3. In these Provinces, according to one authority,[25] the four primary orders of the Bairâgis are Ramânuji or Sri Vaishnava, Nîmâvat, or Nimbârak, Vishnuswâmi and Mâdhavachârya; each of these orders is called a samprâdaya or sect, and all four mesh together. Of the Sri Vaishnava Mr. Growse[26] writes:—“The most ancient and respectable of the four reformed Vaishnava communities is based on the teaching of Ramânuja, who flourished in the eleventh or twelfth century A.D. Their sectarial mark is two white perpendicular streaks down the forehead, joined by a cross line at the root of the nose, with a streak of red between. Their chief dogma, called Vasisthadwaita, is the assertion that Vishnu, the one Supreme God, though invisible as cause, is as effect visible in a secondary form in material creation. They differ in one marked respect from the mass of the people at Brindâban,—in that they refuse to recognise Râdhâ as an object of religious adoration. In [[115]]this they are in complete accord with all the older authorities, which either totally ignore her existence, or regard her simply as Krishna’s mistress, and Rukminî as his wife. Their formula of initiation (mantra) is said to be Om Râmâya namah, i.e., “Om! Reverence to Râma!” This sect (sampradâya) is divided into two sects, the Tenkalai and the Vadakalai.[27] They differ in two points of doctrine, which, however, are considered of much less importance than what seems to outsiders a very trivial matter, viz., a slight variation in the way of making the sectarial mark on the forehead. The followers of the Tenkalai extend its middle line a little down the nose itself, while the Vadakalai terminate it exactly at the bridge. The doctrinal points of difference are as follows:—The Tenkalai maintain that the female energy of the godhead, though divine, is still a finite creature that serves only as a mediator or minister (parushakâra) to introduce the soul into the presence of the Deity; while the Vadakalai regard it as infinite and uncreated, and in itself a means (upâya) by which salvation can be assured. The second point of difference is parallel to the controversy between the Calvinists and Armenians in the Christian Church. The Vadakalai, with the latter, insist on the concomitance of the human will in the work of salvation, and represent that the soul lays hold of God as a young monkey which grasps its mother in order to be conveyed to a place of safety. The Tenkalai, on the contrary, maintain the irresistibility of divine grace and the utter helplessness of the soul till it is seized and carried off by its mother like a kitten to be conveyed to a place of safety. From these two curious but apt illustrations the one doctrine is known as markata kishora nyâya, the other, as marjala kishora nyâya, the “young monkey theory,” or the “kitten theory.”

The Nimbârak sect. 4. Of the Nimbârak Mr. Growse[28] writes:—“The word means ‘the sun in a nîm tree,’ a curious designation which is explained as follows:—The founder of the sect, an ascetic, by name Bhaskarachârya, had invited a Bairâgi to dine with him, but unfortunately delayed to fetch his guest until after sunset. Now the holy man was forbidden by the rules of his order to eat except in the daytime, and was [[116]]greatly afraid that he would be compelled to practise an unwilling abstinence; but at the solicitation of his host the Sun God, Sûraj Nârâyan, descended from the Nîm tree, under which the repast was spread, and continued beaming upon them until the claims of hunger were fully satisfied. Thenceforth the saint was known by the name of Nîmbarka or Nimaditya. Their doctrines, so far as they are known, are of a very enlightened character. Thus their doctrine of salvation by faith is thought by many scholars to have been directly derived from the Gospel; while another article in their creed, which is less known but is equally striking in its divergence from ordinary Hindu sentiment, is the continuance of conscious individual existence in a future world, when the highest reward of the good will be not extinction, but in the enjoyment of the visible presence of the divinity whom they have served while on earth: a state, therefore, absolutely identical with heaven, as our theologists define it. The one infinite and invisible God, who is the only real existence, is, they affirm, the only proper object of man’s devout contemplation. But as the incomprehensible is utterly beyond the reach of human faculties, He is partially manifested for our behoof in the book of Creation, in which natural objects are the letters of the universal alphabet, and express the sentiments of the Divine Author. A printed page, however, conveys no meaning to any one but a scholar, and is liable to be misunderstood even by him; so, too, with the book of the world. And thus it matters little whether Râdhâ and Krishna were ever real personages, the mysteries of divine love which they symbolise remain though the symbols disappear.”

