Jat

“ He is, of course, far below the Rājpūt, from the simple fact that he practises widow-marriage. The Jāt father is made to say in the rhyming proverbs of the countryside, ‘Come, my daughter, and be married; if this husband dies there are plenty more.’ But among the widow-marrying castes he stands first. The Bania with his sacred thread, his strict Hinduism, and his twice-born standing, looks down on the Jāt as a Sūdra. But the Jāt looks down upon the Bania as a cowardly, spiritless money-grubber, and society in general agrees with the Jāt. ”

“ That is the result of having lived with Berengaria. Like lots of Indian words it is most useful and expressive, and Berengaria having a store of such expressions, one finds one's self slipping quite naturally into the use of them. Jat means caste, and you use it in the sense of birth or rank. If you want to say anything nasty of anybody in a lady-like way you say, 'Oh, she's no jat, and the poor thing is condemned straight away. ”

“ He has no badges, flags, emblems, no peculiar way of tying his turban or wearing his clothes; and he has very little sentiment. It was a stroke of genius in Guru Gobind Singh when he turned the Jat into a Sikh, gave him the five badges, and wedded him to steel. Tradition grew with the title of Singh, and a great military brotherhood was founded: but in the unconverted Jat there is the same strong fibre, the stronger, the regimental officer will tell you, for not having been uprooted or pruned, and he prides himself that he will make as good a soldier out of the Jat as ever the Guru did. ”

“ When he misses that he sometimes takes to dacoity. Unfortunately he is often given to strong drink, and, when his passions or his greed are aroused, can be exceedingly brutal. Jat in the Western Panjáb is applied to a large number of tribes, whose ethnical affinities are somewhat dubious. ”

“ To-day they are found in all these localities rooted to the soil. Among them the tradition is still strong of the Central Asian region being the cradle of their race. As the latest comers from the bracing north, recruited for several centuries by fresh blood, and established in a climate less liable to lead to deterioration than that of the plains of Hindostan, the Jats have maintained their hardy northern strain, and with it physical superiority and force of character. ”

“ They are, and have long been, numerous and powerful in the Panjāb and the neighbouring countries. It is true that they hate Brahmans, care little for Brahman notions of propriety, either as regards food or marriage, and to a certain extent stand outside the orthodox Hindoo system; but they are heterodox rather than low-caste. The Rājās of Bharatpur, Dhōlpur, Nābha, Patiālā, and Jīnd are all Jāts. The Jāts are a fine and interesting people, who seem to suffer little deterioration from the notorious laxity of their matrimonial arrangements. They are skilled and industrious cultivators. ”

“ But when stories thus made sacred were popularly accepted among people so accustomed to literary activity as the early Buddhists, the natural consequence would be that the Jātakas should have been brought together into a collection of some kind; and the probability of this having been done at a very early date is confirmed, firstly, by the tradition of the difference of opinion concerning a Jātaka Book at the Councils of Vesāli; and secondly by the mention of a Jātaka Book in the ninefold division of the Scriptures found in the Aŋguttara Nikāyalxxxiii and in the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka. ”

“ Those of this sect who are married, called Grihast’ha, [372] show great regard for the Jatis, before whom, by a refinement 213 of respect, they scarce dare bend their body. Whenever they receive a Jati in their house, they do whatever he orders, according to their power. They are divided into two classes: the Lunugí and Pujáris. The first are those who adore God as one, and think him free from all imperfections and contradictions, descents and conjunctions, and who worship no idol. The Pujáris venerate the image of a deity, and have temples for it. ”

“ Allowing for all the earnestness undeniably animating both the story-teller and the hearers, it is clear that they enjoyed, all the time, the dry humour of the exaggeration and grotesqueness of the details of the story as it went along. Now the details are given only in the Sutta; and omitted, as well-known, in the Jātaka. They build up a gorgeous fairy tale in which the ancient mythology of the sun-myth is brought into play in order to show how the greatest possible majesty and glory of the greatest and best of all possible kings is, after all, but vanity. ”

