Note 5 — A

Bâchhil; Bâchhal.—A sept of Râjputs who are by one account said to derive their name from the Hindi bâchhna, “to distribute.” According to General Cunningham5 they claim descent from Râja Vena, whose son was Virât, the reputed founder of Baribhâr or Virâtkhera, and whom he believes to be the same as Vîra Varma of the inscriptions. By another extraordinary feat of folk etymology they are said to have been a branch of the Pâsis, and to have derived their name from taking refuge in a garden (bâgh). According to a writer in the Oudh Gazetteer6 “they are a possible link from the hoariest traditions of Indian antiquity to a middle-age period, which has been fairly chronicled, and, lastly, to the complete annals of modern times. It is the more desirable to follow out the annals of this clan, first, because it is one of the very few in Oudh which does rightfully claim an antiquity equal to that of English noble families which came in with the Conqueror; and, second, because its surviving members, though respectable, are too poor to purchase false genealogies, and so humble in the social scale as to render a fictitious pedigree of no value. Consequently they now relate only the real traditions of their ancestors.” … “In 992 A.D. a local chief, named Lâla, governed at Garh Gajana, or Ilahabâs, near Dewal. This place is 16 miles south-east of Pilibhît, on the banks of the Katni rivulet. In fact, all the capitals of the Bâchhil clan—Barkhar, Nigohi, Garh Gajana, Kâmp, on the Sârda—are within a few miles of each other: two in Shâhjahânpur, west of the Gûmti, and two in Kheri, east of the old river. We know nothing of Lâla or his race, except from the inscription which he caused to be cut, and the coins which are still to be found. The Bâchhils were an enterprising race in those days; they were Hindus in faith; they worshipped Vishnu under the boar avatâra; they had a coinage, both in silver and gold, many specimens of which have been found near their old capitals on the Katni. It seems, too, that their dynasty was of sufficient intelligence and energy to construct no less than two canals, about a hundred miles in length: one of them is still navigable, the other has somewhat silted up.”