Briefly, the liajput race now occupy from the north aud west of the Panjab, south-easterly to Behar and Benares, and southwards along the left bank of the Indus to Malwa, Gujerat, and Cutch, and give to their south-westerly holdings the name of Rajasthan or Rajputana.
In Rajputana, they are a numerous and domi nant aristocracy, organized on the feudal prin ciples necessary to domination. Rajputana lies in the centre of a circuit all round the edge of the more compact mass of the Jat people,—from the Salt Range, through the northern Panjab and adjoining hills, to Rohilkhand, Oudh, and the Central Doab ; thence by Bundelkhand through Siudia's territory, Malwa, Mewar, Gujerat, and Kattyawar, into Lower Sind. They are not found in any numbers to the north of the Salt Range, nor are they in any of the bill country west of the Jhelum. But a small Rajput tribe, called Jan - jua, now Muharnmadans, is found about the Salt Range. A large proportion of the Rajputs scattered about the Eastern Panjab, Cis Sutlej territory, and Dehli districts, are now Muhammadans, as are occasional Rajput villages all over Hindustan and a good many Rajput rajas, their conversion having been influenced by the Moghul emperors. But east of Dehli, con version is quite the exception.
In the N.E. Panjab, near the hills, the Rajput population is more numerous, and Hindu Rajpnts are the dominant race in the Jummoo and Kangra districts of the Himalaya. The Kangra and Jummoo rajas and their clans claim to be of very pure blood, and they are fine handsome men, the Kangra Rajputs in particular ; they wear many jewels, and are very fair. The women of the hills are in deserved repute, and much sought after in the plains. The Jummoo men, called Dogra Raj puts, are less handsome than those of Kangra, but more robust and brave, quiet, stanch, steady, and reliable, without disagreeable Hindustani airs.
In the valley of the Ganges, the bOdy of the Rajput population lies next to the Jat race to the east ; in the Middle Doab, Rohilkhand, and Oudh, and still farther east, the country is shared with a Brahman population. In Lower Rohilkhand, where they are called Thakur, Rajput commun ities are strong and numerous, also numerous in Western Oudh; but they never largely entered the British sepoy army. In the Central Doab, in the districts of Mainpnri, Futtelighur, and Etawa, Rajputs are numerous, and many served in the British native army ; but Eastern Oudh, especially most of the broad tract between the Gogra and the Ganges, is the home of the great Rajput popula tion which supplied so large a portion of the Bengal native army. At home these Rajputs are
a purely agricultural population. ISaiswara, the country of the Bais Rajputs, lies almost parallel to the Brahman country of the Lower Doab, and furnished many sepoys.
To the east of Oudh, Rajputs are pretty numerous in Azimgarh and Gbazipur.
In the Gangetic valley,the Rajputs spread over a broad region into a large population, and are essentially the cultivators of that valley. Physic ally, the Rajput and Brahman of that region are not different. The modern Rajput is quite as strict a Hindu, and more prejudiced than many Brahmans, and upon the whole was the worst class in the rebellion of 1857-58.
The Rabtors are probably the most numerous of all the clans; they greatly predominate in the north-west, in the country of Merwara, Bikanir, and Jeysulmir, in the state of Kishengarh, and all about the central district of Ajmir. In Jeysulmir the Bhatti rule. In the north-east states is the Kachwalia clan, very strong in Ulwar and in Jcypore ; some districts in the north of Jeypore being altogether in the hands of the Shaikliawat sept of the Kachwahas. The Chaultans, once famous in the history of the north-west of India, are now most influential in the eastern states, where the Hara sept has been long dominant ; and the Deoras, another sept of the Chanhans, still hold Sirold ; while the Kheechi also belong to the same stock. In the north-west, the last trace of the ancient predominance of the Chauhans at Dehli is to be found in the petty chiefship of Nimrana, held by Chauhans who claim descent from Prithi-raj ; and in the extreme north-west, the Rao of Kusalgarh in Banswara is the head of a Chauhan colony. All over Mewar and the north - western states of Rajputana, below the Aravallis, the Sesodia clan predominates, their head being the Maharana of Udaipur, the eldest family of the purest blood of the whole Rajput caste. Among other clans of high descent and historic celebrity which were once powerful, but have now dwindled in numbers and lost their dominion, may be named the Parihara, the Pramara, and the Solunkhya.