> MUZAFFARNAGAR. 71 were returned as numbering 535,046, or 70*5 per cent of the population. Muhammadans numbered 213,842, or 282 per cent. The remainder of the population consists of — Jains, 9316; Sikhs, 186; and Christians, 54. Of the higher classes of Hindus, the Brahmans numbered 43,100 in 1881. The Rajputs are nuinerically a small body, reckoned at only 20,066 persons, but they hold large landed property in the District. The Baniyas are unusually numerous, being returned at 33,745. Many of them arc Jains, and they form a wealthy and prosperous mercantile community. The other Hindu castes' are set down at a total of 439,435, composing the immense majority of the population. The Chamárs head the list, as usual in the Doáb, with 107,794 persons ; their position is still scarcely removed from that of rural serfs, and they form the labouring class in the District. Next e the Tats, numbering 71,468, who hold a large portion of the soil as camindirs, and are an active, enterprising, and intelligent tribe. The Gujars, 26,957 in number, and Tagás (13,785) are also among the landowners in Muzaffarnagar. The other principal Hindu castes include—Kahárs, +5,498; Bhangis, 29,348; Kachhis, 22,939; Gadárias, 14,332 ; Kumbhárs, 13,830; Barháis, 11,167; Náis, 8601; and Vális, 7279. Of the Musalmán population, the Shaikhs are far the most numerous ; most of them being the descendants of converts from Hinduism. The Sayyids, once the dominant race, are now rapidly sinking in the social scale, through improvidence and bad management, which have led them to mortgage or resign their estates to Hindu Baniyás. Town and Rural Population.—Muzaffarnagar contains a considerable urban population. In 1881, sixteen towns were returned as each containinga population exceeding five thousand. These are-KAIRANA, 18,374; MUZAFFARNAGAR, the civil station and administrative head-quarters of the District, 15,080; KHANDALA, 11,109; THANA BHAWAN, 7628; KHATAULI, 7574; SHAMLI, 7359; JIRAMPUR, 7267; JALALABAD, 6592; JANSATH, 6284; BUDHANA, 6232; BRUKARHERI, 6195; PUR, 5735; JHANJHANA, 5655; SISAULI, 5391; CHARTHAWAL, 5300; and GANGERU, 5275. These sixteen towns contain an aggregate of 127,059 inhabitants, or 16.7 per cent. of the total population of the District. Most of them, however, are rather overgrown villages than towns in the strict sense, as the greater part of their inhabitants subsist by agriculture or its subsidiary operations. The 912 towns and villages are thus classified according to size—195 are mere hamlets with less than two hundred inhabitants ; 273 contain from two to five hundred ; 241 from five hundred to a thousand ; 119 from one to two thousand ; 49 from two to three thousand; 19 from three to five thousand; 13 from five to ten thousand; while 3 towns contain between ten and twenty thousand inhabitants. Hindi is the ordinary language of the
