Note 11 — THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH.

Historical evidence. 3. An attempt has been made to support these traditions by historical evidence. On the evidence of two inscriptions from Ajaygarh and Kalinjar, in Bundelkhand, and a passage from Farishta, Mr. W. C. Benett11 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 Ghâgra 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.12 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 Ahîrs 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 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,13 are proved by General Cunningham to be genuine Buddhist stupas.14 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 Ptolemy15 is little more than conjectural. As Sir H. M. Elliot pointed out16:—“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 Purâna, 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. Sherring17 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,”18 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 fall of Kanauj and the invasion of Shahâb-ud-dîn Ghori. In Azamgarh and Ghâzipur 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 Râê Bareli are probably descendants of men or tribes who flourished under the low caste government.”19 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.20 Mr. V. A. Smith20 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.21 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.