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BAH

There are district post offices at Pi^gpur, Tilokpur on the Ikauna road, and Kakandu on the road to Bhinga. It is possible that this pargana, which is a part of the ancient Kosala country, was the scene of the labours of Buddha to redeem his fellow beings from the " assembly of Brahma" (see Bahraich town), for on the borders of this district in the Ikauna ilaqa originally included in this pargana, is situated the great city of Sahet Mahet, which is identified by General Cunningham as the retreat of Buddha, while at Tandwa village, also in the Ikauna ilaqa, still exists a mound which is probably identical with that raised over the relics of the body of Kasyapa Buddha. Tandwa or Towai was the birthplace of the " expected one," while to this day Hindus worship under the name Sita an image of the mother of the prophet and reformer.

In the Charda ilaqa (which see), which was also included in this pargana, there is another of these forts surrounded on different sides by mounds of ruins which may once have been stupas similar to those of Sahet Mahet, and the wilds of the Gandharp Ban (see Bahraich town) may well have favoured the attainment of that state of self-absorption which was the object of the Buddhist. The Bhars by their very name claim this part of the country as their own, and it was not until two centuries after the religious raid of Salar Masaud that' they seem to have commenced to migrate. The history of this pargana up to the end of the fifteenth century is to be found in the district article. In 1478 A. D. Muhammad, sumamed the " Black Rock" (Kalapahar), nephew of Bahlol Lodi, was appointed by his uncle governor of Bahraich, and it seems that under his strict rule the district was once more reminded of the days of Nasir-ud-din, for in that year the most northern parganas are recorded as paying by no means a contemptible sum as revenue into the imperial chest. After this the historians are silent regarding this district until the reign of Muhammad Shah Tughlaq when, after the suppression of a revolt on the part of A'inul-Mulk, vicegerent of Oudh, the Sultan paid a visit to Bahraich and " devoutly made offerings to the shrine of the martyr Sayyad Salar Masatid." This was in 1340 A. D. Sultan Firoz Shah succeeded Muhammad Shah, and he also towards the of his reign received the tonsure and made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Salar Masaud in the year 1374 A. D. It was in his reign that the first

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Rajput settlement was made in this district (see Ikauna). From the Janwar, who then received his grant, have sprung the founders of several other estates in these parts, some of which survived the vicissitudes of rule, and some are known only to tradition. The ilaqas of Jagannathpur and Gtijiganj (see Charda) and the Bhinga estate (see Bhinga) were all once held by cadets of this house, while Gangwal and Balrampur in Gonda are still held by members of the same family. The Pidgpur Raja, a Janwdr also, claims to be of the same stock, but his pretensions are not admitted. In the time of Akbar there were jSgirs held in this pargana to the value of Rs. 10,050, and the country was sufiiciently disturbed to require a force of 4,500 footmen and 500 horse to keep it in order. The cultivation then measured 6,19,226 bighas pakka, which, however, only yielded a revenue of Rs. 2,53,353, or about 6^ annas per bigha, another indication of the backward state of this pargana, for in His^mpur to its

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