ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE

antiquity of jat race

by

UJAGAR SINGH MAHIL

IJ. A., I.L.
ron»rru.v or rut rvuj.tr cmr. «.rnvjcn
:

COPF

1955
ATMA RAM & SONS
BOOKSELLERS, PUBLISHERS & FRIKTEBS
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 ——
INTRODUCTION
In remote antiquity Jats founded a great Empire
named Manda Empire, the Capital of which was
Ecbatana (modern Ham dan) in the north of Persia.
Succeeding Persian Empire was merely an offshoot of that
great Jat Empire. In succeeding generations' the word
Manda, by a mere philological mistake, happened to be
confounded with the word Mede and Manda Empire
was, therefore^ changed into Median Empire. This great
mistake continued throughout succeeding literal me of
Greece and Rome. It was not until the discovety of
the monuments of Nabonidus and Cyrus that the truth
at last came to light and it -was found that the history
we had so long believed was founded upon a philo-
logical mistake. The authors of “Historians’ History
of the World’ say in Volume II, page 573 as follows
5
:

“So startling and revolutionising is the knowledge

obtained from the decipherments of Assyrian and
Persian monuments, so wholly different is the historical
aspect thus revealed, that the term Median Empire is
probably destined to disappear from the historians’
phraseology. Indeed Professor Sayce in his latest
writings has discarded it”.
It is to be greatly regretted that all historians have
not followed Professor Sayce in discarding that wrong
word, and even the 20th Century historian Mr. H. G.
Wells in “The Outline of History” has continued the
mistake and has used the word Mede for Manda Jat.
In this short work I give briefly all the relevant
facts proved by historical authorities about the bravery
of Jat race throughout generations. This brief work is
meant chiefly to excite the ambition of interested re-
search worker who may use the material still being un-
earthed in the Assyrian and Persian monuments. This
short work briefly reveals the following startling facts :

(1) Jats founded a great Manda Empire of anti-

quity.
 INTRODUCTION
(2) Persian Empire was merely an
offshoot of the
Manda Jat Empire.
(3) Jats conquered the great
Lydian and Baby-
lonian Empires.

(4) Jats inflicted a crushing

defeat upon Alexander
the Great m
Sogdiana.
(5) Jats conquered the
Greeko Bactarian kingdom.

™
(6) J UqUered and destroyed Roman
Erophe
(7)
z ZTs°;l
J
n the

(9) 1
n Uer Who conc uered
and supphed
'and ? ?-
sunDlLfffuture l England
kings of England was a
( >0) The traditional and
has C011tin ^ d upto unparalleled valour of Tats
thi present times

i 1 lt restin g
John” SeyLur aTe^rknown to note that
P .
.
^ author and B. B. C.
commentator writes as u-
About India” (Evro recenfc book “Bound

°“ te
tSy arta ra‘ce
invaders that 'came
%, °” ly “a
Hindu
“f «>"*•,
a aTe of
thousand rears arm
fromm
, r
entra ?
^ -Asia perhaps a
—
Jat that [s a J,f ^husudan’s father a Sikh
t
,

h°" ancestors embraced the

Sikh religion but
proving that’ the T)] ?premai ” s a dat ) wrote a book
and 0ther of the ^ortli
Europlan races
6 %
the same sfcock as the
'

Jats. For aught T wf

the Jats I sawhad they did 1 do know that -

East Ancrlian farmed 3 hke br0WJ1 .versions of

at home!” aud farm workers I had known

Dated 12th October,

1954
U. S. MahiJ
 CONTENTS
Chap." Page
I. Sources of Jat History and Their Country
Sec. 1. Introductory
Sec. 2. Herodotus
Sec. 3. Monuments of Babylon and
Assyria ... ••• 2
Sec. 4. Philological mistake ... 4
!

Sec. 5. Other Sources of Jat History 6

Sec. 6. Original Country of Jats. ... 7

II. Different Names of Jat Race ... 8

III. Characteristics of Jat Race ... 15

IV. Manda Empire

Sec. 1. Deioces ... ... 21
Sec. 2. Fra war ti and Cyaxares ... 23
Sec. 3. Islituvegu ... ... 24
Sec. 4. Cyrus ... ... 31
Sec. 5. Successors of Cyrus ... 41

V. About Nine Centuries from 400 b.c. to

528 a.p.
Sec. 1 Tussle with Macedonians ... 44
Sec. 2. Ancestors of Punjab Jats 48

VI. Jat Conquests in Europe in Fourth and

Fifth Century a.d.
Sec. 1. Introductory 53
Sec. 2. Attacks on Roman Empire 54
Sec. 3. "Wonderful Jat conqueror
Alaric ... 54
Sec. 4. Jat Kings of Spain and Rome 57
Sec. 5. Jat Conqueror Attila 58

VII. Conquest of Britain by Jats

Sec. 1. Conquest by Jutes G3
Sec. 2. Conquest by Normans 66

Jat Bravery of the Modern Times 71

VIII.
 1

Glossary of Greek Names with Persian Equivalents

Greek Navi*-', Old Pusiun Modfrn Persian

Arbaces tr\A
Deioces I/O
Pharortes
Cyaxares Ajis i£r/£)'jrjO'
-
Astyages ^
> U*w> I
f

Cyrus
Oy'XE/
Cambyses
/P'f-J'rAJ
Cyrus (the Great)
Cambyses
'yiSJ Ur*
Darius
fo/jb "
Xerxes
Aita Xerxes I
>rV • >

i^JAi
Xerxes II
Darius II
£j
% -V
&
**
#
'dvyA
b'bb
Arta Xerxes 1

Arta Xerxes III

u-'S\
Arses
Darius III
Croesus
ci-vl-

ERRATA
Page Lines Tor Rend
3 36-37 Miechignn Michigan
3 37 Schools School
13 17 Northmandy Nortbronn-dy
23 25 tnotices tactics
24 17 Pasamthik Prnmthik
28 last but one you you.
28 last you. you
36 10 tbcodgea the edges
Cl 20 naglias nagiias
01 38 moors moors
72 1 Caravan caravan
72 34 K.I.A.F. I.A.F.
 )

CHAPTER I

SOURCES OF JAT HISTORY AND THEIR COUNTRY

Section 1

Unparalleled bravery mixed with frankness, rough

good nature, pride and amusing naivete which have
been distinguishing characteristics of Jat race through
ages, were quite sufficient for attracting the deep atten-
tion of the Historians of all ages. This brave race was
fortunate to be the neighbour of cultured Greeks who
were the first in the world to write authentic and
detailed histories of antiquity. The ancient Jat History
would have been drowned in oblivion if there had
been no Herodotus who was rightty called the Father of
History. This Greek luminary requires more than
passing attention. His voluminous works are read by
allmodern men of letters. His whole intellectual life
was spent in writing about the events of not only his
own times, but also of the centuries preceding his time.
The correctness of his works has been confirmed by the
recent discoveries of the monuments of Babylon and
Nineveh excepting one philological mistake which
was not intentional and which will be described in
detail later on.

Section 2

(
Herodotus
This wonderful man was born about 4S4 s.c. in a
Greek city of Asia Minor, Halicarnassus, which was under
the overlordship of Jat empire of Manda. Here he was
able to obtain and read and study manuscripts of
nearly everything that had been written in the Greek
language before his time. He travelled widely with
freedom and comfort about the Greek archipelagoes.
•

He went to Babylon and to Susa the new capital the

Persians had set up in Babylonia to the. east of the
monuments of which are now being unearthed
Tigris, the
by Dr. Girshmann, chief of the French Archaeological
2 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
Mission in Susa. He the coast of the
also toured along
Black sea and accumulated a considerable amount ot
knowledge about Jats called Scythian Getae, who w ere r

then distributed over south Russia. He went to the

south of Italy, explored the antiquities of Tyre, coasted
Palestine, landed at Gaza, and made a long stay in
Egypt.
As hisknowledge accumulated, he conceived the
idea of writing a great history of the attemps of Persia
to subdue Greece. But in order to introduce that
history he composed an account of the past of Greece,
Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Scythia —
the original
—
Jat country and of the geography and peoples of these
countries. It is from this wonderful historian that we
learn about the most interesting Jat Empire of Manda
with its capital at Ecbatana, the modern Ham dan in
Persia. The succeeding persian empire, the most power-
ful in antiquity, was only an offshoot of this Jat Empire.
This will be described in detail in a subsequent chapter.

Section 3
Monuments of Babylon and Assyria
The most important evidence about Jat history is
contained in the ruins of ancient Babylon, Nineveh and
other places of Assyria. It must be remembered that
the said cities of Mesopotamia are considered by his-
torians to be the cradle of human civilization. It was
here that the first civilization began at the time when
in Europe “w ld in woods the naked savage ran”.
:

How
at such an early prehistoric time the record of human
activity could be preserved is a wonder of wonders and
requires to be described in detail. The records of that
time were kept in cuneiform characters which vr as a
script considered to have been invented by that myst-
erious race of Sumerians about the origin of which we so
far know nothing and who ruled Mesopotamia in pre-
historic times. This script -was adopted by their Semitic
successors of the Empire of Babylon and Ass3r ria. There
was no paper at that time. The records w ere etched on
r

clay tablets which were then baked in fire.

These
tablets ape now being unearthed from the ruins
of the
 SOURCES OF JAT HISTORY AND THEIR COUNTRY 3
above mentioned cities. The non-existence of paper at
that time has proved to be most fortunate for the antp
ijuarian because if tiiere had been paper ail literature
;

bf that time would have been lost. Cuneiform script

having been extinct in the world, no body knew how to
read it, because there was no key to decipher it. All
the tablets and monuments, therefore, remained a sealed
book for a long time. How they were ultimately
deciphered is another wonder of human ingenuity re-
quiring detailed description. The hero of that romance
is an English General, Sir Henry RawJinson, a diplomatic
officer appointed in Persia. He was an antiquarian
deeply interested in the antiquity of Mesopotamia. He
/•found in Western Iran an immense inscription which was
a personal testament of Darius the Great, carved on a
limestone cliff high above the village of Behistun. To
make sure that his words would be known throughout
the near eastern world, Darius had his story inscribed
in three different languages in the year 515 b o. One
of those languages was old persian which supplied the'
1
key to decode the other dead languages, one of which
was written in Cuneiform characters. The inscription
was carved in the most inaccessible place where Sir
Henry Rawiinson reached in the face of great danger to
his life and made a copy of half of those carvings in
1835. His diplomatic duties obliged him to leave the
place with his work only half done. For 13 years he
remained absent from that interesting monument and
returned in 1848 to finish the remaining half of the
work of copying the inscription. The key to the langu-
age of the clay tablets of the ruins of Mesopotamia was
thus found and the whole record of antiquity deciphered.
Some uncopied surface of the cliff including sculptured
figures of 10 captive princes facing Darius still remained.
This has recently been photographed with telescopic,
lens by Dr. George Cameron of the University of Misclii-
1

4
gan and the American Schools of Oriental Research.
As I am writing this, the buried prehistoric town of Susa;
in south-west Persia is being unearthed by Dr. Girsh--'
mann, chief of the French Archaeological mission in Susa.
He has been able to identify four such towns super-
imposed one above the other, and to .establish with-
i ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
precision tlie time at which each one flourished.
The
value of these discoveries cannot be over-estimated, from
the point of view of Jat antiquity ; because at that
time Jat race played a prominent part in that part ot
the world. The facts so far proved by all these monu-
ments and discoveries of ancient ruins clearly confirm
the history of Herodotus about Manda Empire of Jats
excepting one philological mistake mentioned above _ to
which I must now revert for the purpose of clarification
of the succeeding narrative.

Section 4
Philological Mistake

This mistake is so important in connection with

contents of this book that I must write in detail about
it. In a succeeding chapter will be described the im-
portant Jat Empire of Manda. When in. the course of a
few generations the wheel of fortune turned, a Persian
prince with Jat blood flowing in his veins succeeded to
that Jat Empire. The laws, the administration and the
army, however, remained Jat. Even the Commander-in-
Chief of the army, Harpagus, was the same Jat who had
previously conquered so many countries under Manda
Empire. Only the Emperor, the head of the Empire, was
Persian. The name of the Empire was, however, changed
into Manda and Persian Empire. In course of time the
word Manda happened, by a mere Philological mistake,
to he changed into Mede. There is no possible means of
knowing when and how this serious mistake occurred
and who was responsible for this mistake. Media was
the north-western neighbour of Manda. It was event-
ually annexed to the Empire of Manda. This might be
the reason of the mistake. Medes never had any Em-
pire. They were greek traders and money-lenders living
in small principalities. Such people would never dream
to have any Empire or history. What history can a
trader or a money-lender have except that of being
raided by the greedy neighbours for his riches ? They
were at first raided by Assyrians and eventually Shal-
maneser, the king of Assyria, took tribute from them.
Afterwards they were raided by their Jat neighbours
 , SOURCES OF JAT HISTORY AND THEIR COUNTRY 5

and their country was annexed to Manda Empire as

mentioned above. Confounding the brave Manda with
the effete medes was most unfortunate event in history.
The mistake became so prevalent tlxat even a proverb
was invented in English language to the effect that a
certain thing is as unchangeable as the laws of medes
and Persians. This mistake was detected when the
monuments of Nabonidus and Cyrus were unearthed.
It was then discovered that upto that time the whole
history remained based upon a most unfortunate philo-
logical mistake. It was under the influence of that
mistake that Cyaxares, one of the bravest Jat Emperors
who was responsible for the tragic end of Nineveh, was
described as a median prince.
I must quote here Professor Sayce, a brilliant
English professor of 19th century who was the author of
the well known book “Ancient Empires of the East”.
He says as follows :

“When generation which succeeded Darius

in
Hystaspes, Cyrus became the founder of the
Persian Empire, the medes and the Manda
were confounded one with the other. Asty-
ages, the suzerain of Cyrus, was transformed
into a mede and the city of Ecbatana into the
capital of a median Empire. The illusion has
lasted down to our own age. There was no
reason for doubting the traditional story
neither in the pages of the writers of Greece
and Rome, nor in those of the Old Testament,
nor even in the great inscription of Darius in
Beliistun did there seem to be anything to
cast suspicion upon it. It was not until the
-

discovery of the monuments of Nabonidus

and Cyrus that the truth at last came to light
and it was found that the history we had so
long believed was founded upon a philological
mistake.”
In this connection I must also give here a quotation
from page 573 volume II of Historians’ History of the
World .—
“So startlingand revolutionising is the knowledge
obtained from the decipherments of Assyrian
 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE - - -

and Persian monuments, so wholly different is

tlie historical aspect thus revealed, that the

term median Empire is probably destined to
disappear from the historians’ phraseology.
Indeed, Professor Sayce in his latest writings
has discarded it.”
This discarding of a wrong word has not, however,
disjpelled the illusion from the writings of the 20th
century historians. Even Sir. H. G. Wells, in his well
known book “The Outline of History”, uses the wrong
term niede in so many places. I, therefore, agree with,
the opinion of the authors of Historians’ History of the
World on page 582, Volume II, that the phrase having
been universally used throughout centuries, cannot so
easily be discaided. I, therefore, propose the onlyffes-
perately effective measure. Wherever the word mede
occurs in literature, ancient or modern, it must he taken
to mean Manda Jat. This arrangement does not do any
harm to anybody ; because the real medes’ had neither
any history, nor any other kind of literature excepting
what was imputed to them by the Great mistake. It
will no "doubt amount to undeserved perpetuation of
th'eir-Tiame, but it cannot be helped under' the circum-
stances, because the only- other alternative is the
pferpetual confusion in so important a part of ancient
history7 I, tlierefote, propose "in the succeeding pages
.
'

tb'co'nsider the word medes as meaning Manda' Jats.

; V-° -
-
.
....
if - .c -
Section 5 .

-
Other Sources of Jat History „

O-I have dealt at some length with the— two most

important sources of Jat history. Herodotus is of course
the father of that history and its main source. Assyrian
and Persian monuments have served to confirm that '

history and to correct the mistake. I give below a list

of some-other important literature bearing on the same
subject: '
. .

Ac - (a) Historians’ History of the World, Volume II.

'"- J‘
(b) The Outline of History-byH. G.-Wells. Hfs-
account is, however, perfunctory and- conti-
'
nues the above mentioned mistake.
 )

. . V , * ' ‘ „

SOURCES OF JAT HISTORY AND THEIR COUNTRY 7

(c) Ancient Empires of the East by Professor

Sayce.
( d The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times by
J. E. Hewitt".
(e) Indian Antiquity by Mr. Fleet.
(/) Hesiod.
(g) Greek Historian Thucydides.
(h) The well known Antiquarian Ctesias who wrote
about the ancient kings of Ecbatana.
(i) History of Mankind by Ratzel.

