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 SAR 307 recognized priests. They first settled at Basowa in this pargana about six miles soutlı-east of Piháni, on the border of a large jbíl. From thence they scattered to all quarters, colonizing and conquering. They establish- ed, according to their own account, 370 villages in the purganas principally of Sara, Báwau, Bangar, and Gopamau. They differ entirely from tlic Chamar Gaurs who came from near Cawnpore, whose hereditary priests are Tiwari Bralımans. The Thákurs having established military stations rather than colonies, I do not think that they eyer condescended to touch a plough. They have beld their villages with a tight hand ever since. Up to the establishment of the Oudh Government they were de facto and de jure lords of the soil. They were subject to the Mitauli rája, an Ahban Thákur, but he does not seem to have interfered with their possession. Shah Alam of Delhi granted a few villages rent-free to the Qázi of Bári, which were afterwards resumed by the Oudh Government, but with that exception I can find no traces of disturbance in the holding of the terri- tory till the reigu of Asif-ud-daula. In his reign, Saádat Khan, the ancestor of the Nawab Dost Ali Khan, being tahsildar of the pargana, and a man of great ability, managed through mortgages, purchases, and other well known means, to become master of about forty villages in the north and east of the pargana, and shortly afterwards Jagannath, a qánúngo, violent and unscrupulous, mastered some more. The Thákurs took to the jungles, followed by their asamis. The new Kayaths and Musalman proprietors found their conquest barren, and after having got sanads they gradually abandoned their gains. Saadat Ali Khan, with his well known exactitude, finding the revenue falling, farmed the four parganas to a family of Kashmíri Brahmans, who had entered India with Zamán Shah or rather Ahmad Shah Dauráni, and entered the service of the king of Oudh. Their farm lasted with brief interruptions from 1210 fasli (A.D. 1803) up to 1264 fasli (A.D. 1857). The taluqdars were driven out, many villages were settled khám, or the collections made through resident Kachhis. The exactions grew heavier and heavier, and the Thákurs abandoned village after village. There was no room for village lam bardars, and no margin of profit for taluqdars. The settlements were always largely in excess of those now holding. In every village there are desolate quar- ters of bare rain-washed walls, which represent the old cots of the peasan- try that fled from Kidárnáth and his Kaslımíri brethren. The Thákurs are, I should think, declining in numbers. They have very few children; many not married, and plead poverty. They were much oppressed in the times of Kidárnáth, whom, however, they always mention with respect. His mode of adjusting balaaces was peculiar. Being a Brahman, though of low caste, and a smoker of the huqqa, he used to visit villages which had not paid up, and place himself at the lambardar's door in dharna, vowing neither to cat nor drink till the rupees were forthcoming The thákurs never ventured to be contumacious, and hurried their buffaloes to the nearest bazar, He sometimes devolved the execution of this religious tcrrorism upon Brahman chaprásis. He was a man of conscience, however, and refused bribes and presents. I have little to add to these interesting notes. The only derivation that the yanúugog can offer for the name is, that of old the paryata was a