s is
recruited from Bundelkhand and Marwar, and these tracts are therefore
often known among them as 'Desh' or native country. The term Deswali
is applied to groups of many castes coming from Bundelkhand, and
has apparently been specially appropriated as an _alias_ by the
Minas. The caste are sometimes known in Hoshangabad as Maina, which
Colonel Tod states to be the name of the highest division of the
Minas. The designation of Pardeshi or 'foreigner' is also given to
them in some localities. The Deswalis came to Harda about A.D. 1750,
being invited by the Maratha Amil or governor, who gave one family a
grant of three villages. They thus gained a position of some dignity,
and this reaching the ears of their brothers in Jaipur they also
came and settled all over the District. [258] In view of the history
and character of the Minas, of which some account will be given,
it should be first stated that under the _regime_ of British law
and order most of the Deswalis of Hoshangabad have settled down into
steady and honest agriculturists.

2. Historical notice of the Mina tribe

The Minas were a famous robber tribe of the country of Mewat in
Rajputana, comprised in the Alwar and Bharatpur States and the
British District of Gurgaon. [259] They are also found in large
numbers in Jaipur State, which was formerly held by them. The Meos
and Minas are now considered to be branches of one tribe, the former
being at least nominally Muhammadans by religion and the latter
Hindus. A favourite story for recitation at their feasts is that of
Darya Khan Meo and Sasibadani Mini, a pair of lovers whose marriage
led to a quarrel between the tribes to which they belonged, in the
time of Akbar. This dispute caused the cessation of the practice of
intermarriage between Meos and Minas which had formerly obtained. Both
the Meos and Minas are divided into twelve large clans called _pal_,
the word _pal_ meaning, according to Colonel Tod, 'a defile in a
valley suitable for cultivation or defence.' In a sandy desert like
Rajputana the valleys of streams might be expected to be the only
favourable tracts for settlement, and the name perhaps therefore
is a record of the process by which the colonies of Minas in these
isolated patches of culturable land developed into exogamous clans
marrying with each other. The Meos have similarly twelve _pals_, and
the names of six of these are identical with those of the Minas. [260]
The names of the _pals_ a