Section 6
Original Country of Jats

Much is not known about the prehistoric habitation

of Jats, although some historians, with considerable force
of argument, trace their origin to Scandinavia. The
history, however, found them living in a compact anci-
ent country named Scythia, situated partly in Asia and
partly in Europe. From Danube river it extended right
across south Russia, right across the country about the
Caspian- Sea, right across the eounti'y to the east of
Caspian, as far as the mountain masses of the Pamir
Plateau and eastward into the Tarim basin of Eastern
Turkestan. This ancient country of Scythia gave Jats
their well known name of Scythians and those who
conquered India were called Indo-Scythians. The well-
known Getae, which was the Thracian name of Jats, were
the inhabitants of Thrace, the modern Bulgaria -which
was a province of Scythia. From Scythia the conquests
of Jats radiated world wide to all directions of the
Compass as will be shown in this book.
 —

CHAPTER n
DIFFERENT NAMES OF JAT RACE

From very remote antiquity upto the present time

Jat race has been migrating and spreading to nearly the
whole world. H. G. Wells in his well known book
“The Outline of History” on page 630, says that in 1016
a Danish King Canute "the Great reigned over England,
Denmark and Norway, and his subjects sailed to Ice-
land, Greenland and perhaps to the American Conti-
nent.” It will be shown that these Danes were none
hut Scythian Jats. The ancient history of this part of
the world is in absolute darkness because there was no
;

Herodotus possessing impartial brain to chronicle the

events of that part of the world in a clear manner.
Whatever meagre history of that time we have, was
written by Christian priests whose minds were full of
partiality and special purpose. The Jate when spreading
throughout the world, were known by so many different
names that I must deal with each name in detail quoting
authorities for my conclusion.

1. Getae of Thrace were Jats, their very name

shows that. Hewitt in his well known book
“The Ruling Races of Pre-historic Times” on
page 481 writes about the Jats of the Punjab
as follows :

“Their very name connects them with the

Getae of Thrace and thence with the
Guttons said by Pytheas to live on the
southern shores of the Baltic, the Guttons
1
placed by Ptolemy and Tacitus on the
Vistula in the country of Lithuanians and
the Goths of Gothland in Sweden. This
Scandinavian descent is confirmed by
their system of land tenure called
Bhayyachara.”
This proof of custom by Hewitt is most im-
portant historical evidence for the pur-
 DIFFERENT NAMES OF JAT RACE 9

pose of proving that Goths of Gothland

and Jats of the Punjab belong to the same
race ; because the system of land tenure
of Bhayyachara is exclusively a Jat
system and is not found in any other race
of the world.
2. Jats were called Scythians ; because they were
the inhabitants of the ancient country of
Scythia as described in Chapter I. The Jats
who invaded the Punjab and conquered India
upto Benares were called Indo-Scythians. It
is mentioned on page 400 Volume II of the
“Historians’ History of the World” that
Scythian was the name of those tribes of
central Asia and northern Europe who always
invaded their neighbouring civilized races.
Scythia is described there as an ancient coun-
try which extended from the east of the
Caspian Sea and the Valley of rivers Jihon and
Sihon (Amu Darva and Sir Darya) through
the south of European Russia upto the river
Danube. It is mentioned there that Scythians
were so powerful that Alexander the Great
had to attend to them before risking the in-
vasion of Asia ; and that in the succeeding
period of time Scythian hordes invaded Greece
and occupied Athens. For several centuries
Scythians were the contemporaries of the
Greek world. They are named by Homer,
and for the first time they are mentioned in
Hesiod. In Thrace they were well known as
milk drinkers, milking mares and residing in
house wagons. There were Regal Scythians
among them like Darbarawala Jats of the
Punjab, and it is said that their kings were
elected from among the Regal Scythians.
Warfare was their profession. The man who .

did not kill at least one enemy, could not join

the annual dinner of the head of the tribe
and was deprived of the liquor cup. Ikucy-
dides says that they were so many in number
'

and so dreadful that if they were united, they

 —
ANTIQUITY OF J AT RACES - -

were irresistible, and that to his knowledge

there was no race who could resist them. He,
however, adds that in the matters of wisdom
5

they were different from others. Is it not a

'

true parallel with the Punjab Jats ? Hero-

dotus also had the same idea about their
bravery. He, however, does not despise their
wisdom but, on the contrary, says that all
other races living round about Black sea were
stupid, and only Scythians were wise. Dio-
dorus says that Massa Getae were the descen-
dents of Scythians who resided in a small
tract of land ; but gradually gaining power
owing to their bravery extended their kingdom
far and wide, and ultimately laid the founda-
tion of a vast and brilliant Empire which
extended upto Caucasus mountains.
3. Goth. At No. 1 above I have mentioned how
Hewitt proves conclusively that Jats of the
Punjab belong to the same race as Goths of
Gothland. The history of Goths has been
written by J ordanes who based his account on
the chronicle of Cassiodorus. He clearly con-
nected Goths with the Getae of Thrace. There
has been some controversy about this among
^historians. bnt the fact that the Getae were
indentical with the _Goths has found dis-
tinguished supporters. .The brilliant. reasoning
of Hewitt mentioned at No. 1 above" has how-
ever clinched the issue. On page 482 of his
well known book “The Ruling Races of
Prehistoric Times”, Hewitt makes another
very important observation as follows :

“The Getae of the Balkans are said by Hero-

dotus to be the bravest and' most just
of the Thracians. These Thracian Getae
must, as a northern race of individual
proprietors, have held their lands on the
tenure existing in the Jat villages and
these Indian Jats or Getae have not
degenerated from the military prowess of
 DIFFERENT NAMES OF JAT RACE -11

their forefathers, for those Jats who have

became Sikhs in the Punjab are known as
some of the best and most reliable Indian
soldiers. Further evidence, both of the
history and the origin of the race of
earl}?
Jats or Getae, is given by the customs and
the Geographical position of another tribe
of the same stock called Massa Getae,
Massa meaning great in Pahlavi. Hero-
dotus describes them as living on the
western shores of the Caspian Sea in the
land watered by the Araxes and its tri-
butary the Kur_ They continued their
old custom of appointing family genea-
logist to perpetuate the history of the
family and the race in the form of Mythic
Genealogy.”
The above quotation is most important to prove
the inter-relation of so widely distributed
_ communities as belonging to the same
race;, because everybody in the Punjab
knows that Punjab Jats appoint their
C . family genealogists in every village whom they
j_ _ call Mirasies and who perpetuate the genealogy
0 of their community by learning it by rote and
-.reciting it on the occasions of marriages.
-How" Jats became known as Goths in Sweden is
quite simple. For the first letter J,-the letter
G" was substituted according to what is called
• Grimm’s Law of Variation, just as F in German
language becomes P in Latin. Compare, for
example, English father, mother ; German
Vater, Mutter ; Latin Pater, Mater ; Greek
Pater, Meter ; French Pere, Mere ; Armenian
Hair, Mair ; Sanskrit Pittar, Matar, etc. etc.
Every student of the science of Philology
knows how words belonging to the same root
vary from country to country. Our Sanskrit
word Hans, which means goose, becomes Gans
in German language, thus changing H into G.
'The. .change of the letter J into G is much
easier.
12 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
4. Jute. Green, the well known English historian,
says that Jutes were the European tribe whose
name is still preserved in their district of
Jutland. Gardiner also says that Jutes had
their home in Jutland. It is thus clear that
the district ot Jutland in Denmark was so
called because it was the home of Jutes.
Every Punjab student of history will wonder
why the inhabitants of Jutland were .called
Jutes and not Juts which is the Punjabee
name of the race. When according to ^ Green,
Jutland was so called because it was tlie home
of Jutes, why was it not called Juteland as
the home of the neighbouring Goths was called
Gothland ? The simple answer is that it was
named Jutland because the original inhabi-
tants of this place were Juts. In the course of
centuries the above mentioned Grimm’s Law
of Variation affected the name of the tribe
which began to be called Jutes. That law
failed to change the name of the territory
which is always rigid. The fact that these
Jutes who were subsequently called Danes
were close neighbours of Goths of Gothland,
goes a very long way to prove that like Goths
they belonged to Jat race. This fact is further
proved by their unparalleled bravery, because
-

Jutes were the first conquerors of Britain.

Even when later on Saxons invaded the shore
of Southampton Water, they could not succeed
without reinforcement by a body of Jiites who
formed settlements of their own in the Isle of
Wight and on the mainland. The historical
material of those times is so meagre that some
historians confuse Saxons with Jutes as belong-
ing to the same race, although not only the
race was different, but even the territory
whei e they lived was quite separate. Jutes
were Scythian Jats while Angles and Saxons
belonged to Teutonic race.
o. Danes, Vikings or Normans. H. G. Wells in
“The Outline of History” in chapter 32 Sec-
 —
Different names of jat race is

tion 4, says that there were very small racial

and social differences between Angles, Saxon,
Jute, Dane or Norman. As mentioned at
No. 4 above, he has confused Angles and
Saxons who belong to Teutonic race with
Jutes, Danes and Normans who belonged to
Scythian race. The fact that they were allies
in their raids upon Britian is not enough for
their racial confusion. Vikings were called
Northmen because they lived in the north,
while Angles and Saxons lived in the south.
Northmen ultimately were abbreviated into
Normans. In 912 an expedition of these
Normans under Rolf the Ganger established
itself upon the coast of France in the region
that was known henceforth as Normandy
(Northmandy). There was a fresh conquest
of England by the Danes and the Norman
Duke of Normandj' became King of England.
This will be mentioned in detail in another
chapter. Here I am concerned only with the
fact that Danes, Vikings or Normans were all
Jutes. They were all different names of the
same race of Scythian Jats.
6. Yuechi. This is a word by which Chinese knew
the Jats. H. G. Wells in “The Outline of
History” Chapter 28 Section 4, says about
Yueh-chi as follows :

“These Yueh-chi conquered the slightly Hel-

lenized Kingdoms of Bacteria, and mixed
with Aryan people there. Later on these
"Yueh-chi became, or were merged with
Aryan elements into a people called .the
Indo-Scytliians who went on down the
IChyber Pass and conquered northern
portions of India as far as Benares
(100-150 a. D.) wiping out the last
vestiges of Hellenic rule in India. This
big splash over the Mongolian races west-
ward was probabR not the tirst of such
splashes, but it is the first recorded
splash,”
 antiquity of jat race
H. G. Wells is here speaking about the ancestors of

the present Punjab Jats who conquered Grecko-

Bactarian Kingdom, and thus occupied Punjab
and India upto Bensre«. I am concerned here
only with the fact that those jats were called
Yuechi by Chinese. I must, however, point out
that H. G. Wells is making a great mistake in
saj mg that those Jats mixed with Aryan people
and were merged with Aryan elements. Every
Punjabee knows that Jats are the most exclusive
race in the world. They never merge with any
other race. In the Punjab it is common know-
ledge that if any Jat marries even a Brahman
woman, he is at once excommunicated. As a
rule a Jat belonging to anv religion will always
marry a Jat woman and will never give the
hand of his daughter to anyone excepting a Jat.
We have, theiefore, to be cautious when read-
ing the histories written by European authors ;
because even some of the most brilliant histori-
ans commit mistakes, sometimes confusing Jats
with Medes, sometimes with Angles and Saxons,
and sometimes with Aryans. A Jat can be
easily distinguished from the Aryan race of the
Punjab by his Physiognomy and other charac-
teristics or even by the accent or tone of his
speech.
7. J etteh. This was the word used by Muglials
during the warfare of Jats with Taimur in
*

central Asia. Here the reader should note the

variation of names of Jat race according to
Grimm’s Law of Variation. From Yuechi in
China they became Jetteh in Central Asia,
Getae in Thrace, Jutes in Jutland and Goths in
Gothland. In this book I propose to use the
simple word Jat for all the different names so
thoroughly discussed above in some detail.
This detailed discussion was necessary, so that
the conventional student of history 'may not
be startled when I use the word Jats for
Normans, Goths, J utes, Danes or the ancient
Medes who were so unfortunately confused
with Manda Jats by a Philological mistake as
mentioned in detail in Chapter I above.
 —

CHAPTER III

CHARACTERISTICS OF JAT RACE

In braver}7 Jats are unequalled in history. This

,

was the only race in Asia which defeated Alexander the

Great as will be shown in a subsequent chapter. In
ancient times a Jat Warrior who had never slain a foe
must wear a halter about his neck. Here let me quote
the ancient Greek historian Thucydides about the bravery
of Scythian Jats. I am quoting from Hobbes’ translation
(1676). I hope the reader will understand and tolerate
nearly three hundred years old English of Hobbes who
probably translated Thucydides too literally as follows :

“For there is no nation, not to say of Europe but,

neither of Asia, that are comparable to this
or that, as long as they agree, are able one
nation to one, to stand against Scythians.”
This means in modern English that no nation in
the world could stand against Jats if they had unity.
That was, however, a big IF. History has shown that
they worked wonders when they had unity. They how-
ever could not enjoy their gains for any length of time
owing to want of that essential virtue.
According to Hex-odotus among the races of Thrace,
Jats were the bravest and most upright. They were
fond of music. They played the lj re and were experts
7

in the sport of tent peggmg. He says that they conti-

nued the old custom of appointing family genealogist
and thus perpetuating the history of their race and tribe
in the form of Mythic Genealogy. This custom is fami-
modern Punjab villagers who know tlxat in
liar to all
every Jat village of the Punjab there is a Mirasi who
learns by rote the genealogy of the tribe livixxg in the
village and recites it on the occasion’s of marriage cere-
monies etc.
Jats of Thrace uere so powerful that Alexander the
Great had to attend to them before invading Asia.
 —
16 ANTIQUITY OB' JaT BACE
Subsequently Jat hordes invaded Greece and occupied
Athens.
Let me auote another well known ancient historian,
Poinponius Mela, on Scythians :

‘•They that dwell more upland, live after a hard

sort, and have a country less husbanded.
They love war and slaughter. As any of them
hath slain most, so is he counted the jolliest
fellow among them. But to be clear from
slaughter is of all reproaches the greatest.
Not so much as their love days are made
—
without bloodshed for they that undertake
the matter wound themselves, and letting
their blood drop out into a vessel where they
have stirred it together, they drink of it think-
ing that to be a most assured pledge of the
promise to be performed. In their feasting
their greatest myrth and commonest talk is in
making report what every man hath slain and
they that have told of most are set between
two cups full of drink, for that is the chief
honour among them. They make cups of the
heads of their enemies.”
I again apologise for tin’s long quotation of Old
English. I hope the reader who is conversant with the
modern bravery of Jat race will appreciate the antiquity
of these characteristics.

