Their daughters are married to men of the best tribes, and their widows are not permitted to re marry ; and it is the point of honour as to their daughters' marriages, that led to the practice of infanticide. Their practice is not to marry into their own but into another tribe, and this has assimilated the tribes to each other. A marriage ceremony is not considered completed until teeag ' or distribution of presents to charuns and bards has been made, which formerly were disgracefully high.
The Rajputs were long notorious for encourag ing their widows to immolate themselves as sati, with the dead bodies of their husbands, and there arc many chattri or domed cenotaphs erected, where chiefs or men of mark have been burnt after death, often with their wives and female slaves.
Several of the tribes were notoriously guilty of destroying their female infants, and this criminal tendency has not, it is supposed, been eradicated. At the 1881 census, in every one of the twenty two States the males are in excess of the females, the totals of their numbers being 5,710,337 males and 4,852,434 females.
Rajputs are little advanced in high education, though the celebrated astronomer Jye Singh earned a European fame.
Some of the tribes follow the Scythic custom of adopting the names of animals as the titular appellations of the clans. The Sesodia have their designations from Sissu, the hare ; the Lumri are the fox ; the Kachwaha, the tortoise ; the Gurgbansi and the Langa are the wolves.
The better known of the tribes and clans are The Ajmir and Merwara provinces are under British jurisdiction, although parts of Merwara belong to the Marwar State and part to that of Mewar. The area is 2710.68 square miles, and the population 460,722, of which number 57,309 persons are in British Merwara, 5611 are in Marwar Merwara, and 38,514 in Mewar 'Merwara. Mer means a hill, and the saying is,—Mer aor inohr, finche par riizi hain,—Mer and peafowl love the heights.
Ajmir city in 1881 had a population of 48,735 souls. In Ajmir villages three or f6ur families live together in one house. In towns, particularly in Ajmir city, families differing from each other in caste and connection are seen living in separate compartments in the same enclosure, and three or four strangers take a house jointly.
Jain.—The principal mercantile tribes are the Agarwa]a, Bija Bargi, Khandelval, Mahesri, Oswal, and Saraogi, in all 39,641 in number. The head priests or Sri Paj of the Saraogi Digambara Jains are celibates, and are greatly reverenced. The Swetambara head priests are the Jati. They carry a stick, dress in white or yellow, some of them marry.
The Jati of the Dhundia, a sect of the Oswal tribe, are ascetics, both male and female. They seldom wash their bodies, do not shave the head, and keep their mouth covered with a cloth to prevent incurring the sin of swallowing minute insects. The Tera-panthi are a like sect among the Saraogi. Both sects abhor the killing of animals.
The Digambara neither eat nor drink when the sun is below the horizon. The Swetambara are less strict.
The aboriginal castes and tribes are as under : The Chita and Barar, according to tradition (Tod, i. p. 680), are descended from Jodh Lakhun, son of Prithi-raj, and a Mina girl who had been seized in a marauding expedition, whom he married, supposing her to be a Rajputni. Discovering her race, he sent her away, and her two sons, Ahul and Anup. One day, while resting beneath a banyan tree (burr), the brothers prayed that, as a sign, if their race was to continue, the trunk might rend asunder, and the event is handed down in a distich Charar se Chita bhayo, aor Barar bhayo Mr ghat, Shakh ek se do bbaye ; jagat bakhani jat.' From the rending noise, the Chita are called, and the clan Barar from the splitting of the bar tree. Both are descended from one stock; the world has made this tribe famous.'