GON
666
time in charge; and, radiating from the town of Gonda, the principal lines of communication depart for Balrampur and TJtraula, and each are under Government sxiperintendence. The less regarded track to Jigna and Machhligaon must rely on its own fortunes, and cannot be regarded as a A rough road repaired from the local funds successful means of transit. joins Colonelganj with Balrampur, entering this pargana by the Birpur Katra Bazar, and passing through its western half. A not unimportant, but wholly untended, cart-track runs through the north of the pargana, from Bahraich to the bazar of Bank in Utraula, and on into the Basti district. North- Western Provinces. Local tradition asserts that when Sohildeo was king of Sahet Mahet, Kaja Sudama, whose name also occurs in the history of that ancient city {vide article Sahet Mahet), ruled the country south of the Kuwana, and that it is to his time that the remains of old cities, such as are found at Khargupur, Nulla, and Machhligaon, must be referred. But nothing like authentic history exists previous to the foundation of the Kalhans dynasty of Khurasa, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, whose obscure and scanty annals have been given more appropriately in the district article.
On
the death of Raja Achal Narain Singh, the whole of his raj fell into predatory bands roamed all over the district, rendering
cultivation impossible; and the Government revenue ceased to be paid. At this juncture it is related that the subahdar of Oudh applied to Sarabjit Singh, Bais, who had been chaudhri of the pargana of Khurasa under the Kalhans chiefs, to recommend some one who could be made responsible for peace and order. He sent in his sister's son, Partab Mai, Bisen, who was approved of, and proceeded to make himself master of the country. All over that portion of the Khurasa principality which was finally consolidated into the Gonda raj, the most powerful Chhattri families belonged to the same clan as himself, though at the present day their descendants are unable Along the north, divided to trace their origin to any common ancestor. into the great branches of Ramapur, Bechaipur, Bankata, and Khera Dih, the large class of Bisens of Ramapur Birwa extended over a tract nearly forty miles long, bounded on the north by the Kuwana, and on the south by the western Tirhi, or the Bistihi; whUe further south the Gordha Bisens covered what is now the Mahadewa pargana and several less important families of the same stock were proprietors of single villages. Other j%irdars of the Kalhans rule, such as the Bandhalgotis of Manikapur, broke off into independent rajes, and it is to the feeling of common clanship that we must ascribe the cohesion of the large tract of country which owned the leadership of the rajas of Gonda. Partab Mai himself seems to have been merely primus inter pares, and neither he nor his son and grandson, Sah Mai and Khurram Mai, assumed the title of raja or left their ancestral home at Gohdni in the present pargana of Digsar. Of Man Singh, the next in the line, it is related that he was hunting near where Gonda now " If the air of is, and a hare turned round and put his hounds to flight. this place," he exclaimed," " will make hares braver than dogs, what will it not do for men?" And he immediately left Gohani and laid the foundation of a new capital, which he named Gonda, after a cow-shed which he found there. singular travesty of history accounts for his assumption of the
a
state of anarchy
A
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