According to Hesiod this race was well known in

Thrace as milk drinkers, marc milkers and wavon dwel-
lers They divided themselves socially as Regal Jats and
Common .Tats. It is interesting to compare this to the
modern revision of Doaba Jats into Darbanvalas and
ordinary. The former looked Upon ns oflower
tiie latter
social status, lighting was the profession of Regal Jats
°t antiquity, and kings were elected
from them. One
vho had not slain an enemy was deprived of tiie annual
feas\ and wine cup of the Sardar.
Thucydides says that
h0 overwhelming in number
y™?
tnat n they were united, they were
and so dreadful
irresistible and to his
knowledge no other race could resist
them. He, how-
 —
CHARACTERISTICS OF JAT RACE 17

ever, continues that in the matter of wisdom they were

different from other races. It is a matter of great regret
that tin's racial! defect of the brave race has continued
throughout succeeding ages as this brief history will
show". Herodotus also had similar ideas about their
bravery. He wrote that every one of them was a fighter
and good archer, and that their way of life was such
that they did not come within the sttiking distance of
an enemy attack. Herodotus, however, does not hate
their wisdom. On the contrary he writes that of all the
races living round the Black Sea only Scythians were wise
and all others were stupid.
One consequence of their unique bravery was that
they were accommodated in Greek Mythology. In every
country Mythology springs from the rare bravery of
person or a race. According to Greek Mythology,
Scythians were the progeny of Hercules. It is said that
Hercules lost his mares. While searching for them he
reached a cave where he saw a woman whose lower part
was that of a snake. On inquiry she said that she had
got his mares, but she will return them on the condition
that he should have sexual intercourse with her. Her-
cules agreed and had sexual intercourse with her. The
woman then said that she had conceived three boys of
his seed in her womb, and asked him if she should send
them to him or should keep them with her. Hercules
said “Here was a bow, the boy who can bend the bow
should be kept in the country of which she was a queen
and the boy who could not do that should be turned
out.” Hercules saying this went away. In due course
three boys were born. They were named Agathyrsus,
Gelonus and Scytha. Only Scytha succeeded in the test
and others failed. He was kept by the queen and others
were turned out. This Scytha gave rise to Scythian
race. The only significance of this mythology is that
Scythian bravery was impressing the Greek nation and
was obliging its Pundits to use them fertile brains to
manufacture mythical stories about it. There -is another
similar mythical Greek story mentioned by Diodorus as
follows :

“A virgin sprang from the earth having her lower

half of the body of a snake. She gave birth
18 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
to a boy Scytha by Jupiter. Scythian race
sprang from him. He hacl two sons Kap as
and Palas. They divided the kingdom into
parts. The people of one part were called
Palian and of the other Kapian. They con-
quered countries far and wide upto Kile .and
Caspian. The origin of Massa Getae was from
them. Their women were also brave like men
and weie called Amazons. The well-known
persion King Cyrus invaded Scythian queen.
He was defeated and slain. The Amazons
conquered a large part of Asia and Europe.*’
The learned men among them, quite like Punjabees,
practised divination. Those learned men among Scythi-
ans were called Enaries. It is said that this art of divi-
ning called Puchhan in Punjabee was taught to them by
the Goddess Venus, just as Jwala Devi is invoked by
Clielas, the Punjabee edition of Enaries. When their
King fell ill, they called three Enaries for the purpose
of divination. Phrygians who according to Greeks were
originally Scythians of Thrace were first in the world to
invent embroidery which is a speciality of the Jat women
of the Punjab. /

According to Justin, Scythians hated gold and sliver

and did not attack their neighbours for that purpose.
Ihey founded Paithian and Bacierian kingdom. By
perpetual fighting and hard labour they became ferocious
and hardy and therefore became very powerful. Vexo-
ris, the king of Egypt, was
the first king who fought with
Scythians. He at first sent
his envoys to Scythians for
the purpose of asking on
what conditions they were
ready to accept surrender.
of Scythians to the said
The following is the reply
message of the king:—
“Your master who was the
head of so wealthy a
people was certainly
ill-advised to fall upon a
parcel of poor wretches
reason to expect at home.
whom he had more
The hazards of war
were great. The rewards
of victory in respect
of them none at all
;hut the losses evident,
or which reason the
Scythians would not
tarry till the king came
.
up to them ; since the
 CHARACTERISTICS OF JAT RACE 19

enemy had so much rich booty about them ;

but would make haste to seize it for their own
1 '
use.

When the king learnt from his messengers that the

Scythians were advancing with great speed towards him,
he left his army and all his stores and fled to his country.
The Scythians took possession of even thing, but they
could not enter Egypt owirg to impassable marshes.
On their return the} conquered Asia and levied tribute
7

which continued for 1500 years and was stopped only by

Nmus the king of Assyria. In one battle all Scythian
men were killed in Cuppadosia, and their women, there-
fore, had to take up arms. They expanded the kingdom
by their bravery. These women were eventually known
as Amazons. There were two queens of Amazons named
Antiope and Orithya. The last queen of Amazon was
called Minithya. I have quoted the long extract above
from Justin’s Account of Scythians because it throws
a flood of lights on the characteristics of Jat race.

About 3000 years ago when Jats began to ride the

horse after inventing the bit, the saddle and the stirrup.
They then grew up with the horse and used it so effici-
ently in their warfare. The Aiyan race took to the
horse later. Pancliayat system was born with Jat race.
In all the monarchies of the noithmen there had been a
tradition of a popular assembly of influential and repre-
sentative men to preserve their general liberties. It was
introduced by Jutes, the fiist conquerors of Britian. I
conclude this account of the characteristics of Jat race
by a quotation from Ilatzel :

“Their character when unadulterated is ponderous

eloquence, frankness, rough good nature,
pride but also indolence, irritability and a
;

tendency to vindictiveness. Their faces show

a considerable share of frankness combined
with amusing Naivete. Their courage is rather
a sudden blaze of pugnacity than coll bold-
ness. Religious fanaticism they have none.
Hospitality is universal,”
20 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
I leave itto the reader to compare the above
account -with the characteristics of Punjab Jats.
Some historians in their ignorance have confused
the Scythian race with Aryan race. The fact is that
Scythian race is quite a separate branch although it
arises from the same stem of Nordic differentiation.
This has been clearly shown by H. G. Wells in a dia-
grammatic summary of the relationship of human races
given at the end of chapter 12 about the races of man-
kind in his well known book the “Outliue of History ’.
 CHAPTER IV
MANDA EMPIRE
Section 1
(Deioces)
I must now begin the account of the greatest Jat
Empire of antiquity which according to Historians’
History of the World, Volume II page 588, was the
greatest in mere Geographical extent that the world had
ever seen, far greater than Egj pt’s, greater than the
Assyrian Empire at its widest reach and greater than
any empire that was to succeed it until modern times.
It must be remembered that Persian Empire was an
offshoot of Jat Empire and Persian kings had Jat blood
running in their veins. About 27 centuries ago,
the Jat population of their native country Scythia
swelled and they burst into the ancient kingdom of
Ellipi, they annihilated that kingdom and occupied
their capital Ecbatana (modern Hamdan). They effected
quickly the organisation of a state which was recognised
as a danger to Assyria as far back as the reign of Esar-
haddon. This came to be known as Manda Empire. As
mentioned in chapter I, this word Manda by a philologi-
cal mistake was changed into Mada and Medes. Accord-
ing to Herodotus Jats of Manda Empire were divided
into several kingdoms just like Puniab states of Patiala,
Nabha etc. The leader of one of those kingdoms was
Deioces (700 B.o.) who was well known for his wisdom ;
because he always did justice in the disputes, Although
his kingdom was weaker, still all the jats of the neigh-
bouring kingdoms came to him for getting justice, and
he thus became a Judge for all the surrounding king-
doms. This honour prompted him to administer pure
justice, and for this lie became celebrated in the whole
country and the men of neighbouring states who came
to him for justice began to compare his justice with the
injustice of their own officers, and never went to any
other officer for justice excepting Deioces. This state
of affairs continued for some time ;
but could not last
22 antiquity of jat race

long. It was impossible for

a just man like ^° Ce .pj ie
other than his o
'

control the affans of tenitories

envious of 1
officer of other stives became
though the general public worshiped
hm .
only morganaf n(p
,

was confusion and unrest. Beioees had

spiritual influence upon his
neighbouring
upto r rese nt
but the experience of all these centuries
P
i
,

times has proved that moral and spiritual

i .

_
an g_
what force has very inefficient
is called soul
requi
factory power in human affairs. What was
with the si
political power to deal adequately
It is veiy interesting to know from
Herodotus 1
,

dealt with the

Jats of that remote antiquity ,

prevailing at that time. A public assembly nas

for the purpose of considering the remedy.
t A
appears to be quite modern. It was decided m
)
c

assembly that the prevailing situation was unbear.

u
and therefoie a king should be elected so that a reg
'

time Deio
Government may be established. By that
unai
had become so popular for justice that he was
mously elected as king. After election he deman
that a palace fit for his royal splendour should be
m ,J
appointed. 1 1
and for his protection a guard should be
was accomplished and he was allowed to appoint
as a
guaidoflus own liking After being enthroned
king, Deioces compelled Jats to bu'ld a suitable capita .

The city of Ecbatana was promptly built. The ruins o

that city are situated near the city of modern Heindan.
According to Herodotus the walls of the city of Ecbatana
were in several concentric circles one within the other,
and were stuated on a high mound and therefore the
inner walls appeared to be higher than the outer ones.
The palace and the treasury of the king was situated
within the innermost wall which was covered with g 0 *' 1

and silver plate like the Golden Temple of Amritsar. A 11

other walls weie of d fferent colours. The stanclatdof wis-
dom of Deioces is fortunately preserved by the chronicle
of his royal orders which he issued in the beginning of his
reign. He
rghtly thought that he could not keep up |p s
royal pomp f he mixed freelv with his subjects. H®
therefore passedan order that he should be interviewed
through an agent. He seldom appeared in public. Bis
 MART) A EMPIRE 23

idea was that if he mixed too much with his caste

fellows and equals, it would excite their envy, and they
would respect him if he remained aloof. He passed an
edict that it was a misdemeanour to smile or to spit in
the presence of the king. For the purpose of dealing
justice in criminal cases he appointed spies and infor-
mers in different parts of his kingdom.
By such wise rules Deioces organised Jats into a
very strong nation. He reigned for 33 years.

Section 2
Frawarti and Cyaxares
Deioces was succeeded by his son Frawarty (647 B.
c.). By long peace and wise rule the Jat nation had be-
come very prosperous. They felt that they had no scope
to displaj7 their bravery. They were itching for fresh
fields and pastures new. Frawarti therefore led them
into Persia and Elam. The conquest was an easy one
and they were made into the provinces of Manda
Empire. After that Asia minor was over-run. Frawarti
then rashly attacked Assyria, but was killed in the
fighting.

He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares (625 b.o.)

who continued the invasion of Assyria. In bravery
Cyaxares was greater than his ancestors. He taught
military taetices to his army including tent pegging and
archery. He organised separate 'companies of Cavalry.
He was also superstitious which defect deprived him of
the success in the conquest of Lydia. When he was
fighting in Lydia, there was complete eclipse of the Sun.
The day became dark like night. He considered this to
be bad omen. He felt God’s hand in the event and gave
up the fight and making a treaty with the states beyond
the river Halys established friendly relations with them.
The date of this eclipse is 28th May. 585 B.C. which is
perhaps the oldest date of a great event of which the
exact day is known to history. Before this Cyaxares in
610 B.C. attacked Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Sin-
Sher-ishken, king of Assyria, had attacked Nabopolassar
of Babylon who called upon the rising power of the
brave Manda Jats to help him to repell the invaders,
24 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
This was a God-sent message to Cyaxares. The great
Babylonian Empire was weakening and dissolving quite
like the subsequent Roman Empire. It was a great
opportunity for the Jat Empire to intervene and share
the spoils. Cyaxares was also prompted by the desire
to take revenge for the death of his father. He im-
mediately responded and attacked Nineveh which fell
in 607 B.c. He took possession of the old kingdom of
Assyria as far as the Babylonian frontier. Calah the
well known city of antiquity, was burnt. This victory
at Calah is so outstanding in Jat history that they never
forgot it. In modern Punjab there are two villages of
the name of Calah. One is Calah Sanglia in Kapurthala
State and other is Calah Bakra in Jullundur district near
Adampur. After this great victory the Jats under
Cyaxares swept over the land as far as the border of
Egypt where Pasamthik, the king of Egypt, being terri-
fied by their superb bravery paid them considerable
amount of tribute and thus turned them back. After
tasting the fruits of these victories the Jats could not sit
still. They then turned their attention to the North
and Cyaxares made war on Lydians, Urartu, Media,
Minni and others when the above mentioned eclipse of
the Sun intervened and cut short the progress of victory
owing to the effect of the superstitious fear.
Section 3
{IsMuvegu)
Oyaxres was succeeded by his son Astyages alias
Islituvegu (585 B.c.). He was married to Aryenis, the
daughter of Allyattes the king of Lydia at the time of
treaty after the Lydian fight. , This Ishtuvegu was an
eccentric fellow of queer personality. Bis mental defects
were so serious that they cost the Jats their Empire. In
the beginning of his reign however the Jats extended
their Empire to the north-west up to the river Halys
under the effect of the momentum caused by the
wisdom and bravery of Cyaxares. The rest of the reign
of Ishtuvegu is a sorry reading. It must however be told
to show how from so remote an antiquity the Jats have
lost the fruits of their unique bravery owing to serious
mental defects of their kings and princes.
 MAN DA EMPIRE 25

The defective brain of Ishluvegu was subject to

curious dreams. He had a daughter named Mandane,
Ishtuvegu saw in his dream that she made so much
water that not only the whole city but entire Asia was
drowned In that superstitious age the kings employed
learned men called Magi for the purpose of interpreting
the dreams. The court Magi interpreted that the issue
of this daughter would usurp the kingdom and would
conquer tne whole Asia: Hearing this Ishtuvegu refused
to marry Mandane to any Jat equal in status to the
Royal family and married her to the Persian Cambyses
who was his vassal being the prince of the province of
Elam and having a peaceful temper although he was
lower in status to all the Jat dignitaries. About one
year after the marriage of his daughter Ishtuvegu again
saw a curious dream that a Vine Creeper sprang from
the womb of Mandane, which spread over tire whole
Asia. Magi v as again consulted and he interpreted it
as most dreadful involving the whole Asia in a huge
destruction. At that time Mandane was an expectant
mother. When the time of delivery approached near,
Ishtuvegu ordered that his daughter should be brought
from Elam to his palace. It is still the custom in the
Punjab that the daughter is brought to the house of the
father at the time of first delivery. Mandane was kept
under strict guard. The intention was to destroj^ the
new born child ; because the Magi had predicted that
her son would dethrone him. In due course a son was
born who was named Cyrus. The Commander-in-Chief
of the Jat arrn y was Harpagus who was the most out-
standing figure in Jat history. He was not only the
bravest but the wisest man in Manda Empire He was
most reliable and managed all the affairs of the state.
Ishtuvegu like his father had full confidence in him and
consulted him in all his internal affairs. Ishtuvegu said
to Harpagus that he had to depute him to an important
business and warned him that if he disclosed the secret
or deputed somebody else to do the work, then he
would repent his treachery. Harpagus said that he
never made the mistake of failing in his duties before,
nor he would give any chance to His Majesty for any
displeasure. Ishtuvegu ordered him to take the son qf
20 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
Mandane to his kill him and bury him
house and to
there. Harpagus was surprised by this cruel order but ;

he wisely did not show any sign of amazement and

replied that he would obey the order with all diligence.
Harpagus took the boy to his house and fell in deep
thoughts. He considered that Ishtuvegu had no son
who could succeed him and the child Cyrus was the only
male successor who could succeed him He therefore
became afraid of the revenge which Mandane would take
from him after the death of the king. Moreover his
normal brain revolted from the responsibility of the
bloodshed of the innocent child. He therefore made over
the child to a shepherd named Mithridates with the
instruction that the child should be thrown in some
deserted place in the jungle. It so happened that the
wife of Mithridates had given birth to a dead child on
the previous day. When she saw the beautiful child
Cyrus and came to know about his high family, she
suggested to her husband that Cyrus should be exchang-
ed for her dead child who should be thrown in the jungle
instead. Mithridates agreed and clothing his own dead
child with the precious dress of Cyrus threw him in the
jungle. Proof of this was sent to Harpagus in due
course. Harpagus buried the dead child who had na-
turally been disfigured by the exposure to wild life. The
beautiful Ci’rus was brought up with great care by the
wife of the Shepherd under some other name,
When Cyrus became 10 years of age, it so happened
that the king met by accident the boy and. his step-
father in the way. He was thunderstruck to see Cyrus
alive. On being questioned Mithridates became terrified
and confessed the whole story. The king called Har-
pagus and interrogated him about the affair. Haipagus
being quite ignorant about the exchange of the boy. told
the king of what happened according to his knowledge.
The king confronted Harpagus with the confession °of
the Shepherd. He, however, concealed his own anger
and said to Harpagus that it was all right that the child
was alive ; that he was very much anxious about the
safety of the boy, and that lie could not bear
the lebulces
oi lus daughter Madane.
The king said that as the
whole affair was absolutely correct, so
Harpagus should
 JlANDA EMPIRE 27

send his own son to the boy Cyrus, and he himself should
come to his palace for enjoying feast which he was
giving in the worship of the gods who intervened to save
the boy from death. Harpagus w'as highly pleased to
hear this. He hurried to his house and burst with joy
on thinking that instead of being punished he had the
rare honour of being invited to the Roj'al feast. He at
once ordered his only son who was 13 years old to go to
the palace of Ishtuvegu and to obey whatever order was
issued to him. Being .highly pleased he also related the
whole story to his wife. This jubilation was short-lived.
As soon as the bo}' reached the palace, the degenerate
and mentally defective king ordered that he should be
'murdered and cut into pieces that a portion of his flesh
;

should be roasted and the other portion should be boiled ;

and that the whole should be prepared for the feast.

