GON
563
with his brother, Ghuni Pande, had migi-ated to Gonda from Ikauna, and were the principal bankers and agents in his rdj of Shiu ParshAd Singh. They had amassed considerable wealth, and could advance their raja sums amounting to three lacs of rupees in a single loan for the liquidation of his revenue. The sons were brave, powerful men, and, backed by their father's wealth, held the first commands in the Gonda forces, and always remained faithful to the true succession, detesting Hindupat Singh as a usurper. At last, finding that a final decision was inevitable, and warned by a narrow escape of Guman Singh from poison, they made up their minds to rid him at any cost of his enemy, and two of the brothers went sword in hand to Hindupat's house on the banks of the Siigar tank. While they were forcing admission, Hindupat escaped by a window, and concealed himself in the thick jungle which stretched over what is now the civil station. The Pandes in vain endeavoured to discover their victim, and he might have escaped altogether had not a Bahelia (fowler), his only attendant, imprudently fired a matchlock at them as they were retiring. This betrayed his lurking place, and he was at once cut down. It was thought advisable to extirpate the family, so the ranis were decapitated, and Hindupat's sons, infants in arms, had their brains dashed out on tho ground. It is said that their spirits yet haunt the descendants of their ruthless murderers, and every misfortune which happens to the family is attributed to their unsleeping vengeance. This tissue of violence and crime, and the youth of the new raja, Guman Singh, afforded the Oudh Government a pretext for interference in the management of the raj, and Nirmal Das, elder brother of Maharaja Tikait Rae, who was at the time nazim of Bahraich, marched with the troops of his division tO/ Gonda.
The Pande
brothers were arrested and sent to Lucknow, where they weresentenced to be blown away from guns but the usual influence was. brought to bear, and they were instead ordered to leave for ever the tenitories of the nawab. A few years' service with the Nizam of Haidarabad acquired for them both fame and riches, and when they returned to Gonda at
first
their offence
The
and
its
punishment were
forgotten.
and they were invested with the engagement for villages yielding an annual revenue of Rs. 10,000, which formed the nucleus of the present enormous estate of Singha Chanda, the third among the taluqas of Oudh. The most powerful of the subjects in the lordship, they were followed by children and grandchildren of marked courage and ability. Their profession was to secure, by their own wealth, the Government revenue to the nazim, protecting the zamindars, whom misfortune or improvidence had driven into In return for their security they took mortarrears, from his vengeance. gages of whole or parts of estates, and in this way small taluqas and single The original provillages; kept incessantly falling into their engagement. prietors were usually compensated by a liberal allotment of rent-free sir, while the mortgagee,— and the mortgage generally ripened into an out-andOccasional collected all the rents from the ordinary cultivators. out-salej great oppression occurred, but, as a rule, even the ex-proprieof instances tors were treated with great leniency, their services being required in the raja received the instruments of his rise with every favour,
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NN
2
