Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/442

434 SUL tion of the mystery is that the stone was picked up out of the river below, and enshrined in the little edifice which now holds it. I am dis- posed to conjecture that there once stood on the spot a famous temple of the boar-god, which was long ago destroyed; but that the memory of it having outlived its destruction, the present modest substitute was erected, and when the stone was found, it was hailed as the return of the tenant god. In the immediate vicinity are several brick-strewn or rather brick-built mounds of various dimensions. The largest of them, that nearly touching the present village, and the only one of which I could learn anything, is said to have been the site of an old Bhar fortress. It is very probable that a town of considerable importance once existed here, and the name of the village itself Kotwa, a cola loquial corruption of Kot, implies the former presence of some sort of fortification. On the peak of the same mound as the Set Báráh temple lies the tomb of a faqír, who after a life of mortification and penance died here about five hundred years ago. Austerity and devotion, say the sacred books of the Hindus, bring to those who practice them, with the requisite degree of earnestness, power to control and suspend the laws of nature ; and to this pitch of holiness did our faqír attain. The story is still told to admonish the incredulous how he walked at will upon the river, and the obedient waters rose not above his sandals. At this spot of two-fold sanctity a fair is held every year at full moon in the month of Kártik; it lasts a day and night, and attracts visitors from a distance of twenty miles round to the number of 25,000. Vendors of fruit and sweetmeats avail themselves of the occasion to turn an honest penny. Other fairs.—The six fairs above described are the principal ones of the district, and however little worthy of mention they may be the others are still less so. Ample justice will be done them in a tabular list : Name of village. ... . 1. Hargaon 2 Kanný ... 3. Shamsheria 4. Rághipur a. Pindara Name of pargana. Gaura jámán. Ainethi. Ditto Ditto Ditto 200 Tenzeres.---The proprietary tenures of Sultanpur do not call for special notice. It is mainly a taluqdari distriet owned by the Bach. gotis and Rájkumárs to the east, by the Amethias in the centre and by the Kanhpurias in the west, the division of property among the caste and the different taluqdars is shown in the following tables:-