The social customs of Jat people.
Many of the Jat tribes of the Punjab have customs which apparently point to non-Aryan origin. Suffice it to say that both Sir Alexander Cunningham and Colonel Tod agreed in considering the Jats to be of Indo-Scythian Stock. The former identified them with the Zanthi of Strabo (Greek Geographer of the ancient times) and the Jatii of Pliny (Roman writer) and Ptolemy (Another Greek Geographer of the ancient times); and held that they probably entered the Punjab from their home on the Oxus (in Central Asia) very shortly after the Meds or Mands (still exist as one of the Jat clans of the Punjab), who also were Indo-Scythians, and who moved into the Punjab about a century before Christ.[1]
The Jat people are required to marry within their community. The joint family system was popular amongst the Jats and large families use to share the same house and hearth. With the advancement of modern civilization, as people are becoming less dependent upon and less tolerant toward each other, the joint family system is going out of vogue. It was still prevalent in the less advanced areas in the 1930s.
Jat people who are Hindu differ in two traditions from Rajput community. Jats do wear the sacred thread janeu. Second, Jats permit the remarriage of widows.[2]