Towards the commencement of the Christian era, this part of India appears to have been overrun by successive hordes of Scythians, whom some mighty revolutions in Tartary had expelled from their native seats. The Chinese historians say that about a century before this era, the Yuti (Gete or Jit), who occupied a vast country be tween China and the Tian Shan, or the Celestial Mountains, were, after many sanguinary wars, expelled by the Heung-noo, or Hun, and forced into the countries of the Oxus and Jaxartes, whence they extended themselves to Afghanistan and the borders of India. The Indus was only a temporary barrier, and they appear to have occupied the whole country of the Five Rivers. These conclusions, heretofore formed from meagre historical evidence, have been-confirmed by the discovery of coins of Panjab rulers, whose names, Azes and Azilises, have no affinity with Greek or Hindu nomenclature, and denote a barbarian origin. The great Indian sovereign, Vikraina ditya, expelled the Scythian princes from the Panjab, and his era, called the Samvat, D.C. 56, is supposed to commence from a great victory obtained by him over the barbarians in that country, which completed his conquest of all Hindustan. Ins empire, however, fell to pieces after his death, when new hordes of Scythians overran the Panjab, and established, about n.o. 20, a dynasty of kings bearing the name of Kadphises. Coins of these kings have been recovered, and their barbarous effigies clearly distinguish them from Greeks or Hindus. This dynasty is supposed to have reigned throughout the whole of the first century of our era, when it was subverted by a fresh swarm of Scythians, under the Kanerki kings. Between the dynasties, however, there is evidence, from tho testimony of Apollonius Tyaneus, related by Philostratus, that a Grteco - Parthian king named Phraotes reigned in the Panjab, which fact is supported by coins of Undopherres and Gondophares, both called in the Aryan legends upon the coins. The power of the Kanerki kings in the Panjab must have continued for some centuries, for in the topes or tumuli which have been opened in that country, Kanerki coins have been found along with those of Kadphises and other predecessors of the race, mixed with coins of the Sassaniau monarchs of the third and fourth centuries of our era. That these Scythian invaders continued to pour into and occupy the Panjab, is a fact attested not only by Fa Him], a Chinese traveller in India, early in the fifth century (who crossed the Five Rivers, and found Buddhism prevalent in that country), but by an inscription found by Colonel Tod in a temple near Kota, in Itajputana, dated A.D. 409, which contains a memorial of a Jit prince of Salpura, at the base of the Siwalik mountains. Colonel Tod considers it to be proved beyond a doubt, that these Jit princes of Sal pura, in the Panjab, were the leaders of that very colony of the Yuti from the Jaxartes, who in the fifth century, as recorded by De Guignes, crossed the Indus, and possessed themselves of the Panjab.' Various indications appear in the Rajput annals of their conquests and settlements in this country, even as far as the Jheltun. In more modern times, the country has been held by 3Iahmud's successors, Chengiz Khan, Timur, Haber ; Humayun, and his successors, Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah, Itanjit Singh, and the British.
The population of the Panjab is now of a varied character. As a highway through which invading and immigrant races sought to pass, most of them left portions of their number there, and its people are of Scytbic, Aryan, Arab, and Mon goloid origin ; and the census of 1872 enumerated the tribes as under :— The Chamar were included amongst the Hindus and Sikhs, and were 654,406 in number.
At the 1881 census, the total numbers of the religious sects were found to be 22,712,120, as under :— Dfubammadans, 11,662,434 Buddhists, . . . 3,251 Hindus, . . 9,252,295 Zoroastrians, . . . 465 Sikhs, . . . 1,716,114 Jows, 31 Jains 42,678 Others, . . . . 1,153 Christians, . . 33,699 The 31uhaminadans are nearly all of the Sunni sect. Great portions of Hindu and Jat tribes have adopted the Muhammadan religion. Tho chief non-Hindu or aboriginal tribes are the Baori, Chamar, Changar, Chubra, Dumna, Dhanak, Dagi, Labana, Mahtam, Meg, Od, and Sansi.
I3aluch contribute to the predatory classes ; others of the homeless, criminal classes are :— Aheri, 13,086 Harni 1 , 338 Baori, 22,024 Jhabel, . . . . 8,0G3 Beldar, . . . 3,449 Kehsal, . . . . 1,251 Chamar. Mina, 1 116 Changar, . . , . 28,886 Od, 15 627 Chuhra (scavengers). Pakhiwar, . . . 4,502 Cogra, 3,110 Sansi (gypsies), . 21,309 Gunnang. Tbori, . . . . 10,594 languages are current in the Panjab,—English, Hindi, Jataki, Kashmiri, Pan jabi, Puslitu, Persian, Sindi, and Urdu or Hin dustani. Pure Panjabi is confined to the small number of Sikhs who are settled in the different cities and towns. It is recognised as a dialect of Hindi. The Brij Basha (or lihaka, as it is pro nounced on the Ganges) and the Panjabi are the two most cultivated varieties of Hindi, hut the Panjabi passes into 3fultani, which a good philologist has shown to be a corrupted form of Panjabi ; whilst Jataki, again, farther to the south, is a dialectal form of Multani. The educated Afuhammadans and many of the Hindus use Persian in their correspondence. • Rirers.—The modern names of the five rivers which give the province its name, are the Jhelum, the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beals, and the Sutlej. They ultimately join the Indus, which is known to the people as the Sind and the Attock, and anciently the Aba-Sin. They are mentioned here in their succession eastward from the Sind or Indus, Each mesopotamia district between two rivers is called a doab, from Do, two, and Ab, water ; and of these there are five, viz. the Jalandhar Doab, between the Sutlej and the Bess; the Bari Doab, between Ravi and the Beas or the Sutlej ; the Rechna Doab, between the Ravi and the Chenab ; the Chuj Doab, ,between the Chenab and the Jhelum ; the Doab-i-Sind Saugur, between the Jhelum and the Indus. The names of three of the doabs are formed by joining the initial letters of the rivers ; thus, between the Boas and Ravi is the Bari Doab ; between the Ravi and Chenab is the Rechnab ; and that between the Chenab and the Jhelum is the Chuj.
Modern names. Sanskrit names. • Greek names.
Jhelum or Bihut. Vitasta. Hydaspes.
Chenab. Chandra Bhaga; Aseesines.
or SandaBhaga.
Ravi or Rhone. Airavati. Hydraotes.
Bens, Beya, Veya. Vipasa. Hyphasis.
Sutlej or Gbara. Hesidrus.
The Panjab rivers are constantly shifting their channels. The Beas has altogether lost its inde pendent course, and is now a mere tributary of the Saki. The•valley of the Chenab, below Kalowal, is nearly 80 miles broad, and that of the Ravi, near Gujera, is 20 miles, the extreme limits of both rivers being marked by well-defined high banks, on which are situated many of the most ancient cities of the Paujab. Multan was originally situated on two islands in the Ravi, but the river has long ago' go deserted its old channel, the nearest point of which is now more than 80 miles distant. But during high floods the waters of the Ravi still flow down their old bed, and General Cun ningham had twice seen the ditches of Multan filled by the natural overflow of the river.