cor respondents will be able to illustrate these points of difficulty with facts which have come under their
own notice.
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 Tithitattra (ed. Serampore, I. 88, 89), and stated by the Radhakant of Sir W. Jones to be a part of the Bhavishya Purāna;” or 3. Any other passage on Chaturangakridá on the occasion of the Kojägara of the Kaumudi festi val, or at any other festivity.
-
The Koh-i-Nár (vernacular journal) of 15th June 1872 has a classification of Khattri sects, I be lieve, but I have not been able to examine it.
Futtehpur, N.W.P. 4th August, 1872.
J. WHITE, Assistant Collector.
|
Berlin, 4th July 1872.
A. WEBER,
