Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/453

 MAL As noted in the pargana article tradition derives the name from Mál, the country name for a wrestler, and asserts that Rája Jai Chand of Kanauj cantoned his wrestlers here. An early Ahir settlement called Gházipura is also said to have been here at the time of the Ghorian conquest; while the Chishti Shekhs claim that a remnant of the followers of Sayyad Sáfár Gházi survived the campaign, the only visible memorial of which that they can point out is a tomb in Uncha Tola of one of the martyr host. The preservation of such tombs, rather numerous in Oudh, is a strong corroboration of the tradition that Muhammadans of the invading army remained in Oudh, and preserved the relics of the brilliant but unsuccessful crescentade of the Prince of Martyrs. The pargana article mentions the circumstances under which Sikandar Lodi (1488-1516) encouraged Muhammadans to settle here, and appointed a qázi. The qánungos and chaudhris of the pargana were also located here, and in later times the Chakladar of Mallanwán and Sandſla used fre- quently to reside here. To its official importance alone must its size be attributed; for it has little commercial activity, The grain trade of the neighbourhood is carried on at Mádhoganj five miles off. A deserted indigo factory, started but abandoned by Mr. Churcher, occupies the site of the old Nawabi fort. A manufacture of saltpetre has recently been begun. The town contains four mosques, a dargáh of Makhdúm Shah (Misbah- ul-Ashiqío), two imámbáras, fifteen shiwálas, twenty-four masonry wells, and a mud sarãe built by Hakim Mehndi in 1808. As at Bilgram many of the brick buildings are faced with large hewn blocks of kankar to a height of about three feet from the ground. The dargáh of Makhdům Shah, and the mosque of his pupil Qázi Bhíkbári, are thus faced through out, the kankar slabs being relieved here and there with rod sandstone. Their style resembles that of Sadr Jahán's Mausoleum at Piháni. There is a fine well of the same period, also lined with blocks of the same mate- rial. The blocks thus used in one of the mosques have evidently been taken from some other building, but apparently at the restoration of the mosque, not at its original construction. I am inclined to believe that these kankar blocks have been taken from ancient Hindu and Buddhist shrides, of which the only relics now to be found are such fragments, built into Muhammadan structures, and the broken sculptures that one sees so frequently grouped under some venerable pípal tree. In the only ancient stone Hindu temple which I have yet seon in Oudh (at Sakar Daba ia Partabgarh), the basement of the shrine consisted of several layers of precisely similar blocks of hewa kankar, built up upon a solid square tope of bricks of great size. The Asa Debi in Mallánwán is a relic of some such shrine, Its seven-headed Nága hood sheltering a female figure points to a Buddhist origin. There is a bi-weekly market on Mondays and Thursdays in Gurdásganju Bhagwantnagar contains a good many braziers' (Thatheras') shops. The town has a local reputation for its combs. 57