Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/529

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FYZ

451

CHAPTER

V.

RELIGION HISTORY.

Eeligious sects— Castes— History—Early Hindu history— Buddhist period— Description by Hwen Thsang Identity of Ayuto and Ajodhya— The Moslem invasion— Ajodhya under the Delhi Emperors Fyzabad under the Wazirs Modern history of clans Table showing the Chhattri tribes Table showing the ancient and present parganas. The proprietary tribes

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The Mehdona estate The Palwars The Eajkumdrs-^The Moslem Rajkumars of Hasanpur The Maniarpur estate and the Gargbansi clan— The rank of the Bachgotis — The annals of Dera and Meopur — The battle of Masora The Cera widow, Dariao Kuuwar The Meopur family The Musalmans The court of Oudh in Fyzabad The Fyzabad mutiny.

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Religious sects of Fyzabad. Religion in this district is of more than ordinary interest. Ajodhya, as is related in the account of that town, is the great centre of the hero worship which has selected the ancient king Ram Chandar as the object of its adoration. At the Rdmnaumi festival 500,000 people assemble in honour of that potent monarch, and innumerable shrines have been erected to R£m Chandar, his brother Bharat, his wife Sita, and his ally in the great .Dekkan war, Hanoman the monkey. This saint worship at the same time does not seem to interfere with the more spiritual theology which concerns itself with the wholly unearthly Vishnu, Mahadeo, and Bhawdni or Debi. beings,

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According to theory, of course. Ram Chandar was only an avatar or it would be supposed, therefore, that the local incarnation of Vishnu fame of Ram Chandar would have turned the devotions of the people to the Vishnuite faith. But this is not the case if the accompanying tables are correct, they show that this sect is less popular than the Shakti or Shaivi This only shows that the people have never accepted the sacerdotal faith. theory of Vishnu's incarnation it may be true or not but they regard Ram Chandar solely on his own merits as their hero-king. None of his miracles reflect any credit upon Vishnu the latter is regarded with cold and distant esteem, while Ram Chandar still awakens in the bosoms of the Hindus something resembling that zeal which, with men of other Yet it would be a bold thing creeds, gave rise to crusade and crescentade. in these tables really recorded are "who those of half a even, to say that









attend to the cults which are placed to their credit, or to any other.

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In the Rae Bareli district the local chronicler, after relating to what sects the Chhattris, Brahmans, and Kayaths of each town belong, always ends with the recital that as for the other castes, men of such low birth cannot be said to possess any religion at all. If this is the case, the tables here town among the specified given, which divide the whole population of each There is apparently no inclinasects, must be to a certain extent fanciful. tion of particular castes to any particular

sect.

In each small town the worshippers of each divinity will be found indisIt would indeed be a mistake to regard criminately among all castes. a distinct or separate worship. each indicating these divisions as if asked, that he regarded Vishnu, Shiva, say, probably would Vaishnavi and Bhawini with equal reverence that in the course of events his herethe cure of some relation at a, ditary devotional feeling, or some incident, •

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