==============+========+============+=======
Districts. |Hindus. |Muhammadans.| Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 18 | 24 | 42
Muzaffarnagar | 17 | ... | 17
Meerut | 2 | ... | 2
Bulandshahr | 265 | 1 | 266
Aligarh | 45 | ... | 45
Mathura | 32 | 10 | 42
Agra | 119 | ... | 119
Farrukhâbâd | 1,349 | 16 | 1,365
Mainpuri | 220 | 45 | 265
Etâwah | 681 | ... | 681
Etah | 82 | ... | 82
Bareilly | 342 | ... | 342
Budâun | 1,038 | 29 | 1,067
Morâdâbâd | 60 | ... | 60
Shâhjahânpur | 5,632 | 85 | 5,717
Pilibhît | 228 | ... | 228
Cawnpur | 12,868 | ... | 12,868
Fatehpur | 1,755 | 4 | 1,759
Bânda | 958 | ... | 958
Hamîrpur | 554 | 94 | 648
Allahâbâd | 1,659 | 27 | 1,686
Jhânsi | 84 | 31 | 115
Jâlaun | 978 | 117 | 1,095
Lalitpur | 125 | ... | 125
Benares | 1,944 | 58 | 2,002
Mirzapur | 4,947 | ... | 4,947
Jaunpur | 7,901 | 8 | 7,909
Ghâzipur | 806 | 257 | 1,063
Ballia | 3,109 | ... | 3,109
Gorakhpur | 3,429 | 60 | 3,489
Basti | 228 | 602 | 830
Azamgarh | 5,186 | 88 | 5,274
Lucknow | 810 | 15 | 825
Unâo | 2,834 | 74 | 2,908
Râê Bareli | 1,037 | 51 | 1,088
Sîtapur | 491 | 267 | 758
Hardoi | 5,379 | 37 | 5,416
Kheri | 490 | 121 | 611
Faizâbâd | 906 | 21 | 927
Gonda | 391 | ... | 391
Bahrâich | 195 | 40 | 235
Sultânpur | 751 | 131 | 882
Partâbgarh | 315 | 12 | 327
Bârabanki | 886 | 19 | 905
+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Total | 71,146 | 2,344 | 73,490
==============+========+============+=======
Chandrabansi.—Properly the race of the moon (Chandravansa). One of the
two great divisions of the Kshatriya race, of whom a full account is
given in the second chapter of Colonel Tod’s “Annals of Rajasthân.” In
these Provinces it is the title of a separate sept, who are quite
distinct from the Chandels who claim to represent the ancient children
of the moon. They are most numerous in the Bulandshahr District.
2. In Azamgarh they claim to belong to the Bhârgava gotra; they receive
brides from the Bisen, Sakarwâr, Nandwak, Râthaur, Palwâr, Gautam,
Ujjaini, Chandel, Bais, Udmatiya, Singhel, and Kausik septs; and marry
their daughters to the Gargbansi, Raghubansi, Sûrajbansi, Chauhân, and
Sirnet. In Aligarh they take girls from the Gahlot, Kachhwâha, Râthaur,
Bargûjar, Solankhi, Bâchhal, Jais, Janghâra, and Pundîr, and give
brides to the Chauhân, Gahlot, Bargûjar, Punwâr, Tomar, Râthaur,
Kachhwâha, Janghâra, and Dhâkra septs.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHANDRABANSI RÂJPUTS ACCORDING
TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.