“ An abstract of the first part of this Jātaka will set forth the striking resemblance between our stories and this old Hindoo apologue,1 The part of the Jātaka that interests us is briefly the account of how a man was haled to the king’s tribunal for injuries done unwittingly, and how the king passed judgment thereupon. The abstract follows:—
Gāmaṇi, a certain old courtier of the ruling king’s dead father, decided to earn his living by farming, as he thought that the new king should be surrounded with advisers of his own age. ”

“ JĀTS, or Juts, a people of north-western India, who numbered altogether more than 7 millions in 1901. They form a considerable proportion of the population in the Punjab, Rājputana and the adjoining districts of the United Provinces, and are also widely scattered through Sind and Baluchistan. ”

“ General Cunningham himself gives the story called Isī-singga Jātaka (No. 7 in the above list) , in which the ascetic after whom the Jātaka is named is not the Bodisat.
110 Not as yet found in the Jātaka Book; but Dr. Bühler has shown in the ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. i. p. 305, that it is the first tale in the ‘Vrihat Kathā’ or Kshemendra (Table I. No. 34) , and in the ‘Kathā Sarit Sāgara’ of Somadeva (Table I. No. 33) , and was therefore probably included in the ‘Vrihat Kathā’ of Guṇadhya (Table I. No. 32) . ”

“ The Teacher having finished this discourse, in illustration of his words (“Not now only, mendicants, was Rāhula devoted to instruction; formerly also he was so,” etc.) , made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka: “At that time the nephew, the young stag, was Rāhula, the mother was Uppala-vaṇṇā, but the uncle was I myself.”
END OF THE STORY OF THE CUNNING DEER.293224 No. 17.
MALUTA JĀTAKA.
The Wind.
“Whenever the wind blows,” etc.—This the Master told when at Jetavana, about two Buddhist monks. They, we are told, were living a forest life in the country of Kosala ”

“ Hafiz Shirázi says:
“Avoid hurting any living animal, and do whatever thou likest,
For in my book of laws there is no crime but this.” [369] More correctly Yatis. See note, p. 195. This section appears to apply more properly to the Jainas, that is, to one of the great divisions of the followers of Buddha. The Jainas are subdivided into a great number of tribes and religious sects, a long series of which is enumerated in the work quoted by Lieut.-Col. Miles (p. 351-363) .
[370] In the note, p. 195, are mentioned the Jatis, or Yatis, also called Sévras among the Jainas of Guzerat and Marwar. ”

“ The next tale to be quoted is one showing how a wise man solves a difficulty. I am sorry that Mr. Fausböll has not yet reached this Jātaka in his edition of the Pāli text; but I give it from a Siŋhalese version of the fourteenth century, which is nearer to the Pāli than any other as yet known.18 It is an episode in
xiv
The Birth as ‘Great Physician.’19
MAHOSADHA JĀTAKA.
A woman, carrying her child, went to the future Buddha’s tank to wash. And having first bathed the child, she put on her upper garment and descended into the water to bathe herself. ”

“ Full, if not always authentic, particulars of the Buddha's manifold transmigrations are contained in the Jatakas, a large collection of stories which has been completely translated into English by the late Professor E. B. Cowell, Dr. ”

“ There they have remained till the present day, and have at last been made accessible in a complete edition in the original Pali by Prof. Fausböll. [228]
These Jatakas, as we now have them, are enshrined in a commentary on the gathas, or moral verses, written in Ceylon by one of Buddhaghosa's school in the fifth century a.d. They invariably begin with a "Story of the Present," an incident in Buddha's life which calls up to him a "Story of the Past," a folk-tale in which he had played a part during one of his former incarnations. ”

“ Jats, are the principal race in the Punjab, where they number 41⁄2 millions, and are engaged in agriculture. There is much debate as to their origin and their racial relationship.
Java (23,868) , the finest island of the Indian Archipelago, lying between Sumatra and Bali, with the Indian Ocean on the S. and the Java Sea separating it from Borneo on the N., lies E. and W., traversed by a mountain chain with a rich alluvial plain on the N.; there are many volcanoes; the climate is hot, and on the coast unhealthy; the mountains are densely wooded, and the teak forests are valuable ”

