66 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
Barrhai. They do not appear to be specially quoted in 
Sanskrit literature, unless the wild mountaineer tribe of the 
Bharafas, who occur in the dictionaries along with the 
Cabarets, is considered identical with them. Sir Henry 
M. Elliot thought that the Bhars might perhaps be the 
Bharatas, whose descent is traced to Jayadhvaja. According 
to the Harivarhsa the Bharatas are very numerous. The 
Bhars pronounce their name very harshly, and it is by no 
means impossible that the well-known Aryan word barba- 
rian, Barbara or Varvara in Sanskrit, owes to a certain 
extent its origin to them.^'* The Bhar tribe is also known as 
Bdjbhdr, B/tarat and BhdrpatvaP There is some contention 
between the Bhar and the Eajbhar as to superiority, but this 
is a difficult point to decide; some regard the Eajbhars as 
most usually call the northern trihe Chet, while they assume to themselves 
the denomination of Mai or Mar, which however is probably a word of the 
same derivation with Maler." Compare also note 23 on p. 22, and De- 
scriptive Ethnology of Bengal, by Colonel E. T. Dalton, p. 264 : "We have 
a tribe called Mai or Mar, .Thej- declare, they came originally from Malwa. 
, . Malwa is the chief seat of the Bhil race, who are considered aborigines of 
that district. Malavas and Bhils may be identical, and our Paharias and 
Bhils cognates." 
See Genl. Sir A. Cimningham in his Archecological Sun^y of India, vol. 
XVII, p. 140 : " We know at least that the Arj-ans ridiculed the aborigines 
on account of their burr, and gave them the nick name of barbaras, or barba- 
rians, from which we may conclude that any words containing the burred r 
must be indigenous." 
The word barhar is spelt in Hindustani barbar. jjjj. Compare ''Not«s on 
the Bhars and other Early Inhabitants of Bundelkhand," by Vincent A. 
Smith in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal [1877], vol. XLVI, 
pp. 227-236, where in the first note on p. 227 we read: " The name is 
usually spelt ' Bhar, ' but the spelling ' Bharr " would more accurately 
represent the pronimciation." 
See Sir Henry IM. Elliot's Supplemental Glossary o f Indian Terms, vol. 
I, pp. 33 and 34 : " Common tradition assigns to them the . . whole tract from 
Gorakhptir to Bundelkhand and Saugor, and the large Pargannah of Bhadoi, 
in Benares (formerly Bhardai) is called after their name. Many old stone 
forts, en\bankmcnts, and subf orraneoiis caverns in Gorakhptir, Azinigjirh, 
Jauniuir. MirzapOr, and AUahalxid, which are ascribed to them, would seem 
to indicate no inconsiderable adv.tnce in civilization. The wild Bhils of 
Marwar arc callod Bhannrls, but I know not whether there is any connexion 
between them and the Bhars. The Bhoyas and Bhuttius of Agorl and 