==============+=======
District. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 7
Muzaffarnagar | 2
Meerut | 40
Bulandshahr | 2,340
Aligarh | 1,007
Mathura | 205
Agra | 60
Farrukhâbâd | 411
Mainpuri | 14
Etâwah | 10
Etah | 16
Morâdâbâd | 13
Shâhjahânpur | 32
Cawnpur | 14
Fatehpur | 26
Bânda | 1
Jhânsi | 81
Jâlaun | 3
Benares | 509
Ghâzipur | 12
Ballia | 79
Gorakhpur | 121
Basti | 94
Azamgarh | 383
Kumâun | 25
Tarâi | 51
Râê Bareli | 22
Sîtapur | 7
Hardoi | 63
Kheri | 126
Sultânpur | 13
Bârabanki | 1
+~~~~~~~
Total | 5,788
==============+=======
Charandâsi.—A Vaishnava sect which takes its name from its founder,
Charan Dâs, of the Dhûsar caste, who was born at Dehra, in the Alwar
State in 1703. His father was Murli Dhûsar, who died when his son, then
called Ranjît Sinh, was only five years old. “The boy then emigrated to
Delhi and lived with some relations there. He became a disciple of Bâba
Sukhdeva Dâs, a religious faqîr of high religious attainments, at the
age of nineteen, at Sukra Tâl, near Muzaffarnagar, who gave him the
name of Râmcharan Dâs. Afterwards Charan Dâs established a separate
religious order in his own name, and, like others, preached, and made
many disciples. His principal disciples were Swâmi Râmrûp, Gusâîn
Jagatân, and a woman named Shâhgolâi. Each of these established a
monastery in Delhi and obtained grants from the Mughal Emperors, which
have been confirmed by the British Government.” [212]
2. Of the tenets of the sect, Prof. Wilson [213] writes:—“Their
doctrines of universal emanation are much the same as those of the
Vedanta school, although they correspond with the Vaishnava sects in
maintaining the great source of all things, or Brahma to be Krishna;
reverence of the Guru, and assertion of the pre-eminence of faith above
every other distinction, are also common to them with other Vaishnava
sects, from whom probably they only differ in requiring no other
qualification of caste, order, or even of sect, for their teachers;
they affirm, indeed, that originally they differed from other sects of
Vaishnavas in worshipping no sensible representations of the deity, and
in excluding even the tulasi plant and the Sâlagrâma stone from their
devotions; they have, however, they admit, recently adopted them, in
order to maintain a friendly intercourse with the followers of
Râmanand: another peculiarity in their system is the importance they
attach to morality, and they do not acknowledge faith to be independent
of works; actions, they maintain, invariably meet with retribution or
reward; their moral code, which they seem to have borrowed from the
Mâdhavas, if not from a purer source, consist of ten prohibitions. They
are not to lie, not to revile, not to speak harshly, not to discourse
idly, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to offer violence to
any created thing, not to imagine evil, not to cherish hatred, and not
to indulge in conceit or pride. The other obligations are,—to discharge
the duties of the profession or caste to which a person belongs, to
associate with pious men, to put implicit faith in the spiritual
preceptor, to adore Hari as the original and indefinable cause of all,
and who, through the operation of Mâya, created the universe, and has
appeared in it occasionally in a mortal form, and particularly as
Krishna at Brindaban.
3. “The followers of Charan Dâs are both clerical and secular; the
latter are chiefly of the mercantile order, the former lead a mendicant
and ascetic life, and are distinguished by wearing yellow garments, and
a single streak of sandal or gopichandana down the forehead; the
necklace and rosary are of Tulasi beads. They wear also a small,
pointed cap, round the lower part of which they wrap a yellow turban.
Their appearance in general is decent, and their deportment decorous;
in fact, though they profess mendicity they are well supported by the
opulence of their disciples. It is possible, indeed, that this sect,
considering its origin and the class by which it is professed, arose
out of an attempt to shake off the authority of the Gokulastha Gusâîns.
The authorities of the sect are the Sri Bhâgwat and Gîta, of which they
have Bhâsha translations; that of the former is ascribed, at least in
parts, to Charan Dâs himself; he has also left original works, as the
Sandeha Sâgar and Dharma Jihâj, in a dialogue between him and his
teacher, Sukhdeva, the same, according to Charan Dâsis, as the pupil of
Vyâsa and narrator of the Purânas. The first disciple of Charan Dâs was
his own sister, Sahaji Bâi, and she succeeded to her brother’s
authority as well as learning, having written the Sahaj Prakâsh and
Solah Tat Nirnâya. They have both left many Sabdas and Kavits. Other
works in Bhâsha have been composed by various teachers of the sect. The
chief seat of the Charan Dâsis is at Delhi, where is the Samâdh or
monument of the founder. This establishment consists of about twenty
resident members. There are also five or six similar Mathas at Delhi
and others in the upper part of the Duâb, and their numbers are said to
be rapidly increasing.”
4. Unlike other dissenting sects the Charandâsis keep idols in their
temples and respect Brâhmans, who are found as members of the sect.
Their sacred place is Dehra, the birthplace of their chief, where there
is a monument over his navel string, and his garment and rosary are
kept. “The Charandâsi breviary (gutka) exhibits more Sanskrit learning
than those of the other sects, and instead of passing allusions to
mythology, goes into details regarding Sri Krishna’s family, and merely
popularises the orthodox Sanskrit teaching. Thus there is a chapter on
one of the Upanishads and another from the Bhâgwat Purâna. Its style
is, perhaps, more full and expressive, and less involved than other
books of the same class. The Sâdhs hold to the vernacular, and some
time ago are said to have resented an attempt of a learned Charan Dâsi
to substitute Sanskrit verse for the vulgar tongue. The breviary
contains the Sanedha Sâgar and the Dharma Jihâj mentioned above. One
rather striking chapter professedly taken from some Sanskrit book
should be called Nâsa Kshetra’s Inferno. Nâsa Kshetra is permitted to
visit the hells, and to see the torments of sinners, which are
described in detail, and the sins of each class specified. It is, in
fact, an amplification of the Purânic account of Naraka, adapted to
impress the minds of the vulgar. Nâsa Kshetra is then taken to visit
heaven, and subsequently returns to earth to relate what he has
witnessed.” [214]