Note 37 — A

Ahîr37:—An important and widely-distributed caste of herdsmen and agriculturists, found in large numbers throughout the Province. According to the Brâhmanical tradition, as given by Manu, they are descended by a Brâhman from a woman of the Ambastha, or tribe of physicians. “In the Brahma Purâna it is said that they are descended from a Kshatriya father and a woman of the Vaisya caste; but on the question of the descent of the various tribes, the sacred books, as in many other matters, differ very much from each other, and none are to be implicitly trusted. This pastoral tribe of the Yâdubansi stock was formerly of much greater consideration in India than it is at present. In the Râmâyana and Mahâbhârata the Abhîras in the west are spoken of; and in the Purânik Geography, the country on the western coast of India, from the Tâpti to Devagarh is called Abhîra, or the region of cowherds. When the Kattis arrived in Gujarât, in the eighth century, they found the greater part of the country in the occupation of the Ahîrs. The name of Asirgarh, which Farishta and Khizâna Amîra say is derived from Asa, Ahîr, shows that the tribe was of some importance in the Dakkhin also, and there is no doubt that we have trace of the name in the Abiria of Ptolemy, which he places above Patalene. Ahîrs were also Râjas of Nepâl at the beginning of our era, and they are perhaps connected with the Pâla, or shepherd dynasty, which ruled in Bengal from the 9th to the latter part of the 11th century, and which, if we may place trust in monumental inscriptions, were for some time the universal rulers of India.”38