The Mahtam
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. |
Caste No. 51
There has been a confusion in the fig-ures of Table VNIA owing to the fact that the Mahtams are also called Bahrupias. The Mahtams of Gujrat and Sialkot returned themselves under that name, and were included under Bahrupia in Table VNIA. I have restored them to their proper place in Abstract No. 85, page 266.^ The Mah tams, or as they are called in the Jalandhar division Mahton (nasal n), are found chiefly in the Satluj valley, and along the foot of the hills between Jalandhar and Gujrat. They are of exceedingly low caste, being almost out casts ; by origin they are vagrants, and in some parts they apparently retain their wandering habits, while everywhere they are still great hunters, using nooses like those of the Bawarias described in section 575. But in many districts, and especially on the middle Satluj, they have devoted themselves to husbandry and are skilful and laborious cultivators. The great majority of them are classed as Hindus, but about one-fifth are Musalman, and as many again Sikh. But the Musalman section, even in the Multan division, eat wild pig and retain most of their Hindu customs, and are consequently not admitted to religious equality by the other Musalman?. They appear, how ever, to bury their dead. They live, in Muzaffargarh, in grass huts on the river banks, whence the saying — Only two Mahtam huts and calls itself Khairpur.^Mr. Purser thus describes the Mahtams of Montgomery : —
They are a low Hindu caste, and are looked down on by their neighbours. Their story is that they were Rajputs, and one of their ancestors was a kanungo. Akbar was then on the throne. Kanuugos were called maa, and thus they got their name. The first malita was dis missed, and theu Fettled at Mahtpur in Jalandhar. His descendants emigrated and settled along the banks of the rivers as they found quantities of Snrr in such situations, and working in sarr was their chief occupation. It was not till the Nakkai chiefs held sway that they settled down permanently in this district. They adopted the custom of marriage with widows according to the iovm oi chaddnr dnlna, and so hecnme Undvas. They are also called ' Bahrupiasl which name is a corruption of ' Bho-rAp-ias' and means people of many modes of life, because they turned their hands to any business they could find (yet c/. Select Glossary, I, 17 & 54). Cunningham (History of the Sikhs, page 17) says, ' the hardworking Hindu Mahtams are still moving family ' by family and village by village eastward away from the Ravi and Chanab.' This would seem to give the Mahtams a western instead of eastern origin as claimed by them. They own a good many villages (19), most of which are in good condition. Where they are not proprietors of the whole village, they reside in a separate group of huts at some distance from the main dbddi. They are great hands at catching wild pigs ; but it is in cutting down the jungle on inundated lands that they excel. Though industrious tbey do not care much for working wells, and prefer cultivating lands flooded by the rivers. They are quarrelsome and addicted to petty thieving. They are of medium stature and stoutly made.
There is a Bahrup tribe of Banjaras or, as they are called in the Panjab. Labanas • and the Labanas and Mahtams of the Satluj appear closely to resemble each other. Elliott's description of the Bahrup Banjaras at page 54, Volume I of his Races of the North- West Provinces, tallies curiously in some respects with that of the Bahrupia Mahtams of Gujrat given by Captain Mackenzie at section 71 of his settlement report of that district ; and on the whole it seems probable that the Mahtams are Banjaras or Labanas, in which case it is possible that the Satluj group have come ub from Rajputana, while the sub-montane group are merely a western continuation of the Banjaras of the lower hills. This is the more probable as I find that the Jalandhar Mahtams trace their origin from Jammu, conquered Rahon from the Gujars, and were in turn deprived of it by the Ghorewaha Rajputs probably not less than five centuries ago. At the same time I should note that the Mahton of Hushyarpur and the neighbourhood appear to hold a much higher social position than the Mahtams of the Satluj ; and it may be that the two are really distinct. Sardar Gurdial Singh indeed goes so far as to say that the Mabtou of Husliyjirpur are of good Rajput blood, though they have lost caste by taking to ploughing and practising widow-marriage, and that their social standiug°is not much below that of llajputs. lie thinks that the name may be derived from Malta, wlneh lie says is a title of honour current among the Rajputs of the hills ; and this agrees with the Montgomery tradition quoted above. Mr. Anderson also gives the Hushyarpur Mahtons high Social stand into. On the other hand, Mr. Wilson says that the Labanas of Sirsa would scout the idea of connection with the mahtams of the Satluj, whom they con sider utterly inferior to themselves. The point needs to be cleared up by further enquiry, especially in the districts where the classes come into contact. Our detailed tables of clans will doubtless throw light on the question.