At the time of feast Harpagus also joined the geests.
Other guests were served with the cooked flesh of goats ;

but Harpagus was served with the whole flesh of his son.
The head, hands and feet of the bo}' were not cooked
and were kept separate!}' in a basket. When unsuspect-
ing Harpagus had had his full meal, Ishtuvegu asked him
how he liked his feast. Harpagus expressed his great
pleasure when according to p re- arrangement the royal -

servants brought the sa d basket containing the head

!

and limbs of his son. Ishtuvegu asked Harpagus to eat

that also. Harpagus uncovered the basket and saw in
it the head and limbs of his son. He then understood
what happened. He was one of the bravest and wisest
generals the world has ever seen as will be shown by his
future exploits later on. He could control not only the
biggest armies, but also his own passions and emotions.
He did not show any extraordinary feeling at that time.
The foolish Ishtuvegu wanted full satisfaction for his
revengful animal nature. He, therefore, asked Harpagus
whether he knew of what wild animal’s flesh he had
eaten. The brave and wise Harpagus replied in the
affirmative and added that king’s wish was always a
matter of great pleasure for him. Saying this he
collected the remains of the dead body of his son and
carried them home for the purpose of funeral ceremony.
When a king emperor happens to be a fool, his foolish-
 —
;

28 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE

ness exceeds all bounds. The unfortunate result is not
only his downfall, but the downfall of the whole empire.
This had happened again and again in both ancient and
modern history. Harpagus at once realised that a
monster like Ishtuvegu was hardly fit to rule a great and
promising Empire. The iron thrust in his soul by the
fate of his only son was also prompting him to take
revenge. It at once flashed in his big brain that Cyrus
was the only man who was fit to dethrone Ishtuvegu
because he was Heir Apparent as Ishtuvegu had no male
issue. Cyrus grew to be the most powerful and hand-
some boy in Persia.

Ishtuvegu was not free from fear under the influence

of the prediction of the Magi. He, therefore, ordered a
strict censorship upon the correspondence of both the
provinces. Harpagus began to send presents to Cyrus.
Ishtuvegu who was unique tyrant used to inflict extreme
hardship upon his subjects. Harpagus used to cultivate
friendship with the agrieved leaders among Jats and
continued to hint that the miseries of the country could
not be avoided without dethroning Ishtuvegu and
enthroning Cyrus. In this way when he felt that public
opinion was sufficiently developed in his favour, he
organised a conspiracy for the purpose of acquainting
Cyrus about his own thoughts and the conditions of the
kingdom. It is interesting to know how he arranged to
avoid censorship. He got a hare and ripping its abdo-
men put a letter there. The abdomen was then care-
- fully sewed. This hare with some nets was sent to
Persia with such a servant who was most reliable. He
was ordered to hand over the hare personally to Cyrus
requesting him to open it with his own hands without
the presence of any witness. Cyrus himself ripped open
the hare and took out the letter which read as follows:

“Son of Cambyses Heaven evidently favours you,

!

or you never could have risen thus superior to

fortune. Astyages meditated your death
.
and is a just object of your vengeance. He
certainly determined that you should perish.
The gods and my humanity preserved 3'ou
With the incident of your life, I believe, you.
 MANDA EMPIRE 29 -

are acquainted, as well as with the injuries

which 1 have received from Astyages for
delivering you to the herdsman instead of
putting you to death. Listen but to me and
the authority and dominion of Astyages shall
be yours. First prevail upon the Persians to
revolt and then undertake expedition against
Manda. If I shall be appointed by Astyages
the leader of the forces which oppose you, our
object will be instantly accomplished which I
may also venture to affirm of each of our first
nobility. Theyr are already favourable to your
cause and wait but the opportunity of revolt-
ing from Astyages. All tilings being thus
prepared, execute what I advise without
delay.”
Reading this letter Cyrus began to think earnestly.
He worked out a scheme according to which a royal
letter was got prepared which showed that Ishtuvegu
had appointed him General of Persia. Next he collected
an assembly of Persians in which the letter was read.
After this lie jiassed an order that all should come with
axes in their hands. The} all brought axes and Cyrus
7

ordered them to clear 18 or 20 Furlongs of jungle within

one day. They had to work very hard and overtime.
They had to take whatever dr}7 food they could nibble
during such a hard work. When the work was
accomplished, Cyrus invited all of them to a feast to be
held next day. Cyrus got all the goats, sheep and cattle
of his father, slaughtered for the purpose of that feast.
He provided liquors and many kinds of sweet dishes for
that feast. Next day he fed them all those tasty foods
to their complete satisfaction and told them to lie down
on the grass and to enjoy the pleasure. When all this
enjoyment was finished, they were asked the food of
which of the two days they liked most. They replied
that there was no comparison between those meals that
;

the food of the first day was very bad while that of the
second day was very good. Cyrus said, “0! Persians if
you obey my orders, you will enjoy such foods and get
such comfort, and if you refuse to obey my orders, you
will have to undergo far worse hardships than those of
so antiquity or jat bags
5
\rsteiduv. I order you to revolt against Ishtuvegu.’
The Persians were very much pleaded with their leader
and sounded the bugle of revolt. Ishtuvcgu also came
to know about the schemes of Cyrus and ordered him to
present hnnself befoie His Majesty. Cyrus replied that
he probably Uim«ell would come for interview. Upon
tins Ishtuvcgu nlleetcd all the .Tats, and organised a big
(

army. Undei the influence of fatal idea he appointed

Harpngus as the Commander-in-Chief of the army.
Pei haps there was no other experienced General to till
that high post. At any rate Ishtuvegu totally forgot all
the injury which lie had inflicted upon Harpagus.
Failure of memory was also an ingredient of his serious
mental defects. Any man of normal brain could never
dream of appointing such an aggrieved person upon such
a responsible job. The big army was collected and
Persia was invaded. Those Jats who were not in the
conspiracy fought with great bravery. Others joined
with persians. A great pait of the army voluntarily
repeated from the light. It was a complete debacle.
When Ishtuvegu came to know* about the treachery
of his army andhis defeat, his defective brain did not
realise the true situation, and he continued to threaten
Cyrus that he would be dealt with and tiiat he should
not indulge in premature jubilations. In that crisis his
first mad act was fo crucify the Magi who had interpre-
ted his dreams and who had advised him to send Cyrus
out. After that he armed all his subjects including
children and oldmeu and again invaded Persia. Only a
weakling like Ishtuvegu could hope to defeat the trained
and disciplined army of Harpagus who was now in
Command of the forces of Cyrus with such a rabble of
old men and children. He suffered a crushing defeat
and was taken prisoner (5d0 B.C.). It was now time
for Harpagus to unburden his aggrieved mind. He met
Ishtuvegu in his prison to taunt him and asked him
whether he had reformed his opinion about that feast
in which he had obliged a father to eat the flesh
of his son, and on account of which feast he had been
degraded from a king to a slave. Ishtuvegu asked
Harpagus whether he was the cause of the victory of
Cyrus. Harpagus replied in the affirmative and related
 — ;

fctANDA EMPIRE
to him the whole conspiracy which he said was the
onty way open to him for righting the wrong done to
him. Ishtuvegu forgetting his own folly and wickedness
unburdened his miserable mind to Harpagus in the
following words :

“You are the most foolish and wicked of mankind,

most foolish in acquiring for another the
authority he might have enjoyed himself
most wicked for reducing his countrymen to
servitude to gratify his private revenge. If
he thought a change in the government really
necessary, and was still determined not to
assume the supreme authority himself, justice
should have induced him to have raised a Jat
to that honour rather than a Persian The
Jats who were certainly not accessary to the
provocation given had exchanged situations
with their servants. The Persians who were
(
formerly the servants were now the masters.’’
We should overlook the grammatical mistakes in
this quotation of old English. It is interesting to see
how a king who himself acted as the most wicked
monster accuses his victim of wickedness. Harpagus
was right in his determination to change the monstrous
occupant of the throne who was spreading misery right
and left. He was too wise to think of assuming the
supreme authority himself. Jat nation could not tole-
rate that. As for any other Jat, there was probably
none fit to fill that high position. Throughout all these
centuries upto the present time there has been scarcity
of able men capable of filling high positions among Jats.
Moreover Jat blood was ruuning in the veins of Cyrus.
He was the son of Ishtuvegu’s own daughter and was
Heir Apparent as the king had no male issue. I think
it was a ver} wise choice for Harpagus as subsequent
7

exploits of Cyrus would show. At any rate the loss of

pure Jat power was entirely due to the cruelty of temper
of Ishtuvegu.
Section 4
Gyrus
must me remembered that Cyrus was the head of
It
Manda Jat Empire of Ecbatana. This city of remote
32 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
antiquity had been known by different names in differ-
ent periods of history. It was also called Agbat ma.
In old Persian it was called Hagmatana from which the
modern name of Hamadan v as derived. In Bible this
city is named Achtnetha Under Cyrus the whole
organisation of the Empire was the same as under Manda
Jat Emperors. All high administrative officers were
Jats. The arm}' consisted of Jats and the Commanding
Officer was tlarpagus the brave and vise Jatw’ho had to
win so many victories under Cyrus.
The victories won by Jats under Harpagus -were
astounding. Xenophon says that Cyrus attached to
himself so many nations as it would be a labour to
enumerate. H. G. Wells says that when Cyrus succeed-
ed the throne, hs was ruling over an empire that
reached from the boundaries of Lydia to Persia and
perhaps to India. He further says that for two thirds
of a century the Second Babylonian Empire lay like a
lamb within the embrace of the median lion (The Out-
line of History Chapter 21, Sec. 5). In this quotation
we must coi rect the word median into Manda as dis-
cussed in Chapter 1, Sec. 5 Supra. The first to fall to
the sword of Jats was Croesus of Lydia. When
Ishtuvegu the relatiye of Croesus was overthrown by-
Cyrus, Croesus was in great mourning, because at that
time his son had been killed in a very tragic manner.
After the period of mourning Croesus who was already
smarting on account of the fate of his brother-in-law
Ishtuvegu who had been imprisoned by Cyrus, became
afraid cf the new power that lay in the hands of Cyrus.
He, therefore, began to think seriously about cutting
short that dangerous power. I here quote Herodotus
about that interesting story. Says Herodotus :

“For two years then, Craesus remained quiet in

great mourning because he was deprived of
his son, but after this period of time, the
overthrowing of the rule of the son of
Cyaxares by Cyrus, and the growing great-
ness of the Persians, caused Craesus to cease
from his mourning and led him to a care of
cutting short the power of the Persians if by
 MANDA EMPIRE 3;

any means lie might, while yet it was in

growth and beiore the}' should have become
great”.
He then made trial of the various oracles.
“To the Lydians who were to carry these gifts to
the temples Craesus gave charge that they
should ask the Oracles this question whether
:

Craesus should march against the Persians,

and if so, whether he should join with himself
any army of men as his iriends. And when
the Lydians had arrived at the places to which
they had been sent and had dedicated the
votive offerings, thej' inquired of the Oracles,
and said Craesus, king of the Lydians and
:

of other nations, considering that these are

the only true Oracles among men, presents to
you gifts such as your revelations deserve,
and asks you again now whether he shall
march against the Persians and if so, whether
he shall join with himself any army of men
as allies. They inquired thus and the answers
of both the Oracles agreed in one, declaring to
Craesus that if he should march against the
Persians he should destroy a great empire.:.
So when the answers were brought back and
Craesus heard them, he was delighted with
the Oracles and expecting that he would
certainly destroy the kingdom of Cyrus, he
sent again to Pytho, and presented to the
men of Delphi, having ascertained the number
of them, two staters of gold for each man and
in return for this the Delphians gave to
Craesus and to the Lydians precedence in
consulting the Oracle and freedom from all
payments, and the right to front seats at the
games, with this privilege also for all time,
that any one of them, who wished should be
allowed to become a citizen of Delphi.”
So Craesus made a defensive alliance both with' the
'Lacedemonians and the Egyptians. And Herodotus
'Continues,” while Craesus was preparing to
Inarch caga-
'ih^tdhfe'-Persiari, one 1
of the Lydians, who
- evenk
- before
 — —
34 antiquity OF 3 at race
thistime was thought to he a wise man but in conse-
quence of this opinion got a very great name for wisdom
among the Lydians, advised Oraesus as follows :

“0 King, thouart preparing to march against men

who wear breeches of leather, and the rest of their
clothing is of leather also ; and they eat food not such
as they desire, but such as they can obtain, dwelling in
a land which is rugged and moreover, they take no use
of wine but drink water ; and no figs have they for
dessert, nor any other good thing. On the one hand, if
thou slialt overcome them, what wilt thou take away
from them, seeing they have nothing ? and, on the
other hand, if thou shalt be overcome, consider how
many good things thou wilt lose for once having tasted
:

our good tilings, they will cling to them fast, and it will
not be possible to drive them away. I, for my own
part, feel gratitude to the gods that they do not put it
into the minds of the Persians to march against the
Lydians. Thus he spoke not persuading Craesus for it ;

is true indeed that the Persians before they subdued the

Lydians had no luxury nor any good thing. 5’

Craesus and Cjrus fought an indecisive battle at

Pteria, from which Craesus retreated. Cyrus followed
him up, and he gave battle outside bis capital town of
Sardis. The chief strength ol the Lydians lay in their
cavalry they were excellent, if undisciplined horsemen,
*,

and fought with long speais.

“Cyrus, when he saw the Lydians being arrayed for
battle, fearing their hoi semen, did on the suggestion of
Harpagus, a Mede, as follows :

All the camels which were in the train of his army

carrying provisions and baggage he gathered together
and he took off their burdens and set men upon them
provided with equipment of cavalry ; and, having thus
furnished them, foitli he appointed them to go in front
of the rest of the army towards the horsemen of Craesus,
and after the caiuel troop he ordered the infantry to
follow ; and behind the infantry he placed his
whole
force of cavalry. Then when all his men had been plac-
ed in their several positions, he charged them to spare
 MANDA EMPIRE -3o

none of the other Lydians, slaying all who might come

in their way, but Creasus himself they were not to slay,
not even if he should make resistance when he was being
captured. Such was his charge, and he set the camels
opposite the horsemen for this reason — because the horse
has a fear of the camel and cannot endure either to see
his form or to scent his smell, for this reason then the
trick had been devised in order that the cavalry of Crae-
sus might be useless, that very force wherewith the Lyd-
ian king was expecting most to shine. And as they were
coming together to the battle, so soon as the horses
scented the camels and saw them, they turned away
back, and the hopes of Craesus were at once brought to
nought.”
In fourteen days Sardis was stormed and Craesus
taken prisoner
“So the Persians having taken him brought him into
the presence of Cyrus ;
and he piled up a great pyre
and caused Craesus to go up upon it bound in fetters,
and along with him twice seven sons of Lydians, whether
it was that he meant to dedicate this offering as fiist-
fruits of his victory to some god, or whether he desired
to fulfil a vow, or else had heard that Craesus was a god-
fearing man, and so caused him to go up on the pyre
because he wished to know if anyone of the divine
powers would save him, so that he should not be burnt
alive. He, they say, did this ; but to Craesus as he
stood upon the pyre there came, although he was in such
evil case, a memory of the saying of Solon, how he had
said with divine inspiration that no one of the living
might be called happy. And when this thought came
into his mind, they say that he sighed deeply and groan-
ed aloud, having been for long silent, and three times
he uttered the name of Solon. Hearing this, Cyrus bade
the interpreters ask Craesus who was this person on
whom he called and they came near and asked. And
;

Craesus for a time, it is said, kept silence when he was

asked this, but afterwards, being pressed, he said, one
whom more than much wealth I should have desired.

to have speech with all monai’chs. Then, since his words

were of doubtful iinpurt, they asked again of that which
 - —
iO ANTIQUITY OF J AT RACE

