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This article is an extract from <br/>

PANJAB CASTES <br/>

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br/>

Being a reprint of the chapter on <br/>
The Races, Castes and Tribes of <br/>
the People in the Report on the <br/>
Census of the Panjab published <br/>
in '''1883''' by the late Sir Denzil <br/>
Ibbetson, KCSI <br/>

Lahore: <br/>

Printed  by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, <br/>

1916. <br/>
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[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Communities|B]]

=The Bhatia=

Caste No. 69 

The Bhatias are a class of Rajputs, 
originally coming from Bhatner, Jaisalmer, and the Rajputana desert, who 
have taken to commercial pursuits. The name would seem to show that they 
were Bhatis (called Bhatti in the Panjab) ; but be  that as it may, their Rajput 
origin appears to be unquestioned. They are numerous in Sindh and Gujarat 
where they appear to form the leading mercantile element, and to hold the 
place which the Aroras occupy higher up the Indus. They have spread into 
the Panjab along the lower valleys of the Indus and Satluj, and up the whole 
length of the Chenab as high as its debouchure into the plains, being indeed 
most numerous in Sialkot and Gujrat. In this Province however they 
occupy an inferior position, both in a social and in a mercantile sense. They 
stand distinctly below the Khatri and perhaps below the Arora, and are for 
the most part engaged in petty shop-keeping, though the Bhatias of Derah 
Ismail Khan are describcd as belonging to a widely spread and enterprising 
mercantile community.They are often supposed to be Khatris, and in 
Jahlam they are said to follow the Khatri divisions of Bahri, Bunjahi, Dhai
ghar, Charzati, &c. They are very strict Hindus ; far more so than the other 
trading classes of the Western Panjab ; and eschew meat and liquor. They 
do not practise widow-marriage.

See[[The Arora ]]