Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/216

 208 KHE and with the shepherd kings of Naipál. In the first place it is clear that the Yadubans were not reckoned Chhattris. They style themselves of the race of Yadu simply; their primitive deity was Vishnu in the “Viraba" or bour avatar; they are admitted to have been Scythians, and they at one time ruled in Naipál, Kanauj, Dwarka, in fact over nearly all Northern In- dia. There are no Yadubans Chhattris now in existence. What has become of them? On the other hand, we find a Yadubans race who are called by their Sanskrit -speaking neighbours milkherds (Abírs) in allusion to their pastoral life, who allege that they too were Rajputs (not Chhattris), who were not admitted into the brotherhood of the Arian Chhattris, because they married their brothers' wives; in other words, I would infer they were Scythians. The race has spread over all Northern India. In the Punjab they have been converted to the Musalman faith, are called Rangars, and are alleged to be Musalman Rajputs ; in other words, descendants of the Yadubans kings. Kurmis.—The Kurmis are again a dubious race, are not found in the Punjab or in the Meerut Division; their centre is Behar and the Central Provinces, where they form with the Mális half of the Hindu population. They are very numerous in the Deccan ; they spread north, and in Oudh they are about a fifteenth; in the North-West Provinces they dwindle to a thirtieth. This points to their being a separate race. They worship Maroti Mahadeo, Bhawani, Khandoha, Vithoba. On the other band, their own tradition and all linguistic evidence point to their being the agricultural or servile class of the Hindu community as defined by Manu. They are the cultivators of India, "par excellence," although it certainly is not consistent with the above identification that the Kurmis should be most numerous in Berar and less so in the provinces of the Antar-bed, where the Hindu polity was first established and fourished. There are two great Kurmi colonies in Khori,—one in Haidarabad and Paila in which they settled they say many hundreds of years ago as colonists from Kanauj, the other in Dhaurahra, whither Raja Jodh Singh and Nawab Asif-ud-daula are said to have brought them from Tambaur in Sitapur. Thárus.-The Thárus, who number 1,010, may be referred to here. They are said to be Aborigines, but this is very doubtful; and they say themselves that they came from Chittor when it was sacked by Alš-ud-din Khilji* about 1305 A.D.+ They stayed south of Agra for some time, and then near Dholpur, where there exists an old city called Tbáru, whose stone ruins attest its magnificence. They are divided into two clans,—the Malwaria, so called from Malwára, a province in the Tarái lying east of Kanchanpur, and the Bána Batúr, but besides these there are several bastard branches. The Thárus eat meat, fish, and are very fond of spirits. They are of a very practical turn of mind, and utilize the spirits of their dead to keep the wild animals from their crops, thereby saving those still alive from night-watching. They marry within their own class, but there must be no known blood connexion between the parties. They have no betrotbals and no Brahmans; they will on no account take service as soldiers ; they + See also Berar Gazetteer page 16).
 * Priusep's Tables, page 256—810. Carney's Castes of Qudo, page ..