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 KUR 295 who had taken service with the Oel Raja of Kheri. By his help they re- covered Dhaurabra and their other villages. They re-established themselves, and being thrifty and making money, they lent to the Sayyads who were prodigal and spent it, and so the mortgaging went on. Koeli Singh got two or three more, and Zálim Singh, the present holder, succeeded in get- ting the whole estate but three villages. The Sayyads had tried force, and they now tried law. They brought the matter before the Lucknow courts and got a decree in 1251 fasli (A.D. 1844.) declaring that all the deeds were forged. Zálim Singh would not produce them. Perhaps he thought they were safer in his own hands. But he had to bolt, and the Sayyads, with the help of Rája Bisrán Singh of Mahágáon, got possession and barried the villages for three months; but Zalim Singh barried too, seizing his tenants, ploughs and beasts, and threatening all who consented to cultivate under the Šayyads. Finally the place was deserted, and the minister, Munawwar-ud-daula, sent pán leaves to Zálim, and asked him to return to his estate. So he came back ; but the Sayyads tried law a second time, and for the second time, three years before the annexation, got an order granting their possession. This time Zalim Singh staved off the blow, and he holds his estate assessed at Rs. 7,750 still. KURSI-Pargana KURSI–Tahsil FATEHPUR--District BARA BANKI. Kursi is the headquarter town of the Kursi pargand, sixteen miles from Lucknow, and eighteen from its district town of Bara Banki. It is crossed by two roads, one running north from Lucknow which passes on to Mahmu- dabad and Biswán in the Sitapur district, and the other west from Bara Banki, which joins the imperial road from Lucknow to Sitapur. Its population, is 3,650, and it contains a police station, Government school, registration, and post offices. The population is more than half Musalman; and the weaving and cotton cleaning trades fourish, but no bazar is held here; samples of agricultural produce only are brought to what market there is. The town has long belonged to Musalman proprietors, but it is said to have been built by two Bhars, Khushal and Mitħán, one of whom gave his name to Kursi, and the other to the village of Mithán, some four miles east of it. But another legend refers the foundation of the town to Kesri Dait, one of the servants of Banísur Dait, who lived at Rukhára near Mahona; and the old fort, the site of which can still be seen, is said to have been called the Kesrigarh. Kesri drove down a beam of sákhu wood into a tank called Songar, and offered to wrestle any one that could pull it out, but it has remained there unmoved to this day, and no one who has dug for it can reach its foundation. Still another tradition refers the foundation of the town to Lav and Kus, sons of Sri Ram Chandra, who built it in the Treta- yug, and the town was for some time called Kuslavi. These traditions are probably only due to the fanciful ideas of the natives who are addicted to such speculations. The origin is probably Bhar; for the same people are believed to have inhabited the Dewa Pargana which adjoins this to the east, and to have been overrun hy Rajput leaders acting under the authority of the Kanauj king.