Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/296

 218

BAL

defeated but never subdued, he engaged the royal nazims in twenty-two pitched battles, and succeeded in keeping the revenue paid for his pargana at a pitch which made it little more than a tribute. He was visited in 1795 A. D. by another Raja Newal Singh, a Chauhan chieftain, who had been driven out of an extensive principality in the lower Himalayan valleys by the King of Naipal. He sought and obtained the friendship of his Janwar namesake, and possessed himself, apparently without resistance, of the The pride eight forest tappas which now make the Tulsipur pargana. of the old Janwar chief was respected, and his ancient zamindari claims acknowledged by the promise of a small annual tribute. Of Newal Singh's two sons, the eldest, Bahddur Singh, spent the whole of his short life in fighting, first, the Tulsipur Eaja, Dalel Singh, who, on succeeding to the chieftainship, promptly repudiated the engagements made by his father, and next with the Nazim Ahmad Ali Khan by whom he was defeated and slain. The second son, Arjun Singh, became Raja on the death of his father Newal Singh, after a long reign of forty years, in 1817 A. D., and died in 1830 A. D., after having signalized himself in two fights with his Bhinga neighbour. He was succeeded by Raja Jai Narain Singh, who died young and without ofifspring in 1836, and was succeeded in his turn by his brother) the present Mah^rdja Sir Digbijai Singh, K. c. s. i., then a boy of eighteen. The new Raja inaugurated his reign by an attack on the Utraula Raja, Muhammad Khan, and in a sudden foray defeated the Pathdns, burnt Utraula, and carried off as trophies the Korans of his rival. He next sent a message to the powerful Raja of Tulsipur, demanding the zamindari dues which had been so often claimed by his ancestors. The demand was of course taken as an insult, and furnished the pretext for an irregular warfare which lasted for some time without any decisive results. The turbulent and aggressive spirit of the young Raja combined against him all the old enemies of his family, and he found it advisable to take refuge for a time with the Raja of B^nsi. On his way there, he and his seven followers were waylaid by Nal Singh, an old agent of his own, who had lately taken service with the Raja of Utraula, and escaped with difficulty the greatly superior force of the Pathans, losing one of his retainers. His return to Balrampur was followed by a few years of peace broken only by an unimportant engagement with Shankar Sahae Pathak, the celebrated niizim. Two years later, the terrible Rdja Darshan Singh was appointed to the Gonda-Bahraich division, and at once proceeded to loot and bum the town of Balrampur. Its Raja fled to Gorakhpur, and in the next year attempted to return to his people by the lower range of the Naipal hills. Darshan Singh received intelligence, and at once by an extraordinary forced march crossed the frontier an,d surprised the Raja's encampment, who barely escaped with his life. The punishment of Darshan Singh for this daring violation of the territory of a friendly power is a matter of Oudh history. On the removal of the dreaded nSzim, the Raja came down from Naipdl and resumed the engagement for his entire rdj, which he held uninterrupThe unnatural war between the Raja of Tulsipur tedly till annexation. and his son enabled him again to advance in arms his zamindari claim, and the dispute was compromised on the part of his enemy by the payment of a small sum in money and the revenue-free grant of a cluster of villages under the Tulsipur forests. In the principal of these, Bankatua,