.be said, and as they were urgent with him and gave- mm
no peaces lie told how once Solon', hn Athenian, had
borne and having inspected all his wealth had made light
of with such and such words, and how all had turned
it,
.out for bioi according as Solon had said, not speaking
"at all especially with a view to Craesus himself, but with
.a view to the whole human race, and especially those
'who seem to themselves to be happy men. And while
.Craesus related these things, already the pyre was lighted
-and theedges of it round about were burning. Then they
say that Cyrus, hearing from the interpreters what Crae-
sus had said, changed li s pui pose and considered that he
himself also was but a man, and that lie was delivering
another man. who bad been not inferior to himself in
felicity, alive to tlie fire ; and moreover, he feared the
'requital, and reflected that there was nothing of that
which men possessed which was secure, therefore, they
gayi he ordered them to extinguish as quickly as possible
the fire that w.»s burning and to bring down Craesus and
those who were with him from the pyre ; and they, using
endeavours, were not able now to get tbe mastery of the
Barnes. Then it is related by the Lydians that Craesus,
having learned how Cyrus had changed his mind, and
seeing that every one was tiying to put out the fire, but
they were no longer able to check it, cried aloud, entrea-
ting Apollo that if any gift had ever been given by him
which was acceptable to the god, he would come to his
aid and rescue him from the evil which was now upon
him., So lie with tears entreated the god, and suddenly,
they say, after cleat sky and calm weather clouds gather-
ed and a storm hurst, and it rained with a very violent
shower, and the pyre was extinguished.
“ Then Cyrus, having perceived that Craesus was a
lover "of the godsend a good man, caused him to be
brought- down from the pyre and asked him as follows
• “Craesus, tell me who of all men was it who per-
suaded time to march upon my land and so to
,
become an enemy to me instead of a friend ?
i
J
*
, And he said :

"*’ l C king ! I did this to thy, felicity and to my own

ii >
^misfortune, and the cause of this was the god
-
 MANDA EMPIRE 37

of the Hellenes, who incited' me to march with

my army. For no one is so senseless as to choose
of his own will war rather than peace, since fn
peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war
the fathers bury their sons. But it was pleas-
ing, I suppose, to the divine powers that these
things should come to pass thus.”
This conquest of Lydia and defeat.of Craesus cleuly
proves the bravery of Jat army under Harpagus and
strategy of Cyrus in defeating Lydian cavalry. Craesus
was the richest monarch of Asia. minor. He was the
owner of proverbial wealth. All that fell in the hands
of Jats as spoils of war. The empire was' now at its
Zenith. Harpagus took Lycia on the mediterranean
coast very easily in 545 B.c. and thus all Asia minor
upto the western coast fell into the possession of Cyrus.
He then turned his attention to the south where king
Nabonidus a remnant of Babylonian empire was ruling.
Why should he spare this Semitic king who >may; even-
tually become a thorn in his side. Jat army tinder Har-
*

pagus invaded Babylon in 539 B. o.' and defeated the

Babylonian army under Belshazzar and took possession
of that kingdom . Nabonidus the well-known Emperor
of Babylon fled away. Thus the great Babylonian
Empire of antiquity ’which was perhaps the , first empire
in the world found by history was finally overthrown by
Jats. Syria and Phoenicia also surrendered " Tasting
the fruits of so many victories Manda Jats could not sit
still. They conquered Samarkand and Bukhara” in
Bogdiana which was the ancient name of that country:
They also conquered Khiva and a large part of 'Afghanis-
tan." According to H.G. Wells (Outline of History Chap.
28 Sec. 1) the empire of Cyrus leached, from* the Helep
pont to the Indus and had high standard of Civilization ;
0
and its homelands remained un’conquered- and fairly
prosperous for over two hundred years "Elated with
so many successive victories Cyrus turned ins attention
to the country of Massagetae which was another ahcient
kingdom of Jats. At that time a Jat, queen narried
Tomyris was occupying the throne of Massagetoe.
Cyrus sent messengers and proposed his marriage with
her. The wise queen at once understood that be coveted
 —
3s ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
her kingdom. She, therefore, refused the ofiV. CyruS
then invaded her country and advanced up to the river
Araxes where he got 'prepared a boat-bridge. The
queen then sent the following massage to Cyrus :

“Sovereign of Medes, uncertain as you must be of

the event, we advise you to desist from your
present purpose. Be satisfied with the dom-
inion of your own kingdom and let us alone see-
ing how we govern our subjects. You will not,
however, listen to this salutary counsel loving
anything rather than peace. If then you are
really impatient to encounter the Massagetoe,
give up your present labour of constructing a
bridge, we will retire three days' march into
our country and you shall pass over at your
leisure ; or if you had rather receive us in your
own territory, do you as much for us.”

Getting this message Cyrus called a meeting of his

council of which Craesus was also a member. It was
proposed that out of the two alternatives suggested by
the Queen second should be chosen and the Persian army
should retreat 3 days’ march and wait for the army of
the queen. Craesus who was now a councillor of
Cyrus was against this proposal. His opinion was
that no body is always fortunate in this capricious
world, that if he allowed the enemy to advance in
his Country and, God forbid, there was a defeat, he
would lose his whole kingdom, because the victorious
Massagetoe would advance in his kingdom, and if he was
victorious, the time and distance spent in the pursuit
of his enemy would be lost. How could Cyrus son of '

Cambyses think of retreat from a female enemy without

dishonour, and bad name, he said, therefore in his opinion
he should advance to the country of the' enemy with
victory and honour. Craesus further said that he had
come to know that Massagetoe led very poor life and
v’ere quite stiangers at the rich foods of Persia there-
;

fore, his suggestion was that nice precious foods and

wine cups should he kept ready in the camp and weak
part of the army should be kept there and with the
remainder of the army they should retreat towards the
-
 —
MANDA EMPIRE
river, the enemy would advance towards the rich foods
and would give them chance of victory.
Cyrus liked this opinion and replied to the queen
that lie would advance in her kingdom. The queen
honestly performed her promise and retreated as arrang-
ed. Cyrus gave all his Regal authority to his son Cam-
byses as his regent and sent him with Craesus to Persia,
so that if the expedition was unsuccessful, he might
control the Empire. Cyrus himself crossed the river and
at night saw in his dream that the eldest son of Hystas-
pes had two wings on his shoulders one of which was
spread over the whole of Asia and the other upon
Europe. That boy Darius was in Persia because he wa^
too young for military service. Cyrus called Hystaspes
and secretly mentioned the dream and said that it
appeared that his son had rebelled against him. He
ordered Hystaspes to go to Persia, and when after
victory he himself returned to Persia, he should get full
explanation of the act of his son Darius.
Hystaspes said that no Persian could rebel against
the king, and if one did, his punishment was death.
Saying this he returned to Persia and began to supervise
his son. Cyrus in his campaign acted according to the
advice of Craesus. Massagetoe army attacked the weak
portion of the Persian army and slaughtered all of them'.
Then they 'saw the nice foods and wine and engaged
themselves in feasting and drinking. Being dead drunk
They slept. In that condition the Persians attacked
them. Some of them were slaughtered and the remain-
ing were taken prisoners. Spargapises the son of the
queen Tomyris was one of them. As soon as the queen
heard the news of her defeat, she again sent a message
to Cyrus as follows:

“Cyrus insatiable -as you are of blood, be not too

elate with your recent success. When you
yourself are overcome with wine what follies
do you not commit ? By entering your bodies
it renders your language more insulting. By
this poison you have conquered my sou, and
neither by your prudence, nor by your valour.
I venture a second time to aavise what it will
40 ANTIQUITY OF-JAT RACE
be certainly your interest to follow- Restore
my son to liberty and satisfied with the dis-
grace you have put upon a third part "of the
Massagetoe depart from these realms unhurt.
If you will not do this. I swear by the. sun
the great god of Massagetoe that insatiable as
you are of blood I will ogive you your
fill of it” -

This -messa'ge- had no effect upon Gyrus. When

'Queen son who was dead drunk came to his senses, lie
committed suicide. The queen then .in desperation
gathered all her forces. The battle which followed was
most ferocious. On both sides were ’brave Jats. They
fought to the finish. Herodotus says that of all the
wars of antiquity this was the most blood3’. Massagetoe
gained the final and complete victory (529 b. c.). Cyrus
himself was killed in action. The Jat queen ordered his
dead body to be searched for in the battlefield. After
obtaining the dead body she cut the head of Cyrus and
placed it in a vessel full of blood and said, “here take
fill of blood according to my promise.”

/ This was the first and crucial defeat and end -of
Great Cyrus by the hands of great Jats. (Massagetoe
means great Jats). A similar first defeat was suffered by
Alexander the Great at the hands of Sogdiana Jats as
ye shall see in a later Chapter. We. may all regret very
ipucli that Cyrus was not wise enough to attend' .to the
messages of the" Great Jat Queen and to escape -the sad
Fate Which befell him owing to unprovoked aggression
against a 'ffoman. The result was that the northern
'

boundary of the Great Empire was now fixed at "the

river Araxes. _ ,

D'v It reflects, a great ciedit upon the Mat Queen that

-

.she did not follow the victory upon a great and greedy
empire and did not persue the enemy in his own terri-
tory. Evidently she was a contented woman quite
happy within the bounds of her own kingdom. She did
not believe in the, greed of expansion by vicious aggres-
sioqp.-She had full knowledge of the risks of War.
° Her
philosophi cab ^temper is quite evident from
the Wo
 MANDA EMPIRE 41

messages which she sent to Cyrus. Prediction in the

messages became literally true as Cyrus was given his
“fill of blood”.
I am disposed to finish the stoiy of Manda Jat
Empire with the end of Cyrus. Although the arm} was
essentially Jat army commanded by Jat generals, the
1
"

throne was occupied by Persians. In future Emperors

Jat blood was progressively diluted by Persian blood
The Jat army played the same roll which was played by
Jat Sikh Army under the British Crown in modern
times. We 'may regret with considerable pains that
v

Persian Prince? of Elam who w ere ‘first the vassals of r

Assyrian Empire, and afterwards became the vassals of

Manda Jat Empire were raised to the dignity of Imperial
throne by the defective mind of a Jat Emperor. In this
book about Jat race I am not particularly concerned
with the pedigree and exploits of Persian Empire, except
mentioning that it was merely an offshoot of the Jaf
Empire, although authors of Historians' History of the
World (Vol. 2 page 571) say that the Jat kingdom conti-
nued to exist transformed into the Persian Empire. We
may say so, because all future Persian valour was the
valour of Jat army. History, however, persistently
ignores to recognise the prowess of arms and ascribes all
Hre 'meed to the head. I, therefore, finish this chapter
by merely mentioning the outstanding exploits of Jat
forces under Persian Emperors.

-
. _ _ - Section 5. „
1 ' Successors of Cyrils.
~ r r

A Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cainbyses who took

,

the Jat army into Egypt (525 B.c.). There was a bloody
battle in the delta. Herodotus declares that he saw the
bones pf the slain still lying on the field fifty or sixty
years later aftd continents on the comparative thinness
of the Persian skulls After this battle Cambyses took
Memphis and most of Egypt. On his way back to Susa
Cambyses died in Syria of an accidental wound
leaving no heir to succeed him. Here the dream
of Cyrus proved to be true. Cambyses was succeeded
by Darius the Jat (521 b.c.). who was the son of
the wise Jat Hystaspes one of the chief councillors
12 antiquity OF JAT race
of Gyrus. The extent of the empire of Darius was
astounding. In 515 b.c. he invaded Scythia and annex";
ed several cities of Thrace. He also took tribute from
the king of Macedonia. He overran upto Indus river
and annexed all the kingdoms to the north of Kabul.
He made that territory a Satrapy of the Empire. He
also fought battles in Greece. According to the dream
of Gyrus he spread one of his wings upon Asia and the
other upon Europe. In short, his empire was larger thaii
any one of the preceding empires known to history upto
that time. It included all Asia minor and Syria, that is
to say, the ancient Lydian and Hittite Empire, all the
old Assyrian and Babylonian empires, Egypt, the
Caucasus and Caspian regions, Media, Persia and it
extended upto Indus river. The organization of this
great empire was on a much higher level of efficiency
than any of its predecessors. Great arterial roads joined
province to province and there was a system of royal
posts. The Greek cities of the mainland of Asia also
paid the tribute and shared in this Persian peace.
After securing so much of Asia Darius turned his
attention towards Europe. He led his big army consist-
ing mostly of Jats to Thrace. He then crossed the
Danube to invade the Jat kingdom of southern Russia.
He, however, met there his superiors both in bravery
and strategy. For the second time the Imperial hosts
had to retreat in a shattered condition. The rout was
complete. Darius fled for bis life accross Danube.
Eventually he returned to Susa leaving an army in
Thrace under a brave general Megabazus who set himself
to the subjugation of Thrace. Among other States he
also subjugated the kingdom of Macedonia whioh. later
on, produced Alexander the Great,
After subjugating some islands the first attack on
Greece proper was made in 490 B. c. If was a sea-
attack upon Athens. This invasion of Greece was a
failure. Darius died in 485 B. c. He was succeeded by
his son Xerxes. He led the second Persian attack on
Greece by crossing at Hellespont (Dardanelles). After
some encounters Athens was occupied by the Persians
and burnt in 480 B. c. Persian fleet was, however, de-
feated and utterly .scattered,"sunken and destroyed by
 MAN DA EMPIRE 4?

the Greek fleet. Xerxes was afraid of the destruction

of the bridge of boats at Hellespont. He, therefore,
retreated being disgusted with his European campaigns.
He was murdered in -his palace in 465 B. c.

After this follows a multitude of Persian emperors

in the periodof decay which followed the great defeat in
Greece. We are not concerned with so many kings
named again and again as Artaxerxes, Xerxes, Darius,
etc. Free from -incessant campaigns the Persians had
nothing to do excepting mui’ders, revolts, punishment,
cunning alliances and base betrayals. The liberated
energy engaged itself upon its own destruction and
waited for the hammer blow of Alexander the Great for
shaping itself into a temporary Greek Empire.
 CHAPTER V
ABOUT KIKE CENTURIES FROM 400 B. C. TO 528 A. D.

Section 1-

Tussle icith Macedonians.

We now when the

enter upon a period of history
literary and
world was deprived of the intelligence .

services of scholars like Herodotus who was a Greek

.

subject of Mandk' Jat Empire having been borne in a

city of Asia minor on the coast of Mediterranean sea.
He was truly described as being the father of history,
because his clear and consecutive chronicle of his own
and antecedent periods is unparalleled. We, therefore,
have to depend upon fragments of literature for conti-
nuing our story. There are indications about the
exploits of the Jat race in such far off places as north
of China, the coasts of Baltic sea. Spain, Italy, Iceland
and even America as mentioned in Chapter II. There
is, however, no consecutive account of all these exploits.
The invasion of India by Jats and the establishment of
the important Ivanishak Empire and the war of
Kanishak with Salvahan are events shrouded in what is
called the night of Indian history. In all the above
mentioned places they must have founded empires like
Manda Empire. How they founded them, how they lost
them, we have no detailed account, because unfortu-
nately there was no Herodotus in all those places to
record their campaigns. I, therefore, have to join to-
gether fragments found here and there to continue this
story.

