CHAPTER IV. HISTORY. District has always been turbulent and ill-conditioned-Statement of towns, houses, wells, and religious buildings in the district-History of the district-Colonel Sleeman's description of Rámnagar Dhameri, &c. The Bahrela Rajputs-the story of Ganga Bakhsh Ráwat-taluqas of Rámnagar, Haráha, Súrajpur, Jahangirabad, iláqas of Barai, Rudauli, Bara Banki during the rebellion-Medical aspects. District has always been turbulent and ill-conditioned. This district has always been a most turbulent and ill-conditioned one. The reason probably is that the Musalmans and the Rajputs, or, in other words, the town party and the country party, are pretty equally balanced. There are here a number of great Musalman colonies, and their inhabitants have not been so tolerant as in other parts of Oudh. In Zaidpur, for instance, a town with a population of over 10,000, the majority of whom are Sunnis and Hindus, there is not a single religious edifice for the use of either. The lords of the soil are Shias; they form a mere fraction of the population; but seventeen mosques have been provided to attest their zeal and their intolerance. The following table conveys some interesting information concerning these towns. It appears that there are eighty-six Hindu temples, four Jain shrines, and 144 Musalman mosques or meeting houses. In all there are 234 religious edifices. These are of masonry. The temples of Mahádeo in his ling representation are as numerous as those of all other deities put together. Statement showing the towns of Bara Banki district with their houses, wells, religious buildings &c. History. The early history of the Bara Banki district is perhaps more obscure than that of any other in Oudh, partly because less perhaps has been done for its elucidation, partly owing to the change in the ownership of land. About half of the district is now owned by Musalmans; it is not known when they acquired this predominance. The following parganas are mentioned in Akbar's time with their respective owners-vide A'ín-i-Akbari. The disintegration of the Hindu clans in this district is sufficiently apparent from this list; the proprietary possession of large, continuous tracts by one single Chhattri caste, which prevails elsewhere in Oudh, does not appear here. The Musalman invaders had made their first permanent settlement in this district at Satrikh, in H. 421, A. D. 1030; from thence they had for years waged a fierce and proselytizing war. In successive battles the Hindu had been defeated; their attempts to poison or assassinate Sayyad Sálár had failed, but the war of extermination which ensued crushed the remains of Hindu independence and annihilated the faith in large districts by the wholesale massacre of its professors. Siháli, for instance, was conquered, and its sovereign, a Siharia Chhattri, was killed. Kuntúr was captured, and its Bhar queen, Kintáma slain. The death of Sayyad Sálár, 1032 A. D., was merely a temporary check; the Musalman invaders were now animated by a desire to revenge their young martyr, as well as by the usual motives of plunder, proselytism and conquest; a second invasion consequently ensued. In A. D. 1049, 441 H., the Kings of Kanauj and Mánikpur were defeated and driven from Oudh by Qutub-ud-dín of Medina. The Musalman invasion was more successful in Bara Banki than elsewhere. In 586 H., 1189 A. D., Siháli was conquered by Shekh Nizám-ud-dín of Herat, Ansári. Zaidpur was occupied by them in H. 636, when Sayyad Abdul Wahid twenty-three generations ago turned out the Bhars, altering the name of the town from Suhálpur. The colony of Musalman Bhattis, which now occupies Mawai Maholára, is reported to have arrived about the same time, although some place it as early as H. 596, 1199 A. D. They came from Bhatnair or Bhattiána, in the Punjab and Rajputána; it is possible that, as they allege, they were a colony left by the Ghori king, who five years before had taken Kanauj; but it is more probable that they were converts and emigrants from the parent city, when Jessulmere was taken and sacked by Allá-ud-dín in 1295 A. D. Bhattia itself had been sacked in 1004 A. D. At any rate, See Tod's Rajasthan, Vol. II, p. 254. under Imám Joth Khan and Mustafa Khan, they drove out Bais Chhattris from Barauli, Brahmans and Bhars from Mawai. Rudauli was occupied about H. 700, in the reign of Allá-ud-dín Khilji, whose forces had just about the same time destroyed Anhalwára, Chittor, Deogir, Mandor, Jessulmere, Gagraun, Búndi, in fact nearly every