Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/245

 RAE 237 He was was much the most powerful. These scattered sketches of the scions of this great family will, it is boped, afford an idea of the utter historical con- fusion and actual anarchy which the rule of a Hindu clan exemplifies. Although so nearly connected, the ráo and rája were soon at deadly feud with one another. Bảo Kanak Singh killed the rája of the time being, who had previously killed his brother Barsinghdeo. The blood feud was never stanched, and the rája was the chief sufferer, for though the ráo in later days was highly unpopular, and the sympathies of every Bais except his own branch of the family were against him, he kept up a constant pres- sure on the rája, till he reduced him almost to a nonentity, his estate having fallen away to Rs. 6,000 in 1856. In the ninth generation from Tilok Chand, about 1,700 A.D., Ráo Mar- dan Singh was beginning to be famous. Áitherto the ráos had been content with the seven and a half parganas which form the Daundia Khera estate, but Mardan Singh recovered the seven parganas in the Unao district, which had been lost to Baiswara since Tilok Chand's time, and he also took from the Simbasis by force of arms, the greater part of Pátan and Bihár. About the same time, Chaitráj, an illegitimate son of Sidhauli, separated from his father's house, and built a fort at Pachhimgaon (pargana Maurán wán), where he acquired a considerable estate. a skilful and daring warrior, and though none of them would have admitted him to sit or eat on equal terms with them, the whole Naihesta branch recognised his superiority in warlike matters; so that he was looked on as the military leader of that portion of the Bais. Many ballads are extant extolling his gallant deeds, and one of them narrates the following story, which is interesting, not only as an example of Rajput pride, but as illustrating the nature of a revenue settlement in those days. When Saádat Khan was appointed Governor of Oudb, he found that the revenue system of the province had fallen into great dis- order under his predecessor, Rája Girdhar Bahadur, and he resolved to repair this by a personal progress through the country and examination into the state of things. When he reached Maurán wán he summoned all the qánúngos of Baiswara, and called on them to produce the “daul" or rent-roll of their respective parganas. They said what daul will you have, and on being asked the meaning of their answer, they explained that there were two dauls which a qánúngo could give in-the "coward's daul” and the man's daul.” In the "coward's daul" against every land- owners name was written only the same sum which had beeu fixed on him at the last assessment, but in the “man's daul” every one's rent was raised in proportion to the improvement that had taken place in his land, Saadat Khan called for the man's daul," and the assessment of Baiswara was doubled. Then having summoned the agents of all the rájas and landowners in full darbár, he placed before him on one side a heap of pán leaves, on the other a heap of bullets, and bade the agents, if their masters accepted the terms offered them, to take up the pán, if not, the bullets. One after another they came forward and every one took up a pán leaf. Saadat Khan turned round to one of his courtiers, and said in a snecring aside"I had heard