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578

Then they summoned their clansmen and .crossed into Oudh, and first took the fort of Buria and then Bhainsri a stronghold of the Thathefas. Them they fell upon at the Diwala when overcome with wine, and put them to the sword. And Sopi remained at Bhainsri and founded Bhainsri But Gopi passed northwards a few miles, and founded of the Ahbans. Gopamau. Probably this inroad of the Ahbans was synchronous with the campaign Udal who, shortly before the fall of Kanauj, were sent by the Kanauj monarch to subdue the Bhars. The Bhars occupy in other parts of Oudh precisely the same place in history as that of the Thatheras in Hardoi.

of Alha and

Mr. Butts gives the origin of the

name Ganjar

or Ganjaria.

Udal advanced to Sarsanwan near Amethi and afterwards seem to have got no further.

to

" JSha, and Dewa, but

" Oudh must have been a hot place, for them. North from Bijnaur through Sarsanwan lies the plain of Ganjaria which was then known as the Loh Gdnjar plain, or plain of iron, so called from the warlike demeanour of its natives, and it seems to have given the name of Gan(Lucknow Report.) jaria to the whole of Oudh." '

'

The author of the Chronicles of Oonao (p. 24) speaks of the " Ganjar" as strictly applicable only to the Khairabad Tardi, but extending to SanThe writer however has heard a Bais zamindar dila and Bangarmau. speak of a strip of low land along the Gumti, east of Lucknow, as a part of Ganjaria, and as the scene of a great battle of A'lha and Udal. Gopi and Sopi are contractions for Gop41 Singh and Sarup Singh. It seems not unlikely that the tradition which places a Thathera village of Mawwa Sarae and a Nath named Gopi at Gopamau prior to the coming of the Ahbaxis is true, and that Gopal the Ahban may have been attracted by the name, so like his own, to leave his brother at Bhainsri and found a settlement there. Thenceforth the name of Mawwa Sarae or Mawwa Chachar would naturally give way to that of Gopamau.

At

seem to have been Ahir settlements in the forest and tradition also places villages of Dhobis at Lodhi

this period there

in Aheri and Ahrori,

and Gop&.

From Sayyad SaMr's invasion till the fall of Kanauj was a bad time for these primitive tribes. Displaced from the west and north by the conquering hosts of the house of Ghori, Ahban, and Gaur and Chandel, Gaharwar, Chauhan, and Janwar streamed over from Kanauj and sought to regain on this side of the Ganges all that they were losing on that. The traditions of the coming oftheGaurs will be found under the headings Bangar and Mansurnagar and Bawan of the Chandels (who displaced the Ahirs at and round Ahrori) under Kachhandan of the Gaharwars under Bangar; of the Katiars under Kati£ri. All belong to the early class of Rajput colonists whose coming and its cause has been so eloquently described in the brilliant " Chronicles of Oonao."