large colony of Sarajbansis occupying Ajudhya as their capital. When the curtain rises again we find Ajudhya destroyed, the Sûrajbansis utterly banished, and a large extent of country ruled over by aborigines, called Cheros in the Far East, Bhars in the Centre, and Râjpâsis in the West. This great revolution seems to be satisfactorily explained by the conjecture that the Bhars, Cheros, etc., were the aborigines whom the Aryans had driven to the hills, and who, swarming down from thence not long after the beginning of our era, overwhelmed the Aryan civilisation even in Ajudhya itself, drove the Sûrajbansis under Kanaksen to emigrate into distant Gujarât, and spread over all the plain between the Himalayas and that spur of the Vindhya range which passes through the south of Mirzapur." Again we read that the primitive inhabitants of Sultanpur are said to have been Bhars. "Their character is painted in the most sombre colours. They are represented to have been dark-complexioned, ill-favoured, and of mean stature, intemperate in their habits, and not only devoid of any religious belief themselves, but addicted to the persecution of those who ventured to profess any. They are said to have possessed a few scattered and detached fortresses to serve as rallying points; but to have been otherwise of nomadie and predatory habits, while their numbers are said to have barely sufficed to furnish a scanty population to the tract they occupied. " In support of these pretensions to have been a ruling race in the eastern part of the Province, numerous old stone forts, embankments, wells, and subterraneous caverns are attributed to them. Thus the Chiraiyakot fort, in Ghazipur, is said to have been their work. The same is the case with numerous ruins in the Basti and Ghâzipur Districts. The present town of Bahrâich is said to take its name from them and to have been their oldest abode, from which they spread southward into Faizâbâd and Sultanpur. Similarly they are said to have left their name in the Bhadohi and Barhar parganas of Mirzapur.5 Two other fortresses of the Bhars are said to have been Zahurâbâd and Lakhnesar, in Ghâzipur." In Gorakhpur they are said to have been ousted by the Kausik Rajputs. Mr. Sherring considers 1 Chronicles of Unao, 27. Settlement Report, 87, sq. Cunningham, Archæological Survey, XXII., 107, 4 Buchanan, Eastern India, II., 379; Oldham, Memoir, I., 15-26. Elliott, Chronicles of Unao, 26. Oldham, Memoir, I., 46. their capital in Mirzapur to have been Pampapura near Bindhâchal, where extensive ruins and a curious series of bearded stone figures are attributed to them. In fact, throughout Oudh and the eastern part of the North-West Provinces every town the name of which does not end in pur, ábád, or mau is assigned to them." 3. An attempt has been made to support these traditions by historical evidence. On the evidence of two Historical evidence. inscriptions from Ajaygarh and Kalinjar, in Bandelkhand, and a passage from Farishta, Mr. W. C. Benett3 argues "that a man whose name is not given, but who is described as the founder of his family, possessed himself of the fort of Ajaygarh. One of his descendants was Malika, whose brother, Dalki, on the overthrow of the last Kanauj King, conquered the whole of the Duâb; and Farishta records the utter defeat and destruction of Dalki and Malki, who had royal forts at Kalinjar and Karra and held the whole country as far as Mâlwa in their possession, by Nasir-ud-din Muhammad, the King of Delhi, in 1246 A. D. The universal tradition of Southern Oudh proves that these princes were really Bhars, and that the whole of the south of the province as far as the Ghagra was included in their dominions." This theory, however, has failed to stand further investigation, and the Princes Dalki and Malki are identified by General Cunningham with the Baghel Râjas Dalakeswar and Malakeswar. It is probable that out of the same legend has arisen the worship of Râja Bal, who is specially venerated by Bhars and Ahîrs. His worship is connected with protection from snake-bite. He is said to have been one of two Bhar brothers who ruled at Dalmau and Râê Bareli, and were slain by the Muhammadans in the time of Ibrahim Sharqi of Jaunpur. In their memory, it is said that the Bharautiya section of Ahirs in time of mourning abstain from wearing anklets. Bal Râja is chiefly worshipped in Râê Bareli, Basti, and Eastern Oudh, He has 76,395 followers. The evidence, then, for an extensive Bhar kingdom in the eastern part of the Province rests almost entirely on the so-called Bhar dihs or ancient mounds 1 Hindu Tribes and Castes, I., 359, sqq. 2 Chronicles of Unao, 26; Lucknow Settlement Report, 62, 116. For other instances see Sherring, loc. cit. I., 357, sqq. 3 Oudh Gazetteer, Introduction, XXXV., sq.; Indian Antiquary, I., 265, sq.; Clans of Rae Bareli, 2. ♦ Archæological Survey, XXI., 105; Census Report, North-West Provinces, 1891, p. 220. VOL. II. A 2 and forts which abound all over the country, and on the so-called Bhar tanks, which are distinguished from those of a later date by being Surajbedi or longer from east to west, while modern tanks are Chandrabedi or lie north and south. Who may have been the builders of these monuments, our existing knowledge hardly entitles us to say with certainty. But that the identification of these monuments with the Bhars is not in every case to be trusted is proved by the fact that two buildings at Bihâr, in Partâbgarh, which are confidently ascribed to the Bhars by a writer in the Oudh Gazetteer, are proved by General Cunningham to be genuine Buddhist stupas. Similarly, the identification of the Bhars with the early rulers of the country presents many features of difficulty. Their identification with the Ubaræ of Pliny and the Barrhai of Ptolemy is little more than conjectural. As Sir H. M. Elliot pointed out:-"It is strange that no trace of Bhars is to be found in the Purânas, unless we may consider that there is an obscure indication of them in the Brahma Purana, where, it is said, that among the descendants of Jayadhwaja are the