Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/57

 BANDA. the base of the Vindhyan

Manikpur.

Sandstone

hills,

and

and ravine deer are

rocky

hills

plentiful

worked

purposes

for building

several places, as also are limestone ?n/gai,

is

47

Kalyanpur, south of

at

extensively quarried at

is

and kankar.

Antelopes, wild pig,

common

hyenas



Snakes are numerous, deaths of human beings and of bites being of

History

name

.

tigers rare.



The

scattered over the District form a favourite resort of leopards.

common

cattle

from

their

occurrence.

— Banda forms one of the

of Bundelkhand, and

its

Districts included

early history

Province, of which a brief sketch

under the general

identical with that of the

is

may

here be given. by the Gonds, a

Bundelkhand

is

non-Aryan aborigines 3 but concerning the date or circumstances of the Aryan It fills a considerable place, conquest nothing is accurately known. said to have been originally inhabited

however,

in the

mythical history of the heroic age



tribe of

the

name

of

Banda

being derived, according to legend, from the sage Bamdeo, a Many local names in contemporary of the mighty Rama Chandra. itself

the District are in like

kings whose

earliest

and

manner connected with

his

come down

dynasty has

to

companions.

The

us through coins

Their capital was at Narwar, and

inscriptions were the Nagas.

they ruled, probably as viceroys to the Guptas of Kanauj, from the

commencement period

till

of our era

the end of the

till

the 8th century,

little

2nd century.

can be ascertained

the political state of Bundelkhand

3

but

it

From

that

with regard to

was apparently indepen-

dent of the Kanauj government, and formed part of the kingdom of

From the 9th to the 14th century, the tract was ruled by the Chandel dynasty (with the exception of a temporary occupation by Prithwi Raja, the Chauhan King of Delhi, who defeated the Chandel monarch in 1183 a.d.), under whom it rose to the highest power and eminence. Their epoch forms the Augustan age of Bundelkhand, and Gwalior.

the principal architectural remains in the tract are referred.

to

it

It

was the Chandels who

all

built

the

strong

mountain

fortresses of

Kalinjar and Ajaigarh, the exquisite temples of Khajurahu and Mahoba,

and the noble artificial lakes of Hamirpur. Though often attacked by the Musalmans (e.g., by Mahmud of Ghazni (Ghuznee) in 1023, and more successfully by Kutab-ud-din in 1196), they maintained their independence until near the beginning of the 14th century. The Chandel monarchy was dissolved about the year 1300, and this part of its dominions was occupied by the Bundelas, a body of Hindu military adventurers, from whom the tract derives its modern name, and whose present rank shows them to have been impure or spurious These hardy southern immigrants infused fresh blood into a Rajputs. country long weakened by the Muhammadan invasions. Owing to their determined opposition, the aggressive Musalmans did not succeed in subjugating Bundelkhand before the reign of Akbar 3 and even under