GON
565
the pretensions of the old zamindari communities of Bisens, confining them rigorously to the lands in their own cultivating occupancy, which, however, he allowed them to hold at very favourable rents.
By
he managed to amass considerable and was probably among the wealthiest of the rdjas of Oudh. When Eaja Darshan Singh got the nizdmat, R^ja Debi Bakhsh naturally anticipated that he would do his best to extort a deed of sale for the valuable property, and avoided the danger by flight into British territory. Annexation was extremely distasteful to him, and he was with difficulty persuaded to leave his fort at Gonda and meet the Deputy Commissioner sent to take charge of the district. If he expected to be treated like his peers in the North-West Provinces, his apprehensions were unfounded. It would have been difficult to find any one with a vestige of proprietary title in the greater part of his estates, and he was allowed to engage for a taluqa of Rs. 80,000. At the outbreak of the mutiny he most honourably escorted all the Government treasure into Fyzabad, and then threw in his His main camp was lot unreservedly with that of the Begam of Oudh. at Lampti on the Chamnai, and there, after the relief of Lucknow, he was His troops were dispirited in command of a force of nearly 20,000 men. by the tremendous successes of the English in other parts of India, and during the trans-Gogra campaign offered only the feeblest resistance. Finally, he was driven up into Tulsipur, where he coalesced with the disorderly rabble which was all that was left of the armies of the begam, Bala Rao Marahta, and Muhammad Hasan, the rebel nazim of Gorakhpur. His conduct throughout the mutiny had been free from crime or dishonour, and many attempts were made to induce him to leave his asylum in Naipal and accept Lord Canning's free amnesty. But he said that, having vigilant personal supervision,
riches,
accepted the begam's service, he would, never acquiesce in the rule of her enemies, and his estates were finally confiscated and awarded for good His cousin, Pirthip^l Singh of Mahnon, service to Maharaja Man Singh. daughter, a girl of sixteen years of age, an only leaving ago, years four died who is now the sole surviving descendant of the mighty Raja Datt Singh. only other important family in the pargana were the Pandes, who, with XJmran Ram and Bahddur Ram, the sons, and Ram Datt Rdm, the grandson, of the men who seated Raja Guman Singh on the gaddi, continued to prosper and extend their borders. The last was a remarkably fine man, a good soldier, and generous, though a shrewd man of business, and his power rivalled that of the nazim and the raja. It was in his time that the best estates were added to his engagement ; but the final accesthe present taluqsion was secured, after his assassination, by his brother, of the opportune murder advantage took who Ram, Datt dar, Rdja Krishan engagement of the whole of that of Gaya Parshad, qanfingo, to acquire the During the mutiny, Krishan fine estate of Dulhapur Bankata.
The
official's
Ram took refuge in Ajodhya, where he was caught by his old enemy, Muhammad Hasan, nazim, and only allowed to escape after the payment one of the largest estates in the of a handsome ransom. He now holds Datt
of two and a half lacs of rupees. province, paying an annual land revenue