Distribution of the Bairâgis according to the Census of 1891.

District. Mâdhava Achârya. Nimâwat. Râmanandi. Others. Total.
Dehra Dûn … … 530 139 669
Sahâranpur … … … 43 43
Muzaffarnagar … … 541 446 987
Meerut … 156 1,586 2,396 4,138
Bulandshahr … … 429 2,279 2,708
Aligarh … … 974 3,183 4,157[[117]]
Agra 4 … 496 1,259 1,769
Farrukhâbâd … 12 60 233 305
Mainpuri … 9 … 89 98
Etâwah … … 22 268 290
Etah 1 1 35 160 197
Bareilly … … 148 610 758
Bijnor … … … 539 539
Budâun … 2 120 397 519
Morâdâbâd 3 … 1 239 243
Shâhjahânpur … … 241 600 841
Pilibhît … 12 57 335 404
Cawnpur … … 61 389 450
Fatehpur … … 17 128 145
Bânda 1 … 52 … 53
Hamîrpur … … 45 163 208
Allahâbâd 2 1 58 312 373
Jhânsi … 3 58 109 170
Jâlaun 2 28 22 183 234
Lalitpur … 4 39 224 267
Benares … … … 141 141
Mirzapur … … 28 149 177
Jaunpur … … … 204 204
Ghâzipur … … 82 826 908
Ballia … … … 257 257
Gorakhpur … 33 295 1,122 1,450
Basti … … 1 1,286 1,287
Azamgarh … … … 9 9[[118]]
Kumâun … … … 25 25
Garhwâl … … … 105 165
Tarâi … … 24 24 48
Lucknow … … 291 1,439 1,730
Unâo … … 17 … 17
Râê Bareli … … 27 6 33
Sîtapur … … 161 335 496
Hardoi … … … 337 337
Kheri … … 348 396 744
Faizâbâd … … 1,474 543 2,017
Gonda … … 877 64 941
Bahrâich … … 19 201 220
Sultânpur … … 47 69 116
Total 13 261 9,283 22,321 31,878

Bais.—(Sans. Vaishya, “one who occupies the soil”.)—A very important and influential sept of Râjputs, widely distributed all over the Province. Their legend is thus given by Sir C. Elliott[29]:—“The Bais assert themselves to be descended from Sâlivâhana, the mythic son of a snake who conquered the great Râja Vikramaditya, of Ujjain, and fixed his own era in A.D. 55. About 1250 A.D. the Gautam Râja of Argal refused to pay tribute to the Lodi King of Delhi, and defeated the Governor of Oudh, who sent a force against him. Soon after this defeat, the Râni, without his knowledge and without fitting escort, went secretly to bathe, at Baghsar, in the Ganges, on the festival of the new moon. Baghsar is close to Dundiya Khera. Sir H. M. Elliot places the locale of this story at Allahâbâd; but the other is the tradition current in Baiswâra, and seems more probable, because Baghsar is closer to Argal, and is the nearest bathing place she could have gone to, and, secondly, Allahâbâd [[119]]being a much-frequented place of pilgrimage, she would hardly have gone there in any case without an escort, particularly as it was the head-quarters of the Muhammadan Governor. The Governor of Oudh heard of her arrival and sent men to capture her. Her escorts were dispersed, and she was on the point of being made prisoner, when she lifted the covering of her litter and cried,—“Is there no Chhatri who will rescue me from the barbarian, and save my honour?” Abhay Chand and Nirbhay Chand, two Bais Râjputs, from Mungipatan, heard her, and came to her rescue, beat off her assailants, and guarded her litter till she arrived safely at her home in Argal, in the Fatehpur District. Nirbhay Chand died of his wounds, but Abhay Chand recovered, and the Râja, in gratitude for his gallant rescue, gave him his daughter in marriage, and with her as dowry all the lands on the north of the Ganges, over which the Gautam bore rule. He also conferred on his son-in-law the title of Râo, which is still the highest dignity among the Bais. Abhay Chand fixed his home in Dundiya Khera, and the title and estates descended, in an unbroken line, to Tilok Chand, the great eponymous hero of the clan, who are called after him Tilok Chandi Bais, in contradistinction to other branches of the same tribe. He lived about 1,400 A.D., and extended the Bais dominion over all the surrounding country, and it is from his victories that the limits of Baiswâra became definitively fixed. The tract is universally said to include twenty-two Parganas, and though there is considerable discrepancy in the various lists of these Parganas, which are furnished from different quarters, the following list is probably correct:—

