266
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPT. 6, 1872.
Ind. Alt. III. 796 seq.) From these we find that a man whose name is not given, but who is described as the first of his race (Pravañsa)rose to distinction among the Kāyaths of Kausambhi, and took the fort of Ajaygarh. He was followed in succession by Jahnu or Hárúka, Jalhana, Gangādhara, Kamala, and lastly Málika. The last of this dynasty of six is identified by Lassen with Firishtah's Malki, and him I have just proved to be the Bal of Bhar legend. The in scriptions, therefore, furnish us with the informa
Ind. by Dowson, II.46) by the words “Out caste Bhawar” (Bhawar=Bhar; v. Lassen, Ind. Alt. I. 448, note") and to conjecture that, even at the time of Mahmud's conquest, a Bhar chief
tion that this Bhar
the synchronism, and similarity of names may together be held to justify the identification. Thus much may be deduced from the above evidence,—at the time of the Ghori conquest an aboriginal tribe held a fortress not far south of Kanauj, and at about the end of the same cen tury a chieftain of the same tribe took Kalanjar, and established a powerful kingdom, stretching from Malwa to Mirzapur and Faizabad, and with its principal strongholds at Kalanjar and Karra. The Bhar king did what aborigines in his posi tion always do, and got himself admitted as a Kāyath into the Hindu caste system. His dynasty reigned for a century and a half and was over
dynasty lasted for six
generations, and we may place its commence ment at about 1100 A. D. or 150 years before its destruction by Nasiruddin. Mr. Sherring in his new book on Castes has given a tolerably accurate account of the popular idea of what the Bhars were, an idea which is confirmed by the condition of the Bhars still existing in this district of Gonda. They were aborigines and closely connected with the Cheru stock, and they were, and are still lovers of the forest, great hunters and gross feeders,
with a passion for pork and wine, peculiar and mysterious religious rites, and a special aptitude for sorcery. Mr. Sherring may be in the right
tain flourished at a few marches to the south of
Kanauj. We are told that the Chandal Bha war was always at war with the Hindus of that place. Lassen goes on to state that he has no hesitation in identifying Paramalabrahman, the founder of the Chandel clan with Mālika and
thrown in 1247 A. D. His descendants were
when he identifies them with the bearded figures
promoted to be Chhattris, and are now known
found in middle Indian sculptures, though it is strange that he should have fallen into the mistake of attributing to them old cities of the Buddhist period, such as Sahet Mahet (Shrā vasti).
as Chandels.
I am inclined to translate the unmeaning
“Chandál Bhor” of Al 'Utbi (Elliot's Hist.
The rise of the aboriginal tribes
is paralleled in the contemporaneous history of Kashmir, and was probably due to the action of some general cause. Of the change of caste I could easily bring other instances,
but refrain from straying into quite a new subject.
-
A SPECIMEN OF KASHMíRI.—THE DASTAN SHEIKH SHIBLI. IN KASHMIRI VERSE. WITH AN
INTERLINEAR AND A LITERAL TRAN 8LATION.
By G. W. LEITNER, Ph. D. 1. Os
hazrat
Sheikh Shill, der
zemān
Was Highness Sheikh Shibli upon time
Daedt
ladá
Disease afflicted
ak wutshun yetz weddin. one
he saw much wept.
Dupuſs Sheikhan: daed ladáſ dapte tzi Said Sheikh: disease-afflicted say thou Daede khend, yāt wadán tshilk ye tzi Affliction from whom so much weeping is this thou
- Or 2nd Ed. vol. I, p. 534, also Fr. (Buchanan) Hamil
[king of Tirahut cir. A.D. 1120) had done.” Nepal, pp. 47,
ton (1819) says:—“The chiefs of the low tribe called Bhawar trace their origin to a Nanyopdev, who brought the stud of the king of Dilli to pasture in the plains of Alithila, then entirely waste. Certain it is, that the Bhawars, about that time, extended their dominion over the Gorakhpur
48. And again,_* I have mentioned that the tribe called Bhawar or Bhar has many territories, which had been sub ject to a powerful chief, whose capital was Gar Samaran in Tirahut, and the dominion of these Bhawars extended once
district as well as Tirahut, and that many petty chiefs of that tribe continued to occupy the parts adjacent to the hills until long after ; and many of them continue to this day
to be objects of worship among the low tribes. These may have been the descendants of collateral branches of the
Raja's family, or of the chief officers of their government; and it must be remarked, that many of them assumed the title of Deva, as all the princes descended from Nanyop
all over Gorakhpur. Garsamaran was destroyed in 1322 by the Muhammedans, and in its vicinity a state of anarchy, under petty chiefs, prevailed for twenty-four years, while the Muhammedans seized on the parts towards the Ganges.”
—ib. pp. 128, 129 ; conf ; also his Eastern India, vol. i. pp. 342, 345, 386; and Elliots' lºaces of the N. W. Prov. vol. I. pp. 33f. 167.-Ed.
t Shºuld be “dod=affliction; daed is really 'tyranny,’ ‘oppression.’