The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t39.4

c6.s3.t39.4

From these accounts of Abu Rihân and Ibn Batuta, it is evident that the province of *Jajhoti* corresponded with the modern district of Bundelkhand. The Chinese pilgrim estimates the circuit of *Chichito* at 4000 *li*, or 667 miles, which would form a square of about 167 miles to each side. Now, Bundelkhand in its widest extent is said to have comprised all the country to the south of the Jumna and Ganges, from the Betwa river on the west to the temple of *Vindhya-vásini-Devi* on the east, including the districts of *Chánderi*, *Sâgar*, and *Bilhari* near the sources of the Narbada on the south. But these are also the limits of the ancient country of the Jajhotiya Brahmans, which, according to Buchanan’s information,* extended from the Jumna on the north to the Narbada on the south, and from Urcha on the Betwa river in the west, to the Bundela Nala on the east. The last is said to be a small stream which falls into the Ganges near Banâras, and within two stages of Mirzapur. During the last twenty-five years I have traversed this tract of country repeatedly in all directions, and I have found the Jajhotiya Brahmans distributed over the whole province, but not a single family to the north of the Jumna or to the west of the Betwa. I have found them at Barwa Sâgar near Urcha on the Betwa, at Mohda near Hamirpoor on the Jumna, at Râjnagar and Khajurâho near the Kane river, and at Udaipoor, Pathâri and Eran, between Chânderi and Bhilsa. In Chânderi itself there are also Jajhotiya Baniyas, which alone is almost sufficient to show that the name is not a common family designation, but a descriptive term of more general acceptance. The Brahmans derive the name of Jajhotiya from *Yajur-hota*, an observance of the Yajur-ved; but as the name is applied to the Baniyas, or grain-dealers, as well as to the Brahmans, I think it almost certain that it must be a mere geographical designation derived from the name of their country, Jajhoti. This opinion is confirmed by other well-known names of the Brahmanical tribes, as *Kanojiya* from Kanoj; *Gaur* from Gaur; *Sarwariya* or *Sarjupária* from Sarjupar, the opposite bank of the Sarju river; *Dravira* from Dravira in the Dakhan, *Maithila* from Mithila, etc. These examples are sufficient to show the prevalence of geographical names amongst the divisions of the Brahmanical tribes, and as each division is found most numerously in the province from which it derives its name, I conclude with some certainty that the country in which the Jajhotiya Brahmans preponderate must be the actual province of Jajhoti.