Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/663

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685

So after a pause lie bade Sayyad Salar to be of good ebeer for that in tomorrow's onslauglit he would surely be the conqueror. Then he called the rdjas and counselled them to fly by night with their wives and little ones into the forest, for it had been revealed to him that in tomorrow's combat victory would be with the invader, and they would all surely perish. And on that same night they passed out into the forest. And in the morning when Sayyad Salar advanced to the attack, behold, there were none to oppose him. So he plundered the city, and cast down the sacred temples, and brake in pieces the holy images, and slew those of the people who had not passed away with the rajas. But when Sayyad Salar had marched on to Bahraich, after a time more battles were fought at Gopamau. And Lai Pir his religious preceptor, whom he had left to hold Gopamau was slain and other great captains. And at the last, at Bahraich, Balar Suraj slew Sayyad Salar himself And when Rajas Gopi and Sopi heard thathewasdead they fasted one whole day and mourned that so great and renowned a noble should have been slain and sorrowed that he had not been taken captive And Azmat Shah took poison and died and his tomb is in Azmatalive. tola to this day. And some say that Gopi and Sopi fought and conquered their way up to the mountains and ruled there, and their descendants are The legend is of interest in there to this day and are called Gurkhas. connection with the often noticed fact that in Oudh the bitterness between is much fainter than elsewhere. The conflict of tradition (see pargana Gopamau) as to whether the Lai Pir fought Thatheras or Ahbans is perhaps to be accounted for by the supposition that during the Muhammadan occupation of three years, he had to fight The first displacement of Thatheras by Chhattris was still new and both. fresh when Sayyad Salar reached Oudh, and both may have forgotten for awhile their mutual struggle in the effort to repel the common foe. It would be interestincr to know whether elsewhere the success of the Muhammadan invader is attributed by tradition to similar treachery by a holy darIf it is, the fact would probwesh to his unsuspecting Hindu protectors. ably point to an ancient, ingenious, and highly successful working of secret service agency for the extension of the Muhammadan empire. The

Hindu and.Muhammadan

comparative shortness of the interval between the holy man's arrival and the invasion, seems to the writer to point in the direction of this hypothesis.

The chief development of the town took place in the reign of Humayun who seems first to have appointed a chaudhri and qazi for the pargana and to have stationed them here. Till 1801 when Sa^dat All replaced the d,mil by a chakladar and made Tandiaon his head-quarter instead of Gopamau, the place seems to have thriven well. Many of its residents attained high posts under the

empire and contributed to

its

wealth and importance.

The history of the principal buildings and muhallas is in itself an epitome of the gradual growth of Muhammadan influence in Gopamau. Thus his army in the shrine, of Gopi the Ldl Pir is said to have been buried by

N£th a brick temple with three doors facing to the nortL In A. D. 1232, Khwaia Taj-ud-din Husen, Chishti Shekh, was posted at Gopamau by earthwork and built an unemdosed Sultan Altamsh, and threw up an