Distribution of Bihishtis according to the Census of 1891-concld.

Biloch, Baloch, Biluch.-Identified by Professor Max Müller1 with the Sanskrit mlechchha, "a foreigner, outcast, non-Aryan."The enumeration at the last Census has failed to discriminate between two different though probably originally-allied racesthe ordinary Biloch and the predatory Biloch or Rind of the Districts of the Upper Duâb. Another theory of the origin of the name is given by Colonel Möckler in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1893 :

"This paper is mainly concerned with the Rind, one of the tribes or clans inhabiting Balochistân. Their name signifies 'a turbulent, reckless, daring man.' They have never acknowledged the authority of any ruler in the country. They claim to be the true Baloch, and assert that they originally came from 'Alaf,' which is supposed by themselves and most other people to be Haleb or Aleppo, in Syria. They say that they are Arabs of the tribe of Quraish, and were driven out from Alaf by Yezid I., for assisting

1 Lectures, I., 97, note.

BILOCH, BALOCH, BILUCH. 102

Husain, the martyr nephew of the Prophet Muhammad in 61 Hijrah. The author shows, however, from some Arab authorities that the Baloch were established in Makran more than a century before the commencement of the Muhammadan era, certainly so if, as Firdusi relates, Naushirwân punished them in Makran in 550 A. D., and still more certainly that they were located there within 22 years after its commencement, and that therefore, if the Rinds left Aleppo in the time of Yezîd I., about 61 H., the Baloch were in Makran before that date. But it is doubtful whether the Rinds ever came from Aleppo, or that they are Baloch at all. It is much more probable that they are the descendants of a certain Al Harith Al 'Alafi, that is of Harith of the 'Alafi tribe, and of the Kahtauic stock of Arabs. He was the father of two men, who, according to Tabary, in a blood feud killed an officer who had been appointed by Al Hajjâj, the Governor of Irâq, to the charge of Makran, in 65 Hijrah. They had come from 'Uman, and after the murder took possession of Makran. Subsequently, about 86 Hijrah, they retired before a punitive force of Al Hajjâj into Sindh, where their name is conspicuous in the annals of the country for the next 200 years or so. This, and other facts, show that the Rinds really are of Arab descent, but that they did not come from Aleppo, but are descended from a man of the 'Alafi tribe who came from 'Uman; and that they are not of the Quraish but the Kahtan stock. On account of their undoubted Arab descent, the Rinds are held in very high respect by the other clans of Baluchistân who, therefore, all claim to be related to them, through one Jalâl Khân, an ancestor of the Rinds. Among the sons of this Jalâl, Makran is said to have been divided after the death of Al Hajjaj. With regard to the name Baloch, Colonel Möckler suggests its identity with the Gedrosii of the Greeks. He says that the Baloch themselves explain their name by the phrase Baloch Badroch' (or Badrosh). Here bad means 'evil,' and rock or rosh means 'day.' In Pahlavi or Zend gad is synonymous with bad; therefore Badrosh=gadrosh or gadros, whence the Greek Gedrosii. By the interchange of the liquids r and 1, badroch would become badloch, out of which the d must naturally drop leaving the Baloch the Gadrosii, or on the other hand, the proverbial expression (Badroch Baloch) may have been current in the time of the Greeks in the form of Baloch Godrosh,and the Greeks confused the epithet with the name.

=

The latter would then be derived from Belus, King of Babylon, a derivation which is adopted by Professor Rawlinson."

The ordinary Biloch.

2. Of the ordinary Biloch Mr. Ibbetson writes1:-"The Biloch presents in many respects a very strong contrast with his neighbour, the Pathân. The political organisation of each is tribal: but while the one yields a very large measure of obedience to a chief who is a sort of limited monarch, the other recognises no authority save that of a council of the tribe. Both have most of the virtues and many of the vices peculiar to a wild and semi-civilized life. To both hospitality is a sacred duty and the safety of the guest inviolable; both look upon the exaction of blood for blood as the first duty of man; both strictly follow a code of honour of their own, though one very different from that of modern Europe; both believe in one God whose name is Allâh, and whose Prophet is Muhammad. But the one attacks his enemy from in front, the other from behind; the one is bound by his promise, the other by his interests; in short the Biloch is less turbulent, less treacherous, less blood-thirsty, and less fanatical than the Pathân; he has less of God in his creed, and less of the devil in his nature. His frame is shorter and more spare and wiry than that of his neighbour to the north, though generations of independence have given to him a bold and manly bearing. Frank and open in his manners and without servility, fairly truthful when not corrupted by our Courts, faithful to his word, temperate and enduring, and looking upon courage as the highest virtue, the true Biloch of the Derajât frontier is one of the pleasantest men we have to deal with in the Panjâb. As a revenue-payer he is not so satisfactory, his want of industry and the pride which looks upon manual labour as degrading, making him but a poor husbandman. He is an expert rider; horse-racing is his national amusement, and the Biloch breed of horses is celebrated throughout Northern India. He is a thief by tradition and descent; but he has become much more honest under the civilising influences of our rule.