remaining seat of Chhattri power. Rasúlpur was conquered about 1350 A.D. 756 H. Daryabad was founded about 850, H. 1444 A. D., by Dariáo Khan Subahdar. Fatehpur was colonized by Fateh Khan, a brother of Dariáo Khan, and about the same time. The villages of Barauli and Barai, near Rudauli, were occupied, and gave their name to large estates about the middle of the fifteenth century. Simultaneously, however, with this latter immigration of the Musalmans there was one of Chhattris. The mysterious tribe of Kalhans, which numbers some twenty thousand persons, are said to be descended from Achal Sing, who came in as a soldier of fortune with Dariáo Khan about 1450 A. D. At this time Ibráhím Shah, Sharqi, reigned at Jaunpur. Oudh was the battle ground-the border land between that dynasty and the Lodis of Delhi-and their princes, as the tide of conquest surged backwards and forwards, settled Hindu soldiers as garrisons,-the war being now one between Moslems, and no longer one of religion. The Kalhans are said to have come from Gujarát, the same nursery of Chhattris from which the Ahban, the Panwár, the Gahlot, the Gaur, the Bais, and many other Oudh clans, are believed to have emigrated. This Achal Singh is declared to have been of an Angrez bans or stock, and there is no doubt that on the borders of Gujarát and Baluchistan many foreigners who had arrived both by land and sea voyages did settle down and gradually blend with the Hindu race, assuming suitable places in the caste system. A migration further east, far from all local traditions of original impurity, would in time render their origin one of unquestioned orthodoxy in popular repute, just as Indo-Scythians,* and even Portuguese are said to have blended with Western Rajputs. At any rate, this Rája Achal Singh is a great name in the middle ages of Oudh; he had large property-some state that his capital was Bado Sarai, on the old bank of the Gogra; and the story that he was overwhelmed with nearly all his houses by an irruption of the Gogra + because he had perjured himself to his wife's family priest, is a favourite tradition of Oudh. He had, it is stated, only a grant of eight villages originally; now his descendants have six great taluqas, mostly situated in Gonda, Kamiár, Paska, Shahpur, Dhanawan, Paraspur Áta; they hold on both sides of the Gogra, just as the Raikwárs do to the north, and the Jángres beyond them again in Kheri and Bahraich. Similarly, the isolated Súrajbansi estate of Haráha and the Sombansi Bahrelia estate of Súrajpur were establised by small colonies of Chhattri soldiers, who had been dismissed from service about eighteen generations ago. These Súrajbans assert an emigration from Bánsi in Gorakhpur and a connexion with the Sirneyts; the Chauhans of * Wilson's Vishnu Purana, Hall's Edition, Vol. II. p. 134. + Carnegy's Castes of Oudh, p. 47. Fyzabad, Sombansi of Partabgarh, and Gaur of Amethi, send them daughters; they marry their own to the Bais and Chauháns of Mainpuri. The great Raikwár colony of Baundi Rámnagar, deserves more detailed notice. The estates of Baundi Rámnagar (originally Keshwámau), Rámpur, Chahlári, Rahwa, Mallápur, up till 1858, extended along both sides of the Gogra for about sixty miles in the districts of Bara Banki, Sitapur, Kheri, Bahraich. Baundi* and Chahlári were forfeited for rebellion, but the others are still owned by Raikwár chiefs. These Raikwárs are said to have originally colonized this part of the country under the orders of Allá-ud-dín Ghori; they came from Raika, in Kashmír. Partáb Sáh and Dúnde Sáh settled at or near Sailuk; Partáb tule Sáh died, leaving two sons, Sáldeo and Báldeo. The family was unfortunate. The nephews pretended a prophecy that the uncle must be sacrificed for the future greatness of the family. Propitious signs indicated the right place, and then Dúnde Sáh, weary of life, held out his head to be struck off by his nephews. Henceforth the family was prosperous. There were two Bhar Rájas ruling on opposite sides of the river, one at Rámnagar in Bara Banki, one on the eastern bank at Bamhnauti, now Baundi. Bál took service with the former, Sál with the latter; each in time acquired the confidence of his master, and then supplanted or slew him. Little more is known of the Raikwár clan in Bara Banki for many years. Nominally, at any rate, Sailuk which included Rámnagar and Muhammadpur was granted to the Baundi Rájat Harhardeo by the Emperor Akbar, but it is not known whether the cis-Gogra Raikwárs really remained