“ He will become wary of his eye, wary of all his senses, wary of his thoughts. He will divest himself of passion and become free. He will be delivered from selfishness and attain the blessed state of Nirvāna." 23
And the Jatilas rejoiced and took refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. 24
XX. [Pg 65] THE SERMON AT RĀJAGAHA. And the Blessed One having dwelt some time in Uruvelā went forth to Rājagaha, accompanied by a great number of bhikkhus, many of whom had been Jatilas before; and the great Kassapa, chief of the Jatilas and formerly a fireworshipper, went with him. ”

“ The Ass in the Jataka is dressed every morning by his master in the Lion's skin, so as to obtain free pasturage by frightening away the villagers. (Given in Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales, number 20.) The story is told of a Hare in South Africa (Bleek, Reineke Fuchs in Africa) , Thackeray includes it as before in his Newcomes. ”

“ They are no longer content with the old indefinite, "There was a king," but assume instead a look of profound learning and begin: "Once there was a king named Ajatasatru."
The modern reader's curiosity, however, is not so [Pg 36] easily satisfied. He blinks at the author through his scientific spectacles and asks again: "Which Ajatasatru?" ”

“ Nay, Japhet, for that filial feeling I do commend thee; but ask thy own heart, is that the only feeling which now exciteth thee? Dost thou not expect to find thy father one high in rank and power? Dost thou not anticipate to join once more the world which thou hast quitted, yet still hast sighed for? Dost thou not already feel contempt for thy honest profession:—nay, more, dost thou not only long to cast off the plain attire, and not only the attire, but the sect which in thy adversity thou didst embrace the tenets of? ”

“ He seems to think the world ought to be at his feet. Depend upon it, Japhet, there is no hurry about seeing him;—and see him you shall not, until we have every proof of your identity ready to produce to him, I hope you have the bump of veneration strong, Japhet, and plenty of filial duty, or you will be kicked out of the house in a week. ”

“ As soon as he was gone, I burst into a fit of laughter. "Well, Mr Cophagus, acknowledge that it is possible to persuade a man out of his senses. You knew me, and you were perfectly right in asserting that I was Japhet, yet did I persuade you at last that you were mistaken. But I will explain to you why I did so."
"All right," said the apothecary, taking my proffered hand, "thought so—no mistake—handsome fellow—so you are—Japhet Newland—my apprentice—and so on."
"Yes, sir," replied I, laughing, "I am Japhet Newland." ”

“ Her raven tresses are female snakes. Her feet are golden lilies. Her little white hands? By Buddha and Buddha! Her little white hands—soon to embrace the greasy neck of Lin Hsu——"
"Who is your friend," suggested Yat, speaking for the first time since the poet had refused to go home.
"Who, of course, is my very good friend," the hatchetman echoed with a murderous look. "And yet"—again he turned to Chi Kun-yi and gave another ruffianly wink—"if a poet, young, handsome, and a Manchu, would come to me and say: 'Thus and thus you have lost face. ”

“ The next morning the king and the princess were watching at the window to see what would Jack do when he got to the field. And Jack knew they were there, and he got a stick, and began to batter the cows, that they went leaping and jumping over stones, and walls, and ditches. ‘There is no lie in what Jack said,’ said the king then.
Now there was a great serpent at that time used to come every seven years, and he had to get a king’s daughter to eat, unless she would have some good man to fight for her. ”

“ We descended from our attic, walked proudly through the shop without making any observation, or taking any notice of our successors; all the notice taken was by Timothy, who turned round and shook his fist at his old enemies, the iron mortar and pestle; and there we were, standing on the pavement, with the wide world before us, and quite undecided which way we should go.
"Is it to be east, west, north, or south, Japhet?" said Timothy.
"The wise men came from the east," replied I.
"Then they must have travelled west," said Tim; "let us show our wisdom by doing the same." ”

“ But he came out now, and he put on the suit he had taken from the first giant, and he came by the place the princess was, but she didn't know him. "Is that right for a princess to be tied to a tree?" said Jack. "It is not, indeed," said she, and she told him what had happened, and how the serpent was coming to take her. "If you will let me sleep for awhile with my head in your lap," said Jack, "you could wake me when it is coming." So he did that, and she awakened him when she saw the serpent coming, and Jack got up and fought with it, and drove it back into the sea. ”