OUDI. 485 forest, the haunt of numerous herds of wild elephants. The ancient history of Oudh closes with its subjection to l'atna; and although it may be conjectured that after the fall of the last-named kingdom it formed part of the Kanauj Empire, no more is heard of its name as connected with any definite events until a much later pcriod. It seems probable that this break in the historical continuity of the Oudh annals coincides with the extinction of its ancient civilisation, and the relapse of the country into a barbarous or even uninhabited condition. Forest and jungle appear once more to have spread over the former kingdom of Srávasti, and the aborigines at the same time recovered much of the territory which had been occupied for a while by the Aryan immigrants. It is to the most ancient period, before this relapse, that should be attributed many of the remains of walled towns and forts which occur so plentifully throughout the l'rovince. Local tradition, indeed, universally refers then to the Bhars, an aboriginal people of small stature, the last in the series of extinct ruling races in Oudh. This, however, merely means that they are regarded as possessing considerable antiquity, and as antedating the Musalmán period. It can hardly be doubted that many of the ruins belong to the early Buddhist civilisation which preceded the dark age of Northern Indian history. The modern chronicles of Oudh begin with the grcat struggle which ended in the overthrow of Kanauj. The fall of that famous empire, ruled over by the last native Hindu dynasty which could claim the whole country north of the Vindhya range, gave a final deathblow to the Buddhist faith, and re-established the supremacy of the Bráhman creed throughout all India. During the Kanauj period, the Province of Oudh once more reappears in history. According to local tradition, about the Sth or oth century A.D., the Tharus, an aboriginal tribe, descended from the hills, and began to clear the jungle, which had overgrown the deserted kingdom, as far as the sacred city of Ajodhya. To the present day, these aborigines are the only people who can withstand the influence of malaria, and so become the pioneers of civilisation in the jungle tracts. About a century later, a family of Sombansi lineage, from the north - west, subjected the wild settlers to its sway. The new dynasty belonged to the Jain faith, and still ruled at or near the ruins of Srávasti when Sayyid Sálár, the famous Musalmán fanatic and conqueror, occupied Bahraich with his invading force. The remains of that ancient city, whose name has been corrupted into Sáhet Máhet, are even now pointed out as the fort of Suhel Dál, the last of the Sombansi dynasty. Toward the close of the nth century, Sri Chandra Deo, the Rahtor Emperor of Kanauj, subverted the little northern kingdom; and a local legend keeps alive the memory of its fall. Jain devotees
