on that account, Mr. Grant
says, [21] be set down as wholly a fable. Firishta, who records it,
has usually a good credit, and more probably the real existence of
a line of Ahir chieftains in the Tapti valley suggested a convenient
ethnology for the fortress. Other traditions of the past domination
of the pastoral tribes remain in the Central Provinces. Deogarh on
the Chhindwara plateau was, according to the legend, the last seat
of Gaoli power prior to its subversion by the Gonds in the sixteenth
century. Jatba, the founder of the Deogarh Gond dynasty, is said to
have entered the service of the Gaoli rulers, Mansur and Gansur, and
subsequently with the aid of the goddess Devi to have slain them and
usurped their kingdom. But a Gaoli chief still retained possession of
the fort of Narnala for a few years longer, when he also was slain by
the Muhammadans. Similarly the fort of Gawilgarh on the southern crest
of the Satpuras is said to be named after a Gaoli chief who founded
it. The Saugor traditions bring down the Gaoli supremacy to a much
later date, as the tracts of Etawa and Khurai are held to have been
governed by their chieftains till the close of the seventeenth century.

3. Ahir dialects.

Certain dialects called after the Abhiras or Ahirs still remain. One,
known as Ahirwati, is spoken in the Rohtak and Gurgaon Districts of
the Punjab and round Delhi. This is akin to Mewati, one of the forms
of Rajasthani or the language of Rajputana. The Malwi dialect of
Rajasthani is also known as Ahiri; and that curious form of Gujarati,
which is half a Bhil dialect, and is generally known as Khandeshi,
also bears the name of Ahirani. [22] The above linguistic facts seem
to prove only that the Abhiras, or their occupational successors,
the Ahirs, were strongly settled in the Delhi country of the Punjab,
Malwa and Khandesh. They do not seem to throw much light on the origin
of the Abhiras or Ahirs, and necessarily refer only to a small section
of the existing Ahir caste, the great bulk of whom speak the Aryan
language current where they dwell. Another authority states, however,
that the Ahirs of Gujarat still retain a dialect of their own, and
concludes that this and the other Ahir dialects are the remains of
the distinct Abhira language.

4. The Yadavas and Krishna.

It cannot necessarily be assumed that all the above traditions relate
to the Abhira tribe proper, of which the modern Ahir caste are scarcely
more