Note 12 — D.

Dhâkara; Dhâkra.—A sept of Râjputs who have been identified with the Takoraioi of Ptolemy.12 To the west of the Province they claim Sûrajbansi origin; but this is not generally admitted. Some are said to be emigrants from the banks of the Narbada; but the main body of the sept in these Provinces say that they came from Ajmer in the beginning of the sixteenth century and occupied the country now traversed by the East Indian Railway from Etâwah to Barhan. In Hardoi13 some say that they came from Dharwâr; others from Mainpuri, of which place their ancestor was Râja, and expelled the Thatheras. They were notorious in the eighteenth century for their lawlessness, and we learn from the letters of Ezâd Bakhsh14 that in the neighbourhood of Agra they gave the Imperial officers much trouble and rendered the communications between that city and Etâwah insecure. “Their chief stronghold was then Balampur, in the Chandwâr pargana, whence they issued in bands and harassed the country far and wide up to the very walls of Agra. Their lawless conduct brought about its own punishment, for before the close of the century we find that they had greatly diminished in numbers, and that their possessions had dwindled down to a few scattered villages.” They seem to have gained their power by a close alliance with the Bhadauriyas. In the Mutiny they broke out again and endeavoured to seize their old fort at Barhan from the Râja of Awa; but they were defeated by a combined force of Jâdons and Mewâtis. Since then they have sunk into insignificance; but they are a turbulent, ill-conducted sept, always ready for petty acts of violence and cattle-stealing.