Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/460

 452 MAN It is here that the old Lucknow road enters the Fyzabad distriet. Flanked by ruins at almost every turn, it is interesting throughout its whole course, and the shade of its many avenues brings it to this day to be more frequented by native travellers than the adjoining British high- way. There are bazars at every second or third mile, and the traffic along it in former days must have been more considerable than one is at first disposed to believe. The number of wells that dot its side is astonish- ing. They seem to have been all constructed by private liberality. After leaving Begamganj the old road enters the village of Dhaurahra in which there is a large bazar called Muhammadpur. On the outside of the town embowered in woods is a gateway of handsome proportions, said to have been built by Asif-ud-daula, who was struck by the beauty of the place when on his way to shoot at the Bakra jhíl. 11 the other side is a very ancient Hindu shrine, shaded by a magnificent grove of tamarind trees. The tradition is that there was a well there from time immemorial. There was jungle round the well. It was twelve kos from Ajodhya—a mystic, stage and Mahádeo lived there. Certain faqirs on their journey to Ajodhya conceived the design of removing Mahádeo and exhibiting him for gain, like the relic-sellers of the middle ages. So by night they began to dig him out (his body was in the earth), but as they dug his head retreated into the ground, and in horror they fled. In the morning the neighbours came to worship, and beheld the wonder. Chitải Sáh, a devout merchant of Mubárakganj, built a dome over the sacred spot, and not to be outdone, Girdhári Sáh, another merchant, but of Rámnagar, surrounded the dome with a masonry platform and lofty walls. It is sadly in ruins, and the neighbours are not now sufficiently pious to put it in repair. Beyond this is the village of Hájipur. In the middle of it the road reaches a hamlet known both as Begamganj and as Umarpur. The Begam Sábib hoped to establish a bazar there, and she furnished it with a gateway at each entrance. But the gateways seem to have never been completed. The domes that crowned it were plastered, and the work stopped. The arches have fallen in, and the structures have hastened to a premature decay. The hamlet is still ruinous. The most pretentious of the houses belonged to one Dál Singh, who made a great fortune in the Meerut distillery, and removed his family there, leaving the paternal mansion to the care of an old woman, A number of eunuchs live in this place; they built a mosque seventy years ago, which they keep in excellent repair. On the west of the village is a very old mosque in complete ruin, It is known as that of Pir Khwaja Hasan, whose grave adjoins it. The faqir in charge declares the pir belonged to Sayyad Sálár's army, but the well beside the mosque, which is still in good order, is said to be of the same date. A faujdar, whose name has passed from the memory of the living: lies buried near by. Between this and Ronahi there are two small bazárs, Mubárakganj and Aliganj, but in these there is nothing of note. Near Sunába are numerous tombs, declared by the Muhammadans to be the graves of soldiers of Sayyad Sálár, the invader of Oudh in 1030 A.D. The Musalmans of