MEENA, an active, energetic race, whose history illustrates Several points. They constitute a por tion of the population of Rajputana, especially in the Jeypore country between Ajmir and Dehli. In Northern Rajputana the country to the east of Shekhawatti is the chief home of the Meena, and it is a region politically as well ns naturally !favourable to the dacoit and the thief. Wild hills and ravines abound in parts of it. Within a radius of 25 miles is comprised a territory subject to no less than nine governments, namely, a part of Shekhawatti and Journwatten in the dominions of the maharaja of Jeypore, Kol-Puti belonging to the raja of Khetri, but held direct from the British Government, Dadree to Jheed, Narnoul to Pattiala, Kanto to Nabha, a portion of Ulwar, Loharoo, Bikanir, and Shahjahanpur, where lie the Meena settlements of the district of Gurgaon. These tracts are superintended by several officers.
The Purihar branch of the Meena occupy the Kherar, to the south of Deolee in Haraoti. They are said to be descended from the Purihar Rajput of Mundore, claiming from the celebrated Nahar Rao, king of Mundore, in Marwar, whose son Shoma married a Meena woman. The Meena were the prior occupants of Mewar and Jeypore, till driven out by the Rajputs. The Most power ful clans of the Marwar Meena found shelter in the strip of country at the junction of Boonda, Mewar, Jeypore, and Ajmir, called the Kherar. They are a very brave, bold race. The Jeypore Meena in like manner have their stronghold at the junction of the Ulwar Jeypore, and British districts. Iu Serobi, the Meena are still the aborigines.
The Cheeta Meena is a branch of the Meena race, from whom sprang the Mair or Mem race, whose country is styled Mairwara, or region of hills.
The Mair branch of the Cheeta Meena is also called Mairote and Mairawut. Mera is a moun tain in Sanskrit ; Mairawut and 3fairote, of or belonging to the mountains ; the name of the Albanian mountaineer Mairote has the same signi fication. Mairwara is that portion of the Aravalli chain between Komulmir and Ajmir, a space of about 90 miles in length, and varying in breadth from 6 to 20. The Cheeta Meena claim descent from a grandson of the last Chauhan emperor of Dehli. Unail and Anoop were the sons of Lakha, the nephew of the Chauhan king. The cocoanut was sent from Jeysulmir, offering princesses of that house in marriage, but an investigation into their maternal ancestry disclosed that they were the issue of a Mcena kept woman, and their birth being thus revealed, they became exiles from Ajmir, and associates with their maternal relatives.
Unail espoused the daughter of a Meena chieftain, by whom he had Cheeta, whose descendants enjoy almost a monopoly of power in Mairwara. The sons of Cheeta, who occupied the northern frontier near Ajmir, became 3fulunmadans about fifteen generations ago, when Doodha, the sixteenth from the founder of the race, was created Dawad Khan by the hrikim of Ajmir ; and as Athoon was his residence, the Khan of Athoon signified the chief of the Mairote. Athoon is still the chief town of the Mair race. Chang, Jhak, and Rajosi are the principal towns adjoining Athoon. Anoop also took a Meena wife, by whom he had Burrar, whose descendants have continued true to their original tenets. Their chief places are Burrar, Bairawara, Mundilla, etc. The Meena were always notorious for their lawless habits, and importance has been attached to them so far back as the period of Beesildeo, the celebrated prince of Ajimr, whom the bard Chand states to have reduced them to submission, making them carry water in the streets of Ajmir. Like all mountaineers, they broke out whenever the hands of power were feeble. A thousand years ago, Meena chiefs ruled much of the territory now held by the maharaja of Jeypore. A clan of them are still the hereditary guards of the city gates, and of the fort which holds the treasures of the state. The Mair country is situated but a very few miles west of Ajmir, and is composed of successive ranges of huge rocky hills, the only level country being the valleys running between them. From the sturdy valour of this race, the rulers of India never made any impression on them, notwith standing their vicinity to the occasional residence, for a long period, of the emperors of Hindustan. In later times the Mair were the terror of their lowland neighbours ; and even the Rajputs, per haps with the sole exception of the Rohilla, the bravest men in India, dreaded their approach. The Mair of the Mairwara Hills occupy the Aravalli range running towards Ajmir. The Koli assert their relationship to them, and they admit having intermarried with the Bhil and Meena ; and Colonel Dixon says that for hundreds of years they have been recruited by refugees and all sorts of rascals from Hindustan, and they are probably a very mixed race.