OF BHaEATAVAESA or INDIA, 
7i 
otter origin are very similar to the tribal name of the 
Bhars.41 
These people formed no doubt a considerable portion of 
the old population of Northern India. Though the Aryan 
power was for some time paramount in this part of Bharata- 
varsa, and our historical accounts about the Bhars begin 
at a considerably later period — in fact after the Buddhist 
reformation — we are as yet unable to define the time of the 
supremacy of the Bhars. I am of opinion that the Aryan 
invaders subdued the Bhars, and kept them in the back- 
ground till they in their turn were vanquished by other 
intruders. The non-Aryan population continued to occupy 
the ground as previously in the capacity of landovmers, 
farmers and serfs. The Buddhist re-action brought them 
again to the front. Some of them who were landholders or 
farmers were called Bhumiyas, from Blmnii^ land, and are 
now known by this name.*^ 
har^ bhdr, bhard, burden; bar, sigmfies also in Hindustani 
according to the various words from whicli it is derived, time, water, prohibi- 
tion, &c. ; bard, boy, bdrah, twelve, bar, excellent, barr, wasp, bard and 
bard, large, bar, Indian figtree, &c. 
^'^ See General Sir A. Cunningham in the Archaologioal Survey of India^ 
vol. XI, pp. 130-131 : " There is a ruined fort on the hill above the village 
" (Bhuili). The derivation of the name is not kno^n, but I suspect it to be 
"connected with the great tribe of Bhu'ias, and that it may be only a 
" slightly altered form of Bhu'idla. The Bhui'as are by far the most numer- 
"ous class in the Chunar and Sahsaram districts. They are evidently the 
" aborigines or old inhabitants of the country. Buchanan writes the name 
" Bhungihar, but I beheve that the proper appellation is simplj' Bhumia, or 
' ' men of the earth, or autochthones, a title given to them by the Brahmans, 
■" They generally call themselves Miisahar." 
See the History, Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India, 
edited by Montgomery Martin; London, 1883, vol. I, p. 168: "The 
*' Bhar have been fully mentioned in my account of Puraniya, in the north- 
western parts of which, and in the adjacent parts of Tirahut and Nepal 
*' they were at one time the governing tribe ;" further, pp. 176, 177, 178 : 
" In this district the most numerous of these tribes is called Musahar, and they, 
" probably like the Bhungiyas, are the remains of the armies of Jarasandha. 
''In some parts, Musahars and Bhungihars are reckoned two names for 
the same tribe, whict is probably a just opiDion (176). The Eajii-ars ai-e a 
