BIR Shv&ddy&l Singh was
12.
Singh, It
who had engaged
killed while opposing his
for the
S29
kinsman Shiddatt
revenue of the pargana.
may be mentioned for the benefit of those' who delight in ethnologiwe have a legitimate and an illegitimate line of de-
cal speculations, that
scendants of Pithraj Deo, the first Palwar who settled in eastern Oudh. The former is represented by these Babus of Birhar, now in the 28th generation the latter by the taluqdars of Tigra and Morehra in pargana Surharpur, now in the 16th generation from the common ancestor Pithraj Deo so that the generation in the pure line average under 25 years each, while in the impure line they average over 38 years, furnishing an example, if such be wanted, of the advantages of the amalgamation of races.
It seems desirable that there should be a permanent record of the proceedings of the Palwar clan during the disturbances of 1857, and this I
will
now
supply.
AVhen the Fyzabad fugitives were escaping in boats down the river Gogra, they were stopped by Babu Udit Nardin Singh, the eldest son of Babu Mahip Narain, who then resided at the strong fort of Norehni on the bank of the stream. Such indignities were offered, as demanding the rings and silk stockings which some of the ladies then wore all their valuables were taken from them. The fugitives were then allowed to pass on to Chahora, a fort also on the bank of the same river, the residence at that time of Babu Madhoparshad, and from him they received some show of hospitality for three or four days, and they were then passed on under an escort supplied by Maharaja Man Singh. For the offence above indicated, Udit Narain Singh, who was at the time de facto manager of his father's estate, was tried and imprisoned for three years, and the whole of his property was ordered to be confiscated, but it was made out somehow or other that the man had no property of his own, and so the latter part of the sentence may be said to have befen inoperative.
conduct, as I have said at the outset, was have been the first of the Birhar bdbus who openly took up arms against the British Government, having marched against Azamgarh with his followers in July 1857. He was met at Baroli by Mr. Venables, and driven back, and he then raised the entire Palwar clan, and was joined by Babus Kishanparshad, Shilipargas, Pirthipal, and their gatherThey then plundered the town of Manori and got much property, ings. Shiupargas obtaining an elephant, which he, gave up when order was They then attacked Azamgarh and drove the defenders before restored. them through the town but the citizens, turning against them, the tribe was repulsed, whereon they withdrew in such hot haste that they halted few days not till they were beyond the borders of the Azamgarh district. upon which British, B^bus the Udit by abandoned was Azamgarh this, after Narain and Pirthipal Singh with their followers returned there, and having proclaimed the supremacy of the Palwar clan, began levying contributions from the inhabitants. On the re-occupation of Azamgarh by the Gurkhas, tbe Babus retired without a struggle.
Babu Madhoparshad, whose
good,
is
said to
A
They subsequently lent men to Beni Madho, the Kurmi Raja of Atraulia, when he fought and was defeated by the Gurkhas at the same Manori
