Rajput: Bais

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This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in 1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch. See examples and a tutorial.

From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India

By R. V. Russell

Of The Indian Civil Service

Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces

Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner

Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.

NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.

Rajput: Bais

The Bais are one of the thirty-six royal ^ Article Baghel, quoting Forsyth's ^ Punjab Census Report (iSSi), Highlands of Central India. para. 445. ^ Tills article consists entirely of - Memoir of Central India, vol. ii. extracts from Mr. Crooke's article on p. 479. the Bais Rajputs.

races. Colonel Tod considered them a branch of the Surajvansi, but according to their own account their eponymous ancestor was Salivahana, the mythic son of a snake, who conquered the great Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain and fixed his own era in A.D. 55. This is the Saka era, and Salivahana was the leader of the Saka nomads who invaded Gujarat on two occasions, before and shortly after the beginning of the Christian era.

It is suggested in the article on Rajput that the Yadava lunar clan are the representatives of these Sakas, and if this were correct the Bais would be a branch of the lunar race. The fact that they are snake-worshippers is in favour of their connection with the Yadavas and other clans, who are supposed to represent the Scythian invaders of the first and subsequent centuries, and had the legend of being descended from a snake.

The Bais, Mr. Crooke says, believe that no snake has destroyed, or ever can destroy, one of the clan. They seem to take no precautions against the bite except hanging a vessel of water at the head of the sufferer, with a small tube at the bottom, from which the water is poured on his head as long as he can bear it. The cobra is, in fact, the tribal god.

The name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit Vaishya, one who occupies the soil. The principal hero of the Bais was Tilokchand, who is supposed to have come from the Central Provinces. He lived about A.D. 1400, and was the premier Raja of Oudh. He extended his dominions over all the tract known as Baiswara, which comprises the bulk of the Rai Bareli and Unao Districts, and is the home of the Bais Rajputs.

The descendants of Tilokchand form a separate subdivision known as Tilokchandi Bais, who rank higher than the ordinary Bais, and will not eat with them. The Bais Rajputs are found all over the United Provinces. In the Central Provinces they have settled in small numbers in the northern and eastern Districts.