FYZ
463
from Oudh, captured, or put to death by the prowess of this family. The estate now comprises 430 villages, with am area of 209,368 acres, and a rental of Es. 5,39,936. Raja Man Sing joined in the siege of the Eesidency at Lucknow, but when it was relieved he gave up the rebel cause. After peace was restored he was created a maharaja, a K.C.S.I., and granted the large forfeited estate of the Rdja of Gonda in that district it contains 201,734 acres, and its rental is about Rs. 4,90,000.
The above details are related at great length in the chronicles composed by the settlement ofiScer; but it does not appear that much is known about the old families who formerly owned the three hundred and three square The Bais, Bisen, miles over which this adventurer acquired power. Barwdr, and Chauhan are, we gather from some scattered prints, the clans whose estates have been swallowed up. A great Chauhan clan occupied the western part of Pachhimr^th, one hundred and twenty-five villages,
besides a large part of the neighbouring parganas, Sixltanpur, Their entire proIsauli, now in the Sultanpur district.
Khandansa, and
perty in this district included formerly 565 villages. Ahranand Satgaon are their principal seats, the latter of which has been included in the Mehdona estate by a decree of the law court so late as 1868. These Chauhans were numerous and powerful. They are not allied to the Chauh^ns of Mangalsi at the north-west corner of the district but with them they claim to have immigrated from Mainpuri, the great seat in north-west India of this high bom clan.
In pargana Mangalsi this estate of Mehdona absorbed 68 villages about when Raja Darshan Singh was chakladar or revenue ofEcer. The old proprietors who still reside on the estate belong partly to the Bais clan, the most numerous in the district their two estates of Banbirpur and Sino'hpur were completely appropriated. The, estate of Raja Madho Singh Bisen was united to Mehdona in 1842. These Bisens were a very martial they distinguished themselves in the English service, and Hindu clan Singh was a man well known for conduct and prowess in the reign of A'sifThe Mehdona estate does not extend into pargana Majhaura ud-daula. there probably the Bachgotis and Shekhs were too powerful. west the to But in pargana Amsin, also to the east, the entire possessions of the Barw^r (a sub-family of the Bais) clan have been absorbed. They held formerly one hundred and fiifty-nine villages, all of which have been divided between Mehdona and the Bachgoti or Rdjkumar taluqas seventynine villages were the share of Mehdona. In Sultanpur Baraunsa the property of the Bisens has been seized. It thus appears that this estate has been composed entirely almost of villages belonging to Chhattri clans, The great mass of the the most warlike and powerful in the province. For many estate lies in a ring fence, with Shahganj about the centre. stretch continuously lordship great this no of lands the side each on miles other properties intervene all were annexed nominally tmder deeds of attachment of these Chhattris to sale or mortgage, but considering the their property, it is clear that pressure must have been largely used to compel the abandonment of their property_ by some thousands of owners, all within one generation, within one neighbourhood, and without one 1829,
exception.
