Sir D. Ibbetson held that the Jats and Rajputs must be, to some
extent at least, of the same blood. Though the Jats are represented
in the Central Provinces only by a small body of immigrants it will
be permissible to quote the following passages from his admirable
and classical account of the caste: [185]
"It may be that the original Rajput and the original Jat entered
India at different periods in its history, though to my mind the term
Rajput is an occupational rather than an ethnological expression. But
if they do originally represent two separate waves of immigration,
it is at least exceedingly probable, both from their almost identical
physique and facial character and from the close communion which has
always existed between them, that they belong to one and the same
ethnic stock; while, whether this be so or not, it is almost certain
that they have been for many centuries and still are so intermingled
and so blended into one people that it is practically impossible to
distinguish them as separate wholes. It is indeed more than probable
that the process of fusion has not ended here, and that the people
who thus in the main resulted from the blending of the Jat and the
Rajput, if these two were ever distinct, is by no means free from
foreign elements....