Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/233

 RAE 225 The rani escaped, and on her flight to the Ganges was delivered of a son at the small village of Kotbhar on the confines of the Rae Bareli and Unao districts. This posthumous son was afterwards famous as Tilok Chand, the eponymous hero of the greatest of the Bais clans, the father or the founder of many castes of Rajputs, and to the present day no Bais passes the place of his birth without showing his respect by dismounting from his horse and going by barefooted. His mother arrived safely at Mainpuri, and the young chieftain passed the first twenty years of his life at the refuge which had sheltered his father and grandfather. In 1478 A.D., the opportunity arrived which was to enable him to humble his ancestral enemies and to put him in possession of far more than his ancestral property. Bablol Lodi had sent an expedition against Husen Shah of Jaunpur, which resulted in the defeat of the latter, and his exile to the Court of Alá- ud-dín of Bengal, and Tilok Chand took this opportunity to lead a large force of Rajputs from Mainpuri into Oudh.* Following the steps of his father, he crossed the Ganges near Baksar, and marching northwards defeated the Musalmans who garrisoned Kákori. His further advance in that direction was checked by the Pathans of Malihabad, and he had to be contentod with Kákori as the northern limit of his ráj. As his rule is the commencement of a now chapter in the history of the district, its consideration must be postponed for a short sketch of what had occurred in the northern and north-western parganas. As has been already mentioned, several families of Hindu zamindars settled in these parts when Abhai Chand made his first attempt at occupa tion in the south. Of these by far the most important were the Pándes of Shiunám, the founder of whose family, Baram Datt Pándo, like Abhai Chand, fought under the auspices of Gautam government, and like him, too, lived 24 generations ago. The next settlers, the Muhammadans of Bhilwal and Amáwán, were brought in by the invasions of Ibrahim Sharqi and his grandson Husen Shah, and are the ancestors of the present Chaudhri of Bhilwal, and the taluqdars of Pahremau and Amáwán. The Amethias, afterwards destined to be the most important family in the neighbourhood, were already hovering on the confines of Haidargarh. I will now briefly review the general aspect of the country before its con- quest by Tilok Chand. The element of a regular Government had been established by Ibrábím Sultan of Jaunpur whose lioutenant ruled from Dal- mau, and is still remembered by his tomb composed of vast bricks and slabs of kankar in a fine grove on the banks of the Ganges. Bhar forts were rebuilt and garrisoned and the surrounding country divided into tappas for the administration of justice and the collection of a preca- rious revenue. Makhdúm Bakhsh and his two sons, Jahangir and Ruka- ud-dín, were left as qázis at Rae Bareli; and the most important of the present Musalmans of Dalmau and Salon, Parshádepur and Mánikpur, are descended from judges appointed under the same rule and reinstated at the second conquest by Husen Shah. 29 The principal
 * He gave help to Bahlol Lodi by storing food.-See Ferishta,