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that he at once abandoned the place where he had spent two years building and hunting. He never returned to it, and the fort was abandoned, believed, for centuries. The first clear notice of the place is given in deeds granted to the qaniingo family, which held office" in both Khairigarh and Kheri. deed signed by Akbar, 1556-1605, recites that Ahbaran, an Ahir of Khairigarh, had usurped dominion, and was oppressing the people, and it directs the destruction of this potentate, who held his state in Kundanpur near Khairigarh. Ruhelas are stated to have then seized the country, but this attack is probably antedated. At any rate, in the Am-i-Akbari it is stated that Bachhils, Bisens, Bais, and Kurmis were the zamindars of the pargana, in which were six brick-built forts, some of the best in India. The Bachhils, of course, belonged to the tribe of that name which held K^mp Dhaurahra and Barwar (see Kheri district article, chap. Y.) The Rajpdsis under Raja Babari of Babargarh, now Babari near Dhaurahra, then held the country they were expelled by the Bisens of Dhaurahra. All this is obscurely told.
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A
The Lohani Banjaras now appear upon the- scene. It is alleged that when the imperial forces under Chhatardas Jangre besieged and took the fort of Kamp, certain Banjaras accompanied the commander as his they being Gaur Brahmans the probability is that they supplied the force with grain during the long siege. At any rate, when the Jangres seized Bhiir and Dhaurahra, the Banjaras got Khairigarh, it is alleged, from the Bisens. This must have been in the reign of Jahangfr. Rd,o Ram Singh was the Banjara chief at the commencement of the nineteenth century. He was a turbulent man and insisted upon imposing taxes on his own brethren, who were trading in grain and cattle, whenever they crossed the ghats in his dominions. The Banjaras under their leader Sangha Naik resisted and defeated the Rao in a pitched battle fought in 1800. In the following year Khairigarh came into the hands of the British, being part of the territories ceded by the Nawab Wazir. It remained in their possession till 1816, when it was handed over to Oudh in exchange for a part of Jaunpur, The English in 1809 sent a force to punish the raja for his cruelty and his exactions from the merchants at Mindia Ghat. He was taken prisoner and carried to Bareilly. Meanwhile, from 1810 to 1814, the lease of the whole pargana was taken by Captain Hearsey, who resided here prior to the breaking out of the Naipal war of 1812, in which he bore a distinguished part. The ruins of his bungalow and some of his furniture are still to be seen in Singahi. priests,
Another European, a merchant, Mr. Carbery, settled here about the same time, but his efforts to establish trade were unsuccessful, as he was murdered by the Raja of Dhaurahra.
Rao Rdm Singh died at Bareilly, and was succeeded by Naeks Madho Singh and Gandu Singh. The Banjaras had now, however, provoked an enemy in a dangerous quarter. The Pahari Chhattri raja, who now holds the pargana of Khairigarh, and who is a young man educated at the Canning College, claims descent from the sun. The family governed at Saraswati till the time of Raja Suthurot, whose son Marchanddeo moved with his subjects to Ajodhya, where they reigned for 102 generations, till
