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576

Being a well-known place of great antiquity, it is probable that Slier Shah, or'even Sikandar Lodi, may have selected it as a per-gaon' or parentThey village, suited to be a fiscal unit in the imperial revenue system. say that formerly it comprised seven hundred villages, and that the Chandra and Maholi parganas of Sitapur were included in it. In the third book of the Ain-i-Akbari, Todar Mai's assessment of 1586 A.D. is recorded, with '

these statistics



Pargana Gopamau-Nimkhar, Sarkar Khairabad. Cultivated area 107,308 blghas, 5 biswas.

Land revenue

5,620,468 dams.

Cesses 50,522 dams.

Zamindars, Rajput Bisens and Chawars

A masonry fort



(?)

100 troopers and 3,500 foot

soldiers.

Other editions show Bachhils for Bisens, and Chawar is considered by the author of the Kheri article to mean Ahban. " It is apparent," says Mr. McMinn, " that the Ahbans held at this time (1536 A.D.) various demesnes scattered over the country in Gopamau and Bhurwara." Here, as elsewhere in

this

most interesting district, the dawn of shows the Buddhist Thatheras in

traditional history Historical events.

Their settlements in this pargana were at Mawwa Sarae or Mawwa Chdchar. In Mawwa Sarae there was even then a renowned emblemof Ma hadeo, known To this day it may be seen, a " ling" of black stone and as Gopi Nath. two fraginents of sculptured bas-relief, on one of which you trace the elephant head of Ganesh, placed on a water- worn block of kankar. possession.

Bhainsri,

and

—

Gradually the fame of the Ndth obscured the name of the village, and Gopi Mau or Gopa Mau became the name by which it was known. It seems to have been still held by the Thatheras when in A.D. 1032 Sayyad Salar MasaM fixed his head-quarters at Satrikh inBaraBanki,and "sent out armies on every side to conquer the surrounding country. Salar Saif-uddin and Mian Rajjab he despatched against Bahraich. Amir Hasan, Arab, against Mahona Mir Sayyad Aziz-ud-din, celebrated now as the Lai Pir, against^Gopamau and its vicinity and Malik Fazl against Benares and



neighbourhood" (Mira-at-i-Masaudi. Elliot's History of India, II.,p. 534) terrible battle is said to have been fought between the Lai Pir and the Thaiheras. The battle-field is still pointed out, under the name of Shahidganj, and the writer has been assured on the spot that as each season's rains scours the surface, bones of the slain there buried are laid bare. The Chishti Shekhs of Gopamau had, but have lost, a memoir of the Lai Pir and his campaign. They tell you that he fought with Ahbans, not Thatheras. That at first he was victorious and encamped at Gopamau for two years but that two years after the death of Sayyad SaMr at Bahraich, he and his army were overpowered, and put to the sword.

its

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