Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/462

 454 MAN the new metalled highway near Jalálabad. Between the two roads stand the ruins of a mosque known as Pírnagar. It is said that twelve gene- rations ago Ali Khan, a Risáldár at the court of Delhi, taking some umbrage made off with his troops to this part of the country, which was then in the kingdom of Jaunpur. A detachment of the imperial army Fas sent in pursuit of him, and he took refuge with his men in a jungle at the foot of the hills near Utraula in the Gonda district. He was there surrounded and killed. A thousand of his men, they say, shared his fate, but his son got the zamindari of the pargana of Utraula by sycopbancy to the Pádsháh. His descendants are still powerful proprietors there. His Dafadár, Jalál Khan, founded Jalálabad. A pírzáda officer of his corps built the mosque of Pírnagar, and another mosque was built at Kot Sará- wan close by in honour of five brothers, Risáldars in his force, who were killed there in a battle. In the village of Jalálabad there is a crumbling tomb of unusual size, said to have been erected to the memory of the wife of Sayyad Nauroz Ali; but no descendants of the Sayyad, or of any of a band of settlers, which must have been numerous, now survive in the neighbourhood. A short distance beyond Pimagar, and on the very border of the high road, is the mosque of the “ Panj-bhayya," which has just been mentioned. It is in excellent preservation. Inside the enclosure are the graves of the five brothers, and an upright diagonal monolith of coarsc stone, said to be in honour of their mother a most uncommon form of tombstone in this part of the country. On the western side are the remains of a large masonry platform, flanked by heavy pillars, which is called a " Ganj-i. Shahidán," the burial-place of Musalman martyrs. The villagers state, curiously enough, that the battle in which these men fell was a battle with the Bhars. As the village took its name of " Kot-Saráwan," from its being the headquarters of the Bais estate or tappa of 52 villages, it would seem to follow that the immigration of the Muhammadan soldiers, who fought the battle and built the mosque, was prior to that of the Bais. And yet the Bais detail sixtcen generations from their arrival, while the Muhammadans reckon only twelve. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the defeated "Bhars" were Bais. Still it is unaccountable that the victors, who entombed their dead and maintained their mosque, permitted the territorial supremacy of the vanquished Bais. At the next milestone is the village of Mumtáznagar. There is an old mosque there also built by Mumtáz Khán, a Pathán of the west country. None of his descendants are alive, and no one knows anything about him, but even the Hindus of the place regard the building with reverence. They put their foreheads to the stones on entering it, and a Bhát, who has recently cone to the village, religiously lights it on feast-nights. An inscription in stone over the postal bears the date "1025" [1616 A.D., time of Jahangir]. The mosque is dilapidated, but like most of these ancient buildings had been very strongly constructed of kankar blocks. Over the trees one sees from this on the south the dome of Tájpur Maqbara (mausoleum). The Patháns of Tájpur are a very small and poor family, but they trace their descent to one Jamál Khan, who, they say,