228 
V. A Smith —Notes on the Bhars of Bundelkhand. [No. 3, 
interest; thus, the old name of the town of Sumerpur (in Parg. Sumerpur) 
is Bharua, and in the parganas of Maudha, Panwari-Jaitpur, Jalalpur, and 
Bath, respectively, we find localities named Bharsawan, Bharwara, Bhar- 
khari or Barkhari, and Bhanraura Ivhera, and in several of these cases the 
evidence of the name is confirmed by that of tradition. 
There seems to me to he little doubt that the Bhars are a non-Aryan 
race, and are the congeners of the Gonds, Ivols, Bhils, and other more or 
less wild and predatory hill tribes who once occupied Bundelkhand. It is, 
as Sir H. Elliot* observes, “ confessedly very difficult to trace the connexion 
or difference between the aboriginal tribes of Bhars, Cherus, Seoris, and 
Kols”, and Mr. Sherringf believes “ that many of the aboriginal tribes of 
India were originally blended together.” Whatever may be the precise 
connexion between the so-called aboriginal tribes, it is quite certain that 
several of them occupied Bundelkhand simultaneously and jointly, and I 
suspect that in traditions they are often confounded. For instance as in 
the case of M. GundJ (in Parg. Panwari-Jaitpur), where the name points 
apparently to the Gonds, the original settlers are spoken of as Chamars : in 
such cases I suspect that the term Chamar is used in a vague way to cover 
the ignorance of the speaker, and is practically equivalent to “ low caste 
barbarian” ; the word Chamar it will be remembered is not properly the 
name of a tribe, but simply means a worker in leather. I think it very 
probable that the Chamars, who now form the most numerous element in 
the low caste labouring population, are an extremely heterogenous body, 
and have but recently been developed into a caste formed of the fragments 
of tribes, which were free from the trammels of caste, and were alike un¬ 
clean and impure in the eyes of the Brahmans, and whose remnants have 
now been lumped together by Brahman pride as the men who work in 
leather, the unclean thing. § 
We have no direct knowledge of the inhabitants of Bundelkhand at 
the dawn of history; our earliest piece of information is that afforded by 
Hiouen Thsang in the 7th century A. D., who states that the king of Kha- 
(76): Jaunpur (14,695) : A’zamgarh (74,144): Mirzapur (4,338): Benares (34,805): 
Ghazfpur (53,060) : Gorakhpur (43,152) : Basti (17,322): Gaphwal (456). 
Total 243,462. 
[From N. W. P. Census Rep. I, pp. 105, 135 ] 
* Beanies’ Elliot, I, p. 60, s. v. Cheru. 
f J. R. As. Soc. V., N. S., p. 399. 
I Here, as in many other villages in the south, a Gond ghost is locally worshipped. 
§ In connection with this subject, it may be noted that the frusta or waistcloth, 
worn by the low caste women of Bundelkhand, seems to be the same garment as that 
used by the women of the Maiwar Bhils (J. A. S. B., XLY, Pt. I, pp. 355 and 289) : 
and the same dress is used by the Gon^s (Reames’ Elliot, s. v. Gond). 
