Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/649

 GON

571

the son of Dunia Singh. Dunia Singh was elder brother of Hindupat Singh, and they were sons of Pahlwan Singh, a younger son of Udatt Singh. Hindupat was anxious to seize the estate by taking advantage of the minority of Guman Singh. He therefore induced the rani, on pretence of anxiety to provide for her greater comfort and security than was afforded by Gonda in those turbulent days, to undertake a journey in a palki to Bankata, an old family residence, with a view to her residing there.

The rani was attacked in her palki on the road and murdered. Then Hindupat seized the estate. Guman Singh thought it wise to conceal himself. He found friends in Karia Ram, Mardan Ram, and Umrao Ram, Pandes, connected with his family as mahajans. Hindupat lived by the Radhakund, and the Pandes not far off. The latter watched their opportunity, and one day Karia Ram and Mardan Ram, hearing that Hindupat was lying ill at home, called on him. He was not aware that they were leagued with Guman Singh, and admitted them. They found him alone on his bed and sympathised with him in his sickness, but suddenly fell on him and killed him. Zorawar Kunwar, finding her husband murdered, rushed out with her infant son in her arms, but the murderers pursued her, seized her child at the side of the R^dha Kund and killed him. Guman Singh then ascended the gaddi. The widow, Zorawar Kunwar, went to Lucknow to entreat the darbar to avenge her husband's murder. She went daily with torches at noon to the entrance of the darbar, and succeeded in attracting attention. When asked what she meant by this strange conduct, she replied that all was now dark to her even by day and she needed light. Then she told her story.

The darbar imprisoned her husband's murderers for life, and gave her the ilaqa of Mahnon, which she passed to her husband's younger broThis did not put an end to the Pandes. Raja Tikait Rae, ther's nephew. and had therefore much Jagjiwan Das, a faqir of Kotwa, in Bara Banki zila, held the diwan under some obligation. He wished to have Guman Singh marry his daughter. Tikait Rae proposed to Guman Singh to procure the release of the Pandes if he married this young lady. Guman Singh assented. The marriage took place. The darbar ordered that the Pandes should be transported beyond the Ganges. They were accordingly brought out from prison in Lucknow, publicly shaved, paraded on donkeys through the streets of the city, and conveyed beyond the sacred stream. They returned, however, to Gonda, and became the protdg^s in turn of their prot^g.^. Raja Guman Singh lived much at Khargupur. a Kayath, was diwan of Nawab influence in the

Lucknow

A'sif-ud-daula,

darbar.

He was a debauchee, and his with him on this ground.

wife,

who was

of a faqir's stock, quarrelled

He had no issue, because, they say, his father-in-law- took offence at some occurrence during the marriage ceremony of his daughter, and breathed a curse on him. Guman Singh was succeeded by his nephew, Debi Bakhsh, who was the last of the Gonda rfijas. The ill-omened monkey appeared on the chilbil tree of Bhagwan Gir in ~his reign, and fate solved the prophecy of that seer on Debi Bakhsh. He joined the rebels in the mutiny of 1857, and on the re-occupation he fled from the British forces and disappeared. He has not been heard of since.