_Daharia._ [506]--A caste of degraded Rajputs found in Bilaspur and
Raipur, and numbering about 2000 persons. The Daharias were originally
a clan of Rajputs but, like several others in the Central Provinces,
they have now developed into a caste and marry among themselves, thus
transgressing the first rule of Rajput exogamy. Colonel Tod included
the Daharias among the thirty-six royal races of Rajasthan. [507]
Their name is derived from Dahar or Dahal, the classical term for
the Jubbulpore country at the period when it formed the dominion
of the Haihaya or Kalachuri Rajput kings of Tripura or Tewar near
Jubbulpore. This dynasty had an era of their own, commencing in
A.D. 248, and their line continued until the tenth or eleventh
century. The Arabian geographer Alberuni (born a.d. 973) mentions the
country of Dahal and its king Gangeya Deva. His son Karna Daharia is
still remembered as the builder of temples in Karanbel and Bilahri
in Jubbulpore, and it is from him that the Daharia Rajputs take
their name. The Haihaya dynasty of Ratanpur were related to the
Kalachuri kings of Tewar, and under them the ancestors of the Daharia
Rajputs probably migrated from Jubbulpore into Chhattisgarh. But
they themselves have forgotten their illustrious origin, and tell a
different story to account for their name. They say that they came from
Baghelkhand or Rewah, which may well be correct, as Rewah lies between
Chhattisgarh and Jubbulpore, and a large colony of Kalachuri Rajputs
may still be found about ten miles north-east of Rewah town. The
Daharias relate that when Parasurama, the great Brahman warrior, was
slaying the Kshatriyas, a few of them escaped towards Ratanpur and were
camping in the forest by the wayside. Parasurama came up and asked
them who they were, and they said they were _Daharias_ or wayfarers,
from _dahar_ the Chhattisgarhi term for a road or path; and thus they
successfully escaped the vengeance of Parasurama. This futile fiction
only demonstrates the real ignorance of their Brahman priests, who, if
they had known a little history, need not have had recourse to their
invention to furnish the Daharias with a distinguished pedigree. A
third derivation is from a word _dahri_ or gate, and they say that the
name of Dahria or Daharia was conferred on them by Bimbaji Bhonsla,
because of the bravery with which they held the gates of Ratanpur
against his attack. But history is against them here, as it records
that Ratanpur capitulated to the Marathas without striking a blow.