1QS\ II UC-NRLF mill! iiiii i *B 575 7D5 V{-' ,- A. SUPPLEMENT TO THE FATEHPUR GAZETTEER By F. S. Growse, CLE, Civil Service. ALLAHABAD: NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH GOVERNMENT TRESS. 1887. Templa quam dilecta. IS. (ST. Cemple. A SUPPLEMENT TO THE FATEHPUR GAZETTEER By F. S. Growse, CLE, Bengal Civil Service. ALLAHABAD: NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH GOVERNMENT PRESS. 1887. 3> IP Ctu-tuuA * PREFACE. The Gazetteer of the Fatehpur District, published at the Allah- abad Government Press in 1884, contains in its earlier part a large amount of useful statistical information, collected from official records. The second half of the volume, which is purely topogra- phical, is not equally satisfactory. The compiler was evidently dependent for the most part on notes supplied by native subordi- nates, and had himself visited few, if any, of the places he describes. Hence many inaccuracies in local minutiae, and a total blank regarding all such matters as architecture and archaeology, upon which natives are seldom competent to speak. In the present Supplement every paragraph is the result of personal observation, and was written on the spot to which it refers, in the course of two cold-weather tours. It will now be seen that the district, instead of being exceptionally barren in objects of historical interest, is richer than many — far more so than Buland- shahr for example — in monuments of the past. The miscellaneous antiquities from different parts of the district, which have been grouped together in the garden of the Fatehpur Town Hall, illus- trate, with some degree of adequacy, the style of architectural decoration that prevailed in the neighbourhood during the period immediately prior to the earliest Muhammadan invasion. The Buddhist sculptures at Asothar, Thar i don, and Een furnish an additional proof of the once general acceptance of that religion throughout the Province. The temples at Bahua and Tinduli, never before noticed, are rare examples of very early brick archi- tecture ; and the inscribed pillar from Asni promises, when fully deciphered, to add a new name to local history. Two special grants from Government, and a more liberal expenditure of district funds, which previous Collectors had 520492 ( 2 ) annually allowed to lapse, have enabled me to carry out works for the conservation of the temples as Bahua and Tinduli, of the temple mosque at Hathganw, and of Aurangzeb's extensive memorial buildings at Khajuha. The cotton-printers of Jafarganj, who practise the only local industry of artistic significance, but were making a most precarious livelihood by it, have been supplied with constant employment during my two years' tenure of office, and, in consequence, have greatly improved in skill and are acquir- ing a wide reputation, which, I trust, will survive my departure. Considering the character of the work, their charges are reasonable; and the clear annual profits of the family do not exceed Rs. 500. It is therefore to be hoped that the struggling manufacture will not be prematurely stifled by assessment under the odious Income Tax, from which I have hitherto exempted it. The curtains, bed-covers, and table-cloths are extremely effective and are in most general demand. The shamianas, or ceiling-cloths, sent to South Kensing- tonfor the Exhibition, seem to have been taken by all the newspaper reviewers for Kashmir work, which they resemble when seen by artificial light. The mistake must be regarded as a compliment, though it has had the immediate effect of robbing Fatehpur of its due meed of praise. A similar ceiling-cloth has lately been put up in one of the rooms of the Provincial Museum at Lucknow ; others are being made for the Connaught HallatMerath and for the Duchess's drawing room at Poona ; and one, under which Their Royal Highnesses lunched when they stopt at Fatehpur, has been sent to the Queen. A much larger one, with an appropriate inscription in the border, will be presented to Her Majesty on the occasion of Her Jubilee. The town of Fatehpur is so essentially mean and unpicturesque a place that little can be done to improve it ; but the new works round about the Town Hall are a first step in artistic progress. It is now proposed that they should bear the name of ( 3 ) the Victoria Gardens. The flourishing market at Bindki, which was growing up in unrestrained squalor and disorder, has been systematically re-aligned with ample provision for future develop- ment, and is being almost entirely rebuilt by the traders themselves in brick instead of mud. The larger administrative reform which I proposed to effect by reducing the present six tahsils to four has, unfortunately, not been sanctioned ; but