ery respect the most important of the
Panjab peoples. . . . The distinction between Jat and Rajput is
social rather than ethnic. . . . Socially the Jat occupies a position
which is shared by the Ror, the Gujar, and the Ahir; all four eating
and smoking together. Among the races of purely Hindoo origin I think
that the Jat stands next after the Brahman, the Rajput, and the
Khatri. . . . There are Jats and Jats. . . . His is the highest of
the castes practising widow marriage.' (Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab
Ethnography_, Calcutta, 1883, pp. 220 sqq.) The Jats in the United
Provinces occupy much the same relative position.

b. The Sikhs are mostly, but not all, Jats. The organization is
essentially a religions one, and a few Brahmans and many members of
various other castes join it. Even sweepers are admitted with certain
limitations. The word Sikh means 'disciple'. Nanak Shah, the founder,
was born in A.D. 1469. The _Adi Granth_, the Sikh Bible, containing
compositions by Nanak, his next four successors, and other persons,
was completed in 1604. A second _Granth_ was compiled in 1734 by
Govind Singh, the tenth Guru. The only authoritative version of the
Sikh scriptures is the great work by Macauliffe, _The Sikh Religion_
(Oxford, 1909, 6 vols.).

The political power of the sect rested on the institutions of Guru
Govind, as framed between 1690 and 1708. In 1764 the Sikhs occupied
Lahore. Full details of their history will be found in Cunningham, _A
History of the Sikhs_ (1st ed., 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1849, suppressed
and scarce; 2nd ed. 1853); and more briefly in Sir Lepel Griffin's
excellent little book, _Ranjit Singh_ (Oxford, 'Rulers of India'
series, 1892).

c. See R. 0. Temple, 'The Coins of the Modern Chiefs of the Panjab'
(_Ind. Ant._, vol. xviii (1889), pp. 321-41); and C. J. Rodgers, 'On
the Coins of the Sikhs' (_J.A.S.B._, vol. 1. Part I (1881), pp. 71-
93). The couplet is in Persian, which may be transliterated thus:--

Deg, tegh, wa fath, wa nasrat be darang
Yaft az Nanak Guru Govind Singh.

The word _deg_, meaning pot or cauldron, is used as a symbol of
plenty. The correct rendering is:--

Plenty, the sword, victory, and help without delay,
Guru Govind Singh obtained from Nanak.

d. This prophecy has not been fulfilled. The annexation of the Panjab
in 1849 put an end to Sikh hopes of 'conquest and plunder', and yet
the sect has not been 'swallowed up in the great ocean of Hindui