View source for Rajput: Bundela

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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:Bundela=

A well-known clan of Rajputs of
somewhat inferior position, who have given their name to
Bundelkhand, or the tract comprised principally in the
Districts of Saugor, Damoh, Jhansi, Hamlrpur and Banda,
and the Panna, Orchha, Datia and other States. The
Bundelas are held to be derived from the Gaharwar or
Gherwal Rajputs, and there is some reason for supposing
that these latter were originally an aristocratic section of
the Bhar tribe with some infusion of Rajput blood. But
the Gaharwars now rank almost with the highest clans.

According to tradition one of the Gaharwar Rajas offered a
sacrifice of his own head to the Vindhya-basini Devi or the
goddess of the Vindhya hills, and out of the drops {bu7id)
of blood which fell on the altar a boy was born. He returned
to Panna and founded the clan which bears the
name Bundela, from bund, a drop.^ It is probable that, as
suggested by Captain Luard, the name is really a corruption
of Vindhya or Vindhyela, a dweller in the Vindhya
hills, where, according to their own tradition, the clan had
its birth. 

The Bundelas became prominent in the thirteenth
or fourteenth century, after the fall of the Chandels. " Orchha
became the chief of the numerous Bundela principalities ; but
its founder drew upon himself everlasting infamy, by putting
to death the wise Abul Fazl, the historian and friend of the
magnanimous Akbar, and the encomiast and advocate of
the Hindu race. From the period of Akbar the Bundelas
bore a distinguished part in all the grand conflicts, to the
very close of the monarchy." ^

The Bundelas held the country up to the Nerbudda in
the Central Provinces, and, raiding continually into the Gond
territories south of the Nerbudda on the pretence of protecting
the sacred cow which the Gonds used for ploughing,
they destroyed the castle on Chauragarh in Narsinghpur on
a crest of the Satpuras, and reduced the Nerbudda valley to
subjection. 

The most successful chieftain of the tribe was
Chhatarsal, the Raja of Panna, in the eighteenth century,
who was virtually ruler of all Bundelkhand ; his dominions
extending from Banda in the north to Jubbulpore in the
' Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. IJiindela.
2 Rrijasthdn, i. p. io6.
 
south, and from Rcwah in the east to the Betwa River in the
west. But he had to call in the help of the Peshvva to
repel an invasion of the Mughal armies, and left a third
of his territory by will to the Marathas. Chhatarsal left
twenty-two legitimate and thirty illegitimate sons, and their
descendants now hold several small Bundela States, while
the territories left to the Peshwa subsequently became
British. 

The chiefs of Panna, Orchha, Datia, Chhatarpur
and numerous other small states in the Bundelkhand agency
are Bundela Rajputs.^ The Bundelas of Saugor do not
intermarry with the good Rajput clans, but with an inferior
group of Panwars and another clan called Dhundhele,
perhaps an offshoot of the Panwars, who are also residents
of Saugor. Their character, as disclosed in a number of
proverbial sayings and stories current regarding them, somewhat
resembles that of the Scotch highlanders as depicted
by Stevenson. They are proud and penurious to the last
degree, and quick to resent the smallest slight. 

They make
good shikaris or sportsmen, but are so impatient of discipline
that they have never found a vocation by enlisting in the
Indian Army. Their characteristics are thus described in a
doggerel verse : " The Bundelas salute each other from
miles apart, \k\e.\x pagris are cocked on the side of the head
till they touch the shoulders. A Bundela would dive into
a well for the sake of a cowrie, but would fight with the
Sardars of Government." No Bania could go past a
Bundela's house riding on a pony or holding up an umbrella ;
and all low-caste persons who passed his house must salute
it with the words, Diwan ji ko Ram Rain. Women must
take their shoes off to pass by. 

It is related that a few
years ago a Bundela was brought up before the Assistant
Commissioner, charged with assaulting a tahsil processserver,
and threatening him with his sword. The Bundela,
who was very poor and wearing rags, was asked by the
magistrate whether he had threatened the man with his sword.
He replied " Certainly not ; the sword is for gentlemen like
you and me of equal position. To him, if I had wished to
beat him I would have taken my shoe." Another story is
that there was once a very overbearing TahsTldar, who had a
^ Imperial Gazetteer, articles Bundelkhand and I'anna.
 
shoe 2\ feet long with which he used to collect the land
revenue. One day a Bundela malguzar appeared before
him on some business. The Tahslldar kept his seat. 

The
Bundela walked quietly up to the table and said, " Will the
Sirkar step aside with me for a moment, as I have something
private to say." The Tahslldar got up and walked aside
with him, on which the Bundela said, ' That is sufficient, I
only wished to tell you that you should rise to receive me.'
When the Bundelas are collected at a feast they sit with
their hands folded across their stomachs and their eyes
turned up, and remain impassive while food is being put on
their plates, and never say, ' Enough,' because they think
that they would show themselves to be feeble men if they
refused to eat as much as was put before them. 

Much of
the food is thus ultimately wasted, and given to the sweepers,
and this leads to great extravagance at marriages and other
ceremonial occasions. The Bundelas were much feared and
were not popular landlords, but they are now losing their
old characteristics and settling down into respectable
cultivators.