Râê Bareli and Unâo Districts:—Dundiya Khera, Unchhgâon, Kumhi, Bâr, Kahanjar, Ghâtampur, Serhupur, Makraid, Dalmau, Bareli, Bihâr, Pathân, Panhan, Sathanpur, Harha, Purwa, Morâwan, Sirwan, Asoha, Gorinda, Parsandan.

Lucknow District:—Bijnaur.”

Tilok Chand was the premier Râja of Oudh, and his descendants are never weary of telling stories of his almost divine and unequalled power. He once turned the Kahârs, who carried his palanquin, into Râjputs; and one account of the Bhâlê Sultân sept in Faizâbâd is that they were Bâris, or link-boys, in his service.

Origin. 2. In Faizâbâd the Bais say that they came from Baiswâra about five hundred years ago, and expelled the Bhars; but this story is disbelieved by Mr. [[120]]Carnegy[30] on the ground that there were few Bais even in Baiswâra in those days. He believes the Faizâbâd colony to be of local origin. They are divided into two great families, the Eastern and the Western, who, though they eat together, recognise no relationship, and retain the memory of bitter border warfare with each other. The Pargana of Mangalsi is overrun by different independent Bais colonies, the members of which say they came from the West (no one knows from where) and expelled the Bhars two or three centuries or, according to their pedigree tables, sixteen generations ago. There are traditions of a Gautam (Sombansi) colony founded by Mangalsen, from whom the Pargana takes its name, who is said to have been a cadet of the great Fatehpur house of Argal. But the Gautams were long ago pushed across the river Ghâgra. It is noteworthy that the Muhammadans, who produce title deeds more than three hundred years old, declare that Mangalsen was not a Gautam but a Bhar. Another curious fact is that both the Muhammadans and the few Gautams who are left are shown by Mr. Woodburn to pay the feudal tribute (bhent) to the Bais headmen. How long they have done so is not very clear, but the conclusion from all this is, according to Mr. Carnegy, that the local Bais are the indigenous Bhars; that the Bhars became Bais about or after the Muhammadan conquest; the Gautam footing was by marriage with the Bais, and the Muhammadans succeeded to the Bais Bhars. These conclusions of Mr. Carnegy must be received with some degree of caution. That the Bais of the Faizâbâd District may have some admixture of indigenous blood is more than probable; but at the same time that they have a large basis of Râjput blood may be regarded as quite certain.

Customs. 3. Of the sept in Râê Bareli we read:—“The Bais clan differ from all other Râjputs somewhat in their customs. Neither men nor women, rich or poor, will put a hand to cultivation or labour of any sort; the women wear one long cloth, which is fastened round their waists about the middle, the lower folds covering the lower portions of the person, and the upper parts being thrown over the shoulders. They are supposed to be more addicted to the crime of infanticide than other Râjputs, and they divide their inheritance according to a system of primogeniture [[121]]by which the three elder sons receive larger shares than the younger ones.”