upon the whole, while all routine work has gone on exactly as usual, I may congratulate myself that my two years' stay at Fatehpur has not been destitute of advantage to the public in several minor matters, such as might have been overlooked by an official of a more exclusively utilitarian turn of mind. Fatehpur: } F. S. GEOWSK Dec. 22nd, 1886. ) SUPPLEMENT TO THE FATEHPUK GAZETTEEK. By F. S. GROWSE, C.I.E., MAGISTRATE AND COLLECTOR OF THE FATEHPUR DISTRICT, 1885-86. Page 4 l . — The Joint Magistrate's house and offices at Bhithaura, the first head-quarters of the district, have been entirely demolished. The site, which is on the high bank of the Ganges, a little above the village, is a remarkably pretty spot, surrounded by picturesquely-broken and well-wooded park -like grounds and commanding a very extensive river view. It was originally laid out as a garden and used as an occasional residence by an officer in the Nawab's army named Hem Sinh, who also built the little temple which occupies a conspicuous position on the verge of the cliff. Page 4, line 25. — The name of the Asothar Rajas ancestor given as Dhuniapat should be spelt Dunya-pat. Page 11, line 14. — The fine bridge over the Rind river on the old Mughal road was built by a Baniya, Fatehchand, about one hundred years ago, when Kora was a more thriving town. This is the only bridge there is on this troublesome river. The traffic on the road is therefore great, and all that is now wanted to complete this important line of communication is to metal the one break of 10 miles between Kora and Ghatampur in the Cawnpur district. Many of the villages through which the road passes are called Sarai so and so ; but there are few remains of the old Sarai buildings, the principal being at Bilanda (or Sarai Saiyid Khan,) Sarai Manda, and Chunni-ki-Sarai, the last named being a hamlet of Sultanpur. The road existed long before the time of the Mughals and connected the old Hindu capitals of Kanauj and Prayag* The first stage west of Karra was at Aphoi, where is a large brick- strewn mound, still called Chauki. From Fatehpur to Bilanda the old road coincides exactly with the Grand Trunk Road ; beyond Bilanda it runs in an almost parallel line at a short distance from it and is therefore unmetalled. 'The references are to the pages of the Fatehpur Gazetteer, compiled by Mr. J. P. Hewetfc and published at the Allahabad Government Press in 1884. 2 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. There is now no Sarai actually at Sarai Manda, as the one often so desig- nated stands in the next village, Sarai Mohan Salimpur. It is a large walled enclosure, with an area of 16 acres ; and its founders, two Bhat zamiudars, by name Gobind Prasad and Mima Lai, are said to have expended as much as Us. 40,000 in its construction. The village is a very diminutive one, and pro- bably has only recently acquired a separate name, having before been included in Sarai Manda. Unfortunately, the new work was taken in hand just about the time that the Grand Trunk Road was projected and, before it was completed, the old route — in spite of many protests and petitions — had been definitely abandoned. Thus the Bhat community, who had previously owned a large estate, were soon totally ruined by the litigation in the civil courts which arose out of their attempts to shift from one to another the burden of their ill-starred enterprize. The design included two lofty and imposing gateways, east and west; but the stone-work of the latter was never set up and is still lying on the ground. That to the east was finished ; but two out of its three arches were thought to be dangerous and were pulled down a few years ago by the order of Mr. Lang, who was then Collector. The whole of the south half of the enclosure forms a separate quadrangle, with cells all round, and was intended as a sarai proper. It has two arched gateways of its own in the party wall dividing it from the northern half, which was to have been a market-place. Outside the east gate is the plinth of an unfinished temple, with three elegant windows of Agra stone jdli work set up in their places ; but the carved stones for the outer arcade are all scattered about, half buried in the ground. This was being built, at the time of his death, by Binda Prasad, the son of Gobind Prasad above mentioned. The father has a temple of a less ornate description on the side of an unfinished tank a little further to the east, within the bound- aries of the village of Sarai Manda. It seems matter for regret that the old route was so lightly abandoned. Its desertion ruined the towns through which it passed and has given the district an air of decay from which it will take centuries to recover. Nor can any material economy have been secured by the greater straightness of the new road, since the land taken up for it must have involved a heavy charge for compensation. The departmental contempt for popular sentiment, old associations, and local conditions is unquestionably the characteristic defect of British administration. Another example of it is given in the present location of the tahsilis, at geographically central spots, but in insignificant villages and hamlets, where the want of accommodation subjects FATEHPUR DISTRIRCT. o the public to far greater inconvenience than would be occasioned by a slightly . longer journey to a well-provided maiket town. Page 32, line 20.— All the Gangaputras may have lost their family tradi- tions, but it does not necessarily follow, and certainly is not tha case, that all Brahmans in that condition are accounted Gangaputras. Page 34: the Oautams. — The name of the Gaharwar Raja was Ajaypal. The lands given in dowry are said to have extended from Haridwar to Prayag. Gobha, in pargana TappaJar, is accounted the head-quarters of the Gautam Raos. Sarh-Salimpur is in the Cawnpur district. Bhaupur (for Bhava-pur, Bhava being a name of Siva) is on the bank of the Ganges immediately below Shiurajpur. Bhau had rescued the Gautam Rani from a Muhammadan assault. Page 35, line 6.— For Mungi-partun read Munji-pattan. Page 36, line 8.— Suchaindi and Shiurajpur are both in the Cawnpur district. Page 36: the Kichars. — The only Kichar family of any importance is that of the Asothar Raja, whose ancestors came from Raghugarh in Central India, about the middle of the sixteenth century A.D. During the hundred years immediately preceding the commencement of British rule it was the most conspicuous Hindu family in the district, but for that short period only. The clan is recognised as a brauch of the Chauhans. Page 36. — The stone elephant is called Jagann&th and is about two miles from the town of Hathganw, near the spot where the Sasur-khaderi river crosses the road to Husainganj. It is represented as sitting down, with its trunk stretched out on the ground, and an ornamental square pad bound on to its back. On the bank of the Ganges at Baiganw is a much larger stone elephant, in a standing position, but much more mutilated. Page 37, line 17. — Finally Delhi was captured by Visala Deva, the Chauhan Raja of Ajmer, whose son or grandson married the daughter of AnangPal, the last Tomar ruler; their offspring was the celebrated Prithi Raj. Page 41 : the Lodhas. — The so-called Lodhas of Ekdala, Khaga, and Khakh- reru are a distinct clan, known by the name of Singraur. This, being a corruption of the Sanskrit Sringavera, is the modern name of the Ghat— in the Nawabganj pargana of the Allahabad district — where Rama, Sita, and Lakshman were ferried across the Ganges* by the Nishad chief Guha. Not only is there an identity of name, but the tribal designation Lodha (which is 4 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. for Lubdhika) is a fair equivalent in meaning to the classical ' Mshad.' Some traditional connection between the people called Singraur and the place Sing- raur might therefore naturally be expected, but, so far as I cculd ascertain, none such exists. All that the Ekdala Singraurs could tell me as to their origin was that they came, in the time of the Tomars, from the neighbourhood of Ban da south of the Jamuna, which is in exactly the opposite direction from Singraur, which is to the north. Page 43. — In the Argal pedigree, Raja Bhauraj Dev is stated to have given Kedar, Kapariya, a grant of the village of BeduJci. The place intended is certainly Bindki, though that town is now popularly said to derive its name from a certain Bandagi Shah, who was the spiritual adviser of Raja Kirat Sinh. There is no Kirat Sinh in the Argal pedigree, and the modern tradi- tion has probably no basis in fact, but is only the random hypothesis of some amateur philologist. Page 48. — For para, on Antiquities substitute as folloivs : — The most noticeable objects of antiquarian interest are the Hindu temples at Tindulr and Bahua, both not later than the tenth century A.I). ; the Hindu columns at Hathganw, of equally early character, subsequently utilized for a mosque; and the Jaini or Buddhist sculptures at Asothar. Though too modern to be styled antiquities, the Emperor Aurangzeb's Sarai and garden Pavilions at Khajuha are of some architectural and historical interest; as also the Mausoleum of Nawab Abd-us-Samad at Fatehpur, which dates from the end of the same reign. Page 51, line 17. — The vocabulary of the common people differs con- siderably from that in use in the upper Doab ; so much so that my servants, natives of Mathura and Mainpuri, complained of not being able to talk freely and seemed to look upon themselves as quite in a foreign country. One of the most noticeable peculiarities is the perpetual recurrence in conversation of the word ikaiti. Its original meaning is 'on one side'; but it most frequently has the sense of ' all together.' I have never stopt five minutes to watch a gang of labourers at any outdoor work without hearing the word once at least, if not oftener. In Suffolk 'tegither' (for ' together ') is used very similarly, almost as a mere expletive. Page 69 : Asothar family. — Khichid6ra is in Central India and is better known as Raghugarh. The Raja of Aijhi was of the Gautam clan. The name of the founder of the Asothar family seems to have been Aram. His son, FATEHPUB DISTRICT. 5 Bhagwant Rae, for several years maintained his independence and successfully opposed the Emperor's troops, but finally in 1860 was killed by the treachery of Chaudhri Durjan Sinh, of Kora, and was succeeded by his son Rup Rae. After Asaf-ud-daula had resumed sixteen of Bariyar Sinh's parganas, Mir Alm&s All Khan, the Local Governor, resumed the other three and assigned them to Raja Sital Prasad, the Tahsfldar of Kora. Bariyar thereupon retired to Charka in the Banda district. Dunyapat, his adopted son, surrendered to Mr. Cuthberfc, at Hathganw, near the masonry tank there, then lately built. He was succeeded in 1850 by the present Raja,Lachhman Sinh, who had been adopted by the widow of Raghubar Sinh, Dunyapat's nephew and adopted son, who died in Dunyapat's lifetime. Lachhman Sinh has two sons, Narpat Sinh and Chandra-bhukhan Sinh, the former being fifteen years of age. The estate now consists of six villages. Page 70 : Argal family. — The name of the Kanauj Raja was Ajay Pal. Raja Jay Chand was brother-in-law to the Argal Raja Ratan Sen. Kulang is given in the pedigree as Kaling, and Harcharan as Hari-baran. Raja Lai Shio Ram Sinh has four sons, Ratan Sinh, Shioraj Sinh, Gajadhar Sinh, and Rustam Sinh, of whom the eldest is now twenty years of age. Bijay Sinh can only have re-built the fort at Kora, which existed long before his time. The name of the Raja, his brother, is given in the pedigree as Deopal, not Drigpdl. The Hindu name of Bahaxlur Kh£n is said to have been not Bayar, but Bihal. Page 72 : Kdsimpur family. — The two daughters of Rustam Ali (Ata Husain's uncle) were both married successively to one husband, Ibrahim Husain, and tho estate of their three sons by him, viz., Bisharat Husain, Afzal Husain, and Mazhar Husain, is now under the management of the Court of Wards. The old family residence — up to the time of Muhammad Bakir — was at Hathganw, where its ruins may still be seen in the centre of the town at the back of the Jaychandi mosque. The pedigree stands as follows :— Muhammad BXkir. Sadik Ali. Imam-un-nisgaesKustam Ali = Second wife. Ata Husain. Nurulnissa = Ibrahim Husain ssEahim-un-niesa. I 1 Tasadduk Husain. Bisharat Husain. Afzal Husain. ^lazhar Husain. 6 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. Page 76. — The statement that " the general condition of the people is below that of the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts" is scarcely in accord with " the very satisfactory state of things " said to exist on page 74. There are no large estates in the district ; but my impression is that it is only the land- lords who are impoverished, most of them being thriftless Muhammadans, the descendants of revenue officials in the time of the Oudh Nawabs, but that the peasantry are quite as comfortable as in most parts of the country and more independent. Page 77. — For Kaurpur read Kunvarpur. Page 77 : Manufactures. — The district is essentially an agricultural one, and has only two manufactures of any interest and importance, viz., whips, and cotton prints. The whips are made in the town of Fatehpur and are ordinarily of the old Indian shape, called Kora. The common kind, with bambu sticks, cost only a few anas each. When worked with gold thread and silver-mounted, the price is about Rs. 8 : when the whole handle is covered over with beaten silver, from Rs. 16 to 20. A very pretty and elegant riding whip, in the lighter English style (cJihari) can be had for Rs. 6 ; of a common kind for Re. 1 or Re. 1-8. The two best makers are by name Ganeshi Lai and Bhikhari Lai. The bed-covers, curtains, and awnings made at Jafarganj are of very exceptional merit, and some specimens — shown at Lucknow and thence despatched to London for the great Exhibition of 1886 have been much admired. Only portions of the design are stamped ; the centre is filled in with elaborate flowing patterns, freely drawn and hand-painted, and inscriptions in the Persian character are generally introduced in the border. These are mostly verses selected by the maker from a Diwan, or volume of songs, in his posses- sion, written by Muhammad Raza, a member of the same family as Nawab Zain-ul-abdin. He adopted the nom de plume of Mirza Bark, and was a disciple of the more famous Lucknow poet Nasikh, who died in 1838. The latter was a butcher by birth, and his real name Imam Bakhsh. There are several families at Jafarganj employed in the business, but the only really artistic work is turned out by three brothers, Irshad Ali, Imdad AH, and Muhammad Hasan. They are the grandsons of a man who was brought over from Lucknow by the Chakladar Zain-ul-abdin, whose son, Jafar, gives the town its name. A bed-cover of the ordinary size costs Rs. 4 if of mdrhln, and Rs. 5 if of the finer material known as nainsukh. Cotton prints of a coarser FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 7 description, but good of their kind, are made in considerable quantities at Kishanpur (on the Jamuna), where some twenty families are engaged in the trade and have been settled there for a long period. A third petty manufacture is that of Indian playing cards {ganjifa). The best maker, Mir Gazi, live3 at Khajuha. Each pack consists of eight suits of twelve cards each. The material ordinarily employed is paper or papier-mache, price Re. 1 or Rs. 1-8 a pack ; but the best kinds are made of the scales of the rohu fish, price Rs. 3. A pack of the very cheapest descrip- tion, such as natives commonly use, can be had for two or three anas. The names of the eight suits are ghen in the following lines : — Tas, Sufed, Shamsher, Ghulam ( Yih amad dahta ka nam) ; Snrkh, Chang, Barat, Kimash (Yih awe eka ka kam). The painted plaster decoration of many of the small temples that are so numerous throughout the district is often very pretty and artistic. Much of it consists of arabesques and diapers scratched out in white on a dull red ground. The best examples are at Khajuha. They mostly date only from the early part of the present century, but since then the art seems to have died out. Page 79 : M qrJcets.— There is more business done at Bindki than at all the other places put together. The two next best markets are at Hasvva and Naraini. Airawa Sadat is the name of only one division of the three that make up the township of Airawa, the other two being named Mashaikh (i.e., belonging to Shaikhs, as Sadat means belonging to Saiyids) and Khanpur. This last forms part of the Kasimpur estate, having been acquired by Muhammad Bakir, the founder of that family. The other two mahals still belong to the original Muhammadan community, but are split up into very small shares. Adjoining the open place, where a market is held on Monday and Thursday, is a mosque with tall slender minarets, built by Shaikh Farzand Ali, a Risaldar, who had a grant from Government for his good services during the mutiny. The population of the town is 5,737. A religious fair is held in a grove near the village of Pachgarha, on the. last Friday in Baisakh, in com- memoration of a local saint, Ghazi Miyan. 8 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. Page 94 : ArnaulL — A decayed town. Many Baniyas in the population. Market, Tuesday and Saturday. There is a fine sheet of water adjoining the town with picturesquely wooded banks. In the streets and outskirts are many mosques, tombs, and large brick dwelling-houses, now all in ruins. The most notable is a mansion belonging to Rajas Hari Har Datt and Shankar Datt, now of Jaunpur, built by their ancestor, Sbiu L&1, at the end of last cen- tury, when he laid the foundations of his fortune here as a banker. He was appointed farmer of Jaunpur by Mr. Jonathan Duncan, the Resident at Bena- res, and afterwards received the title of Raja. He died in 1 836, aged 90. The family are Dube Brahmans by caste. As the house is in a miserable state of neglect, without even a chaukidar in charge to prevent further dilapidation, I proposed that Government should buy it and after extensive repairs utilize one wing as a school and the remainder as a police-station. The proprietors however objected that they would be eternally disgraced by such a sale, and the project accordingly fell through. But I have represented to the Court of Wards, by whom the estate is administered, that the house, in its present ruinous condition, is a still greater disgrace; and it may be hoped that the family desire to have it put in decent order will now be sanctioned. Amauli is only 10 or 11 miles from Hamirpur, the capital of the adjoining district, but the road is a very bad one. Asni- — It was here that Jay Chand deposited his treasure before his last fight with Mahmiid. The name is popularly derived from the Asvini-Kumars, the