KHATRI are a scattered Hindu race ; a Khatri village is unknown. They, however, monopolize the trade of the Panjab, of the greater part of Afghanistan, and farther to the west in Central Asia, and even to St. Petersburg. They are the only Hindus in Central Asia, In the Panjab they are almost the sole people who perform the scrip-. tory work, and there they are the chief civil employes of Government, and in the villages they keep the village accounts, act as bankers, and buy and sell the grain. They are also the gurus of the Sikh sects ; both Nanak and Govind were Khatri, and the Sodi and Bidi of the present day are so. They do not usually engage in military pursuits, but the dewan Sawan Mull, governor of Multan, and his successor Mulraj, and very many of Ranjit Singh's chief functionaries, were Khatri. It is said that a Khatri was dewan of Badakhshan or Kunduz, as was the Peshkar Chandoo Lal of Hyderabad. Under the Afghans, a Khatri was governor of Peshawur, and Akbar's famous minister, Tudar Mull, was a Khatri ; Joti Persad, a well-known Agra contractor, was a Khatri. The Khatri claim to be descendants of the old Khetrya, written also Chetriya and Kshatriya. They are Hindus ; none, or very few, have over become Muhammadans, and few have become Sikhs. The'Khatri of Northern India are a very fine, fair, handsome race. Those of the western part of Peninsular India, about Bombay, are equally fair.
In Benares they arrange themselves into the two sections, Purbiya or eastern, and Pachhainya or western Khatri, both of whom point to the Panjab as the country from which they came. Some of the Kapur clan of the Pachhainya are, however, said to have adopted Muhammadanism.
In Gujerat and in Kattyawar, the Khatri are so largely engaged in dyeing that the name is applied to all dyers, Hindu and Muhammadan. The Hindu Khatri engaged in dyeing on this side of India, speak the Gujerat language ; they were originally natives of Sind, but they have adopted the manners and customs of the places in which they reside. The old Khatri of Diu and several other places have all the look and manners of the Sindi. It is said that to avoid persecution an emigration from Sind took place in various directions. Those of them who settled at Lowaragad became the well-known caste of Lohana, and those that pro ceeded to Hingalaj became turners and dyers. From thence they emigrated to different places in Kattyawar and Gujerat.
In Benares they are closer observers of the ancient customs of Rajputs than that which is practised by modern Rajput tribes.
In Ludhiana there is a large number of thriving merchants of the Khatri race. They wear the sacred cord, which is put on their boys at the age of eight years, are taught the gayatri, and read the Vedas.
In Bombay and the adjoining districts, they are part of the writer class, whom Europeans style Purbbo, and the Ror or Rora of Northern India are said to be Khatri. The Kukka, a handsome race on the east of the Jhelum, are said to have been Khatri originally ; and of the Gaddi, an interesting race of fine patriarchal-looking shep herds in the interior of the Kangra Hills, the most are Khatri. In Behar is an agricultural class called Kshatri, Khatri, or Ch.?,tri, who some times serve as soldiers or as the darwans or door keepers in Calcutta. In Ludhiana there is a large number of thriving merchants of the Khatri race, with a numerous colony of Kashmir shawl-weavers. Multani is a term applied to several trading classes in the north-west of India, wandering Pathan merchants and others.
Thevenot, speaking of the people of Multan, says : There is a tribe of Gentiles here, called Catry or Rajput; and this is properly their country, from whence they spread over all the Indies.' Diodorus Siculus marks them by the custom of their women burning themselves alive on the funeral piles of their husbands ; which continued a practice among them, as well as some other Hindu tribes, down to the middle of the 19th century. We find by Arrian, that the Cathei were confederated with the Mall and Oxydracere, that is, the people of Multan and Cutch, and which lay to the south-west of the place where Alexander might be supposed to cross the Hy draotes (or Ravi) on his way to India. After Alexander had crossed the Acesines (Chenab) and Hydraotes (Ravi), he appears to have been drawn out of the direct route towards the Ganges, to attack the city of Sangala. Sangala occurs only in Arrian, and is said to have been a city of great strength and importance in the country of the Cathei. Diodorus Siculus calls the same people Cathei or Kathei ; and these may posssibly he recognised under the name of Catry of Thevenot, that is to say, the Khatri or Kshatriya tribe.