The traditional occupation of a Rajput was that of a warrior and
landholder. Their high-flown titles, Bhupal (Protector of the earth),
Bhupati (Lord of the earth), Bhusur (God of the earth), Bahuja (Born
from the arms), indicate, Sir H. Risley says, [492] the exalted
claims of the tribe. The notion that the trade of arms was their
proper vocation clung to them for a very long time, and has retarded
their education, so that they have perhaps lost status relatively to
other castes under British supremacy. The rule that a Rajput must
not touch the plough was until recently very strictly observed in
the more conservative centres, and the poorer Rajputs were reduced
by it to pathetic straits for a livelihood, as is excellently shown
by Mr. Barnes in the _Kangra Settlement Report_: [493] "A Mian or
well-known Rajput, to preserve his name and honour unsullied, must
scrupulously observe four fundamental maxims: first, he must never
drive the plough; second, he must never give his daughter in marriage
to an inferior nor marry himself much below his rank; thirdly, he must
never accept money in exchange for the betrothal of his daughter;
and lastly, his female household must observe strict seclusion. The
prejudice against the plough is perhaps the most inveterate of all;
that step can never be recalled; the offender at once loses the
privileged salutation; he is reduced to the second grade of Rajputs;
no man will marry his daughter, and he must go a step lower in the
social scale to get a wife for himself. In every occupation of life
he is made to feel his degraded position. In meetings of the tribe and
at marriages the Rajputs undefiled by the plough will refuse to sit at
meals with the Hal Bah or plough-driver as he is contemptuously styled;
and many to avoid the indignity of exclusion never appear at public
assemblies.... It is melancholy to see with what devoted tenacity
the Rajput clings to these deep-rooted prejudices. Their emaciated
looks and coarse clothes attest the vicissitudes they have undergone
to maintain their fancied purity. In the quantity of waste land which
abounds in the hills, a ready livelihood is offered to those who will
cultivate the soil for their daily bread; but this alternative involves
a forfeiture of their dearest rights, and they would rather follow any
precarious pursuit than submit to the disgrace. Some lounge away their
time on the tops of the mountains, spreading nets for the capture
of hawks; many a day they watch in vain, subsisting on berries and
on game accidentally entangled in their nets; at last, when fortune
grants them success, they despatch the prize to their friends below,
who tame and instruct the bird for the purpose of sale. Others will
stay at home and pass their time in sporting, either with a hawk or,
if they can afford it, with a gun; one Rajput beats the bushes and the
other carries the hawk ready to be sprung after any quarry that rises
to the view. At the close of the day if they have been successful they
exchange the game for a little meal and thus prolong existence over
another span. The marksman armed with a gun will sit up for wild pig
returning from the fields, and in the same manner barter their flesh
for other necessaries of life. However, the prospect of starvation has
already driven many to take the plough, and the number of seceders
daily increases. Our administration, though just and liberal, has
a levelling tendency; service is no longer to be procured, and to
many the stern alternative has arrived of taking to agriculture
and securing comparative comfort, or enduring the pangs of hunger
and death. So long as any resource remains the fatal step will be
postponed, but it is easy to foresee that the struggle cannot be long
protracted; necessity is a hard task-master, and sooner or later the
pressure of want will overcome the scruples of the most bigoted." The
objection to ploughing appears happily to have been quite overcome in
the Central Provinces, as at the last census nine-tenths of the whole
caste were shown as employed in pasture and agriculture, one-tenth of
the Rajputs being landholders, three-fifths actual cultivators, and
one-fifth labourers and woodcutters. The bulk of the remaining tenth
are probably in the police or other branches of Government service.