The river Danube in Europe is most important from

the point of view of Jat antiquity. On both banks of
this river were Jat settlements. In the north of it was
the western part of Scythia (modem Ron mania), and in
the south of it was Thrace the well-known birth place of
Getoe (modern Bulgaria). In the south of Thrace and
having common boundary with it was Macedonia the
 e cEtj'bijiuES khoM 400 b.o. to 528 a.d. 4$

birth place of Alexander the Great. The river Danube

was so closely connected with Jats »lmt it -entered in
their dreams. It was abbreviated into Dan and was
personified into an evil spirit, because at high flood it
swallowed their hamlets and cattle. Punjab Jats even
now use the word Dan for an evil spirit which swallows
men and children. It was this Danube which was the
scene of so many Jat exploits. They struggled not
only with Macedonians who were their close neighbours,
but also with Greeks and obliged the Greek Historian
Thucydides to declare that no nation either in Asia or
Europe could stand against Jats as mentioned in a
previous Chapter. Jat antiquity is intimately connected
with Macedonian antiquity. In 5th century b. c. Jats
furnished a contingent of cavalry to Sitalces king of the
Ourysoe in his attack on Perdiccas II king of Macedon.
The struggle between Odrysoe and Macedon continued
until Philip II of Macedon reduced the Odrysoe to the
condition of tributaries in 342 B. c. Although the
Getoe had supplied onty a single contingent of cavalry
to the Odrysoe, but fearing that their turn would come
next, they made overtures to the conqueror. The king
Gothelas of the Getoe undertook to supply Philip with
soldiers and his daughter became the wife of the Mace-
donian. This shows that there were marital relations
between kings of Getoe and Macedonia, and Jats were a
part of the invincible Phalanx of Philip of Macedonia
and thus formed part of the army of his son Alexander
the Great. In fact, the Thracian Getoe and Macedonians
being adjacent neighbours, there was great intermingling
of them. Fergusson who was a scholar of Greek anti-
quity used to say that Macedonians were a cross between
Greeks and Getoe of Thrace ; That Alexander the Great
owed his dare devil nature, to the fact that Jat blood
was flowing in his veins. He used to say that Olympias
the mother of Alexander the Great was the daughter of
the king of Epirus another neighbour country of Thrace
and that she was descended from Jat queens of Epirus.
Mature and habits of Olympias was quite like Jat women
qt .Thrace. Like them she was expert in Thrace Charms
and just like them she used to wind snakes round her
arms. JThere was mythological connection also between
 —
46 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE - r

Macedonian kings and Scythian Jats. The Macedonian

kings derived their pedigree fiom Hercules who Was
mythological father of Scytha the originator oi Scythian
race. Whether Jat blood was running in the veins of
Alexander or not, it is certain that great deal of Jat
blood was running in the veins of his army, because the
Phalanx which he inheiited from his father had consi-
derable portion of Jats in it.
Getoe gave good account of themselves in tkeii wars
with Macedonians. In 326 b.c. Zopyrion invaded the
country of Jats. He sustained a crushing defeat. In
292 b.o. Lysimachus invaded Jats and advanced upto
the battlefield of Bassarabia. The Jats cut off his
retreat there and he had to surrender. Jat army de-
manded that he should be executed, but the Jat king
Dromichaetes released him magnanimously without any
injur y. Philip once invaded Scythian Jats of Danube
and looted a great number of their horses and cattle.
On his return, the Jats made a counter attack on Philip
and rescued a great deal of looted property. Philip
sustained a grievous injury and with gieat difficulty
brought his army back to liis country through the
Haem us Pass. Alexander also invaded Thrace and
Triballians in 335 b.c. Although he was successful, but
he saved his own life with great difficulty. There being
no connected account of Jat exploits of that period, we
have to depend on glimpses of Jat bravery in the gloom
of that dark age. One such flash is provided by
Alexander’s speecli to the mutinous Macedonians at Opls
in 324 B.c. Here is the relevant poition of that
speech :

“You were destitutes and leather clad. You used

to giaze sheep and could not save yourselves
from Thrace Getoe. In such condition my
father took you under his protection, clothed
you in soldiers’ uniform and made you equal
to Thracian Getoe in the art of lighting.’"

This extract clearly shows that as far as bravery in

lighting is concerned, Thracian .lets veie
much superior
Macedonians. It has alreadv been mentioned in
Chapter IV how Jats under the command of Genera"
 NINE CENTUFUES PROM 400 B.C. TO 528 A.D. 4?

Megabazus of Darius subjugated the kingdom of Mace-

donia in 515 B.o. It was due to these brave character-
Scythian Jats that the great Greek historian
istics of
Thucydides declared that there was no nation either in
Asia or Europe that was able to stand against the
Scythians,

Alexander in his triumphal march in Asia invaded

Sogdiana, modern W. Turkistan (Vide Historians’ His-
tory of the World Vol. 3-4 page 348-351). The capital
of Sogdiana was Samarkand which was at that time a
country of Jats who were the remote ancestors of
Punjab Jats. At that time Sogdiana was a province of
Scythia. There was a ferocious battle between Alexan-
der’s forces and the Jats of Sogdiana on the banks of
the river Amu Darya (Jilion) in which the Jats annihi-
lated the Macedonian army and gained a big victory, in
fact the only victory in Asia against Alexander's army.
This victory shocked Alexander who never expected such
crushing defeat in Asia. He fell ill with diarrhoea and
for some time his life was in danger. This happened
in 328-327 b.c. For full one year the Jats of Sogdiana
did not allow any rest to the remnants of Macedonian
army. Alexander was so much impressed with the
bravery of Sogdiana Jats that in 327 b.c. after recovery
he recruited thirtj' thousand Jats in his depleted army
(Vide Historians’ History of World Vol, 3-4 page 351).
It was this army including Sogdiana Jats which de-
feated Porus in the Punjab. This was the first chance
for the Jats to see the fertile lands of the five rivers,
andj in fact, this chance was the origin of the ambition of
Jats to settle in the Punjab, prompting further waves of
this race to invade and occupy this wonderful country.
They found it to be much more fertile tract of land than
the valley of Sir Darya and Amu Darya (Sjhon and
Jilion).

When Alexander in his triumphal march in the

Punjab reached the banks of Satluj and the Macedonian
army refused to proceed further in India. Alexander
threatened that if the Macedonians did not proceed with
Him further in India, he would take only his Bactarian
and Scythian soldiers with him (Vide Historians, History
48 ANTIQWT^ 05 JAT RACE .

of the World Vol. 3-4 page 361). Th isC clearly .shoiys.

that there were Baclarian and Scythian;- Jats in the-
army of Alexander the Great in his campaign in India.
Section 2
{Ancestors of Punjab Jats) ,
-

We have seen in the previous Section that the pre-

sence of Jat soldiers in the army of Alexander prompted
wave after wave of Jat race to invade arid settle in the
Punjab. Unfortunately there was no scholar of history
to record their exploits. The period of the empire of
Asoka is from 363 to 226 B.c. The succeeding 12 cen-
turies of Indian history after Asoka are called the night
of history. The historical material of this period is so
meagre that we have to depend upon the accounts of
foreigners which are not always quite correct. Punjab
Jats are descended from that race of Indo Scythians who
had been, called by various names as Yue-chi, Tue-ch i,
Bphthalites, Sakas, Kushans or Huns. They belonged
to the same Jat race called by different names by diffe-
rent nations. Chines called them Yue-chi or Tue-chi,
Indians called them Sakas or Kushans ;
and Greeks
called them Ephthalites or Huns. It is most interesting
to see that according to Encyclopaedia Britanica Yuchi
is a tribe of red Indians in America constituting a sepa-
rate linguistic stock whose culture was marked by traits of
Muskogi type, and they still survive in the creek area in
Oklahoma. I hope some interested research scholar will
like to fish out more facts about this Jat tribe before it
becomes extinct there. They -probably entered America
through Alaska in pre-historic times.
In 200 B.c. the Jats under the name of Indo-
Scythians attacked and subdued the Greeko-Bactarian
kingdom which extended upto the river Jamuna. Punjab
was thus a part of that kingdom. Their rule continued
unwritten by any historian. In that night of history we
come accross some glimpses of light. In 372 a.d. under
the leadership of Balainir they advanced from the north
of Caspian sea to the west and conquering several nations
they subjugated all the countries upto the north of
Danube river. They took tribute from, the Roman
 NINE CENTURIES PROM 400 B.C. TO 528 A D. 49

Emperor. Entreaties of Pope had great effect upon

their religious nature and Italy was thus saved. Attila
Goth descended from this branch. He will be described
in the next Chapter. In a.d. 278 Kanishka established
a great Indian Empire like Ashoka. Very few facts are
known about this great Jat Empiie. We
know that
Kanishka was a devout Budhist like Ashoka. He reigned
from Madura upto Bukhara. During Ins reign the fourth
Council of Budliists was held in Jullundur under the
presidency of Vasumitra. It is said that Salvahan
stopped the advance of Scythians to the south in 78 a.d.
Several kings of the name of Bikarmajit have been men-
tioned who fought with Scythians which made confusion
worse confounded. This confusion caused a great deal
of disturbance in the history of India. (Vide Historian’s
History of the World Vol. 2, page 480). The history
about Bikramajit degenerated into mythology and fig-
ment of scholastic brains. In this historical gloom very
few authentic facts are known about Jat history in
India. We do not even know the true dimensions of
the Empire of Kanishka. It was probably equal to
the empire of Ashoka. We know that Kanishka was
very fond of spreading Greek arts and statues in his
empire. This fondness he inherited from Greeko-
Bactarian kingdom which his predecessors conquered.
Erom such statues we know that Afghanistan, Punjab,
Rajputana and Muthra etc., were included in his empire.
H. G. Wells says in the Outline of History (Chap. 28,
Sec. 4, page 475), that Indo-Scythians conquered northern
portion of India as far as Benares wiping out the last
vestiges of Hellenic rule in India.

Still less is known about the adventures of Turman

and Mihlrgil. This is most unfortunate, because it was
the adventures of these Jat kings which spread the Jat
race of the present time far and wide in the Punjab and
beyond in U. P. and Bharatpur. They left the traces of
such well-known sub-castes of Punjab Jats as Man and
Gill. There are so many villages of Man Jats and Gill
Jats in the Punjab. Some writers spell and pronounce
Mihirgil as Mihirgul, but every Punjabi Jat knows that
a Jat name can never end in the suffix Gull which is a
60 ANTIQUITY 01? JAT BACE

Pathan or Pushto suffix. Even at the -present time

there are such names of Jats in the Punjab as Milira Gil
and Basanta Mann. Even about dates there is much
confusion. H G. Wells says that Mihar Gill was over-
.

thrown by his Indian Tributary princes in 528 a.d. On

the other hand, it is said that he was fighting in southern
Sindh between 514 A d. and 550 a.d. He ascended the
throne in 515 a.d. H. G. Wells says that Mihar a Gill
was the most capable leader of Jats, while the author of
Raj Trangni has nothing but vilification for him. That
author says that Miliara Gill conquered upto Lanka and
the Rajas of Tanjaur, ICarnatak and Gujrat were all
subdued by him. Very little is known about his prede-
cessor Turman, It is said that he conquered Punjab and
Malva pushing all the Hindu Rajputs of the Punjab to
the safety of the hills and the deserts of Rajputana.
Chinese literature contains an account of these Yue-chi
who were the ancestors of the present Punjab Jats ; but
unfortunately there has been no research by scholars in
that literature. The Greek historian Procopius also
wrote about them, but I have not been able to procure
his book in spite of efforts. It is perhaps out of print.
Whatever little is known about these Ephthalite Jats
shows that previously they used to live in the north of
the Chinese wall. H. G. Wells calls them Huns and
says that they were kindred of Yue-chi. It was against
the attacks of these Jats that the Chinese Emperor She-
Hwang-ti accomplished the feat of building the Great
Wall of China in 246 b.c. More facts will be known
about these Jats when research is held in the Chinese
literature of that time. Having been cheeked from the
south by that Great Wall they pursued their adventures
towards the west and after crossing the mountain harrier
entered Chinese Turkistan. They conquered and occu-
pied all the surrounding countries including Western
Turkistan and Afghanistan. They made Balkh as their
capital, Ella and Percy Sykes writes in bis well-known
book “Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia” that
in eastern Turkistan there are still strong evidences of
nordic blood in the physiognomy of the people. It was
from that capital that they conquered Greeko Bactarian
kingdom and Persia, Later on, their wave after wave
 NINE CENTURIES PROM 400 B.O. TO 628 A.D. 61

entered down the Khyber Pass and conquered northern

portion of India as far as Benares wiping out the last
vestiges ofHellenic rule in India. I consider it an ex-
aggeration on the part of author of Raj Trangni to say
that Miliar Gil conquered India upto Lanka. He simi-
larly exaggerated the cruelty of that monarch. Sangla
in the Punjab was the capital of Turman and Mihargil.
Like Ishtuvegu Mihargil was another Jat monarch hav-
ing seriously defective mind. When he invaded Kash-
mir and was crossing the Banibal pass with his army
including elephants, one of the elephants fell down the
precipitous rock and was killed. The shrieks of the
elephant so pleased his morbid mind that he ordered
other elephants to be rolled down the precipitous rocks
simply for the purpose of enjoying their screams.
Although the momentum of Turman’s bravery carried
the Jat army triumphantly through India, still the mor-
bid mind of the monarch could not fail to have the
natural effect. His abominations roused his Indian tri-
butary princes to revolt and he was ultimately over-
thrown. What was left as a result of so many waves of
Jab incursion in India was a large population of Jat
race in the Punjab and surrounding provinces, which as
Jat Sikhs was destined to play so important a political
part in the present time. If the mind of Mihar Gil had
been normal, he would certainly have followed the foot-
steps of Kanishka and founded a great Jat Empire in
India.
While speaking about the bravery of Jat race of
this period I should not omit to mention their bravery
against Roman Legions of that period. After annihilat-
ing the Greeko Bactarian kingdom the Jat waves had
conquered and occupied Iran. The great Roman
general Crassus took his triumphant legions across Asia
minor upto the river Euphrates. His ill luck and in-
satiable ambition prompted him to cross that river and
to conquer more territory to the east. He was quite
ignorant about the enemy he had to meet. He did not
know that he had to encounter his superiors in bravery.
He found himself against the Scythian Jats. A great
battle of Carrhae (53 b.c.) was fought between the
Roman legions and the Jats which culminated in two
52 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
daj massacre of the hot. thnsty, hungry and weary
’s
Roman legions. Twenty thousand of them were hilled
and ten thousand marched on eastward as prisoners into
slavery in It an. What became of Ciassus is not clearly
known Tkeie is a story that he fell alive into Jat hands
and was killed In having molten gold poured down his
throat. Nobody can \ ouchsafe about the truth of that
story. The Roman Empire was thus checked from be-
ing pushed bee ond Mesopotamia In the next Chapter
I shall relate the interesting account of the destruction
of Roman empire at the hands of Jats.
 CHAPTER VI
JAT CONQUESTS IN EUROPE IN FOURTH AND FIFTH
CENTURY A. D.

Section 1
Before I begin the account of Jat conquests in Eu-
rope, I remind the reader to refresh his memory by read-
ing Chapter II where I have discussed in detail about
the different names of Jat race, the difference being
caused by the operation of what is called Grimm’s Law
of Variation in the science of Philology. In the case of
Jat race this law has been working from pre-historic
times. Chinese called them Yue-chi. In Europe Y
was
changed into G and ch into t and the name became
Getae. In Denmark it was simplified into Jut and the
territory which they occupied was named Jutland. The
name of the territory became permanent while Grimm’s
law continued operating upon the race and the name
changed into Jute. In Scandinavia the word J was
changed into the gutteral G and the name became Goth
and the territory which they occupied in Scandinavia
was called Gothland. Even now the Grimm’s law is
working in India and the Juts of the Punjab have been
changed into Jaats of Hariana Prant and U. P. We
have seen in Chapter I, Section 3, how by a great philo-
logical mistake Manda Jats of antiquity were called
medes and the mistake continued upto Herodotus until
it was corrected by the discovery of the monuments of
ISTabonidus and Cyrus. For the sake of clarity I give
other instances of the variation of the names by different
nations. The Arabs call plato as Aflatoon, Aristotle as
Arastoo, Socrates as Suqrat etc. Europeans called the
river Sindh as Indus, Ganga as Ganges, Hind as India.
Alexander the Great called king Purusli as Porus and
also changed the names of the Punjab rivers. In this
confusion of names caused by philological law
r
and philo-
logical mistake, I must repeat that I propose to call the
race by the simple familiar name of Jat. I repeat this
54 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
precaution so that the conventional reader may not
misunderstand when I use the word Jat for Goth and.
other variations caused by Grimm’s Law.

