Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/423

MAH 415 dered this a bold speech to make, and bade him go to his own country if he wanted to fight, and Diler would meet him there. So when the nawab came in the fight that has been mentioned, he called out from his elephant in a loud voice for the râja to come out and meet him in single combat. The raja was only mounted on a small horse, but he came up and struck at the nawab with a sword which shivered on his armour, and himself fell at one blow by a thrust from his adversary's spear. It is then said that one of Rup Naráin's family admitted the nawab into the fort by a private door. This piece of treachery earned for himself and his descendants the sobriquet of the Khirkihas or the men of the wicket,' by which they are distinguished to the present day. Events repeat themselves, and the Panwárs may have thought of a former passage in the annals of their house, whereby in a similar way their forefathers obtained an entrance into the Kurmi's fort. Madári Singh, son of Rája Niri, however, attended at the emperor's court and was decked with a khilat (dress of honour), and recovered his father's estate. But he is said to have been a man of lawless habits and most inordi- nate pride. He was too good even to associate with his own kith and kin, and when the members of the Haweli and Rewán branches came as usual to offer him their congratulations at the Holi festival, he refused to see them. Thereupon they took counsel and said that since they had no longer any natural head to look to, they must make one for themselves, and they went to Ráe Súrat, of the second or Haweli branch, and elected him as rája. There is nothing else very eventful that happened to this family. In the time of Rája Shiu Singh in 1225 fasli (1818 A. D.), the whole taluqa was under direct management, and he was only left with ten muháls, which he held however in rent-free tenure as nánkár. The whole estate now consists of the original villages that the rája's family held. The family, with its branches, has always been very powerful. They were strong in themselves, and for the most part kept in good favour with the Delhi Court. They even adopt some of the Musalman practices such as fastening their coats to the left, and paying reverence to tázias. And they have before their residence a large square stone which they hold in almost sacred reverence, They say that they brought it from Delhi, and that it is their symbol of right to their estates, which were granted to them by the Delhi emperor, who told them to take it as the foundation for their future settlement. Whenever a new rája succeeds he places on it a nazar (offering) of flowers and sweetmeats, and a few rupees. There are a great many more villages belonging to the Panwars than the rája holds, which have been removed from the ilaqa by different cadet members of the family. But the rája's estate itself consists of fifty-one villages as they have been demarcated by the recent survey, and has been assessed at 36,679. Babu Pirthipal Singh of Mángdon. --Bábu Pirthípál Singh, Taluqdar. of Mángáon, is of the same family as the Rája of Itaunja, and received his two tappas of Haweli, at the time of the partition of the estate by the sons of Deo Ridh Ráe. His immediate ancestor was Pahlan Deo, the second