Bhâratas, who, it is added, are not commonly specified on account of their great number, or they may perhaps be the Bhargas of the Mahâbhârata subdued by Bhimsen on his Eastern expedition." To this it has been replied by Mr. Sherring5 that, first, Brâhmanical writers generally speak of the Dasyus and Asuras with superciliousness and contempt, and, secondly, the abandonment of a considerable tract of country by the Aryans was dishonourable and not likely to be mentioned. It is, perhaps, possible that the Bhars, like the Doms, may have established a fairly advanced civilisation prior to their downfall. But, as Dr. Tylor remarks:-"Degeneration probably operates even more actively in the lower than the higher culture," and we must be cautious in identifying the race of fort and tank builders with the existing Bhars mainly on the uncertain evidence of popular tradition. Whoever these people were, they probably succumbed before the eastern emigration of the Râjput tribes contemporaneous with the 1 I., 306. Archeological Survey, XI., 67. 3 Mr. J. W. McCrindle, Indian Antiquary, VI., 339; XIII., 380. 4 Supplemental Glossary, s. v. Journal Royal Asiatic Society, N. S., V., 376. On the Bharatas, see Opport, Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsha, 578, sqq. • Primitive Culture, I., 46. fall of Kanauj and the invasion of Shâhabuddîn Ghori. In Azamgarh and Ghazipur they were driven out by the Sengar tribe, who reckon fifteen generations since their immigration; in Mirzapur and the adjoining part of Allahâbâd by the Gaharwâr; in Bhadohi, north of the Ganges, by the Monas, and further west, in Allahâbâd, by the Bais, Sonak, Tissyâl, Bisen, and Nanwak; in Faizâbâd and Eastern Oudh by the Bais; and in Gorakhpur by the Kausik. "The overthrow of the Bhars was followed by the establishment, much as we find them now, of the principal elements of modern Oudh society. The country was divided into a number of small chieftainships, ruled over by clans who, whatever their real origin may have been, all professed themselves to be of the ruling caste of Chhatris. Many of these, such as the Kânhpuriyas of Partâbgarh, the Gaurs of Hardoi, and their offshoot the Amethiyas of Râe Bareli are probably descendants of men or tribes who flourished under the low caste government."1 How far this process may have gone on is one of the problems connected with the Râjput Ethnology of the eastern part of the Province. Mr. Carnegy was of opinion that the more respectable and influential Râjput clansmen may have fled before the then dominant rulers of the serpent race or of the followers of Buddha; but that the mass of the Chhatris remained and were in fact none other than the Bhars, Cheros, and the like, and that the final overthrow of these degraded races after the fall of Delhi was neither more nor less than the restoration of Râjput influence in those parts where it had been dormant, and the social reclamation of the Bhars." Mr. V. A. Smith again believes them to have been Jains, and Mr. Millett thinks them to be probably of Scythic origin, and that the termination of their influence was coeval with the first Aryan invasion." The most probable supposition is that the Bhars were a Dravidian race closely allied to the Kols, Cheros, and Seoris, who at an early date succumbed to the invading Aryans. This is borne out by their appearance and physique, which closely resemble that of the undoubted non-Aryan aborigines of the Vindhyan Kaimûr plateau. 4. The last Census classes the Bhars under the main sub-castes of Bharadwaj, Kanaujiya, and Râjbhar. We find among the locally more important sub Internal structure. 1 Oudh Gazetteer, Introduction, XXXV. 2 Notes, 19. 3 Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877. castes the Hela of Benares, the Goriya of Jaunpur; in Ghâzipur, the Baltent, Dhelphor, Dhongiya, Kharwâra, Khutant, Kinwår, Kuntel, Maunas, Pataun, Sarpos; in Ballia, the Dhelphor and Kulwant; in Faizâbâd, the Bhagta, Gangoha, and Râêdâs; and in Bahrâich, the Patolbans. The Bhars of Mirzapur name three endogamous sub-divisions-Bhar Bhuînhâr, Râjbhar, and Dusâdha. The local Pâsis represent the Bhars as merely a sub-caste of their tribe; but this is denied by the Bhars themselves. The Bhar Bhuînhâr assert that they are the remnant of the ruling race among the Bhars. In support of this they wear the sacred thread, and have begun generally to call themselves Sûrajbansi Rajputs. The other Bhars, they say, are the descendants of a single pregnant woman who escaped the general massacre of the tribe by the Turks or Muhammadans. The Dusâdha Bhars are not acknowledged by the Dusâdhs themselves, but the Bhars claim them as a regular sub-caste. 5. Bhars have the usual rule of exogamy, that is they will not intermarry in their own family or in that of their maternal uncle and father's sister until four or five generations have elapsed. They prefer to marry in those families with whom they have been accustomed for generations to eat and smoke. In Gorakhpur the usual sevenfold division is made up of the Bhar, Râjbhar, Musahar, Godiya, Chain, Patiwân, and Tiyar, in which we have several different, but possibly originally cognate tribes mixed up. In Azamgarh1 they name several sub-castes-Bhar, Râjbhar, Biyâr, Patiwân, Bind, and Jonkaha or "leech-finders." Of these the Bind and Biyâr are practically independent castes, and have here been accordingly treated separately. In Azamgarh the Bhars are reckoned outcasts, but the Râjbhar are counted among Hindus. There the special title of the Râjbhars is Patait, and of the common Bhars Khuntait. The latter rear pigs, which the former do not. These divisions intermarry, but the families who do not keep pigs will not marry with those who do. Intercourse between the sexes is regulated by no strict rule. If an unmarried girl intrigue with a clansman they are married after a fine is exacted from the girl's father by the tribal council. A man may take a second wife in the lifetime of the first, with her consent, which is generally given, as it relieves 1 Settlement Report, 33. |