BANDA. the base of the Vindhyan
Manikpur.
Sandstone
hills,
and
and ravine deer are
rocky
hills
plentiful
worked
purposes
for building
several places, as also are limestone ?n/gai,
is
47
Kalyanpur, south of
at
extensively quarried at
is
and kankar.
Antelopes, wild pig,
common
hyenas
Snakes are numerous, deaths of human beings and of bites being of
History
name
.
tigers rare.
The
scattered over the District form a favourite resort of leopards.
common
cattle
from
their
occurrence.
— Banda forms one of the
of Bundelkhand, and
its
Districts included
early history
Province, of which a brief sketch
under the general
identical with that of the
is
may
here be given. by the Gonds, a
Bundelkhand
is
non-Aryan aborigines 3 but concerning the date or circumstances of the Aryan It fills a considerable place, conquest nothing is accurately known. said to have been originally inhabited
however,
in the
mythical history of the heroic age
tribe of
the
name
of
Banda
being derived, according to legend, from the sage Bamdeo, a Many local names in contemporary of the mighty Rama Chandra. itself
the District are in like
kings whose
earliest
and
manner connected with
his
come down
dynasty has
to
companions.
The
us through coins
Their capital was at Narwar, and
inscriptions were the Nagas.
they ruled, probably as viceroys to the Guptas of Kanauj, from the
commencement period
till
of our era
the end of the
till
the 8th century,
little
2nd century.
can be ascertained
the political state of Bundelkhand
3
but
it
From
that
with regard to
was apparently indepen-
dent of the Kanauj government, and formed part of the kingdom of
From the 9th to the 14th century, the tract was ruled by the Chandel dynasty (with the exception of a temporary occupation by Prithwi Raja, the Chauhan King of Delhi, who defeated the Chandel monarch in 1183 a.d.), under whom it rose to the highest power and eminence. Their epoch forms the Augustan age of Bundelkhand, and Gwalior.
the principal architectural remains in the tract are referred.
to
it
It
was the Chandels who
all
built
the
strong
mountain
fortresses of
Kalinjar and Ajaigarh, the exquisite temples of Khajurahu and Mahoba,
and the noble artificial lakes of Hamirpur. Though often attacked by the Musalmans (e.g., by Mahmud of Ghazni (Ghuznee) in 1023, and more successfully by Kutab-ud-din in 1196), they maintained their independence until near the beginning of the 14th century. The Chandel monarchy was dissolved about the year 1300, and this part of its dominions was occupied by the Bundelas, a body of Hindu military adventurers, from whom the tract derives its modern name, and whose present rank shows them to have been impure or spurious These hardy southern immigrants infused fresh blood into a Rajputs. country long weakened by the Muhammadan invasions. Owing to their determined opposition, the aggressive Musalmans did not succeed in subjugating Bundelkhand before the reign of Akbar 3 and even under
