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sovereignty doubtless passed at the time of the absorption into the pargana of Khairigarh.

The Siirajbans, on the other hand, represent that Kanchanpur belonged them but local report gives a third story, doubtless the true one, to the effect that a Brahman family had established its sovereignty there. At any rate, the Siirajbans family found a Brahman in possession, either as an independent chief or as an agent. They made war upon him, took him prisoner, and drowned him in the Chauka, near Marauncha Ghat, about 1830 A.D. He was known as Bhatji of Joraili. It must be added, however, that some of the most trustworthy members of the family do not to



confirm the magniloquent account above given, and content themselves with saying that the emperor conferred upon Arjun Mai, not the title of Mahdraja, but that of Sah, which they have ever since borne.

At any rate, from the time of the expulsion of the family from Dhoti in 1790 to that of their seizure of Kanchanpur in 1880, they wandered about, subsisting either on the charity of the Oudh nobles, or by fighting under the British Government.

When first driven down from Dhoti, they had tried to settle in Kanchanpur, which, as we have seen, had been included in Khairigarh by the Emperor Muhammad Shah. There occurred the first collision between them and the Khairigarh BanjAras. Rao Ram Singh attacked and plundered the refugees, according to their own account or, as is equally probable, repelled an invasion of his dominions by the hillmen, who, being robbed of their own territory, designed in turn to r6b their neighbour of his. The Siirajbans fled further south, and after a short stay in Rampur of Rohilkhand, and Shahabad, settled for a time in Bhiir pargana at Basantpur. They got that village from Rao Balwant Singh of Bhur, and Kalbaria of Khairigarh from their old enemy Ram Singh as a sort of maintenance, such as the nobles of India are always eager to provide for decayed members of their order.

About this time Dip Sah died, leaving two sons, Pirthip^l Sah and Raj Ganga S4h, who both aided the British in the war with the Gurkhas in 1812, and the former was rewarded with a perpetual pension of Rs, 2,400, which his descendants still enjoy. Raj Ganga Sah, as we have already seen, acquired Kanchanpur in 1821 A.D., and thence, with the aid of the Bhur raja, whose alliance he had secured by intermarriages, planned an attack upon the Banjdra estate, now held by Madho Singh and Gandu Singh. The Banjaras were defeated in 1830 ; Bardia, with most of the estate, was seized, but Gain Singh, the son of Madho Singh, still held out. Gain Singh was a man of prodigious personal strength ; he had only 25 men, but they defended the massive walls of the Khairigarh fort, which were then in fair preservation, till more than 300 of the enemy were killed. Gain Singh abandoned the fort, but returned in a few months with a large force which he had collected among his brethren in Pilibhit. The Siirajbans, who had seen something of real warfare under Ochterlony and Gillespie, lay in ambush for him in the primeval forest which lies in the north of the Suheli. Gain Singh's forces pushed through the forest in scattered order, occupied in guarding