"…under the name of Jats, one must moreover comprehend the Gauruvas, Gujars, Bargujars and Ahirs, who are intermixed with them and, under these different names, constitute specifically but one people, similar in most respects and who marry amongst another. Their robust physiques, their rural appearance and uncouth manner, and their way to speak and dress and comport themselves still today (despite the riches and sovereign power they have acquired and notwithstanding their long abode in the center of the country reputedly the most civilised in Hindustan with the most refined cities of the entire monarchy around them), make sufficiently known that they have not been engaged with other occupations than those of the countryside and that they have not borne arms other than the plough and axe; or, after their own fashion, sickle and staff. I know that the Bargujars retain, or claim to retain, yet several marks of nobler caste. Nonetheless, the superiority which the Jats, in this century, have had over the others has brought many things their way which, at another time, they could never have awaited. Because their belief is no different from that of other gentiles in this country, I have nothing in particular to say regarding that. Their food is about the same as that of the Rajputs, apart from the fact that the majority of Jats abstain from meat. In their manner of dress, there are some slight differences: in the summer, they are ordinarily quite naked, having only a turban on the head, a light belt around the waist and nothing else on the body; in winter, they wear a kind of simple skirt, but in a fashion particular to themselves, that, together with a pair of pendant earrings of gold in the shape of a bunch of grapes, makes recognizable and distinguishes a Jat among others. Their women also wear nose-rings of gold, much larger and heavier and made in a different way than those of most women in India. They most frequently have their hair tied on the top of their heads in the form of a bun, while the head itself is covered with a red cloth attached at the belt, as almost all women of the country. I have observed no other distinction. Men and women are for the most part robust and of a rather slight height. Their language is that of Hindustan, but coarse and with those inflections which are indicative of rusticity, as in their manner in general. Still no majesty whatsoever, nor even splendour at court, after attaining to such an exalted power; no furnishing or possessions at all in the houses of the well-to-do individuals. Wealthy, but sordid; powerful, but peasants. In a word, they remain Jats in everything. At times of war each peasant is also soldier; they go to their fortresses where, during the time they are needed, their pay is their food which consists of only one ser of wheat, a few grains in addition to a bit of butter, and nothing more. When the country is at peace, each returns to his home to tend to the ploughing of the land where one lives. It is the same for the cavalrymen. Only foreign troops are paid as everywhere else. It is thus that at the occasion of war there is such a strong and numerous garrison (let us say, rather, a great number of people) in the main strongholds, as has been noted elsewhere. For the rest, since they have come to power, they govern much as do the other powers and rajas of the country. It should only be observed, that one sees that, with their wealth, they have become lethargic and cowardly; an ordinary failing which great fortunes bring in their wake. These are no longer the Jats, so intrepid and proud, as they were in their beginnings. They are themselves surprised at this and have noticed the great difference, without recollecting the little they formerly had to lose, when all their attention was directed towards the seizing of the wealth of others; and, it is nothing new in the world that warrior peoples, believed invincible, began to decline after they had become acquainted with abundance and had reached a state in which it would seem they have nothing to desire or fear."