two sons of the Sun, who have a small modern shrine in the village, built and endowed by the Maharaja of Benares. A ferry-boat plies to the opposite shore, where is a picturesque group of temples, the reputed site of a hermitage of the Rishi Garga. A road has now been made to connect Asni with Husain- ganj. The school is a very good one, and like all the other local institutions is much assisted by the principal Brahman zamindar, Shiu-bhajan, Tribedi, who is quite the sort of man to make a useful member of the new Local Board. The fort is said to have been built by the village founder, a Bhat named Harnath, whose descendants still survive, but are reduced to poverty. It was from Asni that Mr. James Power, Collector in 1867-69, removed the inscribed pillar which has now been set up in the garden of the Fatehpur Town Hall. Asothar (for Asvatthdmapura) is about a mile off the Bahua and Dh&ta road. The fort was built by Araru Sinn in the first half of last century : the FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 9 town is many hundreds of years older. Its original site is indicated by an extensive brick-strewn mound, two or three furlongs to the south of the fort. On the highest part of it is a small modern enclosure which bears the name of the eponymous hero Asvatthama, the son of Drona, but was evidently the site of an ancient temple of Mahadeva. Part of the sikhara has been set up as a lingam ; the gurgoyled w.ater-spout makes a trough for a well : and many other sculptured fragments are lying about, or have been built up into walls, all of the ninth or tenth century. On a smaller mound further to the south are five large figure sculptures. All are nude; one is standing, the others are seated cross-legged, with the usual accessories, lions, elephants, and devotees. The hair of the head is in short close curls as in statues of Buddha; but the nudity is more a Jaini characteristic. The people call them the five Pandus. Half way between Asothar and Ghazipur, in the village of Sarki, a fair is now held in February, on the festival of the Siva Ratri at a shrine called Jageswar Mah&dev. It is largely attended, though it dates only from some eight years ago, when the lingam was accidentally discovered by the local Tahsildar, Hardhan Sinh, who, with the help of the Asothar Raja, instituted the mela. Aurai-— The village borders on a natural wood, 28 acres in extent, the larger trees being chiefly kadamb, piped, and giilar. There are seven hamlets. The Brahman zamindars are of the Dube clan. At the next village, Tiksariya (Little), there is an extensive mound, evidently an ancient site, and a group of Hindu figure sculptures has been collected under a tree. Bahua.— Here is a Government sarai and a road inspection-house. The encamping ground is a very small one. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. A small ruinous temple, known by the name of Kakora Baba, dates apparently from the tenth century. The sikhara, or tower, is of moulded brick ; the cella which it covers has pillars, architraves, and ceiling, all of carved stone, as in the more perfect example of the same style at Tinduli. It must have been origi- nally dedicated to Mahadev, and was probably re-named about two hundred years ago, when it was very roughly and ignorantly repaired, many pieces of the door- way being built up into the ceiling and other parts of the fabric. These stones, with one exception, I succeeded in extracting, and on putting them together, so little of the design was found wanting that I was able to re-erect the doorway in its original position. This was done at Government expense. Out of the grant that I obtained for the repairs, I have also raised and levelled the ground 10 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. round about the temple, rebuilt the plinth, and supplied a flight of steps on the east front under the doorway. The so-called Kakora Baba is really a recumbent statue of Narayan, with Lakhsmi at his feet, Brahma seated on a lotus growing out of his navel, and Seshnag forming a canopy over his head. I found a smaller and more rudely executed figure of precisely similar design on a mound by the roadside, which marks the older village site. Some other sculptured shafts I brought from the neighbouring fields and have had them worked up into the steps. Bilanda* — A small decayed town. The name attaches to the bazar only. The land under cultivation is for revenue purposes included in two parishes, called respectively Sarai Saiyid Khan and Chak Barari. Another name of the latter portion is Muhsinabad, after Muhsin, the son of Alamgir, who afterwards became Sultan Muhammad Muazzim Shah. His tutor, Sarbuland Khan, a brother] of Saiyid Khan's, was