The fact of the White Huns being tall and of fine features, in contrast
to the horde which invaded Europe under Attila, accounts for these
characteristics being found among the highest Rajput clans, who,
as has been seen, are probably derived from them. The Gujar caste
generally is now, however, no doubt of mixed and impure blood. They
were distinguished in the past as vagrant and predatory marauders,
and must have assimilated various foreign elements. Mr. Crooke
writes of them: [123] "The Gujars as a tribe have always been
noted for their turbulence and habit of cattle-stealing. Babar in
his Memoirs describes how the commander of the rearguard captured
a few Gujar ruffians who followed the camp, decapitated them and
sent their heads to the Emperor. The Gujars of Pali and Pahal
became exceedingly audacious while Sher Shah was fortifying Delhi,
and he marched to the hills and expelled them so that not a vestige
of their habitations was left. Jahangir remarks that the Gujars live
chiefly on milk and curds and seldom cultivate land; and Babar says:
'Every time I entered Hindustan the Jats and Gujars have regularly
poured down in prodigious numbers from the hills and wilds to carry
off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that really inflicted
the chief hardships and were guilty of the chief oppression in the
country.' They maintained their old reputation in the Mutiny when they
perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded the operations
of the British Army before Delhi." In northern India the Gujars are
a pastoral caste. The saying about them is--
Ahir, Gadaria, Gujar,
E tinon tâken ujar,
or, 'The Ahir, Gadaria and Gujar want waste land'; that is for grazing
their flocks. In Kangra the Gujars generally keep buffaloes. Here
they are described as "A fine, manly race with peculiar and handsome
features. They are mild and inoffensive in manner, and in these hills
are not distinguished by the bad pre-eminence which attaches to their
race in the plains." [124] Sir D. Ibbetson had a very unfavourable
opinion of the Gujars of the plains, of whom he wrote as follows:
[125] "The Gujar is a fine stalwart fellow, of precisely the same
physical type as the Jat; and the theory of aboriginal descent which
has been propounded is to my mind conclusively negatived by his
cast of countenance. He is of the same social standing as the Jat,
or perhaps slightly inferior; but the two eat and drink in common
without any scruple, and the proverb says: 'The Jat, Gujar, Ahir and
Gola are all hail fellow well met.' But he is far inferior in both
personal character and repute to the Jat. He is lazy to a degree, and
a wretched cultivator; his women, though not secluded, will not do
field-work save of the lightest kind; while his fondness for cattle
extends to those of other people. The difference between a Gujar
and a Rajput cattle-thief was once explained to me thus by a Jat:
'The Rajput will steal your buffalo. But he will not send his old
father to say he knows where it is and will get it back for Rs. 20,
and then keep the Rs. 20 and the buffalo too. The Gujar will.'"