18 SOCIAL SCIENTIST were cheated by the land revenue officials, and how the land revenue burden on the peasantry was arbitrarily increased. This clearly contradicts the egalitarian character of the village community and indicates internal strife among the peasantry. Punjab, like other parts of the country, had a society which, apart from being a class society, was also divided into several castes. "Caste, however, was less proliferated and was ossified in Punjab, compared with other parts of the country. The reason for this seems to be the fact that tribal societies lasted till a much later date in Punjab than in the Ganga basin or other parts of the country. This fact is testified to by Alberuni, who, when he visited India early in the llth century, found strong tribal pockets in Punjab.4 The dislodging of the Rajput rulers of Punjab by the Turks also had significant social consequences, as it gave a chance to other castes to improve their social status. This displacement from power of the Rajputs and the subsequent lowering of their social status, also led to the lowering of the status oftheBrahmans, whom they had patronised, and who were now forced to lake up new jobs which lowered their socjal status.5 The Brahmans in Punjab, unlike (heir counterparts in other regions, e g, in South India, did not hold land rights on a large scale.. This explains their inability to retain their former social position and hold in Punjab. Although these factors retarded the process of development of caste in Punjab, they cannot be interpreted to mean that the Brahmanical social order was absent in Punjab. ^The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate had profound effects upon the Vaisya caste,, The 13th and 14th centuries witnessed a rapid expansion of the artisan class/castes. This resulted from the new and diversified fleeds ofth.e new ruling class, and the concentration of a larger share of sbcial surplus in the tatter's hands, as compared to the erstwhile rulers. The ruling class could maintain a large trumber of artisans to meet its requirements. The demand for greater diversification of skills plus greater number of artisans could not be met1 within the old caste framework which put limitations on social mobility and made spontaneous adjustment to new demands impossible.6 One-caste group of the artisan and trading classes in Punjab which appears to have prospered-with the growth of artisanal production and trade under the Sultanate, both Delhi and Lodi, was thatofKhatris. The Khatris were artisans, traders, money-lenders, even landowners and pFayed an important role in Lodi administration in Punjab.7 This caste was to play a significant role in the subsequent history of Punjab; it provided all the Sikh Gurus and a large number of the initial converts to Sikhism. The peasantry of Punjab was largely composed, in caste terms, of the Jats or Jatts or who, according to the Chachnama, had an egalitarian social set-up and approximated the status of Chandalas in Brahmanical society.8 -Later, Alberuni testifies to their pasloral