============+=======
Districts. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Farrukhâbâd | 131
Mainpuri | 1
Etâwah | 4
Bareilly | 80
Budâun | 112
Morâdâbâd | 411
Pilibhît | 2
Cawnpur | 179
Fatehpur | 179
Hamîrpur | 4
Allahâbâd | 47
Lalitpur | 1
Benares | 45
Gorakhpur | 139
Lucknow | 6
Unâo | 103
Râê Bareli | 706
Sîtapur | 2
Hardoi | 46
Faizâbâd | 17
Bahrâich | 3
Bârabanki | 10
+~~~~~~~
Total |2,228
============+=======
Gangâri.—A class of hill Brâhmans, who are inferior to the Sarolas, and
are so called because they live on the banks of the Ganges. “Those who
have settled in Chândpur and Lohoa call themselves Sarolas however, and
it would appear that the latter are the section of the Brâhmans living
along the Ganges, who obtained employment at the courts of the petty
Râjas. The offspring of any Sarola who sinks by intermarriage with a
lower family becomes simply a Gangâri. The offspring of a Sarola and a
concubine also becomes a Gangâri. Thus, if a Gairola, a sub-caste of
the Sarola, marries, his offspring by a lawful wife will be called
Sarola Gangâri, whilst his offspring by a concubine are called Gangâri
Gairola. Indeed the inhabitants of the sub-divisions away from the
river call all the people living along the Alaknanda, whether Brâhmans,
Râjputs, Banyas, or Doms, by the generic name Gangâri or Gangâl, and
there is no marked line of difference between the Sarola and Gangâri.
The principal sub-divisions of the latter are the Ghildyâl, the Dâdai,
and the Malâsi, who came from the Tarâi. The Ghildyâls serve the temple
of Kânsmardini Devi; the Unyâls at the temples of Mahikhmardini,
Kâlika, Râjrajeswari, Gharârî, and Damanda Unyâl; the Aswâls at Jwâlpa
and several Bhairava temples. Two explanations are given of the
superior position generally assigned to the Sarolas: one that they were
selected as the parent clan to prepare food for the Râjas of Garhwâl,
and hence their name; another is that when a standing army became
necessary, they were appointed to cook for the troops in the field by
Râja Abhaya Pâl, who further enjoined that all should eat from one
vessel the food prepared by his Brâhman cooks—a custom generally
observed to the present day. All the Brâhmans in Garhwâl are commonly
styled Gangâris, but the better classes call themselves Sarolas,
amongst whom the following sub-divisions are found—Kotyâl, Simwâl,
Gairala, usually cooks; Kanyûris, attached to the civil administration
of the Râjas; Nautyâls, teachers; Maithânis, servants; Thapalyâls,
Ratûris, Dobhâls, Chamolis, Hatwâls, Dyondis, Malaguris, Karyâls,
Naunis, Somaltis, cooks; Bijilwârs, Dhurânas, Manûris, Bhattalwâlis,
Mahinya ke Joshis, and Dimris. Most of these names are derived from the
village of origin (thât) of the sub-division. The Dimris are the cooks
of Badari Nâth, and the food prepared by them may be eaten by all
classes. Some are temple priests and claim to belong to the Dravira
division, the Kasyapa gotra and Madhindiniya sâkha, and to follow the
Yajur veda. Many Dimris claim a southern origin for themselves, and
others state that the Dimris are the offspring of the celibate Râwals
of the temple and the Brâhman female attendants who settled in the
village of Dimar, and hence the name. They are now the servants of
Badari Nâth in particular, and some have taken to agriculture, while
others wander all over India, asking for alms and selling images of the
deity stamped on metal, or exposing them for the worship of the
faithful. The Ratûris derive their name from Ratûra, a village of
Chândpur, and claim to have come there from Mahârâshtra in the time of
the Pâla Râjas to visit Badari Nâth, and to have remained in the
service of the Chândpur Râja. They belong to the Bhâradvâja gotra. They
now occupy themselves with agriculture and service and as priests. They
and the Dimris intermarry with other Sarolas. The Gangâris, like the
Khasiyas, serve in the temples of the village deities and as priests of
Bhairava; but the Sarolas, though not very orthodox in their ritual,
only worship the orthodox deities. The Garhwâl Brâhmans have a
reputation for gaining their ends by servile flattery, and the Khasiya
section are reckoned so stupid and stubborn as to be only managed by
fear; hence the proverb—Garhwâl samândâta nahîn, bina lâthi deta nahîn.
“The Garhwâl Brâhman will give only when you stand over him with a
cudgel.” [405]
Gâra (gârna, “to bury”).—A tribe of industrious cultivators practically
confined to the Sahâranpur and Muzaffarnagar Districts. Of them Sir H.
M. Elliot writes: [406]—“They are Musalmâns, and are frequently
considered to be, like the Jhojhas, converted slaves. They themselves
assert that they were formerly Sombansi Râjputs; that they came from
Nagara Bambera, to the west of Delhi, and that Akbar located them in
desert tracts, which have now been cleared by their industry. There
seems reason to believe that they are the progeny of Râjput clans,
because among themselves they have the sub-divisions of Bargûjar,
Chauhân, etc., but there are also perhaps among them descendants of
several inferior castes. All those on being converted to Muhammadanism,
were called (perhaps contemptuously) Gâra, from the new practice they
had adopted of burying, instead of burning, their dead. They now apply
the term to themselves, but endeavour to disguise its origin by
pretending to high birth. The Gâras generally intermarry in their own
clan; but there is a set of villages in Sahâranpur, called Sayyid Gâra,
from the fact of the daughters of Gâras marrying into Sayyid families.”
The complete Census Returns name 51 sections. Some of them are local,
such as Chaurasiya, Multâni; others are those of well-known castes and
septs, such as Bargûjar, Bhâl, Bhatti, Chandela, Chauhân, Julâha,
Pundîr, Râjput, Râthaur; others are purely Muhammadan, as Ansâri, Azîz,
Bahlîm, Ghori, Mughal, Mughal-Bharsawa, Muhammadi, Shaikh, Shaikh
Haidar, and Yâr Muhammad.
2. The Gâras are good cultivators, but very quarrelsome and litigious.
This is recorded in the native proverb that a Gâra is as great a
nuisance in a village as thorns in a field—Gânw men Gâra; Khet men
jhâra.