XXXVi
INTRODUCTION.
From these we learn that a man, whose name is not gi^en, himbut who is described as the foimder of his family, possessed
Ajai Garh. This unknown founder of the Ime have been a is conjectured by Lassen (vol. III., p. 798) to He was followed revolted vassal of Vijoya Chandra of Kanauj. on an independent throne by Jahun, Jahana, Gangadhar, Kamala, and finally Malika. The humility of their origin is made clear by the inscriptions, which give no name for their first ancestor and a duration of only four generations, as Jahana, Gangadhar, and Kamala were own brothers, and which invest Mdlika with none of the usual sounding titles of sovereignty, though there can be no_ doubt self of the fort of
that he was a reigning prince over a large territory, and which record that the members of the family were compelled to live together in a portion of the Kalinjar fort especially set apart for their use, a fact which clearly proves that they were considered as outLassen considers that the castes by the other Hindu residents. Chandels are proved by their pedigree to be descended from the same stock, and we find them, therefore, at first of no family at all, then as Kdyaths, with the title (on the inscription) of Thakur, and finally as full Chhattris with a well-known flaw in their pedigree, Dalki, the brother of Md,lika, on the overthrow of the last Kanauj king, conquered the whole of the Dud,b ; and Farishta records the utter defeat and destruction of Dalki and Malki, who had royal forts at Kalinjar and Karra, and held the whole country as far as Malwa in their possession, by Nasir-ud-din Muhammad, the king of Delhi, in 1246 A.D. The universal tradition of Southern Oudh, which preserves the memory of the reigns of E,djas Dal and Bal, proves that these princes were really Bhars, and that the whole of the south of the province as far as the Gogra was included in their dominions. It is more than probable that a far greater portion of the country was then covered by jungle than is now the case, and the rise of the low aboriginal tribes to dominion on the ruins of the power of their high caste rulers is paralleled by several instances in the only authentic continuous record of Indian history we possess the Raj Tarangini of Kashmir. The overthrow of the Bhars was followed by the establishment, much as we find them now, of the principal elements of modern Oudh society. The country was divided into a number of small chieftainships, ruled over by clans, who, whatever their real origin may have been, all professed themselves to be of the ruling caste of Chhattris. Many of these, such as the Kanhpurias of Partabgarh, the Gaurs of Hardoi, and their offshoot that Amethias of Rae Bareli, are probably descendants of men or
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