=============+=========
Districts. | Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~
Bulandshahr | 9
Cawnpur | 2
Kheri | 283
Gonda | 34
Bahrâich | 70
Bârabanki | 34
+~~~~~~~~~
Total | 432
|
Males | 246
Females | 186
============+=========
Gaurua.—Hardly the name of a special Râjput sept, but a general term
applied to those Râjputs who have lost rank by the practice of
widow-marriage (karâo). Those to the west of the Jumna are said to have
emigrated from Jaypur about nine hundred years ago. In Mathura some
call themselves Kachhwâha, others Jasâwat, others again Sisodiya.
Towards Delhi they are said to be particularly quarrelsome, but sturdy
in build and clannish in disposition. [423]
Gautam.—A sept of Râjputs who claim as their eponymous ancestor the
Rishi Gautama. They are usually treated as one of the Chandrabans, but
not in the thirty-six royal races. Their original home is Fatehpur, and
they claim to have been originally Brâhmans, the descendants of the
Rishi Gautama. By another account they are descended from the Rishi
Siringi. The descendant in the sixth degree from Gautama is said to
have married the daughter of Ajaypâl, the Gaharwâr Râja of Kanauj, and
to have received as her dowry the whole extent of the country from
Prayâg (Allahâbâd) to Hardwâr. From this event the sept ceased to be
Brâhmans and became Râjputs; the issue of the marriage took the title
of Râja of Argal, a village in the ravines of the River Rind, about
thirty miles west of Fatehpur. [424] Sir H. M. Elliot [425] distrusts
the story of their connection with Siringi Rishi or with the Gaharwârs,
because it is, in the first place, impossible that Siringi Rishi could
have been the contemporary of any Gaharwâr Râja; and in the second
place, it is highly improbable that the Gaharwârs could have preceded
the occupation of the Gautams. Nevertheless the story is devoutly
believed by many Gautams. In Oudh [426] they were certainly very early
settlers. They claim to be an offshoot from the Argal Râj, but their
traditions as to the cause and manner of their occupancy are too faint
and varying for record. In the Eastern Districts of the Province [427]
there is both a Chhatri and a Bhuînhâr branch: the former ignore the
latter, and say that they themselves came from Argal. The Bhuînhârs
allege that they are all one stock of Sarwariya Brâhmans, the Chhatris
having assumed their present caste only when the ancestor of the Râja
of Azamgarh became a Muhammadan and rose into power. In the
Ayîn-i-Akbari they are described as zamîndârs in Pargana Nizâmâbâd. The
Cawnpur branch is said to have emigrated from Argal four and-a-half
centuries ago, and to have expelled the Arakhs.
2. The Sakyas of Kapilavastu also reckoned the saint Gautama among
their forefathers, and they are represented by the existing Gautamiyas.
[428] These Gautamiyas are an inferior branch. They seem to be Gautams,
who from the low marriages of their daughters or other reasons have
fallen from a higher status or Chhatris of inferior stock who have
adopted the patronymic of the more famous clan. The real Gautams hold a
respectable rank among Râjputs. Those of the Eastern Districts give
their daughters in marriage to the Sombansi, Bachgoti, Bhandhalgoti,
Rajwâr, and Râjkumâr. Those of the Duâb give their daughters to the
Bhadauriya, Kachhwâha, Râthaur, Gahlot, Chauhân, and Tomar. To the east
they marry their daughters in the Sirnet, Bisen, Gaharwâr, Sûrajbansi,
Baghel, and Chandel septs, and take brides from the Kalhans, Palwâr,
Râjkumâr, Kausik, Chauhân, and Sengar. In Fatehpur they give their
daughters to the Chauhân, Parihâr, Bhadauriya, Kachhwâha, and Jâdon
septs, and marry wives from the Bais, Panwâr, Dikhit, Sombansi,
Chandel, Bisen, and Khichi. In Bundelkhand they especially worship
Gajpati Râê Durga at the Naurâtra of Kuâr and Chait. Nothing but a
sword is kept in the temple, and it is worshipped with prayers and
offerings of sandalwood, rice, perfumes, incense, and lamps. On the
first lunar day of Kuâr a decorated jar (kalsa) is placed in her
temple, and ten Pandits, sitting round it, recite the praises of Durga
Devi: a buffalo and a he-goat are daily sacrificed during the feast. On
the ninth day twenty or more buffaloes and fifty or sixty he-goats are
sacrificed. None but a Gautam can perform this sacrifice; and only a
man of the Bargâh caste, who are the hereditary servants of the clan,
is allowed to hold the victim. Before offering the sacrifice the sacred
sword is worshipped. On the last day (naumîn) the Râja himself offers
the sacrifice. The heads of the victims are buried deep in the ground,
but the goat-meat is regarded as holy (prasâd) and divided among the
worshippers. Only Chamârs eat the meat of the buffaloes offered to the
goddess. It is believed that if anyone but a Râja perform this
sacrifice, he will be destroyed root and branch.
3. In Lucknow they worship a tribal saint Bâba Nahuk, of Nigohan, and
burn a light daily at his shrine. [429]