View source for Rajput: Gaharwap, Gherwal

  {| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in<br/>1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true <br />of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for<br/>the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities<br/>of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this <br/> article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this <br/> article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about <br/> communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. <br/>
 
Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly <br/>  on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch.
 
See [[examples]] and a tutorial.</div>
|}
 
[[Category:India|R]]
[[Category:Communities|R]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
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: Gaharwap, Gherwal=

This is an old clan.
Mr. V. A. Smith states that they had been dominant in
Central India about Nowgong and Chhatarpur before the
Parihars in the eighth century. The Parihar kings were
subsequently overthrown by the Chandels of Mahoba. 

In
their practice of building embankments and constructing
lakes the Chandels were imitators of the Gaharwars, who
are credited with the formation of some of the most
charming lakes in Bundelkhand.^ And in a.d. 1090 a Raja
of the Gaharwar clan called Chandradeva seized Kanauj
(on the Ganges north-west of Lucknow), and established his
1 The aljove particulars are taken ^ Early Hislory of India, 3rcl edifrom
Mr. Crofike's arlicle Dhakara in tion, p. 391.
his Tribes and Castes.
 
authority certainly over lienares and Ajodhia, and [icrliaps
over the Delhi territory. Govindachandra, grandson of
Chandradeva, enjoyed a long reign, which included the years
A.D. 1 1 14 and I I 54. His numerous land grants and widely
distributed coins prove that he succeeded to a large extent
in restoring the glories of Kanauj, and in making himself
a power of considerable importance. 

The grandson of
Govindachandra was Jayachandra, renowned in the popular
Hindu poems and tales of northern India as Raja Jaichand,
whose daughter was carried off by the gallant Rai Pithora
or Prithwi Raj of Ajmer. Kanauj was finally captured and
destroyed by Shihab - ud - Din in 1193, when Jaichand
retired towards Benares but was overtaken and slain.^ His
grandson, Mr. Crooke says,^ afterwards fled to Kantit in the
Mlrzapur District and, overcoming the Bhar Raja of that
place, founded the family of the Gaharwar Rajas of Kantit
Bijaypur, which was recently still in existence. 

All the
other Gaharwars trace their lineage to Benares or Bijaypur.
The predecessors of the Gaharwars in Kantit and in a large
tract of country lying contiguous to it were the Bhars, an
indigenous race of great enterprise, who, though not highly
civilised, were far removed from barbarism. According to
Sherring they have left numerous evidences of their energy
and skill in earthworks, forts, dams and the like.^ Similarly
Elliot says of the Bhars : " Common tradition assigns to
them the possession of the whole tract from Gorakhpur to
Bundelkhand and Saugor, and the large pargana of Bhadoi
or Bhardai in Benares is called after their name. 

Many
old stone forts, embankments and subterranean caverns in
Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Mlrzapur and Allahabad,
which are ascribed to them, would seem to indicate no
inconsiderable advance in civilisation," * Colonel Tod says
of the Gaharwars : " The Gherwal Rajput is scarcely known
to his brethren in Rajasthan, who will not admit his contaminated
blood to mix with theirs, though as a brave
warrior he is entitled to their fellowship." ' It is thus
curious that the Gaharwars, who are one of the oldest clans
^ Early Hist07y ofIndia, yA &A\\.\on, ^ Tribes and Casies, i. p. 75.
p. 385. * Supplementary Glossary, p. 33.
'^ Tribes and Castes, art. Gaharwar. ^ Rajasthan, i. p. 105.

 
to appear in authentic history, if they ruled Central India in
the eighth century before the Parihars, should be considered
to be of very impure origin. And as they are subsequently
found in Mirzapur, a backward forest tract which is also the
home of the Bhars, and both the Gaharwars and Bhars have
a reputation as builders of tanks and forts, it seems likely
that the Gaharwars were really, as suggested by Mr. V. A.
Smith, the aristocratic branch of the Bhars, probably with a
considerable mixture of Rajput blood. Elliot states that
the Bhars formerly occupied the whole of Azamgarh, the
pargana of Bara in Allahabad and Khariagarh in the Kanauj
tract. 

This widespread dominance corresponds with what
has been already stated as regards the Gaharwars, who,
according to Mr. V. A. Smith, ruled in Central India, Kanauj,
Oudh, Benares and Mirzapur. And the name Gaharwar,
according to Dr. Hoernle, is connected with the Sanskrit
root gah, and has the sense of ' dwellers in caves or deep
jungle.' ^ The origin of the Gaharwars is of interest in
the Central Provinces, because it is from them that the
Bundela clan of Saugor and Bundelkhand is probably
descended."^

The Gaharwars, Mr. Crooke states, now hold a high rank
among Rajput septs ; they give daughters to the Baghel,
Chandel and Bisen, and take brides of the Bais, Gautam,
Chauhan, Parihar and other clans. The Gaharwars are
found in small numbers in the Central Provinces, chiefly in
the Chhattlsgarh Districts and Feudatory States.