Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/234

 226 RAE The Bais parga- The whole country was still mainly occupied by the Bhars, but in the south the Shekh zamindars of Jalálpur, Dehi and Bhái, had been set- tlod for two generations, the Kanhpurias were present at the north-east, in the north were the colonies of the six or seven tribes of Hindus and the Patháns of Amáwán, while on the borders of the Rae Bareli and Luck now districts, the Amethias and the Shekhs of Bhilwal were face to face, and had already laid the foundations of a family feud. nas of the south-west were empty of their legitimate owners and pro- bably abandoned to the Bhars. In a few years a complete change was to be effected, and the commencement of the sixteenth century may be regarded as the beginning of our modern history. The reign of Tilok Chand is probably the most interesting and impor- tant epoch in the bistory of Oudh, and it is here that I particularly deplore the scantiness of my information. The traditions connected with it are at once extravagant and meagro, but through the mists of time we can still discern the figure of a conqueror and a statesman. Of the details of his conquests little is known, and it is probable that as he led a considerable force into a country which had been distracted for two hun- dred years by the constant wars of the Hindus, the Muhammadans, and the old inhabitants, in the course of which struggle every party had been weakened ; and succeeded to the comparativoly strong government of Jaun- pur, which must have greatly reduced the chances of a successful opposi- tion, he found little difficulty in asserting his supremacy over the whole of eastern Oudh from the Gogra to the Ganges, and from the gates of Lucknow to Partabgarh, of the Sombansis. The only defeat which is recorded of him is when his pretensions were successfully resisted by the Patháng of Malihabad; and, indeed, his conciliatory policy was not likely to provoke opposition except in the case of a proud and powerful Musalman family who could not endure even the nominal superiority of a Hindu chieftain. The Brahmans of Sultanpur relate that in his old age, like another king of distinguished wisdom, he supported the prodigious responsibility of an establishment of three hundred wives, and by them became the father of a family countless as the sands of the sea.* The princesses of Rewa and Mainpuri to whom he had originally been married, disgusted by an associ- ation in which the dignity of castes had not been respected, fled from his castle and gave rise to a distinction between the Bais from within (Bhitaria) and the Bais from without (Baharia), those from without being the offspring of the genuine Rajput blood, while those from within were of contaminated lineago, and occupied a doubtful position in the class system. The Káyaths of Rae Bareli are never weary of repeating and embellishing the tale of their adoption, and the fact that to the present day their leading families receive the title of Thákur, shows that it is not a pure invention. A probable tradition connects the final establishment of the Kanhpurias in Tiloi and Simrauta with this chief's reign, and the story of his creation of new castes is too well attested and too much opposed to the spirit of Hindu invention to admit of doubt. More than
 * The same story is told of Sai Bahan, but the application to Tilok Chand is valuable.