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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Places|B]]
''Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value. ''

=Baghelkhand=

A tract adjoining Bundelkhand and forming the 
easternmost section of the Central India Agency. It lies roughly 
between 22 40' and 25 o' N. and 8o° 30' and 82 57' E., and derives 
its name from the Baghela Rajput clan, which has held it during the 
last six or seven hundred years. 

The tract falls naturally into two divisions, separated by the Kaimur 
range, which strikes across it from south-west to north-east. The section 
lying to the west of this range consists, except for a small area in the 
south, near the town of Maihar, where the Bandair (Bhander) range 
terminates, of a wide elevated plain about 1,100 feet above sea-level, 
while the eastern portion is a rough hilly tract cut up by a succession 
of long parallel ridges belonging to the Vindhyan system, heavily 
clothed in jungle. Through the western section runs the Tons river 
with its tributaries, while the Son and its affluents traverse the eastern 
section. The geological riches of this region are so varied as almost 
completely to epitomize the most important formations to be met with 
throughout Peninsular India. It includes, moreover, the type areas of 
several important groups, the Rewah, Bandair, Kaimur, Kheinjua, and 
Sirbu rocks, which derive their names from localities in this region. 
North of the Kaimur range all subdivisions of the Upper Vindhyan 
rocks are to be met with, while the Lower Vindhyans are more com- 
pletely represented here than elsewhere in India, together with the 
curious volcanic ash-beds known as the porcellanites. The hills in the 
eastern section of the tract belong mostly to the Bijawar formation, 
the underlying gneiss outcropping in the valleys. This region, lying 
between the Vindhyan outcrop in the north and the Gondwana in the 
south, occupies the site of a once lofty range, the materials for both the 
Vindhyan and Gondwana sediments being products of its denudation. 

The Bijavvar rocks, moreover, exhibit an extraordinarily varied series, in 
which slates, sandstones, jaspers, bands of iron ore, limestones, basic 
lavas, and ash-beds are all represented. In the south the Bijawars and 
the underlying gneiss abut suddenly on the Gondwanas, which have been 
most carefully surveyed, on account of their coal-bearing strata (see 
Umaria). Farther south Cretaceous rocks of the Lameta series and 
Deccan trap appear, the hill on which Amarkantak stands being formed 
of the latter rock. The known mineral riches of the region are con- 
siderable, and more detailed examination is certain to reveal others ; 
coal, corundum, mica, galena, iron ores, ornamental marbles, red-banded 
jaspers, and the magnificent building materials furnished by Vindhyan 
sandstones and limestones are among its known treasures x . 

The hills in the eastern section are covered with heavy jungle, on 
which the khair {Acacia Catechu), sat (Shorea robusta), saja (Terminalia 
tometitosa), mahua (Bassia latifolia), tendu (Diospyros tomentosa), achar 
[Buchanania latifolia), salai (Boswellia serrata), and a stunted form of 
teak are the common trees, while Grewia, Zizyphus, Phyllanthus, Carissa, 
dhawai ( Woodfordid), and similar species predominate in the under- 
growth. 

The name Baghelkhand, or ' country of the Baghelas,' is of com- 
paratively late origin, and cannot have become common before the 
seventeenth or eighteenth century, as it is never used by the Muham- 
madan historians, who invariably style the region Ghora or Bhatghora. 
Before the Muhammadan period the tract was known as Dahala and 
Chedi, the latter term applying more strictly to the southern districts, 
now included partly in the Sohagpur pargana of Rewah State and 
partly in the Central Provinces. 

The early Buddhist books, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the 
Puranas, all connect this region with the Haihaya, Kalachuri, or Chedi 
clan. Nothing definite is known of the rise of this clan, but the fact 
that they employ in their dated records an era of which the initial year 
corresponds to a. d. 249 points to their having become a tribe of local 
importance somewhere about the third century. Their original habitat 
is always placed on the Narbada, with Mahishmati or Maheshwar as 
their capital town. From this position they appear to have been driven 
eastwards and to have finally acquired Kalinjar, where Krishna Chedi is 
said to have slain an evil-minded king who practised cannibalism. With 
this stronghold as a base, they gradually extended their dominions over 
what is now known as Baghelkhand. During the fourth and fifth 

' The Economic Geology of India (1905) ; articles on ' Corundum.' ' Mica Deposits 
of India ' in Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxxiv ; ' The Vindhyan 
Series,' ibid., vol. vii, p. 1 ; 'The Southern Coal-fields of the Rewah G on d wan a Basin,' 
ibid., vol. xxi, p. 137 ; ' The Geology of the Son Valley,' ibid., vol. xxxi, p. 1 ; ' Fossil 
Flora of the Gondwana System,' Feistmantel and Zeiller in the Palaeontologia Indica. centuries the Gupta dynasty of Magadha was paramount over this region, 
as is shown by the records of the feudatory chiefs of the Uchhakalpa 
family and the Parivrajaka Rajas of Kho. 

In one of these records the 
king is stated ' to have sought to give prosperity to the kingdom of 
Dahala together with the eighteen forest kingdoms.' Special interest 
attaches to the term ' forest kingdoms,' as it is also employed by Samudra 
Gupta in the Allahabad pillar inscription, when detailing his conquests ; 
and it refers no doubt to chiefs of this region, some of whom may 
possibly have been Haihayas. In the sixth century the Kalachuris 
must have become a ruling clan of some importance, as the Badami king 
Mangalisa records his victory over Buddha Varman Kalachuri of Chedi ; 
and the Brihat Sanhita, written at the same period, mentions the 
Chaidyas as an important Central Indian tribe. During the latter part 
of the seventh century the Kalachuris rapidly acquired the sovereignty 
of the whole tract, which came to be called after them Chedldesa or the 
land of the Chedis. Their chief stronghold was Kalinjar, and their 
proudest title Kalanjaradhishwara, or ' lords of Kalinjar.' During this 
period the Chandels were rising to power in Bundelkhand, the Paramaras 
in Malwa, the Rashtrakutas in Kanauj, and the Chalukyas in Gujarat 
and Southern India. The records of these clans relate many of their 
contests and alliances. The Kalachuris received their first blow at the 
hand of the Chandel chief Yasovarmma (925-55), who seized the fort 
of Kalinjar and its surrounding district, he and his successors assuming 
thenceforth the ancient Kalachuri title of ' lords of Kalinjar.' The 
Kaiachuris were still, however, a powerful tribe and continued to hold 
most of their possessions until the twelfth century. 

It is not quite certain when the Baghelas established themselves in 
this district. After the advent of the Muhammadans had broken the 
power of the Kalachuris, the country fell to the Bhars, Chauhans, 
Sengars, Gonds, and other clans ; and there is no proof that the Baghelas 
entered the region before the thirteenth century. It is probable that 
they gained a footing in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, after 
the destruction of their kingdom in Gujarat by Ulugh Khan in 1296. 
From this time onward the history of the country becomes that of the 
Rewah State. 

The ancient remains in the tract are considerable and have not as yet 
been exhaustively examined. The earliest monument dates from the 
third century B.C., when the Bharhut stupa (see Nagod) was erected, 
while the remains include cave-temples of the fourth and fifth centuries 
and mediaeval temples of the tenth to the thirteenth century. 

The population consists very largely of jungle tribes, of whom the 
Gonds and Kols are the most numerous. The soils met with are mar, 
a kind of black soil ; and dumat and sigon, lighter soils found in the 
alluvial plateau north of the Kaimurs. In the hilly tracts south of 
the Kaimur range, the soil is agriculturally of little value. Kodon and 
rice are the two staple food-grains.