Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/151

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ASI '

73

the 1st of March 1829, the king contributed to the five per cent, loan the sum of sixty-two lacs and forty thousand rupees, the interest of which at five per cent, our Government pledged itself to pay to the four females. " Shar(f-un-nisa

Bakhsh her "

and her brother and his son continued to live with who, upon the wealth and pension left by Muqaddara Aulia to kept up splendid establishments both at Lucknow and Cawnpore.

Ali,

sister,

At the

place he associated on terms of great intimacy with the is said to have received visits from the MajorGeneral commanding the division and his lady. latter

European gentlemen, and "

With the

his brother doms (the the throne of his present majesty), Bakhsh Ali secured and held for some years the charge of this fertile and populous district of Rasulabad, through which passes the road from Lucknow to Cawnpore, where, as I have already stated, he kept up bands of myrmidons to rob and murder travellers, and commit all kinds of atrocities. This road became in consequence the most unsafe of all the roads in Oudh, and hardly a day passed in which murders and robberies were not perpetrated "upon it.

singers

and

aid of his wealth

fiddlers

and the influence of

who surround

"

Proof of his participation in these atrocities having been collected, in October 1849 seized by order of the Resident, tried before the King's Court, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, and ordered to restore or make good the property which he was proved to have His house had become filled taken, or caused to be taken, from travellers. with girls of all ages, whom he had taken from poor parents, as they passed over this road, and converted into slaves for his seraglio. They were all and the Cawnpore restored to their parents, with suitable compensation road has become the most safe as well as the best road in Oudh."

Bakhsh Ali was



The most disgraceful passages of the above sketch from Lucknow life have been omitted. It is instructive as showing how the vices and corruption of the court re-acted upon the province and caused the ruin of fertile districts.

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ASIWAN

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Pargana AsfwAN Tahsil MohaN. District Unao. This town situated 16 miles north-west of Moh£n and 20 miles north of Unao, on the unmetalled road leading from Lucknow to Bangarmau. Safipur lies 8 miles It is said to have been founded by a dhobi or washerto the south-west. man called Asun, who gave it his own name eight hundr^ed years ago. The population is 5,817 as follows is



Musalmans

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Bralimans Fasis Aiiirs

Baiiiaus

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Kayatha Other Hindus

There are no resident Chhattris. There are 1,228 houses, of which 51 are of masonry there are 9 mosques, 10 temples of Mahadeo and 2 of Debi. There is a good masonry caravanserai built by Qamar Ali Khan. Markets