Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/169

 BOONDELAHS.

OONDELAHS are the principal inhabitants of Bundelcund, or rather Boondelacund; and were originally a tribe of warlike Rajpoot adventurers from Goharbhuni, whose chief, Dewacla Bir, was the founder of the great Boondelah dynasty; their capital, Oorcha, now the principal town of a small district, was founded in 1587 by Pretaub, the tenth in descent from Dewada. Although defeated by Shahjehan, they nevertheless eventually expelled the Mahomedan invaders, and resumed possession of their territories; which, however, they were henceforth content to hold under a dubious obligation of fealty to the Mahomedan Government. Their obedience was, at a much later date, transferred to the Peshwa, and their territory eventually ceded by him to the British Government. The descendants of the Boondelahs proper are still in all known cases members of families of some importance, and are generally chieftains. They are allowed to be a brave and warlike race, and there is something haughty and independent about them to the present day. They are deeply attached to the soil they inherit, which, however, they never themselves cultivate.—''As. Soc'', vol. i.

Dureeahon, the subject of photograph 102, has a very dark complexion and dark eyes, his height about five feet, and he is a strongly built man. His dress consists of a padded green cotton coat and white trousers; he carries on his shoulder an arched framework of bamboo, covered with tinsel embroidery, surmounted by two red flags; at each end of the bamboo, a basket enclosing an earthern jar full of holy Ganges water is suspended, and the framework is neatly fringed with various colours. He is evidently upon a pilgrimage, and having visited Benares, or some holy city on the Ganges, is now carrying jars of water which he has vowed to pour over a sacred image, not improbably that at Rameshwar or Ramisseram, in the south of India, to which shrine many Boondelahs annually resort in pursuance of vows. Generally speaking, the inhabitants of Bondelacund are a rude unmannerly people, not possessing the natural courtesy of other races of India, indeed "as boorish as a Boondelah" is a common proverb. They are also comparatively little educated; and their