Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/399

 — — BIL—BIR the emperor one-third of

its

321

revenues in jdgir. They

still

have a good

estate.

BILKHAWAN BAD. — A town

Pargana Mangalsi

—Tahsil

Tyzabad

—District

Fyza-

18 miles west of Fyzabad, on the road from Lucknow to Fyzabad the railway also passes through it. The town was founded by Belak Sah, Bais Chhattri, who gave it a name derived from himself The population consists of 194 Musalmans, all Sunnis, and 1,997 Hindus, ^total 2,191. There is one temple, a thakurdwara.

—

BILWAI Pargana Surhaepur—Tahsil Kadipur—District pur.

—There was formerly a tank

Sultan-

A

in this village surrounded by jungle. hundred years ago an image of Mahadeo was dug out of the raised bank of this tank, which has since been regularly worshipped.

The 13th day of Phagun is set apart as a day of when rice, butter, and such like trifles are

this idol,

fasting in offered

honour of

up by 1,000

or

Articles of food 1,200 persons living within a circle of 15 or 20 miles. and brass vessels are alone brought for sale. It is somewhat strange that in a pargana where the large majority of the present inhabitants are Hindus, this image should be left in solitude to mark the existence of their idol-worship, while there are many places dedicated by the Muham-

madans

BIRHAR

to their religion.

—

—

—

Pargana* Tahsil Tanda District Fyzabad. This pargana, which is of irregular shape, beautifully studded with clumps of bamboos and groves, and which is moreover in parts distinguished for the picturesqueness of its scenery, is bounded on the north by the river Gogra, on the east by zila Azamgarh, on the south by parganas Surharpur and Akbarpur, and on the west by the latter pargana and Tanda, all of which sub-divisions belong to this district.

In addition to the navigable river Gogra, which runs east and west along the whole northern face of the pargana for a distance of 35 miles, it is touched on the east border by the Birdha-Sarju, a tributary of the Gogra while a small unnavigable stream, the Pikya, takes its rise in the centre of the pargana in the Garha jhil and falls into the rivulet last

named. in the rest of eastern Oudh, the Bhars were dominant in this pargana about 600 years ago, when they shared the fate of those Hindu dynasties that perished with Pithaura Raja at the fall of Delhi. The Musalmans soon overcame the Bhars, and the latter have been without landed possesThe Bhars are locally supposed to have emisions for about 400 years. grated into Orissa, and to be identical with the Bhuyas. It may be noted that Sir Henry Elliot also traced affinity between the Bhars and Bhuyas. I however have a theory of my own in regard to the disappearance of the Bhars which I shall discuss anon.

As

till



By Mr.

Patrick Carnegy, Commissioner

X