The principal home of the Bhuiya tribe proper is the south of the
Chota Nagpur plateau, comprised in the Gangpur, Bonai, Keonjhar and
Bamra States. "The chiefs of these States," Colonel Dalton says,
"now call themselves Rajputs; if they be so, they are strangely
isolated families of Rajputs. The country for the most part belongs
to the Bhuiya sub-proprietors. They are a privileged class, holding as
hereditaments the principal offices of the State, and are organised as
a body of militia. The chiefs have no right to exercise any authority
till they have received the _tilak_ or token of investiture from their
powerful Bhuiya vassals. Their position altogether renders their claim
to be considered Rajputs extremely doubtful, and the stories told to
account for their acquisition of the dignity are palpable fables. They
were no doubt all Bhuiyas originally; they certainly do not look like
Rajputs." Members of the tribe are the household servants of the Bamra
Raja's family, and it is said that the first Raja of Bamra was a child
of the Patna house, who was stolen from his home and anointed king of
Bamra by the Bhuiyas and Khonds. Similarly Colonel Dalton records the
legend that the Bhuiyas twenty-seven generations ago stole a child
of the Moharbhanj Raja's family, brought it up amongst them and made
it their Raja. He was freely admitted to intercourse with Bhuiya
girls, and the children of this intimacy are the progenitors of the
Rajkuli branch of the tribe. But they are not considered first among
Bhuiyas because they are not of pure Bhuiya descent. Again the Raja of
Keonjhar is always installed by the Bhuiyas. These facts indicate that
the Bhuiyas were once the rulers of Chota Nagpur and are recognised
as the oldest inhabitants of the country. From this centre they have
spread north through Lohardaga and Hazaribagh and into southern Bihar,
where large numbers of Bhuiyas are encountered on whom the opprobrious
designation of Musahar or 'rat-eater' has been conferred by their
Hindu neighbours. Others of the tribe who travelled south from Chota
Nagpur experienced more favourable conditions, and here the tendency
has been for the Bhuiyas to rise rather than to decline in social
status. "Some of their leading families," Sir H. Risley states,
"have come to be chiefs of the petty States of Orissa, and have now
sunk the Bhuiya in the Khandait or swordsman, a caste of admitted
respectability in Orissa and likely in course of time to transform
itself into some variety of Rajput."