ALD She
"was a
match
31
the Native Government officials, but it was one uncommon one in those days to pay her So secret and well-organized were her movements, that she would spend days with her friends in the old British territories, without her absence from Dera being even suspected. Twice a year regularly, she paid all her retainers, and daily, at ten o'clock, their rations were served out to them. Her management of the estate was unique. She quarrelled, soon after succeeding, with the old hereditary agent, Bandu Misir, and under some apparent misapprehension of her orders he was killed. This induced her to lease out her property on favourable terms, including even villages that had always been under direct management and this system she carried out to the last, to the great benefit and satisfaction of her tenantry. This was, undoubtedly, a good system of management as far as the lady and her tenants were concerned, but it has created difficulties in the way of the settlement officer, who has been often much puzzled to know whether many of these longSleeman existing leases originated in old rights, or in agreements above. relates how Siuambar Singh and Hobdar Singh, the notorious leaders of the Gargbansi clan, fell while trying to regain from this extraordinary woman the taluqa of Barsinghpur, of which, with the assistance of the nazim, she had dispossessed them in the year A. D. 1838. The direct line, as will be seen by the following statement, ended with the husband- of this thakur^in. for
of her idiosyncrasies revenue punctually.
—
—an
Chhatar Bingb
had two 1.
had l son. Bimprak&s
2.
Gurdatt Singh 4 sons.
Haghuuath.
2.
Jagdts ESa
1.
sous.
Samundar Singh.
3.
Hanumin,
no descendants.
6 sons 2.
Garul Singh
had 4 1.
2 sons. I.
sons.
Edim Kalandar Singli
Kunjan Singh his son.
childless.
Bent Bakhsh Singh (had a daughter Dilr^j, who ascended the Gadi for 5 months). ) 2. Balkaran Singh „Miai„„ j-cmioiess. 3. GajrSj Singh 4. M4dho Singh (whose widow, DariiSo Kunwar, held for 25 years)
1.
1.
4.
Bhawanidfn Sihgb
his son,
AudAn Singh»
now lambardar of J Banni.
Chhatrsdl his 3 sons.
1. 2. 3.
EAja Rustam Sih, childless. ESo BariSr Singh 3 daughters Shankar Balchsh Singh (2 sons) heir.
Madho Singh had left a niece, Dilraj Kunwar, married into a Gorakhpur family, the daughter of his eldest brother, Beni Bakhsh Singh but it was known that the thakurSin disliked the next male collateral heir, Babu Rustam Sah, and it was supposed that she therefore entertained an This intention of adopting a son from the Shiiigarh branch of the clan. was so entirely contrary to the views and interests of the heir in question, that in 1847 he took the matter of succession into his own hands. He was then at the head of 300 men, in the service of the Maharaja Man Singh, the nazim of the day and it is believed that, in what follows, he was assisted, if not instigated, by his master. There had long been feud between the thakurdin and Rustam Siih, and the latter, indeed, had attempted to take Dera by storm, in which assault his father, Chhatrsal Singh, was killed, in 1846. The son thereafter organised a system of spies to watch the thakurdin, and to achieve by stealth what he had failed His intention, openly admitted, was to kill her, if he could in by force. He soon found the opportunity. The thakur^in determined to find her.
