Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/227

 KHE 219 hold a few villages in Mubamdi tahsil, are of unknown antiquity. The Raikwárs, whose head, tbe Ráo of Mallúpur, has a large estate in Firozabad, came from Banndi in Babraich about the commencement of the seven- teenth century. The Bisens formerly held all Dhaurahra and Srinagar, which last they only lost in 1824, they have not now a square yard of land in either pargana. The aboriginal Janwárs, that is, the earlier clan as distinguished from the later settlement of Chauháns which also appro- priated the name, have lost all their villages. A few families of Panwárs and Sombansis possess one or two clusters of villages in Muhamdi. Of late years these castes have been extending the range of tlieir matri- monial alliances. The Pahári Surajbans used to give their daughters to the Jángre and Abban, now they are sent with large dowries to hill chiefs in the Punjab. The Janwár girls, if rich, are now married to the Ráthor's and Kachhváhas of Rajputana, formerly they sought local alliances. Numbers of the clans.- None of these clans of Chhattris are remarkable by reason of their numbers ; the Jángres, Raikwárs, Surajbans combined do not number above 50 adult males, although they own four parganas; the Ahbans do not reckon above the same number, while three or four Janwárs, Sikhs, Khánzádas, and Englishmen divide lalf the district between them. All these Chhattris refuse to guide the plough with their own hands, but they will take a liand at irrigation or spade labour, or any other farm handiwork. Their military tastes are not pronounced; few of them were formerly in the military service of the Company; and since the death of Jodha Singh* not a single gallant or martial deed is related of any of their body. The Ahbans la bour under a superstitious aversion to build lionses of bricks or line wells with them. Tenures.—I append tables showing the propriotary right exercised by the different castes and religious sects in Kheri, also one showing the pro- perty held by the large landowners. There are it appears four estates, cach measuring above 100,000 acres in the district, but Rájas Amír Hasan Khan, Ranjit Singh, Muneshwar Bakhsh, the Rája of Kapárthala, Wazír Chand have all large estates in other districts. There are in fact nine landowners in Kheri whose estates in that or other districts average about 220 square miles each. There are twelve proprietors holding more than 20,000 acres each; their estates average 77,000 acres or 120 square miles in Kheri alone; they hold 1,435 square miles or more than half the district, and they control a population of about 400,000 in this district, and of at least a million in Oudh. The rest of the villages (656) are owned by zamindars, many of whom have two or three villages : there are 780 of thege men. There are also a number of subordinate tenures, of which 873 have been decrced in the courts. The tenantry have no fixity of tenure. Sce Dhaurahra.