Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/450

442 MAL Here he performed sundry notable miracles. A fellow who mocked him was presently arrested for theft and died miserably in prison. One very hot summer a little company of the faithful had met together to pray. Thirst fell on them, but there was not a pitcher full of water in the well wherewith to bathe or slake their drought. Then the saint smote his hand upon the ground, and rubbed his face, and called upon the Holy One who had stopped the spring, though the faithful who fiad met to honour him were perishing of thirst. And while he yet prayed behold one cried out that the water had risen in the well to a man's beight. And they all bathed and drunk, and thirteen of the worshippers present accepted him as their spiritual guide. One of these was Shekh Bhíkhári, servant of a Government oficial at Kanauj. The fame of the holy man's miracles at last reached Delhi, and the Sultan Sikandar Lodi despatched his officer Fateh Khan to bring the saint before him. The mission was unsuccessful. A second time Fateh Khan was sent to ask that if he could not come himself he would send some of his disciples. Then Misbáh-ul-Ashiqin sent two of his followers. And when they told the Sultan that it would be a good deed to settle some Muhammadans at Mallánwán, he promised rent-free grants to such Muhammadans as would settle there, and appointed Shekh Bhikhári to be qázi. And at last the saint himself went to Delbi. And the Sultan honoured him greatly and offered him rich gifts ; but these he would not take. Then he returned to Mallánwán, and built himself a solitary cell, and spent four months in it in fasting and prayer, and died in 939 Hijri (1532 A.D.). An interesting record of the time of Sher Shah was shown me in the shape of a rent-free grant issued by him in 1544 A.D., in Persian, Bengáli , and Nágri. It confers on Shekh Abdul Quddús, Shekh Abdul Razzáq Muhammad Makan, and Qutb Ibráhím Muakin a rent-free grant of two hundred bíghas in mauza Mohiuddínpur, pargana Malawi, near fort Nahargarh alias Kanauj on condition of peopling the land and residing on it, and reciting prayers five times a day in the mosque, and shooting ten arrows daily, after the reading of afternoon prayers. And it announces the grant to Munsif Khwaje Raju, Persian and Hindi Reader, and to the tahsildars and kárguzárs of the pargana. The descendants of Ganga Rám, founder of Ganga Rámpur, allege that Akbar made him chaudhri of the pargana, and gave him land on which he founded the village. The qanungos hold an order bearing the seal of the unfortunate prince Dára Shikoh, and issued by him in 1653 A.D., when he was admitted by Shah Jahán to a considerable share of the government, It is addressed to his trusty Shah Beg, and mentions a complaint by Pánde Dalíp Singh, thathe had long held the qánúngoship of Mallánwán (the towa, not the pargana); that Shyam Lál, grain-dealer, had forced him to lease it at a rupee a day, but failed to pay it. Orders enquiry to be made and redress given. The iconoclast Aurangzeb (1658-1707) is said to have ordered the stone lingam at Sonási Náth, mentioned above to be sawn asunder. The wicked work was begun as the teeth marks shown to you attest;