Chapter VIII: Front Matter (8)

[Religion.] 3. They belong to the Vaishnava sect, and are either Râmâwats or worshippers of Râdha Krishna. In all respects they follow the ceremonial usages of high class Hindus.

[Social rules.] 4. They believe their original profession to have been soldiering, and some of them serve in our Native regiments. They hold land as landlords and tenants. They will eat the flesh of goats, deer, wild pig, and fish; but those who abstain from meat are considered more respectable. Spirits are forbidden. They eat kachchi and pakki from the hands of Brâhmans, and can eat pakki with Banyas and Khatris, by which is meant that they will eat with them on the same floor, but not from the same dish. They can drink water from the hands of Kahârs and Nâis. They smoke only out of a pipe used by their clansmen. The Bundelas, on the whole, are a fairly respectable Râjput sept, but they are occasionally given to lawlessness, dacoity, and similar crimes of violence.

5. In Jâlaun they give brides to the Dhandhera and Panwâr septs, from whom also they take wives. They profess to belong to the Kasyapa gotra. These Panwârs with whom they intermarry are the Râj Panwârs of inferior grade in Bundelkhand.

DISTRIBUTION OF BUNDELA RÂJPUTS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.

=============+=======
District. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Bulandshahr | 25
Mathura | 1
Agra | 15
Farrukhâbâd | 58
Etâwah | 6
Etah | 4
Shâhjahânpur | 29
Cawnpur | 2
Fatehpur | 43
Hamîrpur | 618
Allahâbâd | 114
Jhânsi | 1,942
Jâlaun | 189
Lalitpur | 6,152
Gorakhpur | 2
Basti | 96
Lucknow | 2
Faizâbâd | 2
Partâbgarh | 7
+~~~~~~~
Total | 9,307
=============+=======

Burhela.—A sept of Râjputs in Râê Bareli, [181] who are not separately entered in the Census Returns. Their sons many girls from the Raghubansi and Bais septs; their girls marry Amethiya and with difficulty Bais boys.