The Sainis of Punjab, and those found in several contiguous region believe that their origin lies in the Surasena lineage of the Yaduvanshi Rajputs of Mathura.
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Colonial theories
Denzil Ibbetson, a British colonial administrator, thought that the term Saini was probably of Mali origin, although he acknowledged that some Sainis claimed Rajput origins. In his opinion, the word Saini was probably derived from persian word Rasainiwhich means 'skilled gardeners', and the latter in turn derived from Rasai, which he believed to mean skill. Since the Sainis in some areas during his time were engaged in horticultural farming in limited manner that did not replace ordinary farming, he probably thought the term 'Saini' was to related with the horticultural farming in some way. However, Ibbetson himself admitted that many of his observations may have been flawed, as his service was confined to an area of karnal district which did not lie in Punjab proper.
Ibbetson also recorded that Sainis did not intermarry with Malis. Census of 1881, in which Ibbetson played significant role, also records Sainis and Malis as distinct communities.
However, a number of other writers of colonial era treated the two communities as separate. These include Baden-Powell (1868) Balfour (1885), Bhattachary (1896), Lal (1907) et al.
Post colonial evaluations
Sher Singh has noted that Ibbetson, Purser, Rose and others were civil servants of colonial era and were neither qualified anthropologists nor sociologists, and their ethnographical works, based strictly on crude census techniques of colonial era, lacking the academic rigour needed for peer-reviewed or equivalent academic journals. Gahlot and Banshidhar (1989) indicate some commonality in origin with Rajput Malis of Rajputana who are also stated to be of Rajput descent but these scholars add that out of the two the Sainis continued to maintain their Rajput character despite adoption of agriculture in the era of Muslim ascendancy. The former were also included as part of Rajputs in Marwar State Census of 1891 Dak (1994), writing for Anthropological Survey of India, also clarified the difference for the Sainis of Haryana Now a days saini and mali considered same according to mandal commission.
Colonial period
Following the introduction of the Punjab Land Alienation Act in 1900, the authorities of the Raj classified the peasant-proprietor Sainis who inhabited the Punjab as an "agricultural tribe", a term that was administratively synonymous with the "martial race" classification that was used for the purposes of determining the suitability of a person as a recruit to the British Indian Army.
Agriculture
The Saini migration to Punjab happened around the time of the earliest Turk invasions when the post-Kanishka Yadava or Surasena kingdoms of Mathura and Bayana were lost to Muslim invaders. The Sainis of Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts claim to be the descendants of the Rajputs of the Yaduvanshi or Surasena lineage who ruled these kingdoms, who escaped to these areas to avoid forced conversion to Islam.
Agriculture had been the major profession of Sainis since the Turko-Islamic conquest of North India. However, after militarization of Sikhs Sainis once again joined armed insurrection against Turko-Islamic rule as part of Khalsa armies. Even among Hindu Saini families it was customary to raise at least one son as a Sikh and dedicate him to military service in Sikh militant bands spread all over Punjab, engaged first in armed insurgency and later in a full-scale war against the oppressive Turko-Pathan rule. Agriculture and military service were the main professions of Sainis since the Sikh rebellion and conquest of Punjab. The British Raj Land Settlement Report for Jalandhar division in 1892 reported the Sainis in increasing numbers in their original profession i.e. army, especially in cavalry, in addition to being in agriculture.