Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/209

 — BAH The khalsa

131

Fakhrpur consisted almost entirely of the Raikw^ri coparcenary community mentioned already, comprising 108 villages, and the Kanera and Butora iMqa of 28 villages owned by the old qdnfingo family of Fakhrpur. In Hisimpur the villages held by the Sayyads, numbering no less than ^^'^' ^^^ ^^^ Amb^pur estate, 49 villages, held by a Hisfimpur khdlsa. Shekh family of qdnlingos, composed for the most part the so-called khalsa, a word which does not necessarily imply any more exclusive right of property on the part of the State in these lands than existed in theory with regard to the estates held by the taluqdars. The word seems to have had its origin in the qanlingo's office, and to have Meaning of the word been Originally applied to all those estates the accounts " l^^a-" ofwhich were then kept distinct from those of the more influential taluqas. As will have been inferred from the above detail of the kh£lsa villages, many of the properties included under that heading were ancestral estates that had been held by their owners for quite as many generations as the nobles themselves could count in their pedigrees. The Sayyads of Jarwal and the Raikwars of Harhaxpur are notable instances of this. in

Faklirpur khalsa.

R^e Amar Singh held the

contract for Bahraich for two years after the death of Saadat Ali Khan, but in 1817 Hakim Mehndi who already held the farm of the adjoining districts of Khairabad and Muhamdi, bid a lakh of rupees over the Lala's payment for the previous year and obtained the district. The account of the murder of the Rae by this man is given in Sleeman's Diary (Vol. I, page 50.) He held the contract for two years, when he was compelled to retire before the machinations of those whom he left behind him at Lucknow. Although a murderer, be was then justly regarded as a man of high character.

Hakim Mehndi

Hadi Ali Khan

alias Saif-ud-daula, succeeded, and he at once demanded an increase of two annas on the demand in Rae Amar Hadi Ali Khan com- Singh's time. He found it difficult to realize this mences the i?<=orpora. exorbitant demand, and as a means to this end com-

tion of the khalsa lands in the taluqdars' estate,

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the khalsa lands in the taluqdars' estates under which, at the expiry of his term of office in 1827 A. D., a period of nine years, no less than 439 villages had been transferred to the nobles. 01

Under his successors the same nefarious system was pursued, and between The extent

of the ab-

sorption.

The

taluqdars

who

the years 1816 and year of annexation; 1856 A. D., 788 villages were thus absorbed in the great estates. divided the spoils were as follows

Villages.

Baja of Ikauna Piagpur „ Baundi Kalhans Rajputs Baja of Hahwa

„

Gangwal

,,

Nitnpara

of the

Taluqdar of Charda Bhinga „

Chhedwara

estate

.,. ...

788

4jOS

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