independent, or not. In 1165 H., A.D. 1751, the Raikwárs seem to have headed a great Hindu movement to shake off the Musalman Government. Saflar Jang, the wazír, had been absent at Delhi; his náib, Newal Ráe, had been defeated and killed at the Káli nadi three years before by the Bangash Afgháns of Farukhabad, who then overran the whole province except a few of the fortified towns. In 1749, Saflar Jang himself, with an army of 60,000 men, was defeated by them; and if at this time the Oudh Chhattris had risen, the Mughal authority might have been overthrown, but they waited till after Safdar Jang, in 1750 A. D., 1164 H., had bribed or beaten the Rohillas out of the country. Then the tribes gathered themselves together under the leadership of Anúp Singh, the Rája of Rámnagar Dhameri; the Janwár of Balrampur, the Bisens of Gonda, and numerous other lords assembled their forces for an attack on Lucknow, now denuded of the troops which had gone into Rohilkhand. The Shekhzádas of Lucknow came out to meet the enemy, * The obstinate rebellion of the Raikwárs seems to have been mainly due to the unfortunate fact, that the Queen of Oudh on being driven from Lucknow, March 1858, threw herself into the fort of Baundi, where she remained for some months-the chivalrous owner became enthusiastic in her cause. + Bahraich Settlement Report, p. 34. R they were joined by the Khánzádas of Mahmudabad and Bilahra, who were connected with them by marriage. The battle was fought at Chheola Ghát on the Kalyáni, on the road to Lucknow. The Musalmans, headed by Nawab Muizz-ud-din Khan of Mahmudabad, won the day. The Balrampur rája was killed it is said, and an immense number of the allied host, some 15,000 were killed or wounded on both sides. Nor would this number be at all remarkable when large armies, inflamed against each other by religious hatred in addition to the ordinary motives, fought at close quarters. From this event dates the rise of the Khánzádas. The Raikwárs were proportionately depressed; the estates of both Baundi and Rámnagar were broken up, and but a few villages left with the rája. The process of agglomeration commenced again, seventy years afterwards, about 1816, on the death of the sagacious Saádat Ali Khan, and before annexation, in 1856, the Rámnagar rája had recovered the whole family estate and added to it largely, while his brother of Baundi had similarly added 172 villages to his domain. An account of the Raikwárs, slightly differing from the preceding, is given under article BHITAULI. The clan declares itself to be of Súrajbans origin; they marry their daughters to Bais and Chauháns, they receive the daughters of Súrajbans, Chandel, Bisen, and Janwár. There are other Chhattri clans in the district, but they have generally sunk from the position of proprietors to that of cultivators. Above all, this is the case with the Chauhans; they formed a portion of the great colony which occupies the west of Fyzabad, Pachhimráth, and Mangalsi, extending into Rudauli and Daryabad in this district. There, too, they have succumbed to chakladars and taluqdars; they are very numerous, very proud, and poor; they number about 3,000 in Bara Banki and 9,000 in Daryabad, and had 565 villages. The great estate of Mahárája Mán Singh in Fyzabad and Bara Banki was formed mainly out of their possessions, much of it recently. Some villages, like Intgáon for instance, were acquired since annexation. The principal chiefs of Bara Banki are thus referred to in the settlement report : Taluqa of Rúmnagar.-" The large property consisting of 253 villages belongs to Rája Sarabjit Singh, of whom mention has already been made. The Rája is the head of the Raikwár clan, who, according to Mr. Elliot, " immigrated to Oudh from the hill country about Kashmír eighteen generations or 450 years ago, that is, about 1400 A. D. It is a curious fact that whereas all Rajputs place a special value on the wood of the ním tree, the Raikwárs alone are forbidden to use it," Taluga of Haráha.-The present proprietor of this taluqa is Rája Narindr Bahadur, the head of the Súrajbans Thákurs. His father, Rája Chhatarpat Singh, is yet alive. Both father and son are afflicted with mental incapacity. The estate, which consists of sixty-six villages, paying a revenue of Rs. 55,000, is under the management of the local authorities, and there it is likely to remain. Certain members of the Rája's family fortunately held the estates of Ránímau Qiámpur in a separate qubúliat * Bahraich Settlement Report, page 49. |
