Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/235

 RAE 227 one caste of Brahmans are grateful to him for their cord and their privi- leges, while it is indisputable that he largely increased the number of Chhattri clans. The Ahir Bhále Sultáns, the Kanár Mahrors, and the Pargáhis directly ascribe their elevation to him; and numerous castes in the Fyzabad and Gonda districts, such as the Gandharias, the Naipurias, the Barwars, and the Cháhus claim to have been originally Bais, while the equal length of their pedigrees shows that they were established in those districts at about the cominencement of the sixteenth century. There are besides numerous families of small zamindars in the east of this district who call themselves Bharadhi Bais, and whose want of any tradition of immigration and peculiar religion distinguish them from the pure Bais of the west. Two traditions connected with the Bais colonies on the Gogra deserve to be recorded. One is that as Achal Singh was going to bathe at Fyza- bad, a Bais zamindar offered him tribute, and the rája gratefully ordered him to assume the new name of Naipuria. Naipuria is not a more honour- able name than Bais, and the literal tradition is obviously improbable, but the times to which the story refers make it significant. Achal Singh was the last of eight Kalhans rájas, and was succeeded in Gonda by fifteen Bisen rájas, the last of which was the celebrated Debi Bakhsh Singh who lost his estates in the mutiny. The numbers of the generations show that Achal Singh was contemporaneous with Tilok Chand, and the creation of the Naipurias is also referred to that rája's reign. A second tradition tells how Rae Amba, the son of Tilok Chand, and his younger brother, Ráe Mardan, were sent with 5,000 cavalry to Janak- pur Tirhoot in the Naipál tarái. On their way back a Sangaldípi Brah- man living on the banks of the Gumti complained to him that the Bhar King of Hastinaghiát had made an offer of marriage to his daughter. The ráe represented that he could not take a fort with his cavalry, and advised the Brahman to pretend to submit to the desires of the Bhar. He consequently went to Hastinaghát, professed himself delighted at the prospect of so illustrious an alliance, and invited the rája to come at an early date and bear away his bride. The unsuspecting monarch imme- diately set forth with his servants and people in holiday costume, and on retiring to their encampment after a day spent in revelry, fell an easy and perhaps inglorious prey to the arms of the Chhattri chieftain. This service was rewarded by the grant of the zamindari of the Bhar kingdom. Ráe Amba had a son called Ráe Bidad, who lived at Gajanpur, and was succeeded by his son Ráe Dúdhieh who turned Muhammadan, and was the ancestor of all the present Musalman Bhále Sultáns, a name derived from the bhála or light javelin with which this cavalry was armed. Tilok Chand established a series of forts at Khíron (Sáthanpur), Sang- rámpur, and Rae Bareli, the latter of which he entrusted to his favourite Díwán and half Rajput Lál Nább Ráe. The whole of the traditions connected with this remarkable man lead us to suppose that he embraced the project