Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/258

 250 KHE Chhattris united at once by common interest and a common origin, by one blood and one faith-- Ali Akbar Khan was defeated in the first battle. He appealed to the Nawab of Fatehgarh, Ahmad Khan Bangash, who had left a great pame as a warrior throughout the middle half of the eighteenth century. Aid was sent, and Ali Akbar, coming from Fatehgarh with his allies, again fought the Gauts near Maikalganj on the road from Sitapur to Sháhja- hanpur. The gathering of the north Oudh clans in this great struggle of Musalman against Hindu was such that the ground was covered thick with elephants' ordure, and on the space so fertilized a village rose, still existing, which from the circumstance was named Lidiána. Again the Gaurs won. Raja and Nawab had no chance against the free men of the Chhattri commonwealth. Ali Akbar fled northwards towards Pilibhít where he begged aid from the Rohillas of the Dubb. This race was then in the height of their prosperity. Five years previously they had fought on the victorious side with Ahmad Shah, Daurâni, at Panipat, and crushed the great Hindu revival of the Mahrattas south of the Ganges. They were not likely to look on quietly while a Chhattri clan mastered all north Oudh, soon to carry the war doubtless into the borders of Rohil- khand. They joined the Rája of Muhamdi, and fought the Gaurs at the town of Mailáni, in one of those open clearings surrounded on every side by many miles of the densest forest which are common in this part of Oudh, The Gaurs were defeated, but they withdrew at once into the woods which covered their rear, and rendered pursuit impossible without the aid of artillery. The Rohillas replaced Ali Akbar Khan in the ráj of Muhamdi, and seized for themselves Khairigarh and Dhaurahra, which they soon abandoned. This raid of theirs, however, was long remembered in Oudh, as they mutilated every image and defiled every temple they met on the march. Ali Akbar Khan is said to have oppressed the legiti- mate Sayyad descendants of Khurram, but the only instance of oppres- sion related is, that in one of his raids having captured an exquisitely beautiful Káchhi girl belonging to the Sudra tribe, he gave her in mar- riage to Najábat Ali, a Sayyad of pure blood, at the latter's earnest request. He thereby contaminated the spotless blood which as yet had only mixed with Brahmans and Chhattris. Ali Akbar Khan had ten gons by many wives, but most of them died childless. Ghulam Nabi Khan who succeeded in 1189 A.H. (A.D. 1775), was a revenue defaulter—that is to say, that he paid a great deal less money than the Government of Lucknow would like to have received. True, his ancestors had done just the same, and had paid a merely nominal tribute; but things had now changed. The Nawab of Oudh had allied himself with the British, had just beaten the Rohillas, and was now, with the aid of Eng- lish troops, crushing all opposition from among the ancient nobles of the country, Rája Sital Parshád and Ismail Beg, moved out against Ghulam Nabi Khan. The latter could make no resistance, was taken prisoner to Luck-
 * One past of old renown.”