Note 68 — Volume II.

Origin of tribe. 2. One story of their origin is that when Parasurâma destroyed the Kshatriya race, he set up in their place the descendants of Brâhmans, who, after a time, having abandoned their priestly functions, took to land-owning. Another story tells that a King of Ajudhya being childless, sought to obtain an heir by the sacrifice of a Brâhman, and purchased the son of the Rishi Jamadagni for that purpose. The uncle of the child, the sage Viswamitra, procured a child for the Râja, and the sacrifice was rendered unnecessary; but the Brâhman boy having been sold was considered degraded, and was forced to take to agriculture, and became the ancestor of the Bhuînhârs. This, as Mr. Risley says, is the famous legend of Sunahsephas in another form.68 “A third legend, perhaps the best known of all, traces the Bâbhans back to a sacrifice offered by Jarasandha, King of Magadha, at which a very large number of Brâhmans, some say a lakh and-a-quarter, were required to be present. Jarasandha’s Dîwân, a Kâyasth of the Amisht or Karan sub-caste, did his best to meet the demand, but was driven to eke out the local supply by distributing sacred threads among members of the lower castes, and palming them off on the King as genuine Brâhmans. Jarasandha’s suspicions being roused by the odd appearance of some of the guests, the Dîwân was compelled to guarantee their respectability by eating the food which they had cooked, while the Brâhmans thus manufactured had to set up a caste of their own, the name of which (Bâbhan or Bâhman) is popularly supposed to mean a sham Brâhman, just as in some districts an inferior Râjput is called a Râwat, the corruption of the name betokening the corruption of the caste.”69