Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/174

 166 PIR cation is afforded by the Sarayan, which bears country boats down to the Gumti at Hindaura Ghát, and thence to Lucknow. The only saráe in the whole pargana is at Kamálpur. There are five shiwálas or Hindu temples, the most famous being that in honour of Dúdh Nath in Pirnagar. This town also possesses a mosque built by a Hindu, Ráe Gansúr Dás; masonry tanks are unknown throughout the pargana, and the masonry wells, which are only 15 in number, are not used for irrigation, but for domestic purposes. The absence of all which things is to be accounted for by the impecuniosity of the zamindars. The only public (Government) structures in the pargana are the metal- led road and caravan-serai already mentioned, a masonry bridge at Pírnagar over the Saráyan, and an Engineer's bungalow on the high road at Dáúd- pur, close to Pirnagar. The pargana is not at all historically famous; no great heroes lived here; no great battles were fought; no Hindu hero or Delhi Badshah or Luck- now Nawab ever tarried in it for the pleasures of the chase, or in exile, as has happened in some of the other parganas. In fact, its history may be given in a few words, and runs thus:-- In the beginning, the country, now known as the pargana, was held by Bais Chhattris, not by Tilokchandi Bais, whose origin dates from only 400 years back, but by ancient Bais, and was part of their dominions, which went under the name of Chapángarh. They gradually became extinct, and were succeeded by Kacheras and Gujars, and Játs also, according to the qánúngos, who held sway under king Akbar's time, or 300 years ago, when Bhikhamdeo, a Tilokchandi Bais, and Than Singh, were granted the lands by that monarch, as a reward for having saved the life of the Ráni of Baundi (in Bahraich), who on her way to bathe in the sacred water of Prág (the modern Allahabad) had been seized by certain Moslem ravishers. So Tilok Chand Bais got the lands, which had just then been formed into a pargana by Todar Mal, and their descendants hold the greater part of nine-tenths of it to the present day; one village only out of the 54 is held by a descendant of the ancient Bais, and he is a Musal- man, as already mentioned. The pargana was known at first as Bahrimau, which name it retained until Jahangir's reign, when it was changed to Pírnagar, from the name of the town. The founder of this latter was Ráe Gansúr Dás, the Diwán of Pir Muhammad, then Subahdar of Oudh, and he named it after his master, and built the mosque abovementioned to calm the indignation which the subahdar felt on being informed that in the town founded in his honour a Hindu temple had been erected, The place is not mentioned in any of the older epics or histories of India, and the only remains of antiquity to be met with are 9 of those nameless barrows, called by the country folk dihs. These are mounds of earth varying in area from 20 to 50 acres, and raised from the surface of the ground by from 20 to 100 feet. They are covered with the remains