Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/457

MAN 449 quently known as those of the " Báwan." Singla and Banbír were on the most friendly terms, and Singh engaged alone with the Government for the entire estate. For five generations the fifty-two villages were held as one tenure, and Singh Ráe's house grew to such greatness that its head was called a rája. The last of the chiefs was Man Singh (a name which in this part of Oudh seems to have carried with it infallible success). He was the eldest of four brothers, On his death one of these made himself independent, but for five generations more the three remaining shares on Singh Ráe's side continued united. In the time of Bandú Ráe these two split up, and the estate was then beld in five separate blocks till Rája Dar- shan Singh became chakladar. In 1828-29 the rája absorbed the whole of the villages one after the other into his taluqa, and there they remain to this day. At Man Singh's death the Banbírpur muhál was first separately engaged for. Banbír Řáe had two sons-Ráe Basáik and Udit Ráe--the former became Muhammadan and took the name of Bhikhan Khan. These Bais say, quite frankly, that it was the custom at that time for each taluqdar to have a son måde Muhammadan in the hope that in the most disastrous case a bigoted emperor might not wholly deprive the family of their lands, and that in more ordinary times they might have a near and certain friend privileged with the entrée of the Musalman courts. Many taluqdars, it is said, showed similar caution at a more modern date by sending one relative to the British force and another to the rebels, to make siccar" of safety, much as the highlanders did in forty-five, whichever side might win. These Khánzádas, the Bais Muhammadans, were apportioned a number of villages, and these they still retain. The fears of Banbír Ráe were per- haps notunjustified, but the services of the Khánzádas were never required to enable their Hindu brethren to hold their own. On the contrary, the only use the Khánzádas ever made of any influence they possessed was to usurp their kinsmen's lands. On this occasion there came to the rescue of the Hindu Bais a Káyath of Delhi, who had received an appointment as Diwán to the chakladar. In gratitude for this service, the Bais pre- sented him with the village of Gopálpur, and Gopálpur is still the property of the díwán's descendants. The villages of the Banbírpur muhál followed those of Singhpur into the taluqa of Rája Darshan Singh. Those of the Khánzádas alone escaped. Several of them had been given in 1193 H. (1779 A.D.) by Asif-ud-daula, the Nawab of Oudh, to Xlam Ali for the support of the imámbárą at Fyzabad. Between the estates of these two great clans of Bais lie those of two smaller ones. These are the Bais of Sirhir and those of Arthar. The former had twelve villages, the latter had twenty-seven. I have said they had villages. They are families of a more recent date than those of their great eastern and western fellow-clausmen. They never produced a man of any dis- tinction, and their possessions rapidly waned. On every side they lost ground. To the west of these lay the estate of the Bisen. The greater part of this was in pargana Pachhinaráth; but they must be noticed here, for Kundarka