3. "His face is long and oval, his features finely cut, and his nose aquiline; he wears his hair long and usually in oily curls, and lets his beard and whiskers grow, and he is very filthy in person, considering cleanliness as a mark of effeminacy. He usually

1 Panjab Ethnography, 193.

BILOCH, BALOCH, BILUCH. 104

carries a sword, knife and shield, he wears a smock frock reaching to his heels and pleated about the waist, loose drawers and a long cotton scarf and all these must be as white or as : near it as dirt will allow of, insomuch that he will not enter our army because he would there be obliged to wear a coloured uniform, His wife wears a sheet over her head, a long sort of nightgown reaching to her ankles, and wide drawers; her clothes may be red or white; and she plaits her hair in a long queue. As the true Biloch is nomad in his habits, he does not seclude his women, but he is extremely jealous of female honour. In cases of detected adultery the man is killed, and the woman hangs herself by order. Even on the war trail the women and children of his enemy are safe from him. The Biloch of the Hills lives in huts or temporary camps, and wanders with his herds from place to place. In the plains he has settled in small villages ; but the houses are of the poorest possible description. When a male child is born to him, ass's dung in water, symbolical of pertinacity, is dropped from the point of a sword into his mouth before he is given the breast. A tally of lives is kept between the various tribes or families; but when the account grows complicated it can be settled by betrothals, or even by payment of cattle. The rules of inheritance do not follow the Islâmic law, but tend to keep the property in the family by confining succession to agnates; though some of the more leading and educated men are said to be trying to introduce the Muhammadan laws of inheritance into their tribes. The Biloch are nominally Musalmân, but singularly ignorant of their religion and neglectful of its rites and observances; and though they once called themselves, and were called by old historians 'friends of Ali,' and though, if their account of their rejection from Arabia be true, they must have been originally Shiahs, they now belong, almost without exception, to the Sunni sect. Like many other Musalmân tribes of the frontier they claim to be Quraishi Arabs by origin, while some hold them to be of Turkomân stock: their customs are said to support the latter theory; their features certainly favour the former."

The criminal Biloch of

vinces.

4. In the Muzaffarnagar District they are also known as Rind. "They originally emigrated from the Panjâb; the North-Western Pro- that they are professional thieves of a dangerous character is now well established. They depart on their predatory tours assuming the character of faqîrs, physicians, and teachers of the Qurân, and carry on their

depredations at great distances as far southward as Ajmere and westward as Lahore. Some few in the Muzaffarnagar District have acquired landed property; but the rest may be said to have no ostensible means of livelihood and to be habitual absentees. Their mode of robbery is not by violence, but by picking locks with needles. One thief makes an entry, receiving two-thirds of the property as his share, while his confederate, who sits outside to watch, receives one-third." The same people there called Biloch are found in Ambâla and Karnâl. "During the rainy season the whole country is inundated for months. A more suitable stronghold for a criminal tribe could not be imagined. They are almost certainly of true Biloch origin, and still give their tribal names as Rind, Lashari, Jatoi, and Korai. But they are by their habits quite distinct from both the land-owning Biloch and the cameldriver, who is so commonly called Biloch simply because he is a camel-driver. They are described as coarse-looking men of a dark colour, living in a separate quarter, and with nothing to distinguish them from the scavenger caste except a profusion of stolen ornaments and similar property. They say that their ancestors once lived beyound Kasûr, in the Lahore District, but were driven out on account of their marauding habits. The men still keep camels and cultivate a little land as their ostensible occupation; but during a great part of the year they leave the women, who are strictly secluded at home, and wander about disguised as Fakîrs or as butchers in search of sheep for sale, extending their excursions to great distances, and apparently to almost all parts of India."2

Distribution of the Biloch according to the Census of 1891.

VOL. II.

1 Report, Inspector-General of Police, North-Western Provinces, 1867 page 94, sq.

Ibbetson, loc. cit., para. 583.