Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/327

 SAR 319 Gaur Rajputs under the command of Kuber Sáh. A little later, and about a generation before the fall of Kanauj, their cxpulsion was conipleted by the Sombansis under the following circumstances. A strong body of Sombansis headed by Rája Sátan migrated southwards from Delhi and established themselves at Sátan Khera (Sándi, Thence they spread over the whole of the Barwan pargana and into the Pali and (what is now) the Saromannagar country, gradually driving out the T'batheras. The local tradition is that Mawán Sáh, a Sombansi chief resident at Barwan, went out one day in search of game towards Shiupuri, a Thathera town, seven miles north of Barwan. The Thatheras resented his intrusion within their borders; there was a quarrel, and Mawán Sáh summoned his clansmen from Barwan. They drove out the Thatheras from Shiupuri, and settling there themselves renamed it Bhaiangánn, since corruptel into Behgảon. The name (Shiupuri) is perhaps worth noting as a possible indication that the Thatheras were worshippers of Shiva, Since then no important change seenis to have taken place in the owner- ship of the pargana. SAROMANNAGAR*-Pargana SAROMANNAGAR-Tahsil SHAHABAD- District HARDOI.—Saromannagar, the chief village in the pargana of the same name, district Hardoi, lies 15 miles worth-west from Hardoi, 6 south of Shahabad, and 18 north of Sándi, at the point where the old Shah-Ráb, or king's high road from Sándi to Shahjahanpur crosses the Sukheta nála. It was founded in 1708 A.D. by Rae Saroman Dás, a Sribástab Káyath of Sándi, in the employ of Nawab Abdulla Khan, the celebrated Bárha Sayyad, Governor of Allahabad, and afterwards Farukh Siari's wazir, who, with his brother Hasan Ali, “made four Timúrides emperors, dethroned and killed two, and blinded and imprisoned three" (Blochman's translation of the Kin-i-Akbari, page 391). In those days a dangerous jungle surrounded Gáeghát, as the crossing of the Sukheta was then called, and the spot was of evil repute among travellers. Ráe Saroman Dás bought this wild bandit-haunted tract from its owners, the Sombansis of Bhadauna, cleared it, bridged the Sukheta, and built in his own name a small fortified town. Saromannagar has a population of only 1,452, of whom 1,303 are Hindus, mostly Brahmans. It contains two brick and 140 mud houses. A Government village school accommodating 100 pupils was built in 1868. The sarée, wall, and bastions built by Rác Šaroman Dás are in ruins. Market days are Sundays and Thursdays. Reginald Heber visited Saromannagar in 1824, and has thus described itt:- “A large village with an old fortress. The country improved in beauty, becoming more and more woody and undulating, but was neither so well • By Mr. A. H. Ilarington, C. S., Assistant Commissioner. + Heber's Journey II., page 3.