Rajput: Paik

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 It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India.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

This term means a foot- soldier, and is returned from the northern Districts. It belongs to a class of men formerly maintained as a militia by zamindars and landholders for the purpose of collecting their revenue and maintaining order. They were probably employed in much the same manner in the Central Provinces as in Bengal, where Buchanan thus describes them :

^ " In order to protect the money of landowners and convey it from place to place, and also, as it is alleged, to enforce orders, two kinds of guards are kept. One body called Burkandaz, commanded by Duffadars and Jemadars, seems to be a more recent establishment. The other called Paik, commanded by Mirdhas and Sirdars, arc the remains of the militia of the Bengal kingdom. Both seem to have constituted the footsoldiers whose number makes such a formidable appearance in the Ain-i-Akbari.

These unwieldy establishments seem to have been formed when the Government collected rent immediately from the farmer and cultivator, and when the same persons managed not only the collections but the police and a great part of the judicial department.

This vast number of armed men, more especially the latter, formed the infantry of the Mughal Government, and were continued under the zamindars, who were anxious to have as many armed men as possible to support them in their depredations. And these establishments formed no charge, as they lived on lands which the zamlndar did not bring to account." The Paiks are thus a small caste formed from military service like the Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa, and are no doubt recruited from all sections of the population. They have no claim to be considered as Rajputs.

Rajput, Parihar.—This clan was one of the four Agnikulas or fire-born. Their founder was the first to issue from the fire-fountain, but he had not a warrior's mien. The Brahmans placed him as guardian of the gate, and hence his name, Prithi-ha-dwdra^ of which Parihar is supposed to be a corruption." Like the Chauhans and Solankis the Parihar clan is held to have originated from the Gurjara or Gujar invaders who came with the white Huns in the ^ Eastern India, ii. p. 919. ^ Rdjasthan, i. p. 86.

fifth and sixth centuries, and they were one of the first of the Gujar Rajput clans to emerge into prominence. They were dominant in Bundelkhand before the Chandels, their last chieftain having been overthrown by a Chandel prince in A.D. 831/ A Parihar-Gujar chieftain, whose capital was at Bhinmal in Rajputana, conquered the king of Kanauj, the ruler of what remained of the dominions of the great Harsha Vardhana, and established himself there about A.D. 816.^ Kanauj was then held by Gujar-Parihar kings till about 1090, when it was seized by Chandradeva of the Gaharwar RajpiJt clan.

The Parihar rulers were thus subverted by the Gaharwars and Chandels, both of whom are thought to be derived from the Bhars or other aboriginal tribes, and these events appear to have been in the nature of a rising of the aristocratic section of the indigenous residents against the Gujar rulers, by whom they had been conquered and perhaps taught the trade of arms. After this period the Parihars are of little importance. They appear to have retired to Rajputana, as Colonel Tod states that Mundore, five miles north of Jodhpur, was their headquarters until it was taken by the Rahtors.

The walls of the ruined fortress of Mundore are built of enormous square masses of stone without cement, and attest both its antiquity and its former strength.^ The Parihars are scattered over Rajputana, and a colony of them on the Chambal was characterised as the most notorious body of thieves in the annals of Thug history.* Similarly in Etawah they are said to be a peculiarly lawless and desperate community.'^ The Parihar Rajputs rank with the leading clans and intermarry with them. In the Central Provinces they are found principally in Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore.