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 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^-""*) <i_^J ) ^;~* «i>;-** ^UHH «-_J-? 
 ^6&f j^ *fi*&£ 5 v^5 ; jfcy? 5^3 j| 
 
 II. 
 
 ,*.<! 4J| 
 
 ^ik| JU &** j c^mo ja*j -jte sUcIj v^^L-^J;^! ^U* «*1:L j,^^ ; i3 i5**y% ^* ***" 
 
 Trcmsfoiio??,. 
 
 I. The paragon of mankind, the soul of souls, Abd-us-Samad Khan, having vanquished all the 
 men of his time in the field of gallantry, 
 
 His soul, like a bird, resolved to sever its connection with this miserable world and flew away 
 and made heaven its nest. 
 
 The date of his departure can be calculated for his friends from the words gham alam (grief 
 and sorrow) which the pen of fate inscribed on the tablet of eternity. 
 
 The letters in gham alam give the date 1111 (Hijri) thus: gh=l,000 ; 
 m 40 ; a, 1 ; I 30 ; and m again 40 : total 1111 (1699 A. D.), 
 
 II. God is great. The asylum of forgiveness, Abu Muhammad, son of Abd-us-Samad Khan 
 Roshanani, on the 19th Shaban, in the year 1116 Hijri, corresponding to the 48th year of the reign of 
 the late Emperor Aurangzeb, at the age of 23, departed this life and migrated to heaven. The tomb 
 was finished in the year 1121 Hijri (1709 A.D.) 
 
 The grounds contained a large masonry tank and ornamental pavilions, 
 but these with the house itself were all dismantled only four or five years ago 
 by some credulous persons who hoped to discover a hidden treasure. Nothing 
 of the kind was found, and the price of the bricks and other materials, which 
 were sold to a railway contractor, can scarcely have done more than cover the 
 cost of demolition. The gateway alone is now left standing, a massive brick 
 building, but in the same plain and clumsy style as the tomb. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 15 
 
 A curious testimony to the religious enthusiasm of Mr. Tucker (the Judge, 
 who was killed here in the mutiny) startles the traveller who happens to 
 enter the town from the Cawnpur direction. A few paces to the west of the 
 Engineer's bungalow he sees four massive masonry pillars, ranged in a row by 
 the roadside, with inscriptions engraved on stone tablets. These on closer 
 inspection are found to be Urdu and Hindi translations of some verses from 
 Saint John s Gospel and of the ten Mosaic commandments. 
 
 In the English Cemetery, among other inscriptions, may be noticed the 
 following : — 
 
 Edward Smyth, C.S., eldest son of Edward Smyth, of the Fence, near Macclesfield, 
 Cheshire; born 22nd July, 1808 ; died 14th September, 1833. 
 
 Isabella, wife of Andrew Grote, C.S., daughter of Captain Macdonald, died 5th Sep- 
 tember, 1835. 
 
 Douglas Thompson Timins, C.S., third son of John J. Timins, of Hilfield, Herts; 
 born 13th October, 1811 ; died 25th October, 1840. 
 
 Charles O'Brien, Lieutenant-Colonel, Bengal Infantry, died 21st October, 1857, aged 50. 
 
 11. T. Tucker, fell at the post of duty 1857, looking unto Jesus. 
 
 Rev. Gopinath Nandi, died 14th March, 1861, aged 51. 
 
 Assistant Surgeon R. Westcott, 3rd Bengal Cavalry, died 1st October, 1861, aged 32. 
 
 Christiana, wife of W. Tyrrell, died 16th June, 1862. 
 
 John Rycroft Best, C.S., son of John llycroft and Georgiana Best, born at Gaya, 8th 
 November, 1822, died at Fatehpur, 5th July, 1865. 
 
 Surgeon-Major Arthur Lewis Stuart Campbell, 7th Bengal Cavalry, died 11th Septem- 
 ber, 1868. 
 
 Henry Robert Clarke, C.S., died 13th March, 1873, aged 41. 
 
 Septimus Otter Barnes Ridsdale, C.S., born 2nd August, 1840, died 5th November 
 1884 ' 
 
 Many of the tombs prior to the mutiny have lost their inscriptions. 
 
 The principal modern buildings in the town are the school and the 
 Municipal Hall. Both were designed as well as constructed by Mr. Callao-han 
 the District Engineer, and are very creditable to him, for convenience of 
 arrangement and soundness of workmanship. Unfortunately he was handi- 
 capped as regards the Hall, by having to build it on old foundations, with a 
 plinth which is much too low. The interior is divided by arches into three 
 rooms, that in the centre serving for public meetings, while one of the ends 
 is occupied by the bench of honorary magistrates and the^other by the muni- 
 cipal office. In the principal room, the walls have a painted dado and frieze 
 
16 F1TEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 and borders to the doors of Indian design ; and in front of the arches, which 
 separate it from the two smaller rooms, are moveable wooden screens filled in with 
 Jafarganj hand-painted cloth. The effect thus produced is pleasing, and has 
 already induced some of the residents of the town to employ the same artist in 
 decorating their private houses. This is a very desirable result, and one which 
 might be more generally kept in view when town halls are built and furnished, 
 instead of treating them as purely utilitarian structures, in which any con- 
 cession to aesthetic requirements is superfluous and wasteful. The School also 
 would have been improved by a higher plinth— a feature in which all Public 
 Works buildings are defective — but it has rather an imposing frontage, with a 
 fine broad verandah, and is sensibly designed so as to admit of extension, 
 without much expense, and with advantage to the general appearance. 
 The rooms are already over-crowded, and, as soon as funds allow, additional 
 accommodation will have to be provided. The Boarding House is a most 
 miserable place, and the wonder is how a building of such thoroughly 
 unsuitable design can ever have been sanctioned. 
 
 The square stone pillar now set up in the garden of the Town Hall was 
 originally brought from Asni, a village on the Ganges some 12 miles from 
 Fatehpur, b* T Mr. James Power, who was Collector of the district, 1867-69. 
 I removed it from the civil station to its present conspicuous position, and in 
 order to give it a more monumental appearance and secure it from future 
 injury, have raised it on a pedestal and finished it off at the top with an 
 ornamental head. It bears on one face a short inscription which is in corrupt 
 Sanskrit and not easy to read. Mr. Fleet finds in it the name of a Raja 
 Mahipal, date 974? Sambat (917 A.D.) Around this pillar I have grouped a 
 collection of miscellaneous antiquities from different parts of the district. The 
 garden is now being enclosed by an ornamental wall, with a small archway of 
 carved stone opposite the principal entrance of the Town Hall. This is 
 copied from one erected at Bulandshahr. At the back of the garden is a 
 large tank with a flight of masonry steps the whole length of one side, con- 
 structed in 1886, by public subscription, at a cost of Rs. 4,100. Beyond the 
 tank is a mosque with one tall slender minaret. It is a building of this century 
 only, but is very gracefully proportioned and forms a picturesque object in the 
 landscape. It is now proposed that these improvements should be extended 
 over a larger area, and the whole named the Victoria Gardens in commemoration 
 of the Jubilee. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 17 
 
 Garhi Jar. — The name of the Gautam founder is locally said to have 
 been Bihal Rae when a Hindu, and Bahadur Khan after his conversion. His 
 mausoleum is a large square building with a central dome, four smaller domes 
 at the comers, and a bangala on each of the four sides. It is crowded with 
 the tombs of his descendants. His son, Alam Khan, has a smaller monument 
 with a single dome, at the other end of the village. In it the place of honour 
 is occupied by what is said to be the grave of a favourite horse which was 
 killed in battle. Both buildings are plain and unornamented, and apparently 
 not earlier than the reign of Aurangzeb. There is a ruined mosque called 
 the Ulthi Masjid, so overthrown that great blocks of horizontal masonry 
 now stand perpendicular. At Dalel-khera, a hamlet of Barhat, is another 
 large domed tomb of about the same date and belonging to the same 
 family. 
 
 Page 114: Communications. — The Bahua and Dhata road, which is a 
 good though unmetalled one, ruus through the pargana from west to east. 
 Connected with it are three other roads, viz., one from Ghazipur to Fatehpur, 
 another from Asothar to the Bahrampur railway station, and the third south 
 from Ghazipur to Lilra on the Jamuna. 
 
 Ghazipur.— The fort is said to have been built in 1C91 A.D. by Ar&ru 
 Siuh, an ancestor of the present Raja of Asothar, and was his chief stronghold. 
 The tahsili and police-station are both within its walls. 
 
 About a mile to the north, in the village of Paina, are the extensive ruins 
 of an ancient fortified town. The circuit of the wall with its gates and towers 
 can be distinctly traced, and in the centre of the high broken ground 
 which it encloses is an inner citadel, further protected by a broad and 
 deep moat. The town is said to have been originally a stronghold of 
 the Chandels, and may very probably be of still higher antiquity, but 
 nothing is known of its history. The citadel was built or rebuilt by Aram 
 Sinh of Asothar, who probably gave it the name of Fatehgarh, by which it 
 is now known. 
 
 Gunir. — General Cunningham (Survey, XI., 57) conjectures on topogra- 
 phical grounds and from a calculation of distances that this may be the site of 
 the Buddhist monastery of Vasu-bandhu mentioned in Hwen Thsang's Itinerary. 
 But the existing mounds seem to be the natural high bank of the river intersected 
 
18 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 by ravines, and the only remains of antiquity are a few groups of small sculp- 
 tured fragments of the architectural character of the ninth or tenth century A.D. 
 These are for the most part heaped on small masonry terraces which seem to 
 be the sites of the original temples. Nothing, therefore, would be gained by 
 excavation. The parish is of large area and has nine subordinate hamlets ; 
 but the actual village is a most miserable place, consisting of small 
 scattered groups of mud hovels dropt about here and there among the 
 ravines. 
 
 Haswa, seven miles distant from the capital of the district — which is hence 
 frequently called Fatehpur-Haswa, to distinguish it from other Fatehpurs — is 
 a small decayed town,* at present of no importance whatever, though it is tra- 
 ditionally represented as the oldest inhabited site in the neighbourhood. There 
 is a well-attended market on Monday and Thursday, and a railway station has 
 recently been opened at a distance of less than a mile. Two new ranges of 
 shops have also been built ; and che principal baznr, which was formerly quite 
 impassable for carts, has been levelled and widened, A metalled road is now 
 greatly needed to connect the town with the railway station in one direction 
 and the Grand Trunk Road in the other. The project has received adminis- 
 trative sanction, and when it has been carried out, there is good probability 
 that the trade of the town will largely revive. Its eponymous founder is said 
 to have been a Raja Hans-dhvaj, whose two brothers, Mor-dhvaj and Sankh- 
 dhvaj, may also be locally commemorated by the names of two neighbouring 
 villages, Moraun and Sankhaun.*|* The Raja s second son, Ran-bijay, had the 
 hardihood to capture the horse that had been turned loose by the Pandavas, 
 after their great sacrifice at Hastinapur ; and they, taking this as a challenge, 
 at once came down upon him and slew both him and his elder brother Sudhan- 
 ya. On their death, their sister Champavati inherited the throne. She is 
 said to have re-named the town after herself Champaka-puri, and, dying child- 
 less, to have bequeathed it to Brahmans, whose descendants held it for many 
 generations. 
 
 * General Cunningham sub verbo in Yol. XVII. of the Archaeological Survey gives it a popula- 
 tion of about 10,000, which is very much over the mark. The return by the last census was 4,197 
 only. 
 
 f Sahkhaun is however generally spelt Sangaon. At Moraun, which is on the old road between 
 Sarai Uday and Sarai Manda, is one of the large lakes which form a feature of the district : it 
 ,has an area of a thousand bighas. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 19 
 
 There is no mention of Raja Hans-dhvaj or his city in the original Maha- 
 bh&rat, but in a Hindi version of the much later Sanskrit poem, known as 
 the Jairainiya Bharata, the legend is given as follows : — 
 
 After leaviDg the Vindhya range, the horse came to Cbampaka-puri, 
 where Hans-dhvaj was king. There it was captured by the advice of the 
 queen Prabhavati, who hoped she would thus be blest by the sight of Krishna 
 when he came to recover it. To ensure the immediate attendance of all 
 his warriors, the king issued a proclamation through his Ministers, Sankh 
 and Likhit, that any one who stayed away would be thrown into a caldron 
 of boiling oil. Now he had two sons, Su-rath and Su-dhanya, and the 
 younger of them, regardless of the king's command, stayed in the embraces 
 of his wife, who afterwards bore him a posthumous son, called Bibik. For 
 his disobedience he was thrown into the boiling oil, as had been threatened, 
 but emerged from it unhurt, as a token that in lingering with his wife he had 
 been simply an instrument in the hands of Providence to prevent the extinc- 
 tion of the royal line. For the unborn child alone survived the battle in 
 which the king himself with his nine brothers and two sons all perished. 
 
 The above legend is probably nothing more than a poetical invention 
 on the part of the author of the Jaiminiya Bharata. In more modern times 
 it has been accepted as a narrative of facts, but has been connected with 
 several different localities. It is not unreasonable to conjecture that the sole 
 foundation for its currency at Haswa is the similarity of sound between 
 Haswa and Hans-dhvaj, and a tradition that the town was once, though at a 
 much later period, really governed by a Raja with the cognate name of Hansraj. 
 
 This was at the end of the twelfth century A. D. After the defeat of Jay 
 Chand of Kanauj and his brother Manik near Karra (in the Allahabad district, 
 near the Fatehpur border), Kutb-ud-din with his two sister's sons, K6sim and 
 Ala-ud-din, is stated to have advanced against Haswa. Hansraj came out to 
 meet them and joining in single combat with Ali-ud-din at a village called 
 Chakheri there lost his life. Ala-ud-din also lost his head, but the headless 
 trunk fought its way on to Haswa — a distance of twelve miles. His dargdh, 
 on the top of the old fort in the centre of the town, is still held in much 
 veneration, and is said to mark the spot where at last he fell and was buried. 
 His brother Kasim's name is commemorated by the village of Kasimpur, which 
 adjoins Haswa on the north. 
 
20 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 At the present day the town of Haswa is almost entirley surrounded by 
 a broad shallow sheet of water. This has been deepened at one end and 
 brought into more regular shape as a tank, in the centre of which is an island 
 measuring 165 feet square and faced on all four sides with flights of masonry 
 steps. It is approached from the town by a bridge 150 feet long, consisting 
 of fifteen arches, of which seven are open and eight closed. Its construction is 
 ascribed to a Kazi Yakub who, it is said, was afterwards put to death by the 
 Emperor Akbar, and that the circumstances are related in the Zahur~i-kutbi. 
 This is a book with which I have no acquaintance ; but I find it recorded by 
 Badaoni that Kazi Yakub was suspended by the Emperor, his offence being 
 that he had maintained it to be illegal for a Muhammadan to marry more than 
 four wives, as Akbar had done. In a garden adjoining the tank are three 
 specimens of the Adansonia, or bildyati imli, as it is popularly called. The seed 
 from which they have been raised was sown 16 or 17 years ago by Muhammad 
 Hasan, a retired revenue official and a resident of the town, where he is now 
 represented by his son. The largest of the three has already a girth of 13 
 feet. 
 
 Hathganw. — Outside the town is a fine but dilapidated masonry tank 
 constructed above a hundred years ago by a Baniya named Brindaban. The 
 stone elephant is a mile further on the Husainganj road (see page 3). On the 
 site of the old fort, a mound occupying the centre of the town and now popu- 
 larly known as the Hathi-khana, or Jaychandi, is a ruinous mosque apparently 
 constructed from the wreck of four small Hindu temples. There are twenty-four 
 pillars in all, arranged in four aisles of six columns each, with a masonry wall 
 at the back and sides. The temple-doorway, a handsome piece of sculpture, 
 has been set up by itself as the entrance to the mosque enclosure. The date 
 of the columns is not later than the tenth century. Eight are square in shape 
 and far more massive than the others ; four are square pilasters with a band 
 running up the centre of each face ; four are twelve-sided ; four are eight-sided 
 below, sixteen-sided in the middle, and round at the top ; and the remaining 
 four are made up of odds and ends. In all of them the main shaft is topt by two 
 or three capitals, or other blocks of more or less incongruous character, in 
 order to raise them to the required uniform height. 
 
 There is no tradition as to the time when they were re-arranged as at 
 present. General Cunningham (Survey, XVII., 98) conjectures that it was 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 21 
 
 done by one of the Jaunpur kings, who ruled all this part of the Doab and 
 were noted for their religious intolerance. But the only basis for this sup- 
 position is a slab lying loose in a small modern mosque close by, which bears 
 a rhyming Persian inscription in five lines, concluding with the date 854 
 Hijri, given in the Arabic words arba iva khamsin wa samdniyat. This would 
 correspond to 1450 A.D., at which time Mahmud was King of Jaunpur. But 
 I have ascertained that this slab has no connection with the Jaychandi, but 
 was brought from a field at some little distance; and, from the word Jcabar, 
 which occurs in an earlier line, it appears to have belonged to the tomb of 
 some person, whose name is given as Ytisuf. 
 
 In order to preserve these interesting remains of antiquity from dispersion 
 and destruction, I obtained from the Local Government a grant of Rs. 300. 
 This money has been expended in enclosing the site with a low masonry wall, 
 which, in front, runs in a line with the stone doorway ; in putting up a patch- 
 work pillar in the place of the one that had disappeared, using for the purpose 
 some of the stones on the spot ; and in reconstructing four compartments of 
 the roof that had entirely fallen in. In a district like Fatehpur it is extremely 
 difficult to get a small work of this sort properly executed. There are no resident 
 artisans, and it is scarcely worth while to import men from a distance. I had 
 thus to fall back upon the ordinary district establishment of Public Works 
 overseers, and unfortunately the whole of their special training is such as to 
 thoroughly disqualify them for understanding the forms of native architecture. 
 With almost incredible perversity they invariably, if left to themselves, set 
 every piece of sculpture upside down. The repairs have been roughly done, 
 but in that respect they correspond with the older Muhammadan reconstruc- 
 tion ; while the roof is a great protection from the weather, and the wall from 
 damage by cattle. Other buildings of precisely similar character are the 
 Assi-khamba at Mahaban.in the Mathura district, the so-called Parmal's palace 
 at Mahoba in Bundelkhand, and the mosque in the citadel of Bijapurin Southern 
 India. All are very unsuitable for Muhammadan worship and probably were 
 never intended to be so used, except once only, to signalize the triumph of 
 Islam over idolatry. 
 
 Husainganj is eight miles from Fatehpur. Market, Monday and Thursday. 
 
 Jafar^anj. — A decayed town. Market, Wednesday and Saturday. There 
 is a large mosque built by Nawab Bakir Ali Khan, or his brother Jafar, and 
 
22 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 atf each end of the bazar is a gate. The local manufacture of cotton prints has 
 been already described (page 6). The town is often called Katra Bindaxir, 
 a name which exactly describes what it really is, viz,, a market-place set down 
 in the middle of the old agricultural parish of Bindaur. With the exception of a 
 few scattered fields, said to be the most productive bits of ground, specially selected 
 by the Nawab Zain-ul-abdin for bestowal on his son, all the rest of the land 
 right up to both the gates of the bazar still retains its original name. The ruins 
 of the Nawab's Fort are a mile or so away nearer the bank of the Jamuna. 
 
 Jamrawan.— A very extensive village. Part of the original taluqa was 
 confiscated, but it still consists of eighteen villages and sixty-four hamlets. 
 
 Khaga- — A village which since 1852 has been the head of a tahsil. 
 The population consists chiefly of Brahmans and Singraurs. Market, Tuesday 
 and Saturday. The Dasahara in October is the principal local festival. By 
 the side of the high road at the entrance to the bazar is a fine masonry tank, 
 270 feet square, with a temple, dole-house, walled garden, and well, all con- 
 si ructed some sixteen years ago, at a cost of about Rs. 40,000, by Gopal Das and 
 Manik Chand, Agarwala Baniyas of Mirzapur. The place is exceedingly well 
 off as regards communications; for, besides the railway and the Grand Trunk 
 Road, it is connected by good unmetalled roads with the towns of Dhata and 
 Hathganw, and with ferries both on the Ganges and the Jamuna. 
 
 Khairai is five miles from Khaga on the road to Dhata. Adjoining the vil- 
 lage is a circular mound, the site of a temple, of which only the foundations 
 remain in situ, with traces of a broad flight of steps leading up from the plain 
 below. Several huge broken blocks of sandstone are lying about, possibly the 
 fragments of a colossal lingam ; and, in the village, let into the wall of a small 
 modern shrine, and, in other places, are some mutilated figures and architectural 
 details. In an extensive mound a little to the east, called the Garhi, I dug up 
 three spirelets of a sikhara, 3 J feet high, covered with the ornamentation charac- 
 teristic of the tenth century, A.D. These I removed to Fatehpur, where 
 they may now be seen in the garden attached to the Town Hall. From the 
 time of Ala-ud-din the village has been almost exclusively inhabited by 
 Muhammadans. 
 
 Khajuha — The sarai covers more than ten acres of ground, and has as 
 many as 130 sets of vaulted rooms, three of which have been thrown into one 
 and are used for the Tahsili school. There are two handsome double-storied 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 23 
 
 gates surmounted by minarets; the walls are embattled; in the centre of the 
 square is a domed mosque; and outside the east gate was a double line of 
 shops forming a street up to the main gate of the Garden. This has an area 
 of about eighteen acres ; is enclosed by a wall with corner towers, and contains 
 three reservoirs of cut stone with provision for fountains. A broad terrace 
 runs the whole length of one side and on it stand two elegant pavilions. One 
 of these, formerly occupied by an indigo-planter, has been converted into a 
 road inspection-house and is annually repaired ; the other, which is much the 
 more ornamental of the two, had been entirely neglected, but in 1886 was 
 thoroughly restored and furnished with handsome carved doors of Indian 
 pattern. Underneath this terrace, outside the garden-wall, is a very large 
 tank, more than 800 feet square, but so much earth has been washed into the 
 basin through the breaches in its masonry enclosure that it is now a tank in 
 little more than the name and is for the most part under cultivation: its boundary 
 wall on the north side seems never to have been built. The town has grown up 
 round the sarai and contains a very large number of modern temples. Two 
 of them are large and picturesque groups of building with fine tanks attached 
 to them. Both were built about fifty years ago; the one on the Kora road by 
 Jamuni, the widow of a rich Baniya; the other to the north of the town by 
 Tula Ram of the same caste. The former has a high spire, the latter a dome 
 with a double-storied arcade facing the tank, elaborately painted in very good 
 taste. Photographs of these two temples, of the two pavilions in the garden, 
 and of one of the gates of the sar£i have now been taken, and the negatives 
 deposited in the Roorkee College. 
 
 Khakhreru. — Market, Wednesday and Saturday, but not much business 
 is done, even in cotton, though that is the chief commodity. What is called 
 the Garhi, or fort, is a small mound by the side of the Khaga road, where a 
 temple once stood. This was destroyed by the Muhammadans, who used the 
 materials to construct a grave-yard mosque on the same site. This latter 
 erection had apparently fallen into ruin in 1852, and the bricks were then used, 
 for a third time, in the construction of the tahsili. All the carved stones were 
 left on the spot. These consist chiefly of architraves and door-jambs hand- 
 somely carved in the style of the tenth century. A fair is held here at the end 
 of Bhadon. I had intended to remove the sculptures and place them in the 
 garden of the Fatehpur Town Hall, but abandoned the idea on finding there 
 was a strong superstitious feeling against it. It seems that a former Tahsfldar, 
 
24 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 Farhat AH by name, utilized some of them in repairing his official quarters, 
 and was soon afterwards stricken with leprosy, from which he never recovered, 
 though he lost no time in putting most of them back again. A few were 
 overlooked ; but his successor on hearing the story was so alarmed lest a similar 
 fate should befall himself than he had them all carefully collected and replaced 
 on the old spot, where they still are and no one will venture to disturb them. 
 
 Kishanpur was founded by Kishan Sinh, one of the Singraurs of Ekdala, 
 all of whom, since the time of .Akbar, have enjoyed the title of Rawat. His 
 brother, R&m Sinh, founded the neighbouring village of Rampur. Market, 
 Wednesday and Saturday. The grain trade is carried on by Agarwala Baniyas. 
 The Chhipis, or cotton-printers, now number only about twenty families and 
 do a very small business of about Rs. 50 a year for each house. In earlier 
 times they were more prosperous, as is evidenced by the grave-yards and 
 mosques of their ancestors. Some of them have taken service with firms in 
 Bombay. 
 
 Page 127, line 1. — The Rind is crossed by a low but massive bridge of 
 twelve arches, built by a Baniya named Fateh Chand about one hundred years 
 ago. The older Mughal bridge is still in existence, immediately under the Fort, 
 about half a mile to the west, but is earthed up to above the crown of the 
 arches and has cultivated fields on both sides of it, the river having completely 
 deserted its former course. It is very similar in design to the new bridge, but 
 is much narrower. 
 
 Kora. — Nearly all the workers in copper have now migrated to Cawnpur 
 or other towns. The fine tank, about 340 feet square, was built by Zain-ul- 
 abdin, the Local Governor, under the orders of the Yazir Mir Almas Ali Khan. 
 The bdradari is on the opposite side of the road at the further end of the 
 garden ; it is a large massive and handsome building, 100 feet long and 50 feet 
 high, but there are some terrible cracks in the walls. The garden has an impos- 
 ing entrance gate in two stories, 43 feet high and 70 feet broad. There is 
 another smaller pavilion on the margin of the tank. These grounds and build- 
 ings, tank, garden, and bdradaris were all given to a Kayath, Manna Lai, alias 
 Ram Prasad, who, on becoming a Muhammadan, took the name of Haidar 
 Bakhsh, and had the title of Nasir-ul-Mulk conferred upon him by Nawab 
 Asaf-ud-daula. As he died childless, the property passed to his brother Munna 
 L£l, who had remained a Hindu. It is now owned by the latter's great-grand- 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 25 
 
 sod, Ikbal Bahadur, whose father, Rao Lai Bahadur, distinguished himself by 
 his loyalty in the mutiny and built the temple of: Sita Ram on the side of the 
 tank. The title of Rao was conferred by the English Government; but Lai Baha- 
 dur's father, Roshan Lai, and also his grandfather, Durga Prasad, had both been 
 commonly styled Rae. The present proprietor has been ruined by litigation, aud is 
 now in very embarrassed circumstances. Attached to his private dwelling-house 
 are the mosque and imdmbdra of the original donee, which he keeps in repair for 
 public use, though they strike a visitor as rather curious appendages to a Hindu 
 establishment. The Fort was entirely rebuilt by Bijli Khan after becoming a 
 Muhammadan. It was occupied as a tahsili till shortly before the mutiny, when 
 it was dismantled and the materials utilized in the construction of the present 
 offices on a more convenient site. Nothing now remains of the fort but the 
 mosque, and this, too, would seem to be of later date than the reign of Akbar, 
 which is the time when Bijli Khan is said to have lived. 1 The site is a high 
 cliff commanding a fine view of the Rind ravines. The present tahsili is at 
 Sardi Badle, now a separate village, but once a quarter of the old town. It 
 has a tank with several temples and other substantial buildings, but no 
 remains of the sarai from which it takes its name. 
 
 The tradition mentioned on page 128 of the Gazetteer as to the derivation 
 of the name of the Kora fort implies that the original form of the name was 
 not Kora, but something more like Karra, meaning 'hard:' and, in fact, 
 Rashfd-ud-din, quoting Al Biriini, gives the name as Karwa. Probably it was 
 subsequently modified to Kora, in order to prevent confusion with the town of 
 Karra on the Ganges. 
 
 Kotila is always pronounced Kutila and should be so written. 
 
 Kutiya. — It was conjectured by General Cunningham (Survey XL, 56) that 
 this might possibly be the Buddhist site mentioned by Hwen Thsang under the 
 name of Oyuto. The present village was moved about one hundred years ago 
 from a high cliff a little to the east, which is still called Bara-ganw, and here 
 under a nim tree are collected a few fragments of figure sculpture. One piece 
 was subsequently converted to Muhammadan uses, for it is engraved at the 
 back with the endings of four lines of a Persian inscription in bold raised 
 characters. To the west of the village is another high bare cliff, which is 
 
 'The Argal pedigree puts him much earlier. He is there mentioned as the younger brother 
 of No. 52, while No. 60 is represented as contemporary with Humayun. 
 
26 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 called Kot, and, as the name would denote, may very possibly have been a 
 fort. Here large bricks are found and occasionally coins also : one, a silver 
 coin, now in my possession, bears the following inscriptions: obverse, Sri 
 Raghava Pratapa Pavana putra Bala vardhaka ; reverse, Yah Sika par chhap 
 maha Jaya Sinha. This coin is described and figured in Marsden's Numis- 
 mata Orientalia and also in the appendix to Prinsep's Indian Antiquities. 
 In the latter work it is said to be a coin issued by an obscure zamindar of 
 Jaynagar, a village near Bajragarh in Gwalior. 
 
 Lalauli — Opposite the Chilla Tara Ghdt across the Jamuna. Here is a 
 substantial masonry sarai, with vaulted cells arranged in the form of a quad- 
 rangle and a lofty gateway, built by the Nawab of Banda early in the present 
 century. 
 
 Malwa — Gives its name to a station on the East Indian Railway, which is 
 really situated in the village of Ukhra a mile and half to the south. The 
 Thakurs are of the Dikhit clan. By the side of the road to the Railway 
 Station, a fine masonry tank is now being built by a widow of a Baniya named 
 Sati Din. The principal part of the actual village of Ukhra is called Kunvar- 
 pur, and was founded by Gang Dev, No. 46 in the pedigree of the Argal Rajas. 
 It has a large masonry tank by the side of the road leading to the railway 
 station, built about one hundred and fifty years ago by some Sukl Brahmans. 
 This is now much dilapidated, as are also the large brick houses where they 
 lived. A fakir, by name Shaikh Kallu, about the year 1850, constructed a 
 somewhat remarkable group of Muhammadan buildings, a mosque, an imam- 
 bara, a range of rest-houses, and a Karbala. - The last-named is a massive 
 square structure, with two round minarets, and consists of a vaulted corridor 
 enclosing a domed centre. At a corner of the village lane may be seen a red 
 sand-stone pillar of the old Hindu pattern, said to have been brought from the 
 site of the Karbala, and doubtless dating from the time of the Gautam founder. 
 
 A short distance from Kunvarpur, near the tenth milestone, in a mango 
 grove by theroad side, is a small masonry tomb with a black marble tablet, 
 bearing the following insciption : — 
 
 [Sacred to the memory of Thomas Sidney Powell, Colonel, 53rd Regiment, who fell 
 gloriously in the moment of Victory, commanding Her Majesty's Forces at the action 
 of Khujooa near Fatehpore, 1st November, 1&57. Erected by the officers of the regiment.] 
 
 Behind the tomb, within the same small enclosure, are two grave-mounds, 
 and on a tree at the corner, nailed to the trunk and partly overgrown by 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 27 
 
 the bark, which has helped to secure it, is an inverted tin plate, on which 
 these words have been scratched — " To the memory of Private Thomas Richards, 
 Her Majesty's 5th Fusiliers, died 12th July, 1858." On the other side of the 
 road, immediately opposite, is a masonry tank measuring 213 feet by 218, built 
 by a Baniya named Maiku, about 70 years ago. It is now in need of repairs, 
 which could be carried out at no great cost. 
 
 Mauhar. — The Gautam Thakurs here are proclaimed for infanticide. The 
 railway station is in the village of Harsinghpur. 
 
 Muhammadpur Gaunti — This is a large village with as many as sixteen 
 hamlets. Market days, Tuesday and Friday. The name is probably a con- 
 traction for Gautama-vati. At Apboi, the next village, is a mound called 
 Chauki, from 10 to 12 feet high, covered with broken bricks; a few small frag- 
 ments of stone sculpture also may be seen collected under a nim tree. This 
 was ' a stage/ on the old road from Kanauj to Prayag, and is so mentioned by 
 Al Biruni, under the name of Abhapuri or Aphapuri, as being 12 parasangs 
 distant from Prayag, 
 
 Naraini, on the Bahua and Dh&ta road, was founded by NaVayan, a Bais 
 Thakur, one, it is said, of the seven brothers who had first settled in the larger 
 neighbouring village, to which they gave the name of Saton. About three 
 quarters of the village now form a part of the Kasimpur estate. Market, 
 Sunday and Wednesday. 
 
 Naubasta, with a ferry across the Ganges into the Rae Bareli district, is 
 a hamlet of Baiganw. There are several small temples on the river-bank, at 
 the head of the Khaga road, all dating apparently from the end of last century. 
 The site of the old village, higher up the stream, is now almost entirely deserted, 
 the old Bais and Chandel zamindars having been sold up, and the cultivators 
 and boatmen being now dispersed through as many as 17 hamlets. It is 
 marked by a series of brick-strewn mounds, on which are collected several 
 groups of stone sculpture, including a miniature temple cut out of a single 
 block, all of early pre-Muhammadan character. There is also a stone elephant 
 about 4J feet long, but half-buried in the ground, and so much mutilated as to 
 retain but little of its original shape. The miniature shrine and fourteen other 
 characteristic pieces have been removed to Fatehpur and deposited in the 
 Town-Hall Garden. 
 
28 FATEHPUR DISTKICT. 
 
 Rampur Thariaon. — In a grove near the village is the ruined hermitage 
 
 of a Gosain, by name Phalgun Gir, who lived last century. There are two 
 
 large brick houses, one the ancestral residence of the Bisen zamindars, whose 
 
 present representative, Madho Singh, unwisely, like King Lear, and with 
 
 similar results, has divested himself of his whole estate during his lifetime. 
 
 It is now divided between his three sons, Ram Narayan, Shiu Ratan, and 
 
 Bisheshar Sinb, upon whom the father is a pensioner. The other house has been 
 
 lately built by the widow of Kanhay Sinh, a Cbauhau by caste, but a banker 
 
 by profession, whose father, Shiu Ram, was the founder of the family wealth. 
 
 At the head of a series of ponds, where it forms a picturesque feature, is a temple 
 
 tower in the old style, built four generations ago by Alam Sinh, a member of 
 
 the Bisen family. Their ancestor, Madari Sinh, inherited the village from 
 
 his mother, who was the last of the old Bais stock, who were the original 
 
 proprietors. A fair is held in Asarh in honour of Sitala Devi. The shrine 
 
 though of considerable repute was only of mud, but is now being rebuilt in brick. 
 
 It contains a small head of Buddha with crisp curling hair and long pendent 
 
 ear-rings. An artificial lake on the border of the parish, towards Moraun, is 
 
 called Sagar. There is a railway station a mile distant, at Barhampur, which 
 
 may be the place quoted by Al Biiiini, under the name of Brahmashk, as a 
 
 stage on the old road from Kanauj to Prayag, half way between Kora and 
 
 Aphoi, viz,, 8 parasangs from each. 
 
 Ren* — Has an area of more than 3,000 bighas. The hamlet of Kirti- 
 khera, being advantageously situated on the high road to Bindki, is now a larger 
 and more thriving place than the oiiginal village, which is a mile and half away 
 on the bank of the Jamuna. Its houses are huddled together under a steep 
 cliff, about 100 feet high, but much cut up by ravines, where once stood the 
 old fort. The river, which runs immediately under it, has here taken a deep 
 bend to the east, and in so doing is said to have submerged a large portion of 
 the town. This would seem to be a fact, for, on the other side, in what is now 
 the Banda district, there are many traces of former habitation, and one of the 
 main gates of the town is also said to have stood there. If so, the course of the 
 river at that time must have been very far to the west. The village is one mass 
 of debris, and for the greater part of the way to Kirti-khera the fields are strewn 
 with bricks and dotted with mounds, where many pieces of stone sculpture have 
 been collected. A few are cross-legged Jain figures, but the majority represent 
 Brahmanical divinities, Ganes, Brahma, Krishna, Narayan (as at Bahua), &c, 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 29 
 
 and there are also many fragments of architectural decoration. They are of 
 different dates, but some are executed with considerable spirit, and are possibly 
 older than any other remains in the district. I selected twelve characteristic 
 specimens" and brought them into Fatehpur, where they may now be seen in 
 the Garden of the Town Hall. A rival Raja is said to have had his fort at 
 Benun — a village about five miles to the east. At Kirti-khera are some carved 
 stone panels from the sikhara of a temple at Ren of the tenth century. In the 
 village of Thawai, on the opposite side of the high road, is a large stone 
 lingam, under a modern domed temple, which stands on a high mound 
 approached by flights of masonry steps. Under a tree on the plain below is 
 a smaller lingam inserted in a carved stone panel, which also was probably 
 brought from the old Ren temple. 
 
 Sarauli,— By the side of the road from Bijaypur to Kishanpur are two 
 enormous trees, called by the people Gujardti Imli, though they more closely 
 resemble the semal. One measures 38J feet in girth, the other 44. In both 
 the trunk is a solid square mass up to the height of 12 or 14 feet, and then 
 spreads out in huge branches. When I saw them, March 1st, they were quite 
 bare, but I was told they would flower in about three weeks. There is a 
 similar tree, with a girth of 41 feet, at Bibipur, near the civil station. I saw 
 it May 8th, and it was then beginning to put forth new leavofrand flowers. It 
 is a species of Adansonia, which, like the Bombax, or semal, is included in 
 the order of Malvaceae. There are three younger trees of the same kind at 
 Haswa. 
 
 Sarkandi- — A very extensive and scattered parish, the Brahman and 
 Thakur residents living for the most part not in the village centre but in small 
 hamlets and single cottages out in the fields. 
 
 Shiurajpur. — The Brahman cicerones, called Gangaputras, constitute the 
 bulk of the population. Reaching for nearly half a mile along the bank of the 
 river is a succession of temples and ghats ; none of special architectural impor- 
 tance or more than two hundred years old, and all in a more or less ruinous 
 condition. The last, and by far the largest of the series, has a picturesque 
 group of tower and spires, but the details are all in a most debased and mongrel 
 semi-European style. It was begun by Lala Janaki Prasad, and is being 
 completed by his son, Radha Kishan, at a cost of about a lakh of rupees. Ad- 
 joining it is a large old three-storied house of effective design, but much out of 
 
30 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 repair and disfigured by incongruous excrescences. The temples are all of brick 
 and plaster, with one exception, which is of carved red sandstone of superior 
 execution. Immediately above this is an arcaded hall, now dedicated to Jagan- 
 nath, which is said to have been built by the famous Gosain Himmat Bahadur, 
 about the year 1800. 
 
 According to a very widely accepted tradition, the Gautam Thakurs once 
 owned the whole of the present Fatehpur district, together with much adjoin- 
 ing territory on both sides of the Ganges. They claim descent from the 
 Vedic Saint Gotama, who is also the reputed ancestor of the Sakya tribe, of 
 whom sprung the great Buddha ; whence, in many countries where his reli- 
 gion flourishes, he is popularly known by his patronymic Gautama. The 
 Gautam Raja has for many years had his principal seat at Argal, a small 
 secluded village in the Kora pargana, buried in the ravines of the river Rind. 
 Possibly the Fort was so named as forming a natural ' bar, ' or barrier (which 
 is the meaning of the Sanskrit argala) against the approach of an invader. 
 Similarly, Rind or Arind, the name of the river, is a contraction for Arin- 
 dama, ' the subduer of enemies/ which wculd seem to refer not so much to 
 the depth of the stream as to the inaccessibility of its broken banks. The 
 power of the family and the extent of its territory may have been greatly 
 exaggerated, and certainly no external evidence of the truth of the local 
 tradition has yet been supplied either by coins or copper-plate inscriptions, 
 as for the Gupta and Gaharwar dynasties, nor in temples of well-ascertained 
 Gautam foundation, such as attest the wealth and magnificence of the 
 Chandels. Neither do the Muhammadan chronographers make much mention 
 of the long struggle against the Imperial forces, to which the Argal Raja 
 attributes the total disappearauce of all his family records. So far also as 
 I am aware, there are no extensive ruins at Argal, such as might be expected 
 at a place which for many centuries was the capital of an independent prin- 
 cipality — if, indeed, the chief seat of the family, in the time of its pros- 
 perity, ever was the village of Argal. For it is to be noted that the fort at Kora, 
 which still presents an imposing appearance, and all that end of the town of Kora 
 which adjoins the fort, are also called Argal. It is not impossible that this may 
 have been the Rnja's original home, and that the same name was subsequently 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 81 
 
 given to the more remote village. This would account for the insignificance of 
 the remains at the latter place. To such extreme indigence is the Raja now 
 reduced that his eldest son, and consequently the heir to one of the oldest titles 
 in India, was lately a constable in the Hamirpur police on a salary of Rs. 10 a 
 month. He has now resigned, as there was not much prospect of promotion, on 
 account of his imperfect education. The second son has been given a small 
 scholarship for his support and is a pupil in the Government school in the town 
 of Fatehpur, but though fifteen years of age, he is only in the ninth class ; and 
 thus there is little prospect of any revival of the family fortunes in this 
 generation. With hereditary insouciance the Raja during the last revenue 
 settlement, which was in progress for seven years, from 1871 to 1877, allowed the 
 poor remnant of his estate to be permanently burdened with an annual charge 
 on account of some land which had long since passed out of his possession and 
 is now owned by a rich money-lender. Soon after I came into the district 
 be complained to me of the hardship to which he was subjected, and I 
 represented the matter for him in the proper official quarter, but could obtain 
 no redress. 
 
 As a set-off to the want of material corroboration for the high pretensions 
 of the Argal pedigree, it must be observed that the grants and migrations to 
 which reference is therein made are all accepted as true by cognate tribes in 
 different parts of the province, who have obviously no interest in maintain- 
 ing a fictitious legend of Gautam pre-eminence and their own comparative 
 inferiority. It may also be noted that according to a local saying, mentioned 
 by General Cunningham in Vol. XL of the Archaeological Survey, there was 
 once a brick temple at every kos along the bank of the Rind. The word 
 1 bank ' must of course be interpreted in its very widest sense as including 
 the whole of the valley and its neighbourhood ; and the l kos ' as meaning not 
 that the temples were at regular intervals of that distance, but that they were 
 very numerous and close together. The two temples of Bahua and Tinduli 
 might thus be included in the series, together with those that the General 
 describes in the adjoining pargana of Sarh Salimpur; and all may with great 
 plausibility be ascribed to the Gautam Rajas, who have always been specially 
 connected with the Rind river. Unfortunately there are no inscriptions to 
 confirm this conjecture, but some may yet be discovered. Accordingly I 
 think it desirable that the whole of the Raja's pedigree, as accepted by 
 himself, should be put on record. The MS. in his possession from which I 
 
32 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 translate was written out about sixty years ago by one of tlie kanungos of the 
 Cawnpur district, winch up to 1826 included the present Fatehpur district as a 
 sub-division. It was evidently the work of a very careless or illiterate scribe, 
 and is in several places quite unintelligible both to myself and to members of 
 the family. In the mythological portion some well-known names are so grossly 
 misspelt that they would defy recognition but for the context; thus Santa, 
 daughter of Somap£d, appears as Santa, daughter of Lomaya; p and y, which 
 in Nagari are much alike, having been confused by the copyist. The MS. 
 would seem to have been consulted by Sir H. Elliot before writing his article on 
 the Gautams in the Supplemental Glossary, and he has extracted from it all the 
 facts of most conspicuous interest. But the complete genealogy, though for many 
 generations it is only a bare string of names, may possibly hereafter be of service 
 in helping to fix a date or determine a person mentioned in some other record : 
 
 Pedigree of the Gautam Rajputs and of Rdja Ganpat Sink of Argal, 
 ivritten out by Ram Bakhsh, Kamingo of Sdrh SaUmpur, according 
 to the order of the Collector of Cawnpur (circ. 1826 A. D.): — 
 
 1. Brahma. 
 
 2. Angiras. 
 
 3. Medhatithi. 
 
 4. Gautama. 
 
 " He celebrated a sacrifice at the hermitage of the Rishi Gokarna, from which 
 sprung the four Kshatriya clans, the Chauhan, Parihar, Pamar, and Sulankhi." 1 
 
 5. Satanand. 
 
 6. Saradvan. 
 
 7. Satanik. 
 
 8. Vibhandak. 
 
 "This was the time of Drona, Kripa, and Asvatthama," 
 
 9. Sringi Rishi (Rishya-sringa), " who married Santa, daughter of 
 Somapad." 2 
 
 10. Ingi Rishi: "married Somantiti, daughter of Ajaypal, the Gahrwar 
 Raja of Kanauj. Her dowry included all the land between Prayag and 
 
 »Notes copied from the MS. are marked with inverted commas to distinguish them from addi- 
 tions of my own. 
 
 ^ "Singirampur. a favourite bathing- place on the Ganges in the Farukhabad district, is said to 
 derive its name from this Rishi, who has a temple there. The village is still largely inhabited by 
 Thakurs of the Gahrwar clan ; but they have no tradition of any intermarriage with the Gautams. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 33 
 
 Hardwar, and from this date the family, who formerly were Brahmans, began 
 to call themselves Kshatriyas." Most other authorities give the limits of the 
 dower as from Kanauj to Kora, which is rather more intelligible. 
 
 11. RdjaRandh Dev. 
 
 12. Raja Ang Dev " built the fort of Argal on the site formerly called 
 Mahakaya." 
 
 In proof of the ancient sanctity of the spot the following couplet is quoted, 
 which includes Mahakaya as one«of nine famous places of pilgrimage :— 
 
 Renukah, Sfikara, Kasf, Kali, Kdla, Batesvarau, 
 Kalanjara, Mahakaya, Ukhala, nava muktidab. 
 
 The same verse is quoted, in a more corrupt form, by General Cunningham 
 in Vol. XVII. of the Archaeological Survey, and for Mahakaya, which, it may 
 be noted, is one of the less common names of Mahadev, he gives Mahakala. 
 This he explains by Ujam, which is probably a misprint for Ujain. Ukhala, 
 he was told, meant simply 'any sacred place' like tirtha; but the fact seems 
 questionable. I am more inclined to take it as the proper name of a particular 
 locality, possibly the village on the Jam una (more commonly spelt Okhla) 
 which has latterly become famous as the head of the new Agra canal. Here 
 was a tomb (now pulled down) which bore an inscription dated in the reign of 
 the Emperor Iltitmish (1210-1235 A. D.) which evidences the antiquity of the 
 site. As to the other places: Renuka is on the Narmada near Jabalpur; 
 Sukara is Soron in the Eta district ; Rasi is of course Benares ; Kali is perhaps 
 Calcutta; Kala may be Karra on the Fatehpur border; Batesar is in Agra, 
 though it does not appear why the name is given in the dual number ; and 
 Kalanjara is the famous fort in Bundelkhand. 
 
 13. Raja Balbhadra Dev. 
 
 14. Raja Suman Dev. 
 
 15. Raja Sriman Dev. 
 
 16. Raja Dhvajaman Dev. 
 
 17. Raja Shivman Dev. 
 
 18. RajaHBansdhar Dev. 
 
 19. Raja Brat-dhar Dev. 
 
34; FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 20. Raja Agniudra Dev. 
 
 21. Raja Devant Dev. 
 
 22. Raja Susalya Dev "built forts at Silavan and Saun," villages in the 
 Fatehpur district. 
 
 23. Raja Mahindra Dev. 
 
 24. Raja Jagat Dev. 
 
 25. Raja Bhumipal Dev. 
 
 26. Raja Gandharv Dev. 
 
 27. Raja Indrajit Dev. 
 
 28. Raja Brahm Dev. 
 
 29. Raja Chhatradhar Dev. 
 
 30. Raja Ram-dev Sahi. 
 
 31. Raja Nirman Dev. 
 
 32. Raja Prithuraj Dev. 
 
 33. Raja Tilakdhar Dev. 
 
 34. Raja Dhirman Dev. 
 
 35. Raja Satrajit Dev. 
 
 36. Raja Bhupal Dev. 
 
 37. Raja Parichhat Dev. 
 
 38. Raja Mahipal Dev. 1 
 
 39. Raja Vishnudhar Dev "built a fort and palace at Naraicha " near 
 Argal. 
 
 40. Raja Khasuman Dev. 
 
 41. Raja Surajman Dev. 
 
 42. Raja Mukutmani Dev. 
 
 43. Raja Chandramaui Dev. The Gautams of the Mirzapur district, who- 
 are very numerous there, say that they migrated from Argal in the time of 
 Raja Chandra Sen. This name does not occur in the pedigree, but Chand- 
 ramaui is a near approach to it. 
 
 *This might be the Raja whose name is recorded on the stone pillar now in the garden of 
 the Fatehpur Town Hall, with date equivalent to the year 917 A. D. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 35 
 
 44. Raja Karan Dev. 
 
 45. Raja Salya Dev " fortified Silauli." 
 
 46. Raja Gang Dev " founded Kunvarpur." 
 
 47. Raja Dhirpunir Dev "fought many times with Pirthiraj and the 
 Muhammadans. His Rani went to bathe at Prayag : was assaulted by the 
 Subadar of Azimabad ; Bhau and Bibhau of Munji-pattan, who also had gone 
 there to bathe, came to her rescue and beat off hei assailants. In return for 
 this help, Bhupal Sinh, Gautam, of Bhaupur, gave his sister in marriage to 
 Bhau with a dowry of 1,400 villages on the other side of the Ganges. Their 
 son 1 was Tilok Chand, the Rao of Dauriya Khera. Bhupal Sinh, Gautam, was 
 recognised as Rao of Gobha, and pargana Jar was his jagir." The Rani's 
 champions were of the Bais clan, and the villages given in dowry constitute 
 the tract of country known as Baiswara, which includes the greater part of the 
 two Oudh districts of Unao and Rae Bareli. Sir C. Elliott, in his Chronicles 
 of Unao, gives a much more detailed version of the above famous incident, 
 and suggests with some probability that the scene of the attempted rape was 
 not at Allahabad, but at Baksar, another famous bathing-place, much closer 
 both to Bhaupur and to Dauriya Khera. Munji-pattan is in the Dekhan. 
 The Gau tarns of Bhaupur are distinguished by the title of Rawat, and those 
 of Gobha (the next village to Argal) are still styled Raos. Bhaupur (for 
 Bhava-pur, Bhava being a name of Siva) is on the right bank of the Ganges, 
 immediately below Sivarajpur. 
 
 48. Raja Ratn Sen Dev "married the sister of Jay Chand, the Gahr- 
 war Raja of Kanauj. Had many fights with the Muhammadans." This popu- 
 lar identification of the Rathors with the Gahrwars is noticeable. It is very 
 uncertain to what clan the earlier Rajas of Kanauj really belonged. The most 
 famous of them was Bhoja L, who reigned from 860 to 890 A. D., and was suc- 
 ceeded by Mahendra Pal, 921 ; Bhoja Deva II. 925 to 950; and Vinayak Pal 
 950 to 975, all in direct descent of father and son. A period of disturbance 
 then seems to have followed, and eventually Kanauj was conquered about 1025 
 A. D. by Kama, son of Gangaya, the Raja of Chedi, near Jabalpur. He, how- 
 ever, was not long after expelled by Chandra Deva, who founded the well- 
 known Rathor dynasty, which terminated with Jay Chand, the rival of Prithi 
 
 11 Son' may be used indefinitely; Sir C. Elliott represents him as seventh in descent and pute 
 him about the year 1400 A. D. 
 
36 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 Raj. The sequence of events thus stated has been worked out with much 
 ingenuity by Dr. Hcernle, who further conjectures that Chandra Deva's father, 
 Mahichandra (son of Jasovigraha), is the same as Mahipala of the Pala dynasty 
 of Benares, whose father's name is given as Vigrahapala. He was a Buddhist 
 as his eldest son and his descendants continued to be till their kingdom (Bihar) 
 was subdued by the Muhammadans. The younger son, Chandra Deva, 
 becoming a Brahmanist, established his capital at Kanauj, where he was suc- 
 ceeded by Madan Pal, Gobind Chandra, Bijay Chandra, and finally Jay Chand. 
 
 49. Raja Kaling Dev "built the Kora fort." This was to a great extent 
 rebuilt three generations later by Bijli Khan after becoming a Muhammadan. 
 Nothing now remains of it but the mosque, and this too would seem to be of 
 somewhat later date. The site is a high cliff commanding a very extensive 
 view of the Rind ravines. The buildings were dismantled shortly before the 
 mutiny and the materials utilized in the construction of the new tahsili. 
 
 50. Raja Siilraj Dev "gave a jdglr of 62 villages about Sivarajpur to 
 Parmal of Mahoba " after the defeat of the Chandels by Prithiraj. But this 
 seems irreconcilable with the previous statement that No. 47 was a contem- 
 porary of Prifchiraj's. This Shivrajpur is a different place from that mentioned 
 above and is in the Cawnpur district. 
 
 51. Raja Mulraj Dev "had two sons, of whom — 
 
 52. Raja Dev Pal Dev was the elder : the younger, Bijay Sinh, became a 
 Muhammadan and took the name of Bijli Khan. The Raja gave 12 villages 
 to the Banpur Gautams, built a fort and tank at Rahnsi, fought against the 
 Emperor." Another brother, whose name is variously given as Bair or Banar 
 or Bihal Sinh, also became a Muhammadan and took the name of Bahadur 
 Khan, and built a fort at Garhi Jar, w r hich is still owned by his descendants. 
 
 53. Raja Man Dev "created the Rana of Chilli, with &jdgirof sixty 
 villages in the neighbourhood of Majhawan" in pargana Sarh Salimpur. 
 
 54. Raja Bhauraj Dev " gave Har Sinh Dev the title of Rawat, with 
 Bhaupur and other 14 villages. Gave Beduki to Kedar, a Kapariya ; Majhil- 
 gawn to Nilmani, Kurmi, and Chandpur to Chand, a Bhat." Beduki must 
 mean the town of Bindki, which is now commonly said to derive its name from 
 Bandagi Shah, a Muhammadan fakir, whom Kirat Sinb, one of the Gautaoi 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 37 
 
 Rajas, had taken under his protection. The Kaparyiyas are a wandering tribe 
 who go round from house to house after a birth, singing congratulatory songs 
 and receiving small presents in return. Kedar, to whom the grant was made, 
 is said to have contrived the escape of one of the Raja's sons, who had been 
 kept as a hostage by the Muhammadans. 
 
 55. Raja Sahadev Raj. 
 
 56. Raja Lachhman Dev. 
 
 57. Raja Bir Sinh Dev ° married a daughter of the Gaharwar of Bijaipur. 
 Fought 22 battles against the Emperor. Gave the Chaudhrahat of pargana Kora 
 to Jaganbansi Brahmans ; 28 villages and the command of his army to the 
 Athaiya Gau tarns ; 12 J villages, including Rampur, to Lala Tandsi Lai, Kam- 
 dar ; and made a Rajkumar of Kharauli with a grant of four villages." The 
 Athaiya Gautams (who evidently derive their name from the 28 (athdis) villages 
 that were granted them) are said to have been Jinwars by descent, and to have 
 ingratiated themselves with the Raja by teaching him the game of chess. 
 
 58. Raja Madan Dev. 
 
 59. Raja Man Dev. 
 
 GO. Raja Haribaran Dev "fought against the Emperor Humayun at 
 Kalpi and Hamirpur and was defeated." This appears to be the turning-point 
 in the fortunes of the family, who had espoused the cause of Sher Shah and 
 were thus marked out for vengeance by Humayun on his return to India. In 
 the Gazetteer the Raja's name is incorrectly given as Harcharan. 
 
 61. Raja Sangram Dev. 
 
 62. Raja Bhairon Sahi " defeated by the Emperor, with total ruin of the 
 family." 
 
 63. Raja Hamir Dev " defeated by Shahjahan." 
 
 64. Raja Bhagavant Dev " married a daughter of the Sombans Raja of 
 Pratapgarh. The family fort destroyed by Shahjahan." 
 
 65. Raja Indrajit Dev. 
 
 66. Raja Dugur Sah Dev, 1607 A. D. 
 
 67. Raja Haribal Dev, 1643 A. D., " defeated by the Subadar." 
 
 68. Raja Himmat Bahadur Dev, 1646 A. D. 
 
38 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 69. Raja Achal Sinh Dev, 1G87 A.D., "defeated in 1727 by Saadat 
 Khan. Utter destruction of all the family property." 
 
 70. Raja Sadan Sinh Dev, 1729 A.D. 
 
 71. Raja Aman Sinh, 1755 A.D. 
 
 72. Raja Ganpat Sinh, 1817 A.D. 
 
 73. Raja Lai Shio Ram Singh, born 1837 A.D. 
 
 74. Kunvar Ratn Sinh. 
 
 The Fatehpur district is by no means a popular one— in fact it is 
 generally regarded as a sort of penal settlement — but I attribute its bad 
 reputation almost entirely to the perversity of the departmental arrangements 
 made about the year 1852, when the present tahsilis were built. They are 
 the most miserable ramshackle hovels I have ever seen dignified with the 
 title of Government offices, and, to make matters worse, they are located 
 either in an utter solitude, as Kalyanpur, or in very small and insignificant 
 villages, like Ghazipur and Khakhreru, where the ordinary necessaries of native 
 life are with difficulty procurable. No good tahsildar will voluntarily stay in 
 such a hole. Directly he is posted to the district, instead of devoting himself 
 to his work, he expends all his energies in scheming for a transfer. The 
 constant changes are a most serious embarassment to local administration, and 
 it is also extremely unpleasant to be at the head of a staff every member of 
 which is known to be dissatisfied and struggling to get away. The result is 
 that a Collector loathes the district almost as much as the tahsildars. 
 
 All this might be remedied by a slight immediate outlay, with a result 
 of permanently diminished expenditure in the future. The area of the district 
 is almost the same as that of Bulandshahr, but the population is les3 and so 
 is the revenue. It is therefore difficult to understand why Fatehpur should 
 require six tahsildars, while Bulandshahr does very well with four. If Khakh- 
 reru were amalgamated with Khaga, and Ghazipur with Fatehpur, the sale 
 of the abandoned premises and the reduction in establishment would soon cover 
 the expense involved in the construction of larger and improved offices at 
 Kh&ga and Fatehpur. 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 39 
 
 That the tahsildar should be isolated in a mere hamlet like Kalyanpur is 
 a most deplorable waste of power. The presence of a resident Magistrate is 
 urgently required at Bindki, the most important market in the district, which 
 used to be the head-quarters of what is now the Kalyanpur tahsil, till the 
 unfortunate year 1852. The change (it may be presumed) was then made on 
 account of Kalyanpur being on the Grand Trunk Road. That is now a matter 
 of much less importance since the construction of the Railway ; and Bindki — 
 whatever it may have been thirty years ago — is now admirably supplied with 
 communications, being at the junction of as many as five metalled roads. In 
 short, there is every reason why Bindki should be the head of the tahsil ; the 
 only argument in favour of Kalyanpur is that the office is actually there at 
 present; but the accommodation it provides is quite inadequate and— owing 
 to original bad construction — the annual cost of repairs is abnormally heavy. 
 
 With four good tahsils at Fatehpur, Bindki, Kora, and Khaga, the admin- 
 istration of the district would be far more efficient and at the same time would 
 be more economical 
 
 With the solitary exception of Bindki, which is quite a recent creation, 
 all the towns in the district are in a lamentable state of ruin and decay, 
 in consequence of the diversion of the old trade routes. The Grand Trunk 
 Road — a comparatively new thoroughfare — is as yet singularly bare and uninter- 
 esting; and the Civil Station, though laid out on a lavish scale as *if for a 
 cantonment the size of Cawnpur, and abounding in avenues, does not boast a 
 single really good private house nor any public gardens 1 . Thus it comes 
 about that the Heads of Departments, when they visit the district on 
 inspection duty, see nothing on the march but an interminable length of 
 dreary dusty road ; wherever they halt, they are confronted by tumbledown 
 Government offices and poverty-stricken bazars ; and even at local head- 
 quarters they find that many of the amenities of social life are wanting. No 
 wonder, therefore, that the impression of Fatehpur which most people take 
 away with them is eminently unfavourable. 
 
 But the picture thus drawn is really to a great extent untrue, while such 
 defects as do exist could be readily removed. The soil iB unprotected by 
 
 *I have greatly improved its appearance by jcon verting a dozen or more unsightly hollows 
 and excavations into shapely tanks with turfed banks. In the rains they prevent the roads from 
 being flooded as they used to be, and as most of them retain water for the greater part of the year, 
 they are much frequented for bathing and for watering cattle. 
 
40 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 canals, but is generally fertile ; the scenery away from the main thoroughfare 
 is agreeable ; the minor roads are numerous and good ; and the situation, 
 between the two large trade centres of Cawnpur and Allahabad, is highly 
 convenient, and the climate is not unhealthy. There are no very rich- mer- 
 chants or large landed proprietors ; but traders of the middle class are not 
 unprosperous, as is evidenced by the number of tanks and temples which they 
 are able to build and endow ; while the peasantry are certainly more indepen- 
 dent than in districts where the influence of the landlords is stronger. The use 
 of spirituous liquor prevails to a deplorable extent among all classes of the 
 community ; but the only liquor they drink is distilled from the flowers of the 
 onahua and is comparatively innocuous, while the cultivation of the tree that 
 yields it gives the district its special charm, by covering the whole face of the 
 country with shady and picturesque groves. If universal sobriety prevailed, 
 the mahua would lose a great part of its value and would almost cease to be 
 planted, to the terrible deterioration of the landscape. 
 
 In short, the primary and only substantial ground for the bad name which 
 the district has acquired lies in its extreme dulness and the personal discom- 
 fort of its officials. If the latter objection were removed, there would at once 
 cease to be any difficulty in securing that permanence of staff and continuity 
 of action which are essential for the full development of local capabilities. 
 
 Fatehptjr : \ 
 
 The 2tth December, 1886. J F. S. GROWSE. 
 
APPENDIX.' 
 
 List of antiquities collected in the garden oj the Fatehpur Town Hall. 
 
 1. A square stone pillar, with au inscription in 14 lines on one face, 
 giving the name of a Raja Mahipal, date Sambat 974 (917 A.. D.) This was 
 brought from Asni on the Ganges in 1868 and set up here in 1886. A copy of 
 the inscription has been sent to Mr. Fleet, the Government Epigraphist., who 
 proposes to publish it with a translation in an early number of the Indian 
 Antiquary. 
 
 2. A triangular slab of stone, measuring about 4 feet each way, which 
 seems to have formed one side of the head of a doorway. The most conspicu- 
 ous feature of the design is a gigantic grotesque mask, with immensely protrud- 
 ing eyes, snub nose, and distended mouth, showing a goodly row of teeth. The 
 entire length of the upper side is occupied by a row of figures, eleven in all, some 
 of whom are musicians, two with cymbals, one playing a guitar, and another 
 beating a drum, while the rest of the party are dancing. At the bottom of 
 the slab is a man on one knee in an attitude of defence with a sword and 
 shield and confronting him is a dragon with a rider on its back. The carving 
 is bold and spirited, and there is much expression in some of the faces. From 
 Ren, in the Ghazipur pargana. 
 
 3. A slab from the side of a door showing a door-keeper with a temple- 
 tower in three stories forming a canopy over his head. Men. 
 
 4. A block of plinth mouldings with antique pediment. Ren. 
 
 5. Another fragment of moulding. Ren. 
 
 6. A square capital of a pillar, with foliage. Ren. 
 
 7. The top of a door shaft, a seated figure suckling a child. Ren. 
 
 8. A small fragment, with seated figure, lozenge and antique pediment, 
 Ren. 
 
 9. A figure of Branma, four-headed, with small attendant figures at 
 top. Ren. 
 
 10. A head of Vishnu, with high tiara. Ren. 
 
42 FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 
 
 11. Buddha, on a sinhdsan, or throne supported by lions, with an attend- 
 ant on either side bearing a chauri. Above the attendant is a mounted 
 elephant, and above this again a gandharv, or Hindu angel. An outer sunken 
 band shows a devotee below and a hippogriff above. Men. 
 
 12. A small, plainer, headless Buddha, without accessories. Ren. 
 
 13. A sinhdsan, with only the feet remaining of the Buddhist figure that 
 was seated on it. Ben. 
 
 14 A slender shaft, with flower-vase base and capital. Budhwan, Par- 
 gana Hdthganw. 
 
 15, 16, 17. Three pinnacles, 3J feet high, from a temple tower, or sikhara. 
 The ornament, with which the whole surface is covered, is what I have called 
 * an antique pediment' for want of any accepted distinctive name. It represents 
 the facade of a cave temple, as at Nasik, and thus corresponds precisely in idea 
 with the sham pediments of Italian design, and the tiers upon tiers of niches 
 which form so conspicuous a feature in Gothic architecture. Khairai, pargana 
 KhaJcheru. 
 
 18. A miniature temple, 4£ feet high, very similar in style to the above, 
 but hollowed out on one side below the spire and with bolder decoration or* 
 this front above the opening. Baigdnw, pargana Hathganw. 
 
 19. A fragment of a scroll pattern, boldly cut. Baiganw. 
 
 20. A door jamb, with scroll work and figures. Baiganw. 
 
 21. Another somewhat similar. Baiganw. 
 
 22. Another, plainer, with hanging bell. Baiganw. 
 
 23. A shaft, much worn, with standing figure under antique pediment. 
 Baiganw. 
 
 24 A curious group of four figures in a line : one a female bust only, with 
 two smaller seated figures on her right hand (these three with a nimbus each) 
 and an attendant on the left, without a nimbus. Baiganw, 
 
 25. A fragment of a scroll pattern, with a small seated figure at one end. 
 Baiganw. 
 
 26. A fragment of a group, in which the principal figure would seem to 
 have represented Devi. Only one arm remains, with which she supports a 
 
FATEHPUR DISTRICT. 43 
 
 ledge bearing a rat (the vehicle of Gaues). Under the arm is an attendant with 
 a chauri, and a sea-monster. Baiganw. 
 
 27. An antique pediment. Baiganw. 
 
 28. A mutilated group of three small figures, one on a lion. Baiganw. 
 
 29. A pilaster, 2 feet 2 inches high, with flower-vase capital, in the centre 
 of the shaft a monster bird feeding, and at the base a grotesque mask between 
 two hippogriffs. Baiganw. 
 
 30. A head somewhat similar to No. 10, but larger and less perfect, with 
 long pendent ear-rings, and hair done up in coils. Baiganw. 
 
 31. A boss, with figure seated on a sea-monster. Baiganw. 
 
 32. Two small busts, male and female. Baiganw. 
 
 33. The corner of a door architrave. Baiganw. 
 
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