1876.] P. Carnegy— Tie Mars of Audi and Bandras, 



301 



" I have found the opinion so generally entertained that there was a 

 Rajput conquest and colonization of Audh, that it requires a distinct 

 answer. The theory which I have broached and supported in this paper 

 (of the Bhars of old being the Hindus of to-day), is invariably met by the 

 argument that it opposes the declarations of a clear and general tradition. 

 It is argued that in spite of specious theories to the contrary, such a tradi- 

 tion cannot in its main features be false ; that if to satisfy the pride or 

 envy of the more recent converts, an origin was invented for them, it would 

 have been more consistent with the gradual growth of the Brahmanieal 

 creed, to assert a continuous adherence to it, than immigration by force of 

 arms : that if the Rajput clans retained the shameful tradition of illegiti- 

 mate alliances with low caste women, the fact affords strong grounds for 

 crediting the remainder of their traditionary history. 



" To this argument there is but one reply. I have not discovered the 

 existence of any such central tradition of conquest by Rajputs from without, 

 as that on which the argument entirely rests. It is stated in some of the 

 books to which we commonly refer, but it is not the statement of the 

 Rajput clans of Audh. I can refer to the histories of many Rajput clans. 

 We find accounts of their origin, some mythical, some confused, and some 

 not very honorable ; but none of them declare, as do many of the Muham- 

 madan legends, the arrival of an army of clansmen, and colonization by the 

 victors with their families and kin. 



" The very fact of the singular connections to which so many of the 

 clans trace their descent, is opposed to the idea of a conquest by arms. An 

 orthodox Hindu, the conqueror of a low-born race, would not have founded 

 a family by an alliance which his religion sternly rebuked. He would, like 

 his Muhammadan contemporaries, have summoned his wife and children to 

 the new country which Lis prowess had won. The tradition of descent 

 from a pure Chhatri may point to w hat is possibly true, that some pure 

 Chhatris did immigrate into Audh as Buddhism waned, of which the pro- 

 vince was the cradle and head quarters, and there is evidence to shew that 

 Buddhism retreated from the west and south to the north through Audh. 

 That the western Chhatris were, therefore, earlier returners to the Brahman 

 creed than the inhabitants of north-east Audh, and sent representatives to 

 this province before the final decay of Buddhism and the Bhars, is not sur- 

 prising. It is finally noticeable that the Audh clans who claim an extra- 

 provincial origin, trace their descent to single Chhatris, and not to troops 

 of Rajput invaders. Such are the Bais of Baiswara, who claim to descend 

 from Tilokchand, who came from the Central Provinces, and the Rajkumars, 

 from Barriar Singh, a Chauhan of Manipuri, through whom they claim 

 kindred with Prithiraj of Dihli. With these two exceptions none of the 

 clansmen of eastern Audh claim a western origin." 





