Meon.adj.

1832 J. Tod Ann. Rajast'han II. 393 At this period..the mountainous region, called Méwat, was inhabited by a daring and ferocious banditti, called Mewohs, who pillaged in gangs.

1855 H. H. Wilson Gloss. Judicial & Revenue Terms India 339/2 Meo, (?) H. A class of cultivators in the province of Dehli.

1873 E. Balfour Cycl. India (ed. 2) III. (at cited word) Meo, cultivators in the Delhi province, are a tribe of people inhabiting the low hills about Gurgaon.

1896 W. Crooke Tribes & Castes N.-W. Provinces & Oudh III. 487 Whatever their connection with the Mînas may be, the Meos themselves pretend to be of Râjput descent.

1916 R. V. Russell Tribes & Castes Cent. Provinces India IV. 235 Abu Fazl writes that the Meos were in his time famous runners, and one thousand of them were employed by Akbar as carriers of post.

1970 D. G. Mandelbaum Society in India II. xxix. 558 This intensified Islamization is shown by the Meos, the dominant jati in some two thousand villages on the borderlands of Rajasthan and Punjab.

1970 D. G. Mandelbaum Society in India II. xxix. 559 The Meos have adopted more of Muslim practices in the last 17 years than they had in the previous 450 years.

1880 P. W. Powlett in Rajputana Gazetteer 3 201 Meos do not marry into their own pál, or clan, but are lax about forming connections with women of other castes, whose children they receive into the Meo community.

1885 G. C. Whitworth Anglo-Indian Dict. 204/2 Mewáti, the name of a branch of the Jádon Rájputs;..they rule in Alwar, and are connected with the Meo tribe of the same country.

1992 Pioneer on Sunday (Delhi) 13 Sept. 6/7 How could I..paint the Meo Muslims of the village as a tormented community?