Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/47

 РАС 39 authorities in the following year, by pursuing the present Maháraja of Balrampur, Sir Digbijai Singh, whom he accused of being a revenue defaulter into that territory. The circumstances connected with this aggression of territory are fully detailed by Sleeman at page 59, Vol. I, of his Journal. The pressure at that time put upon the king of Oudh by Lord Ellenborough, led to the dismissal from Office and imprisonment of Rája Darshan Singh, and to the resumption in direct management of the Mehdona estate, which the brothers had already created. But all these punishments were merely nominal, for in a very few months Rája Darshan Singh was released from confinement, retiring for a time to the British terri- tories, while the elder brother, Rája Bakhtawar Singh, was allowed to resume the management of the Mehdona estate; and this was almost immediately followed by Rája Darshan Singh being again summoned to court, when without having performed any new service to the State, he had the further title of Saltanat-Bahadur conferred upon him. But the rája did not long Rája Ramádbín Singh, few weeks he was seized with an illness from which survive to enjoy these new honours, for within a Rája Raghubardayál Singh, and Malá ája Mán Singh, he never recovered, and it was with difficulty that (originally named Hado- he was conveyed to the enchanted precincts of holy mái Singh.) Ajodhya where he speedily breathed his last, leaving three sons whose names are marginally indicated. “In 1845 A.D., Mán Singh, the yonngest of these sons, was appointed nazim of Daryabad-Rudauli, at the early age of 24, and to this charge the Sultanpur nizámat was also afterwards added. Mán Singh soon gained his spurs by an expedition against the then owner of the Súrajpur estate (for overthrowing whose predecessor, Shiudin Singh, his father, had also obtained honours, in October, 1830), in the course of which that taluqdar's fort was surrounded and assaulted, and its owner, Singhji Singh, captured and sent to Lucknow (see Sleeman's Journal, page 256, Vol II). For this service Man Sing obtained the title of Rája-Bahadur. In 1847 A, D., Mán Singh was ordered to proceed against the stronghold of the Gargbansi chief, Harpal Singh. The details of that affair are also to be found in Sleeman's Journal, Vol. I, page 144. There are two sides to the story. The one is that Harpál finding his fort surrounded, and resistance hopeless, surrendered at discretion and unwittingly lost his life. The other is that be was betrayed under promises of safety into a conference, and was beheaded in cold blood. One thing is certain, that the transaction was looked on in different lights at Fyzabad and at Lucknow. The local tradition of what occurred is not favourable to the chief actor in the tragedy, while the service he had performed was thouglzt so important at the capital, that Qáemajang (stedfast in fight) was added to the existing distinctions of the young rája. As an impartial historian, I am bound to add that I have yet to learn that any fight at all took place, when Harpal Singh, who was at the time in wretched health, met his death. In 1855, Rája Man Singh obtained the further honourary titles of Saltanat-Babádur for apprehending and sending to Lucknow, where he was at once put to death, the notorious proclaimed offender Jagannath chaprási, whose proceedings occupy no inconsiderable space in Sleeman's Journal.