connected with the place, and from him is derived its more popular name. The original Sarai was in great part destroyed at the time of the construction of the Grand Trunk Road, which was carried straight through it. The railway has now diverted traffic from the road, and the whole town is in a very ruinous condition and half deserted. Bindki- — The bazar, which stands a little apart from the older town of the same name, was originally established between thirty and forty years ago by Bhavani Sahae, Kayath, who was tahsildar of Bindki at the time. It is now, next to Cawnpur, the largest mart in the neighbourhood for grain, ghi, gur, and cattle ; but more especially for the two first-named commodities. There is a market twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, which is held more or less in all the streets ; but the great standing-place for carts and cattle is a piece of open ground in front of a fine masonry tank, which with the adjoining temple was built by a Baniya, named Baijnath, about fifty years ago. The land is Government property, but unfortunately it had been let out in the most reckless manner, and no supervision exercised of any kind whatever. The result was that scarcely any two shops had their frontage in a continuous straight line; the main bazar had been undermined with grain-pits, which some day or other were sure to fall in; and the Tank Square was being rapidly diverted from its proper use and covered with sheds and stalls. These I cleared away, and after raising and levelling the ground, marked out the foundations for two new ranges of shops on the outer margin of the square, which are now almost FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 11 finished. Some unsightly pits to the south were next converted into a large tank, measuring 400 feet square. Here in the course of the excavations, six stone slabs were discovered, one the lower part of a door-jamb, and another an architrave, 6 J feet long, with an antique pediment in the centre, supported from below by a small flying figure. These now adorn a neighbouring culvert, which they exactly fit, and where they can be seen to advantage. They are of early pre-Muhammadan character. The other four pieces were plain roofing slabs. To the west of the main bazar is a smaller masonry tank, which— if the ground about it were levelled by digging down a disused brick-kiln and filling up a swamp — would form a very convenient centre for a second market place. Here also two other tanks have been dug to supply earth for raising the level of the adjoining streets ; and it is to be hoped that for some years yet to come all available income will be similarly expended, as it is useless to metal roads and construct masonry drains till a higher level has been secured. The bazar is most conveniently situated at the junction of five metalled roads, leading respectively to Khajuha and Kora, to Fatehpur, to Banda, to the Mauhar railway station, and to the Grand Trunk Road at Kalydnpur, where the tahsili is at present situated. All building extension should be conducted along the sides of these thoroughfares, the central space by the tank being most strictly kept open. In old Bindki, by the side of the high road leading to the Mauhar railway station, is a masonry tank with a temple attached to it, both built within the last few years by a local Baniya, named Nidhi, at a cost of about Rs. 7,000. A little further along the same road beyond the village of Tinduli is a very inter- esting temple-tower of the tenth century A.D., for the preservation of which I obtained a grant from the Local Government. The cella is of stone, in the same style as the Mahoba and Khajurao temples, but the sikhara which surmounts it is of elaborately moulded brick. It was repaired plainly, but not badly, about one hundred years ago by a Brahman of the neighbourhood, who added the present porch. Of the original stone porch only a few fragments remain. I have dressed up the terrace, giving it a masonry wall in front with a flight of nine steps up to the level of the temple floor, and have restored the plinth. These measures will, it is hoped, prevent any further fall of the superstructure. Budhwan- — The Lodhas here are Singraurs and own three-quarters of the village, the remaining quarter having been acquired by a Brahman. The 12 FATEHPUK DISTRICT. local tradition, as told me on the spot, is that they came from Kasi, drove out the old occupants, who were Brahmans, and changed the name of the place from Udhban to Budhban. This would seem to imply that the new comers were Buddhists. Chandpur.—A very large parish, with eight subordinate hamlets and a total area of 8,000 acres. It is inhabited by Gautam Thakurs, who are pro- claimed for infanticide. Deomai.