[General Cunningham in his Archælogical Report for 1863-4, says,
“The traditions of the Hindu Játs of Biána and Bharatpur point to
Kandahar as their parent country, while those of the Muhammadan
Játs generally refer to Gajni or Garh-Gajni, which may be either
the celebrated fort of Ghazni in Afghanistan or the old city of
Gajnipur on the site of Rawul-Pindi. But if I am right in my
identification of the Játs with the Xanthii of Strabo, and the Iatii
of Pliny and Ptolemy, their parent country must have been on the
banks of the Oxus, between Bactria, Hyrkania, and Khorasmia.
Now in this very position there was a fertile district, irrigated from
the Margus river, which Pliny calls Zotale or Zothale, and which, I
believe to have been the original seat of the Iatii or Játs. Their
course from the Oxus to the Indus may perhaps be dimly traced in
the Xuthi of Dionysius of Samos, who are coupled with the Arieni,
and in the Zuthi of Ptolemy who occupied the Karmanian desert on
the frontier of Drangiana. As I can find no other traces of their
name in the classical writers, I am inclined to believe, as before
suggested, that they may have been best known in early times, by
the general name of their horde, as Abars, instead of by their tribal
name as Játs. According to this view, the main body of the Iatii
would have occupied the district of Abiria and the towns of Parda-
[When the Muhammadans first appeared in Sindh, towards the end
of the seventh century, the Zaths and Meds were the chief population
of the country. But as I have already shown that the original
seat of the Med or Medi colony was in the Panjab proper, I conclude
that the original seat of the Iatii or Ját colony, must have been in
Sindh. * * * * At the present day the Játs are found in every
part of the Panjab, where they form about two-fifths of the
population. They are chiefly Musulmans, and are divided into not
less than a hundred different tribes. * * * * To the east of the
Panjab, the Hindu Játs are found in considerable numbers in the
frontier states of Bikaner, Jesalmer, and Jodhpur, where, in Col.
Tod's opinion, they are as numerous as all the Rajput races put
together. They are found also in great numbers along the upper
course of the Ganges and Jumna, as far eastward as Bareli, Farak-