Section 2
(Attacks on Roman^Empire)
We have no account as to when the
satisfactory
Jats called Goths pushed southwards from their home-
lands round the Baltic sea. We know that in third
century a.d. they migrated from Sweden right across
Russia to the black and Caspian seas and wrested the
command of these eastern seas from the control of Rome.
In south Russia they were divided by the river Dnieper
into Visigoths or Western Goths and Ostro Goths or Eas-
tern Goths. In 247 a.d. the}' crossed the Danube and
defeated and killed the Roman Emperor Decius in the
country now called Serbia. The province of Dacia was
thus wrested from the Roman Empire. They were, how-
ever, defeated by the Emperor Claudius in the battle of
Uishin Serbia in 270 a.d. They, however, recovered their
vigour soon and attacked Pontus in 276 a.d. The vici-
ssitude of fortune continued between Jats and Roman
Emprors for some time. Rome was not a secure city
now and for the first time in Roman history the city was
fortified by the emperor Aurelian (270-275). In 321 a.d.
Jats again attacked the Danube region and plundered
what is now Serbia and Bulgaria. They were, however,
driven back by Constantine the Great. Near about the
middle of the fourth century the •western Jats called
Visigoths crossed the Danube into Roman territory and
defeated the Emperor Valens who was killed in this
battle. They then occupied and settled in the country
now called Bulgaria. There was eventually a treaty
between these Jats and the Roman Emperor according
to which the Jat army nominally became a Roman army,
hut they retained their own generals the foremost of
whom was Alaric.
Section 3
(Wonderful Jat Conqueror Alaric)
Alaric was wonderful man of the Jat race. He was
the first Jat who stood as a conqueror in the city of
 j AO? CONQUESTS IN EUROPE IN 4TH & 5TH CENTURY A.D, 55

Rome. He was born about 370 a.d. on an Island named

Peuce (the at the mouth of the Danube. He was
fir)
of noble descent, his father being a Scion of the family
of the Baltlii or Bold-men next in dignity among Jat
warriors to the Amals. In 394 a.d. he served as a Gene-
ral of Peo-derati (irregulars) under the Emperor The-
odosius in the campaign in which he defeated the usurper
Eugenius. This battle of the Frigidus was fought near
the passes of the Julian Alps where Alaric had the oppor-
tunity of knowing the weakness of the natural defence
of Italy on her north-eastern frontier. When Theodosius
died, his sons Arcadius and Honorius were unfit to appre-
ciate the bravery of Alaric and he remained a mere officer
of Feo-derati. This was not enough for that ambitious
man. His countrymen were also grumbling at the with-
drawal of the presents, in other words the veiled ransom-
money which for many years they had been accustomed
to receive. Those Jats raised him on a shield and accla-
imed him as a king. The historian Jordanes says that
both the leader and followers resolved “rather to seek
new kingdom by their own valour, than to slumber in
peaceful subjection to the rule of others.”
Roman empire had been divided into eastern and
western empires. Alaric struck first at the eastern em-
pire. He marched to the neighbourhood of Constantin-,
ople. He did not, however, think it worth while to
undertake the tedious siege of the city. He turned west-
wards and then marched southwards through Thessaly
and the pass of Thermopylae into Greece. Alaric’s
invasion of Greece lasted for twoj^ears (395-96). He con-
quered Attica upon which Athens at once capitulated
to the conqueror, and thus saved itself from the ravage.
He then penetrated into Peloponnesus capturing the
famous cities of Corinth, Argos and Sparta. Meanwhile
the emperor Arcadius sent the legions under Stilicho to
stem the Jat tide. Alaric at once crossed the Corinthian
gulf and marched with the plunder of Greece northwards
to Epirus. It is interesting to see that it was not possi-
ble for the Roman legions to pursue the Jat leader there.
Eventually the friction between the eastern and western
sections of the empire increased. The emporor Arcadius
wbo had now tasted the bravery of Alaric conferred
56 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
upon him the government of part of the important pre-
ferture of Illjricum for the purpose of making him a
powerful and valuable ally and his state as buffer state.
Thus ruling the Danubian provinces he was on the con-
fines of the two empires Alaric being an astute Jat
thought it a great opportunity to play one throne against
another, and in the words of the poet Claudian he “sold
his alternate oaths to either throne”. He made the
imperial aisenals to prepare the weapons with which to
arm his Jat followers for the next campaign.
About the year 400 a.d. Alaric made his first inva-
sion of Italy, and after speading desolation through
north Italy and striking terror into the citizens of Rome
he was met by Roman legions under Stilicho at Pollentia
(a Roman Municipality in what is now Piedmont), and
was defeated in the battle (6th April 402) This defeat
was due to the fact that the day was an Easter day, and
Alaric trusted to the sanctity of Easter for immunity
from attack. The enemies of Stilicho reproached him
for having gained his victory by taking an unfair advan-
tage of the great Christian festival. After one other
reverse before Yeiona Alaric quitted Italy in 403 A.D.
This first invasion of Italy by Jat forces, although
unsuccessful, had produced important results. It had
caused the imperial residence to be transferred from
Milan to Ravenna ; it had necessitated the withdiawal
of the 20tli legion fiom Britain, and Gaul and Spain
were lost to the empire.
The restless spirit of Alaric was smarting under the
failure of his first invasion. He, therefore, crossed the
_ Julian Alps and stood before the walls of Rome in
September, 40S a.d. and began a strict blockade. The
senate sent to him ambassadors for the purpose of
entreating for peace They began to terrify him with
their hints of what the despairingcitizens might accom-
plish. Upon laughed and quite Jat-like gave
this Alaric
them his celebrated answer “The thicker the hay, the
easier mowed ’. After much bargaining the citizens
agreed to pay a ransom of more than a quarter of
million sterling, besides precious garments of silk and
three thousand pounds of pepper.
 JAT CONQUESTS IN EUROPE IN 4TH & 5TH CENTURY A.D. 51

We need not follow in detail the confusion which

was caused in Roman politics after this defeat at the
hands of Jat forces. After waiting for about a couple
of years Alaric found his great opportunity and made
his third invasion of Italy. Then followed a crowning
event in Jat history. On 24th August, 410 Alaric and
his Jat forces captured Rome by bursting in by the
Salarian gate on the north-east of the city. The Jats
showed themselves not absolutely ruthless conquerors
and there is no reason to attribute an}'’ extensive des-
truction of the buildings of the city to Alaric and his
army. Contemporary ecclesiastics recorded with wonder
many instances of their clemency. Christian churches
saved from ravage, protection granted to vast multitudes
who took refuge therein, vessels of gold and silver found
in a private dwelling spared because the}7 “belonged to
St. Peter”, at least one case in which a beautiful Roman
matron appealed, not in vain, to the better feelings of
the Jat soldier who had assailed her.

The victorious Alaric then marched southwards into

Calabria. He desired to invade Africa, which on
account of its corn crops was now the key of the posi-
tion. His ships, however, were dashed to pieces by
a sudden storm in which many of his soldiers perished.
He died of fever soon after that. He was succeeded
in "the command of the Jat army by his brother-in-law
Ataulphus.
Our chief authorities for the career of Alaric are
the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both
strictly contemporary, and Jordanes, a Jat who wrote
the history of his nation in the year 551, basing his work
on the earlier history of Cassiodorus (now lost), which
was written in 520.

Section 4
{Jat Kings of Spain and Rome)

Although Alaric was the first Jat king to ascend

the Roman throne, we should not think that he became
the emperor of Roman Empire. His chief achievement
was the destruction of Roman empire which he smashed
ss antiquity of jat RACE
to pieces. Roman legions had to be withdrawn from
Britain and Gaul which countries had been left to chaos.
Britain instead of being thankful to God for liberation
from Roman servitude was actually groaning that
Roman legions had left. Similar was the mental condi-
tion in Gaul which at that time was not obsessed with
the dreams of hbeity and Equality. So many adven-
turers including Goths invaded Gaul that the confusion
became worse confounded. In Spain Alaric II was the
eighteth king of the Goths who succeeded his father
Euric on 28th December, 484. His chief achievement
worth remembering was appointment of a commission to
prepare an abstract of the Roman Laws and imperial
decrees which should form the authoritative code for his
Roman subjects. This is generally known as the Bre-
viarium Alarieianum or Breviary of Alaric. There is
nothing veiy important to write about other Jat kings
who passed their time by the usual pastimes of despots.
Roman throne was also occupied by Goths. In 493
Theodoric Goth became Kiqg of Rome. Totila the
Gothic King of Rome retook Naples from the Greeks.
He was greatly influenced by saint Benedict to whom he
used to go for counsel. Under his influence at the time
of taking Naples Goths protected the women from insult
and treated even the captured soldieis with humanity.

Section 5
(Jat Conqueror Attila)

I close this Chapter by mentioning the meteoric

career of Attila Jat of this period. He is an important
personality from many points of view. His bravery was
proverbial. He was more nearly related to Punjab Jats,
because he was a descendant of Balamir a Scythian
leader who rose from the north of Caspian sea and
conauered so many countries upto Danube river and
beyond as mentioned in Chapter 5 above. Although
Attila belonged to the same branch of Jats to which
Indo-Scythians belonged, still he was called Attila the
Goth, not because his ancestors came from Gothland
bat because every leader who set upon the conquering
career in Europe was called a Goth by the Europeans.
 JAT CONQUESTS IN EUROPE IN 4TH & 5TH CENTURY A.D. 59

This does not matter because, as I have mentioned in

this book more than once, giving detailed reasons, the
word Goth is nothing but a variation of the word Jat.
The conquering career of Attila in Europe was most
extraordinary. The seat of his government was in the
plains east of the Danube. He conquered and swayed
a considerable empire both in Europe and Asia. He
negotiated on equal terms with the Chinese emperor.
He bullied Revenna and Constantinople for ten years.
Honoria was the grand-daughter of Theodosius II
Emperor of the Eastern Empire. She fell in love with
a court chamberlain and was, therefore, put under
restraint. In her despair she sent her ring to Attila
calling upon him to deliver her and to become her
husband. Attila at once marched southward and reach-
ed the very walls of Constantinople. According to the
historian Gibbon, he destroyed 70 cities in his progress.
The emperor had to make a costly peace with him. It
is not known why he did not include the liberation of
Honoria as a condition for peace. His Jat modesty
perhaps did not allow him to condescend to include love
affair in such a high transaction. Attila, however, conti-
nued to regard her as his bride. He used that relation-
ship as a pretext for farther aggressions. The emperor
was forced to negotiate further and sent an embassy to
the camp of Attila. Most fortunately a rhetorician
named Priscus accompanied that embassy and he wrote
a detailed narrative of what he saw about the camp and
way of living of the great Jat conqueror. Only frag-
ments survive of that narrative, but they are enough to
shed a clear light upon the Jat way of life in that remote
period. It is most interesting to know how that way
of life coincides with the present way of life of Punjab
Jats. The head of the embassy was Maximin, a good
and honest man. Quite unknown to him and, at that
time, to Priscus, Vigilius, the interpreter of the expedi-
tion, had also a secret mission from the court of
Theodosius to secure the assassination of Attila by
bribery. This secret work of Vigilius became known to
Attila through the confession of the proposed assassin.
Like a typical Jat Attila was magnanimous and careless
about his own life. He allowed the embassy to return
(JO ANTIQUITY OF JAT FACE
in safety, with presents of numerous horses etc. to
Constantinople. He, however, wanted to give a piece
of his mind to the emperor Theodosius IT. He sent an
ambassador for that purpose. The envoy carried the
—
following wonderful words to the emperor : “Theodosius
is the son of an illustiious and respectable parent,
Altila, likewise, is descended from the noble race, and
he has supper ted by his actions, the dignity which he
inherited from his father Munzuk. But Theodosius has
forfeited his parental honoms, and by consenting to pay
tribute, has degraded himself to the condition of a slave.
It is, therefore, just that he should reverence the man
whom foitune and merit have placed above him, instead
of attempting, like a wicked slave, clandestinely to
conspire against his master”.

Look at the grand standard of the above diction.

How like a noble Jat,and wliat was the reaction of the
successor of Julius Coesar to the above biting rebuke ?
It was abject submission The emperor sued for pardon,
and paid a great ransom.
How to return to the narrative of Prise ns about the
camp life of Attila, the differences in dietary soon
attracted his attention. Prisons mentions mead in the
place of wine, millet for corn, and a drink either dis-
tilled or brewed from barley. It is very interesting to
notice that the word mead is the same as the Punjabee
Mad pronounced just like tire first syllable of Madras.
Mad means wine in Punjabee. Similarly millet is the
favourite food of Jats of Hariana prant Priseus found
Attila’s capital rather a vast camp and village than a
town. There was only one building of stone, a bath
constructed on the Roman model. The mass of the
people nere in huts and tents like Punjab villages.
Attila and his leading men lived in timber palaces in
great stockaded enclosures uith their wives and minis-
ters about them. There was a vast display of loot, but
Attila himself affected a Jat-like simplicity. Be was
served in wooden cups and platteis. He worked hard,
kept open court before the gate of his palace, and was
commonly in the saddle- The primitive custom of Jats
of holding great feasts in hall still held good and there
 JAT CONQUESTS IN EUROPE IN 4TH & 6TH CENTURY A.D. 6l

was much hard drinking (Madtnasti). Prisons describes

how bards chanted before Attila. Every Punjabee has
the experience of the chanting of Jat bards They
“recited the verses which they had composed, to cele-
brate the valour and victories of Attila. A profound
silence prevailed in the hall and the attention of the
guests was captivated by the vocal harmony, which
revived and perpetuated the memory of their own ex-
ploits ; a martial ardour flashed from the e3ms of the
warriors who were impatient lor battle and the tears of
the old men expressed their generous despair that they
could, no longer, Partake the danger and glory of the
field. This entertainment, which might be considered
as a school of military virtue, was succeeded by a farce
that debased the dignity of human nature. A moorish
buffoon successive^ excited the mirth of the spectators
by their deformed figures, ridiculous dress, antic ges-
tures, absurd speeches, and the strange, unintelligible
confusion of different languages, and the hall resounded
with loud and licentious peals of laughter. In the
midst of this intemperate riot, Attila alone, without
change of countenance, maintained his steadfast and
inflexible gravity”. Reading this Gibbon’s version of
the narrative of Priscus we may well think that we are
not reading about the scene in Attila’s camp in the 5th
century a.d., but a scene in a modern jat village at the
time of the celebration of a Jat marriage where Jat
singers sing their peculiar songs, and Mimsi buffoons
called naglias in the Punjab perform their buffoonish
acts and excite peals of laughter from the audience. One
very interesting fact emerges from the above description
of Attila’s camp by Priscus. Jat kings at the time of
their conquest in Europe employed moors as buffoons.
Moors were perhaps the only race of experts in the per-
formance of buffoonish acts. I further guess that mira-
sies of the Punjab who reside in every jat village ns
menials of Jats are the descendants of the above men-
tioned mcers, the word nicer being a variation of
word moor.
Attila is described as of small stature, swarthy com-
plexion, wide chest, big head, prematmely grey hair,
snub nose and small eyes.
62 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
In 451. Attila declared war on the western empire,
He invaded Gaul plundered most of the towns of France
as far south as Orleans. Franks were too weak to re-
pulse him, but another branch of Jats called Visigoths
joined franks and the imperial forces against him. A
great and obstinate battle was fought at Chalons (451)
in which more than 1,50,000 men were killed on both
sides. He then suffered his first repulse in Europe, be-
cause another branch of the Jat conquerors of the pre-
vious period joined against him. He was not disheartened
by this reverse. He turned his attention southward and
invaded north Italy. Aquileia and Padua were burnt
and he looted Milan. Here Pope Leo I intervened and
entreated him to desist from further attacks. Magnani-
mous Attila then made peace at the entreaties of the
religious head of the Christendom. He died in 453. His
empire extended from the Caspian sea upto the river
Rhine.
 CHAPTER VII
CONQUEST OF BRITAIN BY JATS

Section I

( Conquest by Jutes)