— The village pond is a large sheet of water with temples on its banks and three broad flights of steps constructed at different periods during the last fifty years. Here also stands the school. North of the village, on the road to Shiurajpur, is a fine masonry tank now much dilapidated, built circ. 1700 A. D. by Chaudhri Jay Singh, a descendant of the Jaganbansi Brah- man who originally founded the village. Members of the family are still on the spot, but are reduced to the position of labourers. A little further on the road is a bauli with a descent of fifty steps, built in 1720 by a Baniya of Kora. (There has never been a post-office here.) Dhata- — The Dasahara in October and the Ram Navami in April are the two principal events in the local calendar. The April fair centres round a temple of Devi, which is of high popular repute, though a mean shabby build- ing. It probably occupies an ancient site, though the actual remains of the older shrine are of no special interest or antiquity. The Kurmi zamindars have the title of Chaudhri. The pottery made here is in two colours, red and black : it is smooth and clean, but perfectly plain, for ordinary Muhammadan use. The price is half a pice apiece — i.e., 128 pieces for a rupee. Similar ware is made at Kabra. Page 104. — A road runs through Khakhreru from the Khaga railway station to Salimpur on the Jamuna. Near Bijaypur it crosses a deep ravine by a paved causeway. A branch road about six miles in length leads from Bijaypur to Kishanpur; this it is now proposed to metal; the cart traffic from Kishanpur to Khaga being greater than on any other road in the district, except that from the Chilla Tara Ghat to Bindki and Mauhar. Ekdala- — A. ruinous village situated in the ravines of the Jamuna. The inhabitants are chiefly Singraurs, bearing the title of Rawat, which was con- ferred upon them by the Emperor Akbar after a visit to the place, in which he was FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 13 attended by his famous miuister, Birbal, whose mother's sister lived there. They say they came originally fron the Banda side of the river in the time of the Tomars. There was once a large colony of Mathuriya Chaubes here, who all migrated many years ago. Page 110. — As Denda Sai is quite thirty miles from Fatehpur, the capital of the modern district, there seems little grouud for conjecturing that the Fatehmand Khan of the inscription had anything to do with the name of that town. There is a village Fatehpur in the Ghazipur pargana and another near Hathganw. Page 111 : Antiquities.— There are no buildings in the town of Fatehpur of historical or antiquarian interest, except the tomb of Nawab Abdus Samad Khan adjoining the ruins of his fort, and the tomb and mosque of Nawab Bakir AliJKhan. The latter occupy a conspicuous position at the junction of four main thoroughfares, and, being surrouuded by a small garden, they form a picturesque and pleasing group in a singularly mean and unattractive town, though in themselves they are of no special architectural merit. Naw&b Abdus Samad was a person of importance in the Imperial Court, and enjoyed very extensive grants of land both in the Doab and in Bun- delkhand. At Mutaur, near the Jamuna, in the Ghazipur tahsil of the Fatehpur district, he built a fort and a fine tank; but his principal residence appears to have been in the town of Fatehpur itself, which he extended by the addition of a new muhalla, called Abu-nagar, after his eldest son, Abu Muhammad. The tomb stands in extensive and well-wooded park-like grounds that were attached to the house and has stone arcades and traceried windows and must have cost a large sum of money. But it is a heavy, ill-designed structure, and would seem to have been hastily finished after the premature death of the founder's eldest son. The stone kiosques which surmount the four corners would have been pleasant places to sit in and look out upon the garden, but there is no possibility of getting up to them, as no stair- case has been provided. This oversight may have been the result of haste at the end, but the original design is curiously faulty in making these small cupolas exactly the same height as the large central dome, an arrange- ment which produces a very flat cumbrous effect. The interior, however, has the dim religious air of repose which befits a chamber of the dead ; such effect being mainly produced by the simple expedient of fitting the windows with 14 Jb'ATEHPUR DISTRICT. double screens, though only the outer of the two is of stone and the inner one a plain brick chequer. There are two inscriptions, which read as follows :— I. l^-""*) ;-** ^UHH «-_J-? ^6&f j^ *fi*&£ 5 v^5 ; jfcy? 5^3 j| II. ,*.