1865.J On the Boksas of Bijnour. 153 
habits, &ec., and that they had come from the Dakkan, but even in this 
they were not unanimous. When they came to details, and many 
professed to know none, their statements were more varied than 
satisfactory. Thus, several of them agreed that they came from 
Dharanaggari, which, however, one man declared was close to Kangra 
Devi. One stated that they came from Delhi, and another that they 
had been driven from their original home in the Dakkan by the 
Marhattas; one pudhdn stated that they came from Chittorgurh, 
“beyond Delhi” in the wars of the old Rajas, and the most intelligent 
pudhdn of all, the only man among them that I met who could read, 
affirmed that they originally came from ‘‘ Boondee Kolah’’ having been 
exiled thence “ by the king.” On this subject I found the three puro- 
hits quite as ignorant as the members of their flocks. 
A still more curious statement, than any of these was made by an 
intelligent old Bengali Baboo, who has held a village in the Boksa 
district for many years. He solemnly affirmed that, before the com- 
mencement of British rule, the Boksas were Mussulmans in faith and 
ceremonials, and that, im his time, they had Hosseini Brahmins as pwro- 
hits, and used verses of the Koran in their pwa. This is a very 
suspicious story, at the same time it is difficult to see what motive the 
man could have had in narrating it. 
It is not easy to reconcile the clear statements made to Elliot, 
especially regarding the origin of the tribe, with the above discordant 
_ and fragmentary information which alone is current among the western 
Boksas, and the explanation of the difficulty may be the following. 










Ii the story about Oodya Jeet is the true one, it would be more likely 
to be retained by the numerous and concentrated Boksas to the east 
of the Ramganga, than by the few and scattered members of the tribe 
to the west. Or, if that tradition is, as there seems reason to suspect, 
a@ mere concretion, resulting possibly from the original conversion of 
“the tribe by. Rajputs, and their centuries of contact with Hindoo castes 
and traditions, it may, ina similar way, have more readily assumed a 
definite form, where the tribe was most numerous and united, 
Still less than my inclination to theorize definitely, are my quali- 
fications to dogmatize on such a subject, but the suspicion has 
grown on me, since commencing inquiries regarding these people, 
that their origin may be very different from what has ordinarily 
21 
