Amethiya.—A sept of Râjputs who take their name from Amethi, a Pargana in the Lucknow District. Sir H. M. Elliot calls them Chauhân Râjputs of the Bandhalgoti sept, of whom a few have settled in Salempur Majhauli of Gorakhpur. But Mr. W. C. Benett[61] gives a different account of them. According to him, “This tribe of Chhatris are a branch of the Chamar Gaur, and are said to be the descendants of a pregnant Gaur widow, who, at the extirpation of the Chhatris by the Brâhmans, found an asylum in a Chamâr’s hut. The memory of this humble refuge is kept alive among them by the worship of the cobbler’s cutting tool (rânpi). Great numbers of the Chamar Gaurs now hold villages in the Hardoi District, and it is probable that the Amethiyas were an offshoot of the same immigration. Tradition first discovers them at Siupuri and afterwards at the celebrated fortress of Kalinjar. Somewhere about [[79]]the time of the invasion of India by Tamurlane, Râê Pâl Sinh left Kalinjar and settled at Amethi, in the Lucknow District. His descendants say that he was sent by the Delhi Emperor to suppress a rebellion in Oudh, and that he defeated and slew Balbhadra Sena Bisen with sixteen thousand of his host. The figures are slightly improbable, and my enquiries have failed to bring to light a Bisen Râja of that name. Râê Pâl was wounded in the shoulder by a musket shot, and recompensed by a dress of honour and the title of Râja of Amethi. Three or four generations after this, three brothers—Dingur Sâh, Râm Sinh, and Lohang, led the clan from Amethi to Jagdîspur, and came in contact with the Muhammadans: the engagement resulted in the defeat of the Shaikhs, and the occupation of their villages by the invaders. There is every reason to believe that this occurred towards the end of the fifteenth century, and was part of the general re-assertion of Hindu supremacy in Oudh, consequent on the fall of the Jaunpur dynasty, a re-action whose central event was the establishment of the Bais kingdom.” The subsequent fortunes of the sept are given in detail by Mr. Benett, and need not be repeated here. There are, however, other accounts. The Râê Bareli[62] tradition brings them from Lucknow, and another account is that they came from Siupur, near Dwârika, to Narkanjhîl, in Cawnpur, and thence to Oudh. The Cawnpur family still recognise the Oudh branch. According to Mr. Carnegy they were originally Bhars.[63] It is still less probable that they are the modern representatives of the Ambastha of Manu, descended from a Brâhman father of a Vaisya mother, and practising as physicians. The sept still preserve their connection with Amethi, their original head-quarters, by their worship of Shaikh Bandagi Miyân, the local saint of that town. [[80]]
Distribution of the Amethiya Râjputs according to the Census of 1891.
| District. | Hindus. | Muhammadans. | Total. |
| Aligarh | 6 | 6 | |
| Mainpuri | 9 | 9 | |
| Etâwah | 6 | 6 | |
| Budâun | 32 | 32 | |
| Pilibhît | 1 | 1 | |
| Cawnpur | 18 | 18 | |
| Fatehpur | 1 | 1 | |
| Allahâbâd | 4 | 4 | |
| Benares | 4 | … | 4 |
| Ghâzipur | 8 | 8 | |
| Gorakhpur | 1,747 | … | 1,747 |
| Basti | 1 | … | 1 |
| Azamgarh | 172 | … | 172 |
| Lucknow | 287 | 35 | 322 |
| Unâo | 269 | 269 | |
| Râê Bareli | 2,125 | 6 | 2,131 |
| Sîtapur | 107 | … | 107 |
| Faizâbâd | 22 | 22 | |
| Gonda | 3 | … | 3 |
| Bahrâich | 161 | 9 | 170 |
| Sultânpur | 327 | 15 | 342 |
| Partâbgarh | 8 | … | 8 |
| Bârabanki | 3,555 | 8 | 3,563 |
| Total | 8,873 | 73 | 8,946 |
[[81]]
Anantpanthi.—One of the reformed Vaishnava sects found in the Râê Bareli and Sîtapur Districts. They number only 170 persons. They are monotheists, and, as the name implies, worship Vishnu in the form of Ananta, “The Infinite.”
Apapanthi.—A Vaishnava sect founded about a century ago by Munna Dâs, a goldsmith ascetic of Mundwa, in the Kheri District, to whose miraculous powers an escape from drought, which threatened the country, was believed to be due, and who has since had a not inconsiderable number of followers in the District of his birth, and Sîtapur and Bahrâich. It does not appear that the tenets taught by Munna Dâs to any considerable extent differ from those of the usual Vaishnava sects.[64] At the last enumeration the Apapanthis numbered 4,267, and the Munna Dâsis, 2,636.
