GORAKHPUR, in lat. 26' 42' N., long. 83° 23' E., a town on the right bank of the Rapti, in the N.1V. Provinces of British India, which gives its name to a revenue district lying between lat. 26° 5' 15" and 27° 28' 25" N., and between long. 83° 7' and 84° 29' E., with an area of 4578 square miles, and a population in 1872 of 2,019,361 persons. Among the inferior castes, the Ahir are the most numerous, numbering 242,383 souls ; but the Chamars nearly equal them, with a total of 210,108. The western part of Kosala—that is, Gorakhpur—continued some time under the Cheril, after other portiona of that territory had fallen into the hands of the people .called Gorklia (hence Gorkliapur, Gorakhpur?), who were in their turn expelled by the Tharu, also from the north. The Thant have left numerous monuments in Gorakh pur, and a few of them still remain in the district and in 3fithila. They claint to be of the family of the sun, i.e. the Aryan, but aro said to have strongly-marked 3fongolian features. One of the rajas of this dynasty had for his chief priest a man named Rasu, of the itnpure tribe of Muarthar. In Shrthabad, also, the most numerou.s of the ancient monuments are ascribed to the Chau, and it is traditionally asserted that the whole country belonged to them in sovereignty. Buch anan suggests they were princes of tho Sunaka family, who flourished in the time of Gautanni, about the 6th or 7th century before the Christian era. The Cheru were expelled from Shahabad, some say by the Savara or Sura, some say by a tribe called IIariha, and the date of their expul sion is conjectured to be between the 5th and 6th centtiries of the Christian era. Both Chem and Savant were considered by the Brahmans of Shahabad as in3pure or 3111echas, but the Harilla are reputed good ICshatriyas.
The overthrow of the Cheru iu 3fithila and 3fagadha seems to have been complete. Once lords of the Gangetic provinces, they are now found in the Shahabad and Behar districts only, holding the meanest offices, or concealing them selves in the woods skirting the hills occupied by their cousins the Khanvar, but in Palemau they retained till a recent period the position they had lost elsewhere. They invaded that country from Rohtas, and, with the aid of Rajput chiefs, the ancestors of the Thakurai of Hanka and Chainpur, droo out and supplanted a Rajput raja of the Rakshail family, who retreated into Sirguja, and established himself there. It is said that the Palemau population then con sisted of Kharwar, Gond, Mar, Korwa, Par heya, and Kisans. Of these, the Kharwar were the people of most consideration. The Chem conciliated them, and allowed them to remain in peaceful possession of the hill tracte bordering on Sirguja ; all the Cheru of note who assisted in the expedition obtained military service grants of land, which they still retain. It is popularly asserted that at the commencement of the Chem rule in Palemau they numbered 12,000 families, and the Kharwar 18,000; and if an individual of one or the other is asked to what tribe lie belongs, lie will say, not that he is a Chem or a Kharwar, but that he belongs to the 12,000 or to the 18,000, as the case may be. The Palemau Cheru now live strictly as liajputs, and wear the poita or vista thread. They do not, however, intermarry with really good Rajput families. Intermarriages between Cheru and Kharwar families have ta.ken place. —Dalton, Ethnol. of Bengal, 126 ; Imp. Ga.:.