Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/279

KHE 271 the bastard successor of the Piháni Sayyad, Ali Akbar Khan, from his whole estate. The latter with aid from the Rohillas drove back the Gaurs, beat- ing them at Mailáni in Kukra Mailáni, but it is not clear that the Piháni chief, now called the Rája of Muhamdi, ever recovered his former footing in Kheri. Under the Sayyad in 1709 A.D., the revenuc of tlie Kheri pargana was it seems Rs. 44,970, of which the kharíf was Rs. 25,359, and the rabi Rs. 19,611 ; only 200 of the 1,059 villages were uninhabited. The rabi crop is now threa times as valuable as the tharíf. The Sayyads seem to have settled the pargana rapidly and well. There are very numcrous remains of this family still in existence. Prior to their occupation another Sayyad, a recent immigrant from Arabia pamed Khurd, had colonized the country. Sanads granted by Humáyün prove that his efforts to dispossess the Pasi zamindais were resisted by the latter, who claimed their right unsuccess- fully at Delhi. Sayyad Khurd held twenty-two villages in jágír, and died in 971 Hijri (1563 A.D.) at a very great age. His tomb is in Kheri, with twenty litics of Persian poetry, cach composing the date. Abdulla, his son, was the Emperor Shah Jahán's tutor, and received 49 villages inore from his pupil. Four generations later the direct male line. failed, but the two collateral Sayyad families had intermarried, and Abd-ur- Rahmán, great-grandson of Nawab Badar Jahán of Pihani, was to have inherited through his mother, the only representative of the Kheri Sayyads being her father Ali Asgbar. But Abd-ur-Ralımán, who was sent to coerce the refractory and insolvent Ját zainindars of Jamkohna, who had 127 villages, returning triumphant to Kheri, the young warrior's standard bearers sang his praises,.--"Great are the Sayyads of Piháni.” The grand- father heard it, and fancying that the glory of the Kheri Sayyads would die out, he forth with married again. He left a son and daughter to whom Aurangzeb decreed the inheritance, leaving only three villages to Abd-ur- Rahmản. Constant subdivisions of the property and the forfeiture of the muafis reduced this family, and none of them now hold any villages although they have subordinate right in several. Nowhere las the gradual encroachment of careful and saving Hindus upon extravagant Musalmans been so marked as in Kheri. The Janyárs of Kheri were originally Chauhán Chhattris who were in the Sayyads' service, but must early have attained distinction : because in 970 Hijri (A.D. 1562), the year before Sayyad Khurd expired, Jamni Bhán, the ancestor of the Jan- wárs, was granted two pice per bigha as chaudhri on all the lands in Kheri so late as 1713 A.D. The head of the family was called Ráe and had only nine villages ; his residence was at Bel. From this humble beginning the Jan várs have become very extensive landlords. In 1870 the chakladar gave them a number of villages. In 1823 they got the whole pargana of Srinagar, consisting of 299 villages, and in 1833 their possessions were still more extended.' About 1843 they got 30 villages in the Paila pargana ; they have now in all about 330 villages. Their own account of their origin may now be given. The Janwars assert that another old family formerly held all these parganas-Kheri,