1876.] P. C&megy—The Bhars of Audh and Bandras. 305 



One of the things about the Bhars which create surprise, is that the 

 numerous old mounds on which we still find traces of their habitations, and 

 which are known throughout the country as Bharddis (or Bhar-abadis), 

 are usually found strewed with burnt bricks and other debris, indicative of 

 a better class of residences than are adopted by the agricultural population 

 of these days. The reasons for this, however, are not difficult to assign. 

 There is nothing more certain in political economy than that the land can 

 only in comfort support a certain number of lives ; and one of the difficulties 

 of the future, is what we are to do with our surplus population. Eastern 

 Audh is at this moment the most densely peopled tract in the world, and 

 day by day as population increases and the margin of culturable waste 

 becomes smaller, the means of the people, derived so largely from agriculture, 

 will become individually smaller. In the days of the Bhars, population was 

 sparse, and land plentiful, the people consequently were in better circum- 

 stances. Moreover, Audh was then covered with jungle. Even the eastern 

 or most advanced portion of it, was known as Banaudha, the " Audh forest". 

 Wild animals inhabited the woods. It followed that people who were com- 

 paratively well off, should secure themselves from beasts of prey, by using 

 bricks and tiles in the construction of their houses, rather than the mud 

 and reeds which poverty and security have now made universal. 



There are few things more misleading and untrustworthy than the 

 definitions which natives, however well educated, offer in explanation of the 

 names of tribes and localities ; and every effort to find a reasonable rendering 

 of the term BJiar has as yet failed. Tod mentions that in the times to 

 which this paper refers, the people of Rajpiitana became amalgamated 

 into a single great family conglomeration, and they were called Blumiya. 

 This is a well known term indicative of connection with the soil, and 

 means neither more nor less than agriculturist. This was precisely the 

 position occupied by the Bhars in the territory peopled by them, and for all 

 we know to the contrary, the name may have some similar meaning. 



It is denied by no one that 500 years ago no one but the Bhars owned 

 a single acre of land in these parts, but not a single inch of land has been 

 owned by the Bhars since the Muhammadan conquest. In fact but few of 

 the tribe are now to be found, and these few follow such degrading occupa- 

 tions as keeping swine, in the most eastern portion of Audh. Whether 

 these are the same as the Bhar rulers of the past (whom Mr. Thomason 

 refers to as the Raj -Bhars of Rama's time) or not, it is impossible to say, 

 but they now worship the same gods as the Hindus, and by general admis- 

 sion they are Hindus. The Rajputs and the Rajbhars of old were not above 

 caring for the good things of this life — and whatever the former may do 

 now, they then eschewed neither pork nor strong drink. The Bhars of 

 to-day are as liberal in their views on these things as their ancestors were, 

 and the only oath they really respect is associated with wine. 





