BATNEA RS, or BA TTIES, a people of the north part of Hindostan, inhabiting a country which ex tends about 200 miles in length, and 100 in breadth, and of which the capital is Batneer, situate, accord ing to some authorities, 170, and according to others, 219 miles west-north-west of Delhi. This country comprehends part of the province of Delhi, Lahore, and Ajmeer.
The Batties present many peculiarities in manners and customs, distinguishing them from the other people of Hindostan. They seem to consist of three different races ; the chief are Rajpoot Mahometans ; the common people Jauts, who have adopted the same religion ; and the cultivators of the soil are called Ryis, a very peaceable and inoffensive class. But in general they are characterized as shepherds ; and although principally restricted to the territory whence their name is derived, various tribes of them are to be found in the Punjab ; as they are also scat tered over the high grounds to the east of the Indus. But great obscurity prevails in every thing regarding them.
The Batties are Mahometans, and highly venerate the memory of a certain saint, Sheik Fereed, who flourished in the fifteenth century ; and it is said, that however adverse to their natural disposition, should any one, in invoking his name, claim their protection, it is never withheld. Yet their cus toms, in other respects, are at variance with those of the Mahometans ; and particularly in the females ap pearing, without any reserve, unveiled in public, and in their associating promiscuously with the men, as in other countries. The wives of the Rajpoot chiefs form an exception; and it is reported among these Raj poots, that their ancestors migrated some centuries ago from the district of Jesselmere, and after various vi cissitudes, settled in the Batneer country. Most of the inhabitants under their rule were originally Jauts, dwelling on the western bank of the river Sutledge, in the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude, and who have not been known long in the portion of the peninsula now occupied by them. Having em braced the Mahometan faith, they were invited by the ancestor of the present Rajah of the Betties to cross the river about a century ago, and settle in his country, where their posterity still reside. The Jauts
constitute the lower orders of the people, and are treated with great moderation by their superiors.
The whole territory, extending as above described, is apparently under the dominion of a supreme prince or rajah, whose authority is acknowledged by in ferior chiefs or rajahs ; for the term rajah, in strictness, applies to none but those invested with a paramount rule. This potentate can bring 20,000 or 30,000 troops into the field, but quite undisciplined, and despising the necessary prin ciple of subordination. His revenue chiefly arises from the plundering of his troops ; for their wars are directed more to predatory purposes than to - an open contest ; and the rajah, instead of repress ing the ravages of this immense banditti, willingly participates of the spoils. When strangers observed to him, that the soil and agriculture of his country were sufficient to enable his subjects to enjoy plenty, he replied, that the number of Rajpoots in his service is so considerable compared with the mass of the petiple, that, should he attempt to restrain the depre dations of the latter, the subversion of his own autho rity might ensue, because it would be interfering with old and established customs. The rajah who made this remark was in every respect a good and humane character.
But the people over whom he rules are by no means entitled to the same repute ; they are of a cruel, savage, and ferocious disposition ; they enter tain an utter abhorrence of the usages of civilized life ; they are thieves from their earliest origin, and during their predatory incursions into the neigh bouring districts, do not scruple, though unresisted, to add murder to robbery. This systematic plunder ing produces a revenue of above L.120,000 per an num to their princes, at least that is the conjectural amount, for there are no data whereon to form exact calculations.