OGUNA PANORA, says Colonel Tod, is the sole spot in India which enjoys a state of natural freedom. Attached to no state, having no foreign communications, living under its own patriarchal head, its chief, with the title of rang, whom one thousand hamlets scattered over the forest crowned valleys obey, can, if requisite, appear at the head of five thousand bows. He is a Bhumia Bhil of mixed blood, from the Solanki Rajput, on the old stock of pure (oojla) Bhil of Mewar. Besides making the tika of blood from an incision in the thumb, the Oguna chief takes the prince by the arm and seats him on the throne, while the Oondree Bhil holds the salver of spices and sacred grains of rice used in making the tika. Firearms (Travels, p. 34) are only used by the chiefs and headmen, the national weapon being the kumpta, or bamboo bow, having the bow string (chulla) from a thin slip of its elastic bark. Each quiver contains sixty barbed arrows a yard long. Although they claim descent from every race of Rajput, and prefix the tribe, as Chohan Bhil, Gehlot Bhil, Pramar Bhil, etc. etc., their origin is best evinced in the gods they worship and their prejudices as to food. The Oojla Bhil, or pure Bhil, will eat of nothing white in colour, as a white sheep or goat ; and their grand abjura tion is, 'By the white ram !' Their ancient position is well illustrated by the circumstance of their claiming the right to instal Rajput princes. When Bappa fled, two Bhils were the companions of his flight, one of Oondree, in the valley of the present capital, the other of Solanki descent, from Oguna Panora, in the western wilds. Their
names, Baleo and Dewa, have been handed down with that of Bappa, and the former had the honour of drawing the tika of sovereignty with his own blood on the forehead of the prince, on the occasion of his taking the crown from the Mori. The descendants of Baleo of Oguna and the Oondree Bhil still claim the privilege of performing the tika on the inauguration of the descendants of Bappa. In the early part of the 19th century (Tr. p. 84), taking a section of about sixty miles in the Alpine Aravalli, from the ascent at the capital of Oodeypur (Udai pur), passing through Oguna, Panurpa, and Mirpur, to the western descent near Sirohi, the land was inhabited by communities of the aboriginal races, living in a state of primeval and almost savage independence, owning no para mount power, paying no tribute, but with all the simplicity of republics, their leaders, with the title of rawut, being hereditary. The rawut of the Oguna commune could assemble five thousand bows, and several others could, on occasions, muster considerable numbers. Their habitations are dispersed through the valleys in small rude hamlets near their pastures or places of defence. In 1882 and 1883 the Bhils of Mewar continued semi-independent.—Tod, Travels.