Rajput: Gaharwap, Gherwal

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

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 It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India.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: 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.