Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/97

 BHURS. (84)

HIS tribe existed in Onde before any of the others already named, and their settlement in it is of so remote a period that they are sometimes considered to have been the aborigines. They lost all power and influence centuries ago, when the Emperor Allah-ood-deen Ghazee, of Dellii, attacked and conquered their stronghold at Sooltanpore, of which Bheem Sen Bhur was then monarch. The Bhurs at first offered a stout resistance, till the festival of the "Hoolie" (the Carnival of the Hindoos), when they drank to excess, and the fact becoming known to their assailants, they fell an easy prey to the enemy. The Bhurs are said to have founded the town of Baraitch, which was so named from "Bhur," and "druchria," a verb, meaning to make or to be made. It was an important place in their palmy days, though it is now sadly reduced.

The inroads of more intelligent and warlike tribes either destroyed or drove them from the province, so that Bhurs of the race which once held large possessions there are seldom to be found. They are now usually met with as menial servants of villages, and rarely own land. As such, they occupy a degraded position.

"The Oude territory abounds with the sites of the towns of the Bhurs, but nothing seems to be known of the history of the people to whom they belonged. They appear to have been systematically extirpated by the Mahomedan conquerors in the early part of the fourteenth century. All their towns are built of brick, so far as now appears, while none of the towns of the present day are so. There are numerous wells still in use, which were formed by them of the finest burnt brick and cement, and the people frequently discover others while ploughing the fields. It is not known that any arms, coins, or utensils peculiar to them have been disinterred, though copper deeds of giant from the Rajah of Kanooj to other people in Oude, 600 years old, have been found.

"The Bhurs must have formed town and village communities in Oude at a very remote period, and must have been a civilized people, though they have not left a name, date, or legend, inscribed on any monument. Brick ruins of forts, houses,