OF BHARATAVAKSA OR INDIA. 
69 
Mirzapur probably owed their origin to the Bhars. Mr. C. A. 
Elliot states that " almost every town whose name does not 
" end in pur, or dbad, or moic, or is not distinctly derivable 
*' from a proper name, is claimed by tradition, in the east of 
*' Oudh, as a Bhar town. The district of Bharaich ... is their 
oldest abode, and the name of the town Bharaich is said 
" to be derived from them." Traces of the Bhars abound 
according to Mr. Duthoit, late Superintendent of the Maha- 
raja of Benares, " on all sides in the form of old tanks and 
village forts. One cannot go for three miles in any direc- 
tion without coming upon some of the latter." Not very 
long ago the Bhars were the lords of the soil in the districts 
of Benares and Oudh, and according to the still prevailing 
tradition in Azimgarh, the Raj bhars occupied the country in 
the time of Eama. The structures left by the Bhars prove 
that they were equally proficient in the arts of peace and of 
war. The remains ascribed to them are especially numerous 
in the Benares district.^^ 
Benares or Varanasi (Baranasi) lies on the banks of the 
Barna (or Varana), where it flows into the Granges. I am 
of opinion that Bdrdnast owes its name to the Bars or 
Bhars. I assign likewise the name of Behar or Bahar to 
the same origin, especially as the Bhars were once the rulers 
in this district, and as the usual derivation from Vihdra, a 
Buddhist temple, seems to me very problematic, the more so 
Compare Sherring's Hindu Tribes and Castes, vol, I, pp. 357-375 on 
the Bhar trihe, and the Archmological Survey of India, vol. XII, p. 89 : 
"It is said that Nagar Khas and Pokhra, and the land generally around 
" the Chando Tal, were originally in the possession of the Bhars, who may 
" possibly, therefore, have founded some of the ancient sites in that 
" neighboTixhood." Eead also Bengal Asiatic Journal, vol. XLV, p. 305, 
about the Bharddis (or Bhar-abadis). 
On the other hand, Mr. Smith, ididem, vol. XLVI, p. 234, remarks : 
"The Bhars of Bundelkhand, so far as we know them, seem to have 
" possessed little of the arts of civilization, and to have consequently left 
" behind them almost nothing of architectiu'al or artistic interest." 
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