The reader should recapitulate Chapter II of this

book before reading this Chapter. There I have given
detailed reasons to prove conclusively that Jutes, Goths,
Danes, Vikings, and Normans all belonged to Jat race.
This caution is necessary so that he may disabuse him-
self from the common error of Historians that Jutes be-
longed to the same Teutonic race as Angles and Saxons.
As a matter of fact, Jutes who lived in quite separate
territory from teutonic tribes had the same relationship
with Angles and Saxons, as the modern Jats of the
Punjab have with the Hindus. I realise that there are
some persons in India who insist that Jats belong to
Aryan race of Hindus, but no scholar of history can
believe in such flagrant confusion of racial distinctions.
After this caution I now enter upon an interesting
period of Jat history. This period is comparatively
modern, because its events are given in detail in so many
histories of England which every high school boy has to
read and remember. I, therefore, do not propose to
give in considerable details all the relevant events which
the interested reader may read in any history of England
I must, however, give a brief account of the bravery of
Jat race as compared with the bravery of Angles and
Saxons. It should be noted that from very remote anti-
quity upto the present times Jats have very often
handed over the fruits of their bravery to others. The
same thing happened when after founding Manda empire
and extending it by their valour, they handed it over
ready made to persians as described in Chapter IV. The
same thing happened in Britain. We have seen in
Chapter VI that when Allari captured Rome in 410, the
Roman legions from Britain had to be recalled and there
64 ANTIQUITY ON JAT RACE
was Chaos in Britain which was raided from all sides.
The miserable condition of the British people is well des-
cribed in ‘'The Groans of the Britons” which. I presume,
every college student has read. At that time the Jats
of Jutland called Jutes weie well-known for their valour
throughout noitlicrn Europe. The hard pressed ruler of
Britain named Vortigern resolved to request their help
in resisting the surrounding raids. They tempted them
by the usual promises of land and pay. One of the most
important events of Jat history then took place. In
449 a. D. Jats of Jutland under their chiefs Hengest and
Horsa landed at Ebbsfleet on the shores of the Isle of
Thanet. Jats had no difficulty at all to defeat the
raiders named Piets. After getting his purpose accomp-
lished Vortigern wanted to shake off Jats from Britain,
but they were captivated by the beautiful scenery of the
Island and the fertility of soil. They resolved to stay.
Their numbers swelled as the news of the settlement
spread in Jutland. Vortigern expressed his inability to
supply rations and pay to such a great number of
soldiers. Thanet was still cut off from the mainland by
an arm of the sea. The Jats, therefore, resolved to cap-
ture the mainland by their force of arms instead of
begging rations from the ungrateful and selfish Vortigern.
They entered Kent and captured East Kent by their
victory at Alesford. There followed a general massacre
after that victory. The great fortresses erected along
the Saxon Shore in Roman times were taken one by one
by the Jat forces and about 23 years after their first
landing the whole coast of Kent was in their hands.
Jats had their settlements in the Isle of Wight
also. On hearing about the victories of the Jats of
Jutland, the mouths of their southern neighbours the
Saxons and Angles also began to water. At first the
East Saxons invaded the shores of Britain and founded
some settlements. Then the West Saxons called Gewissas
in their native country invaded Britain. After some
initial success they .suffered a crushing
defeat at the
hands of Britons at mount Badon in the year 520. The
victory of Britons was so decisive in this battle
that
for 32 yeais the west Saxons could not dare
to invade
Britain. Eventually they requested the help of Jutes
or Jats of Jutland which was readily
given in the year
 CONQUEST 01* BRTfAIR £¥; JATS 66

552. With that help of Jats the king Gyn lie of the West
Saxons took up the work of invasion by a new advance.
This advance was successful and they captured the hill
fort of old Sa rum.
,
They then completed the conquest
of Marlborough Downs. Their victorious advance con-
tinued and in 571 under the lung Cuthwulf they became
masters of the districts now called Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire. At the victory of Deorham in 577
they ca.ptured the cities of Gloucester, Cirencester and
Bath, and the line of the great western x-iver lay open
to the arms of the conquerors. The historian Green
says that these West Saxons were destine'd in the end to
win the overlordship over -every English people. The
question arises what happened to the Jutes or Jats by
whose help these defeated West Saxons became so vic-
torious in their second invasion of Britain ? What
happened to those Jats who under Hengest and Horsa
.

were the pioneers in the conquest of Britain ? I have

already mentioned in the previous chapter that through-
out ages they have been most careless about keeping
the fruits of their valour, and have been handing over
ready made empires to other people. The oblivion is so
complete that the word Jute or Jat is very rare in the
English literature now. The country is named England,
the land of Angles, and the race which conquered
Britain is called the Anglo-Saxon race. Thirty-two
years which passed between the defeat of West Saxons
in 520 and their career of victories beginning from 552
is a period full of legends in British history. There is
the legend of Arthur just like the legend of Bikramajit
of Indian mythology. Welsh legends represent this
period as that of the reign of king Arthur. Some
modern inquirers have argued that Arthur's kingdom
was in the north, while others have argued that it was
in the south. The historian Gardiner says that it is
quite possible that the name was given by legend to
more than one champion, just as the name of Bikrama-
jit was given in the Indian legends td more than oue
person. I mention this to show the unsatisfactory
nature of British history of that period. The only
66 ANTIQUITY OF TAT RAGE
extant British account of the conquest of Britain is that
of the monk Gildas which Green calls diftuse and inflat-
ed. ‘This monk was not free from partiality. The
reader of the history of England should, therefore,
beware about some mistakes of that account which are
followed by some historians.

Section 2

Conquest by Normans

In Chapter II of this book I have explained how

Danes, Vikings or Normans were names of the same race
of Scythian Jats. The invasion of England by Danes
and their struggle with Alfred and his successors, is
known to every student of History of England reading
in a high school. In 1016 a Danish king Canute the
Great reigned in England and not only over England,
but over Denmark and Norway. According to H. G.
Wells his subjects sailed to Iceland, Greenland and per-
haps to American Continent. I propose to mention
very briefly the conquest of England by William the
—
conqueror the great Norman who gave England a line
of great English kings. I have mentioned briefly the
origin of Normans in Chapter II. I must recapitulate
that Normans were none but the Jutes or Jats of Jut-
land who captured and occupied the northern coast of
Trance. They swooped upon northern Trance under
Hrolf the Ganger just as their predecessors had swooped
upon Britain under Hengest and Hoi'sa. Hrolf wrested
from the Trench king Charles the Simple the land on
either side of the mouth of Seine river. The treaty in
which Trance purchased peace by the cession of the
coast was called peace of Clair-sur^Epte of
912. Hrolf
received the king’s daughter in marriage and became
the
hrst Duke of Normandy (Northman-dy). Normans
were so called because they were north
land and Norway.
men living in Jut-
William the. conqueror was in the
 — —
CONQUEST OF BRITAIN BY JATS 67

sixth generation from Hrolf the Ganger. The Genealogy

is' as follows :

Hrolf
912-927

William Longsword
927-943

Richard I, the Fearless

943-996
i

Richard II, the Good

996-1026

Richard III Robert

1026-1028 1028-1036

William I, the Conqueror

1035-1087
King of England
1066-1087

The conquest of England by William the conqueror

and the line of kings which followed is an important
part of the history of England. My purpose to mention
him in this chapter is simply to show that William the
Conqueror was a Jat, having descended from ancestors
-who lived in Jutland in the north. To support this
dictum I must quote the great historian H, G. Wells
who in Ch. 32, Sec. 8 of his well known work “The Out-
line of History” says about Danes and Normans and
William the Conqueror as follows :

‘‘Practically, from the standpoint of universal

history, these peoples were the same
all
people, waves of one Nordic stock. These
waves were not only flowing westward, but
eastward. Already we have mentioned a very
interesting earlier movement of the same
peoples under the name of Goths from Baltic
to the Black Sea. We
have traced the split-
ting of these Goths into the Ostrogoths and
the Visigoths and -the adventurous wanderings
that ended at last in the Ostrogoth kingdom
<S8
'
'ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
in Italyand tlie Visigotli states in Spain. In
the ninth century a second movement of the
North-men across Russia was going on at the
same time that their establishments in
England and their dukedom of Normandy
were coming into existence. The population
of South Scotland, England, East Ireland,
Flanders, Normandy and the Russias have
more elements in common than we are accus-
tomed to recognize. All are fundamentally
Gothic and Nordic peoples. Even in their
weights and measures the kinship of Russian
and English is to be noted, both have the
Norse inch and foot, and many early Norman
churches in England are built on a scale that
shows the use of the sajene (7 ft.) and quarter
sajene, a Norse measure still used in Russia.
These “Russian Norse-men travelled in the
’

summer-time, using the river routes that

abounded in Russia, they carried their ships
by portages from the northward-running
rivers to those flowing southward. They
appeared as pirates, raiders and traders both
upon the Caspian and the Black Sea. The
Arabic chroniclers note their apparition upon
the Caspian, and learnt to call them Russian,.
They raided Persia and threatened Constanti-
nople with a great fleet of small craft (in 865,
904-, 941 and 1043). One of these Northmen,
Rurik (circa 850), established himself as the
ruler of Novgorod and his successor, ,the duke
Qleg, took Kief ,and laid the foundations of
modern Russia. The fighting qualities of the
Russian Vikings were speedily appreciated at
Constantinople, the' Greeks called them Varan-
gians, and an Imperial Varangian bodyguard
.
1

was formed- After the conquest of England

by the Normans (1066), a number of Danes
and English were driven into" exile and joined
these Russian Varangians, apparently finding
few obstacles to intercourse in their speech
'
and habits,
 CONQUEST OF BRITAIN BY JATS 69

Meanwhile the Normans from Normandy were also

finding their way into the Mediterranean from
the West. They came first as mercenaries,
and later as independent invaders, and they
came mainly, not, it is to be noted, by sea,
but in scattered bands by land. They came
through the Rhineland and Italy partly in
the search for warlike employment and loot,
partly as pilgrims. For the ninth and tenth
centuries saw a great development of pilgrim-
age. These Normans, as they grew power-
ful, discovered themselves such rapacious and
vigorous robbers that they forced the Eastern
Emperor and the Pope into a feeble and in-
effective alliance againt them (1053) They
defeated and captured and were pardoned by
the Pope, they established themselves in
Calabria and South Italy, conquered Sicily
from the Saracens (1060-1090), and under
Robert Guiscard, who had entered Italy as a
pilgrim adventurer and began his career as a
brigand in Calabria, threatened the Byzantine
Empire itself (1081). His army, which con-
tained a contingent of Sicilian Moslems, cross-
ed from Brindisi to Epirus in the reverse
direction to that in which Pyrrhus had crossed
to attack the Roman Republic, thirteen
centuries before (275 B. C.). He laid siege to
the Byzantine stronghold of Durazzo.
Robert captured Durazzo (1082), but the pressure
of affairs in Italy recalled him and ultimately
put an end to this first Norman attack upon
the Empire of Byzantium, leaving the way
open for the rule of comparatively vigorous
Comnenian dynasty (1081-1204). In Italy,
amidst conflicts too complex for us to tell
here, it fell to Robert Guiscard to besiege and
sack Rome (1084) and Gibbon notes with
quiet satisfaction the presence of that contin-
gent of Sicilian Moslems amongst the looters.
There were in twelfth century three other
Norman attacks upon the Eastern power, one
 —
70 ANTIQUITY OF JAT RACE
by the son of Robert Guiscard and the two
others directly from Sicily by sea.”
Again on page 635 of the same chapter he says :

“We have, when we are thinking of the present

populations of these south Russian regions, to
remember also the coming and going of the
Northmen between the Baltic and the Black
Sea, and bear in mind also that there was a
considerable Slavonic population, the heirs
and descendants of Scythians, Sarmatians
and the like already established in these rest-
less, lawless, but fertile areas. All these
races mixed with and reacted upon one
another. The Universal prevalence of Sla-
vonic languages, except in Hungary, shows
that the population remained predominantly
Slav’’.

I have given these long quotations to show clearly

that Danes, Normans, Vikings and Goths all belonged
to the same Scythian race of Jats.
 CHAPTER VIII
JAT BRAVERY OF THE MODERN TIMES
This chapter dealing with modern times appears to
be an anomaly in this book which deals with antiquity.
My -only purpose is to show that unparalleled bravery
which has been the chief characteristic of Jat race
throughout the ages has continued upto the modem
times. I need not be profuse as I am not writing the
history of modern times. The scene still continues
.

"before the eyes of the reader. They had a tussle with

moslem power in the Punjab, as a result of which they
became rulers of the Punjab. Disunion deprived them
of that Sovereignty. Under British rule thej^ had many
opportunities to show their bravery in different coun-
tries of the world. They were pitted against Germans
in the first World War. In Prance where they had the
first experience of shells from Howitzers, they took them
as fireworks. In the second World War also they
fought in many battlefields in three continents. They
-

defeated Germans and Italians in North Africa. They

wiped out an Italian contingent from the top "'of a hill
by ascending that precipitous rock under a blasting
shower of bullets. The exploits of their- world famous
fourth Infantry Division in North Africa are still ringing
in the admiring ears of the World- The name -and fame
of this division as the ‘'Fighting Fourth” was world
wide, because they covered themselves with imperishable
glory by their magnificent deeds of valour and gallantry
born of first class fighting qualities in' several theatres
of World War II. To name only a /few of them they
took part in the epic battles of Sidi Barani, Tobruk,
Benghazi, Karen, Alamein, Cassinp and San Marino. It
was to them that the German General Von Oberst Arnim
the Commander-in-Chief of Axis? forces in North Africa
in the Second World War and successor to the famous
Field Marshal Rommel surrendered his armies on May
12,1943 at Tunisia. It was a/ a result of that surrender
that Fourth Infantry Division captured the proudest
 ?

?2 AfmQtJITY OF JAT RACE

War Trophy, the historic Caravan of the said German
Com mander-in-Cliief.
They have been used as shock troops everywhere
because they never wince even from the extreme dangers.
A couple of examples of personal bravery will do to
prove that quality.
Lt. Col : Rajindar Singh of Indian Army was
gwarded Maliavir Chakra. He commanded a tank unit
in Jammu Sector. He recaptured Jliangar in March,
1048. The 16 mile narrow road from Nowshehra to
Jliangar in those days was extremely bad. Moreover it
was completely dominated and flanked by densely wood-
ed hill-features Infested with the enemy. During that
month 12 days of incessant rain had made the terrain
into a veritable bog. The enemy previous to the rains
had planted mines all along this i oute which had got
completely hidden. Lt. Col : Rajinder Singh disregard-
ing personal safety led the tanks. But one of thenf was
blown up completely by the explosion of three mines
blocking the road. Under heavy fire from the enemy
he carried out a very hazardous task in clearing the
road. His untiring zeal in taking the tanks to Jliangar
ahead of other troops resulted in the recapture of this
strategic town.
Six months later, in November, 1948 Lt Col
.
•

Rajinder Singh set a recox d for the Indian ’Army by

ipccessfuliy taking the tanks over snow-covered
feet high Zojila Pass. The tanks 14,000
battered through enemy
on
1948,
t,1
£ VT
?“
ia "f th° Indian Army
rg 1 on Kov ember 23,
result * t mt da2 rmg and
operation. most hazardous

fle%v an
R/j 1% Commodore Mehar Singh
ayya as his to Leh with General
air strip, passerm
wi, amd landed on the improvisedTliim-
8 er \
I eh
10 0oJ^|e^iejght of Ladakh valley above
sea-level i &
ab 0 tri P is
’?.““-Wel-one! felt
*
Mehar Sinai. n h, S hest m the world.
Pioneering an
J
3,000 fe
Air route
oj?
e ov*ir some of ?theabove sea-level
world’s highest
 JAT BRAVERY OF THE MODERN TIMES 73

mountains. His daring performance made the defence

of Leh possible.

What is the secret of so much valour in the race.

It is endemic, in the Scythian blood. S< ythia the origi-
nal habitation of Jat race was full of hardships. Drought
was a frequent curse. Its boundaries weie all open to
external attacks. Life there was a continual struggle
against the calamities of nature, wild animals and human
pest. Under these conditions only the fittest could
survive According to the Law of Evolution. Those who
survived had their brains and bodies developed in the
school of difficulties. It is well known that difficulties
were the chief cause of the evolution of man’s brain.
Nature did not provide his body with enough covering
to shield it against hedt and cold of the seasons like
birds, so his brain exerted itself to surmount that difficul-
ty and produced artificial covering and shelter. Similar
difficulties weie the Genesis of the discovery of fire and
inventions of tools and arms. Trained in the school of
constant adversities the Jat race as a race concluded
that the)7 could not survive without being brave. Hard-
ships made them hardy. They learnt by experience
that attack was the best means of defence. This ex-
perience was confirmed when Vexoris the king of Egypt
sent them ultimatum as mentioned in detail in chapter
III of this book. The Jats at once attacked him with-
out waiting for his attack. The king fled to his country
leaving his army and all his stores to the Jats.

Aggression therefore became their hobby and pugna-

city became a prominent part of their temper. Death
had no terror for them because there was so much
;

death all around them in Scythia. Playing with death

was a pleasant sport for them. Extreme dangers excited
their emotions and moulded their minds to such a
degree of boldness that they did not feel themselves
happy if not engaged in dangerous exploits. Their
philosophy was simple. “To live bravely as long as life
persists and to die smiling when death comes”. They
thought that to die fighting was the easiest land of
death which took the soldier to paradise, while to die a
long death in bed took a man to hell. Inaction caused
74 ANTIQUITY OP JAT .RACE
them painful "boredom. Luxurious and easy-going Jife
had no charm for them. This is best illustrated by the
description of Attila’s camp by Priseus as detailed in
Chapter VI. “Attiia took his meals in wooden cups and
platters, "and when bards recited verses to celebrate the
valour and victories of Attila, tears flowed down the
cheeks d£ old men expressing their despair that they
could no longer partake the danger and the glory of the
field”. It is this pattern of character moulded by the
warfare of ages which is the chief cause of the unparallel-
ed bravery of the race. The intelligent politician must
fully understand this character when dealing with this
wonderful race.