Note 60 — Volume II.

Traditions of origin. 3. Some of them claim to be Panwâr Râjputs, and “assert that their chief Udayjît was driven from house and home in a quarrel that he had with his brother Jagatdeo, the Râja of Dhâranagar, and came to dwell with a few followers at Banbasa on the Sârda. Udayjît had not been there long when his aid was solicited by the Râja of Kumâun, whose territories required defence against some of the neighbouring powers. Success attended the efforts of the Panwâr, and the gratitude of the Râja induced him to offer his defenders an asylum in his territories. Upon this they are represented to have left Banbasa and to have taken up their residence in their present abodes.”60 But their traditions are very vague; some say that they came from the Dakkhin; others, from Delhi; others, that they were expelled from the Dakkhin by the Marhattas. The Mahra or Dehra Dûn branch say that they came into the District from beyond the Ganges at the invitation of Râja Sukh Dâs Sâh of Tehri, who used them as guides through the jungles on his shooting expeditions. They fix their emigration into the Dûn at some five generations from the present day.