Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/53

 PATHANS OF BAREILLY. (121)

HE Mahomedans of India are divided into four general classes without distinction by creed; namely, Syud, Sheikh, Moghul, and Pathan. Of these the two first are the most numerous and most ancient, the Syuds claiming to be the descendants of Mahomed, through Fatima his daughter, and the Sheikhs constituting the remainder of those professing Mahomedanism, who formed the great bulk of the people. Pathans as well as Moghuls are Syuds and Sheikhs; but a clannish and exclusive spirit has, in the main, kept them separate. The Moghuls are the descendants of those immigrants into India who followed the Tartar and Toorky invasions and dynasties, and who always constituted large proportions of the Imperial armies; and the Pathans belong to the races of Afghans who, the original Mahomedan invaders of India, founded many dynasties of kings and emperors of Delhi, and gradually formed colonies in many portions of the country. Bareilly is the capital of the province of Rohilkmid, and the term is derived from Rohilla, an appellation which attaches itself to all Afghans, most particularly to the inhabitants of the passes into Afghanistan, and their neighbours the tribes inhabiting the country to the north-west of the Punjab, who were doubtless the progenitors of those of Rohilkund. During the continuance of the several Afghan or Pathan dynasties of Delhi, the Rohillias or Pathans attained very considerable local influence, and settled themselves in the fertile provinces below the Himalaya range, and in particular near Bareilly, the provinces around which were eventually called Rohilkund. From this locality the Imperial armies were constantly recruited, while the ranks of the Afghan settlers were as constantly augmented by emigrants from the original tribes. It was a body of this Pathan cavalry which accompanied Allah-ood-deen to the Deccan in 1310, and established the Mahomedan power there; and when the first Bahmuny dynasty of the Deccan was founded by Hassan Gungoo, himself of Afghan descent, his victories over the Imperial troops sent to reduce him, were mainly attributable to the fidelity and bravery of the Afghan or Rohilla cavalry, which then constituted the main body of his army. From that period the Pathans settled in the Deccan, and in the kingdoms which eventually grew out of the Bahmuny dynasty, rose to considerable power. It was, however, in Rohilcund only, that they attained for a short time an independent government. On the breaking up of the Mogul empire of Delhi, consequent upon