vine notices the Banjaras with the Mughal armies in similar
terms: [188] "It is by these people that the Indian armies in the
field are fed, and they are never injured by either army. The grain
is taken from them, but invariably paid for. They encamp for safety
every evening in a regular square formed of the bags of grain of
which they construct a breastwork. They and their families are in the
centre, and the oxen are made fast outside. Guards with matchlocks and
spears are placed at the corners, and their dogs do duty as advanced
posts. I have seen them with droves of 5000 bullocks. They do not
move above two miles an hour, as their cattle are allowed to graze
as they proceed on the march."

One may suppose that the Charans having acted as carriers for the
Rajput chiefs and courts, both in time of peace and in their continuous
intestinal feuds, were pressed into service when the Mughal armies
entered Rajputana and passed through it to Gujarat and the Deccan. In
adopting the profession of transport agents for the imperial troops
they may have been amalgamated into a fresh caste with other Hindus and
Muhammadans doing the same work, just as the camp language formed by
the superposition of a Persian vocabulary on to a grammatical basis
of Hindi became Urdu or Hindustani. The readiness of the Charans
to commit suicide rather than give up property committed to their
charge was not, however, copied by the Banjaras, and so far as I am
aware there is no record of men of this caste taking their own lives,
though they had little scruple with those of others.

3. Charan Ranjarans employed with the Mughal armies.

The Charan Banjaras, Mr. Cumberlege states, [189] first came to the
Deccan with Asaf Khan in the campaign which closed with the annexation
by the Emperor Shah Jahan of Ahmadnagar and Berar about 1630. Their
leaders or Naiks were Bhangi and Jhangi of the Rathor [190] and Bhagwan
Das of the Jadon clan. Bhangi and Jhangi had 180,000 pack-bullocks,
and Bhagwan Das 52,000. It was naturally an object with Asaf Khan to
keep his commissariat well up with his force, and as Bhangi and Jhangi
made difficulties about the supply of grass and water to their cattle,
he gave them an order engraved on copper in letters of gold to the
following effect:

Ranjan ka pani
Chhappar ka ghas
Din ke tin khun muaf;
Aur jahan Asaf Jah ke ghore
Wahan Bhangi