OF BHAEATAVAESA OR INDIA. 
73 
castes and communities, but a sufficient number of them still 
exists.*^ 
Many Rajputs have Bbar blood in their veins, and 
Dr. Francis Buchanan went so far as to state that tho 
Pan/idra Rajputs of Shahabad are descended from the 
Bhars.** 
' ' simple. The whole country between the Ganges, the Mahananda, Kamrup, 
" and the Karatoya, was undoubtedly the old Barendra Desha. To the 
" present day, much of it is called ' Bai-ind.' . . All round it, however, there 
"are shrines, holy wells and embankments connected with the name of 
*' Bhlma, one of the Pandava brothers . . Bhima is said to have made a large 
' ' fortified town south of Mahasthan, which is marked by great earthworks 
" altogether about eight miles long, and still in places as much as twenty 
" feet high. The whole country between them and Mahasthan is in places 
" covered with bricks It may be mentioned in connection with ^Mahasthan 
" that there is a legend that on a certain occasion twelve persons of very 
' ' high distinction and mostly named Pala came from the west, to perform 
" a religious ceremony on the Karatoya river, but arriving too late, settled 
" down on its banks till the next occurrence of the holy season, the Narayanl, 
" which depends on certain conjunctions of the planets, and was then twelve 
' ' years distant. They are said to have built numerous places and temples, 
" dug tanks, and performed other pious acts. They are said to have been 
" of the Bhuinhar or Bhaman Zamindar tribe, which is, at the present day, 
" represented by the Eajas of Banaras and Bhettia." See also Archaological 
Survey of India, vol. XV, p. 115. 
«The Census of 1881 counts 382,779 Bhars, of whom 20,870 live in 
Bengal, 1,639 in the Central Pro^inces, and 360,270 in the North-Westem 
Provinces. 
" See Dr. Buchanan's report in Montgomery Martin's vol. II, p. 463 : 
" In the account of Shahabad I have mentioned, that those pretending to be 
such {Parihar Rajputs) were in fact Bhars or Bhawars, and the same might be 
supposed to be the case here (in Goriikhpoor), where the Bhars were once lords 
of the country ; but the Bhars here do not pretend to have any kindred with 
the Parihars, and the latter are not only allowed to be a pure but a high 
tribe ;" and vol. I, 493 : " The tribe of palanquin-bearers, including Parihar 
Majputs, Rajbangsi Bhars, and Rajbars amounts to about 500 families." 
Compare P. Camegy in the Bengal Asiatic Journal, vol. XLV, p. 300-2. 
' ' Many years of the ofiicial life of the writer have been devoted to duties 
" which involved the examination of the genealogies of some of our oldest 
" and best native families, and the results of his inquiries have led him to 
"the following conclusions: (1) that not a single member of the landed 
" gentry or local priesthood can trace back to an ancestor who held an acre 
' ' of land, or who administered a spiritual function within the area under 
" inquiry during the Bhar supremacy ; (2) that scarcely any of them can 
' ' trace back to an ancestor who came into Audh at the Muhammadan advent, 