Arakh[65].—A tribe of cultivators and labourers found in Oudh, some of the eastern districts, and scattered about in smaller numbers through some of the western districts.
Traditions of origin. 2. All the traditions connect them with the Pâsis and Parasurâma, the sixth Avatâra of Vishnu. One story runs that Parasurâma was bathing in the sea when a leech bit his foot and caused it to bleed. He divided the blood into two parts: out of one part he made the first Pâsi and out of the second the first Arakh. Another story is that the Pâsis were made out of the sweat (pasîna) of Parasurâma. While Parasurâma was away the Pâsi shot some animals with his bow, and the deity was so enraged that he cursed the Pâsi, and swore that his descendants should keep pigs. This accounts for the degradation of the Pâsis. Subsequently Parasurâma sent for some Pâsis to help him in one of his wars; but they ran away and hid in an arhar field, and were hence called Arakhs. Another story goes that Parasurâma was once meditating in the jungle. From the dirt of his body he made a figure, and gave it life by cutting his little finger and sprinkling blood upon it. In Lucknow they have an extraordinary story that Tilok Chand founded a Bhar dynasty and was a worshipper of the sun (arka), so he called his family Arkabansi. The Arkabans became the Arakhs, and the Râjbansi the Râjpâsi.[66] The Arakhs appear at an early date to have obtained [[82]]considerable power in Oudh, especially in Hardoi. In the early history of Pargana Sandîla Arakhs occupy the place which is filled in other parts of the district by the Thatheras.[67] Two brothers of the tribe, Salhiya and Malhiya, are said to have founded the one Salhiya Purwa, now Sandîla, the chief town of the Pargana; and the other, Malihâbâd, in the adjacent Pargana of that name in the Lucknow District. The Arakhs held the tract till towards the end of the fourteenth century. Sayyid Makhdûm Ala-ud-dîn, the fighting apostle of Nasîr-ud-dîn, the “lamp of Delhi,” undertook to drive out the infidels, and to carry the faith and arms of Islâm a stage further to the south. The promise of a royal revenue-free grant made the prospect of success as tempting to the soldier as was the expulsion of the infidel to the saint. How long or how fiercely the Arakhs resisted we know not. Only the issue of the contest has been remembered. To this day the Arakhs of Atraula, on the Râpti, 120 miles away to the east in Gonda, recall their lost domains in Sandîla.
Tribal organisation. 3. In most places they divide themselves into seven, or what are supposed to be seven exogamous clans. Thus, in Cawnpur, they have the Arakh, Khagâr, Khidmatiya, Chobdâr and Adhrij (which is the highest of all, claiming descent from a Brâhman), Guâr and Bâchhar. These names show that the caste is very much mixed. Khidmatiya means an “attendant,” and was the title given by Akbar to his palace guards. Chobdâr means “mace bearer.” Guâr connects them with the Guâla Ahîrs, and Bâchhar with the Bâchhal Râjputs. In Hardoi they are reported to have no known sub-divisions. The Census returns give their chief clans in Shâhjahânpur, Ratanjat; in Cawnpur, Balahar and Sûpa Bhagat, which connects them with the Doms; in Basti, Maghariya, and Sarjupâri, or “residents of Maghar and the land beyond the river Sarju,” respectively; the Jonkiya, in Lucknow, Unâo, Sîtapur, and Hardoi, who seem to take their name from catching leeches (jonk); in Hardoi, the Mothi; in Gonda, the Adhrij or Adhurj, Bâgri and Baiswâr. In Hardoi too they are said to have no permanent tribal council; the elders merely attend whenever any case comes up for consideration.
Marriage rules. 4. The tendency seems to be towards the establishment of regular exogamous sub-divisions, but these are reported not to be known in Hardoi, and there [[83]]the rule of exogamy is that a boy is not married into a family to which a girl has been given in marriage. A man can marry the sister of his late wife, but he cannot have two sisters to wife at the same time. There is a regular ceremony whereby the newly-married bride is introduced into her husband’s family. His relatives assemble, eat food cooked by her, and then make her a present. As a rule they practise monogamy. Polyandry is prohibited; concubinage with a woman of the tribe in the Dharauna form is recognised. Marriage is both infant and adult. A wife can be divorced for infidelity, and after divorce she can live with a man by the Dharauna form. A widow can marry by Dharauna: the only difference between this and the regular marriage is that there is no walking round (bhanwar) the sacred fire. The levirate prevails; but the widow is free to marry an outsider if she pleases. If her children by the first marriage are grown up, and she marries a person other than the younger brother of her late husband, she leaves them with his relations; if the children are very young she usually takes them to the house of her new husband, and there they are brought up and supported. When she marries a stranger she loses all claim on her husband’s estate, which falls to his children if there are any; if there are no children, to his associated brethren.