_Rautia._ [595]--A cultivating caste of the Chota Nagpur plateau. In
1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all
of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sarguja. These states
lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and hence no regular
inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is
mainly taken from the account of the caste in Sir H. Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. He describes the caste as, "refined in features
and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men
hold estates on quit-rent from the Maharaja of Chota Nagpur, and the
bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and often paying
only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment." These favourable
tenures may probably be explained by the fact that they were held
in former times on condition of military service, and were analogous
to the feudal fiefs of Europe. The Rautias themselves say that this
was their original occupation in Chota Nagpur. The name Rautia is
a form of Rawat, and this latter word signifies a prince and is a
title borne by relatives of a Raja. It may be noticed that Rawat is
the ordinary name by which the Ahir caste is known in Chhattisgarh,
the neighbouring country to Chota Nagpur in the Central Provinces;
and further that the Rautias will take food from a Chhattisgarhi
Rawat. This fact, coupled with the identity of the name, appears
to demonstrate a relationship of the two castes. The Rautias will
not take food from any other Hindu caste, but they will eat with
the Kawar and Gond tribes, at least in Raigarh. The Kawars have a
subtribe called Rautia as also have the Kols. In Sir H. Risley's list
of the sept-names of the Rautias [596] we find two names, Aind the
eel, and Rukhi a squirrel, which are also the names of Munda septs,
and one, Karsayal or deer, which is the name of a Kawar sept. They
have also a name Sanwani, which is probably Sonwani or 'gold-water,'
and is common to many of the primitive tribes. The most plausible
hypothesis of the origin of the Rautias on the above facts seems
to be that they were a tribal militia in Chota Nagpur, the leaders
being Ahirs or Rawats with possibly a sprinkling of the local Rajputs,
while the main body were recruited from the Kawar and Kol tribes. The
Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa furnish an exact parallel to the
Rautias, being a tribal militia, who have now become a caste, and are
constituted mainly from the Bhuiya tribe with a proportion of Chasas
or cultivators and Rajputs. They also have obtained possession of
the land, and in Orissa the Sresta or good Khandaits rank next to
the Rajputs. The history and position of the Rautias appears to be
similar to that of the Khandaits. The Halbas of Bastar are probably
another nearly analogous instance. They were Gonds, who apparently
formed the tribal militia of the Rajas of Bastar and got grants of
land and consequently a certain rise in status though not to the same
level as the Khandaits and Rautias. It does not seem that the Rautias
have any special connection with the Gonds, and their acceptance of
food from Gonds may perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, be due to
the fact that they served a Gond Raja.