Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/73

 HAR settled in Farukbabad Pípargion. The colony in Sándi afterwards emi- grated to Sandíla; they have now 119 villages. The Gaurs, who are the most powerful clan in the district and occupy its centre, drove out the Thathers from Báwan and Sara, it is alleged, during the time of the Kanauj sovereignty. This was probably a scat of aborigi- nal power, for it was attacked by Sayyad Sálár A.D. 1024, and inany ancient sites and large wells attest its former greatness. Further, there is in Báwan a Súrajkund or tank sacred to the Sun; formerly many thousands of people used annually to assemble here to worship, but within the last twenty years this cult has given place to modern Brahmanism, and the spot is now almost deserted. The tradition, as related at length in the Sara and Báwan articles, states that two young sons of the Gaur Kuber Sáh of Gurganjari were buried alive by the barbarian Thather chieftain. They were dug up by their father while still breathing: one who had lost an eye was called Kána, and survived to be the ancestor of the Kane Gaurs; from the other sprang the Ane. These two branches have now 104 villages, while two other Gaur clans, the Chaubes and Chaudhris, hold 50 and 24 respectively. In nearly all cases, that, for instance, of the Ahbans, sprung from Gopi* and Sopi, the Gaurs and Nikumbhs as just related, we find the tribo claim- ing a descent from two or more brother inmigrants from the west. The same story is told of the Raikwárs of Sailuk (see Bara Banki), of the Janwárs of Kheri, of the Jángres (see Kamp Dhaurahra), of the Sambansi of Partabgarh. In every case a rather monotonous tale is told. The high caste Chhattris from the west wandered on seeking employment. Two brothers were entertained by the Bhar or Thather sovereign. In a few years a quarrel arosc, the barbarous chieftain either buried the children of the too powerful subject, or endeavoured to get him killed, or wanted to marry his daughter ; in some way he justified reprisals and was killed. Now, before rejecting these traditions as false we must remenber that the supersession of a master by a scrvant is the common course of all Oriental Governments. Such changes frequently occurred ; at any given period the reigning line had probably ousted one to which it was in subjection a generation or two back. When the Aryan or Hindu system was introduced a Chhattrí origin was found for the then governing Irouse, the precedent dynasty was left in barbarism, but the change of rulers was represented as a conquest by a branch of the Aryan race over mlechas or barbarians whom the retrospective caste founders did not care to ennoble. Noble pedigrccs in fact were found for tlie - rich and powerful, just as in another hemisphicre ; but here they were endowed with the still higher distinction of having acted as pioneers and champions of civilization and Hinduism, and the caitiff who stabbed his master became a defender of the faith. Turbulence of the district.-Hardoi was the most violent aud turbulent of all the districts of Oudh; it was divided into the chaklas of Sandíla, Sándi, Páli, and Tandiaon ; the last in particular included the famous Bangar- the wild district east of and along the Sai—in which the Pásis, the ancestral 9
 * Sec article Khcri,