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of Muhamdábád. In one of the bastions, still known as the "Ráe Sáhib ká burj", Har Parshád, kanúngo, was built up alive. The old abandoned fort and the large lake just beneath it were owned and held, up to 1857, by the Nawab Ra'is for the time being. Muhamdábád is a smaller place than Káimganj, but is still of some importance as the head-quarters of a Police division, and as the first halting-stage on the road from Farrukhábád to Mainpuri.

Parmnagar, the chief town of parganah Parmnagar, on the left bank of the Ganges, in the Farrukhábád District, is sometimes called Muhammadganj, after Nawáb Muhammad Khán, but the date of foundation is not known.

The City of Farrukhábád.

Nawáb Muhammad Khán's next undertaking was on a very different scale. He now set to work to found a city which, even in its present decaying state, counts as one of the principal places of Northern India. Residence at Mau must have been disagreeable to the new Nawáb. The Patháns would not allow him to ride on an elephant through the streets, for fear of their women's privacy being infringed. Afrídis, Toyahs, and Khánzádahs were numerous, but the Bangash were very few. If the Nawáb ever did pass by, the Afrídi boys threw clay pellets at him. To avoid this Muhammad Khán used to come out of the town, and mount his elephant near the tomb of Rahmat Khán, the martyr.* Often did he complain to the Bibi Sáhiba of the way these Paṭháns tried his patience.

An occasion for the acquisition of land for a site with the Emperor's consent soon presented itself. Kásim Khán, Bangash, father of the Bibi Sáhiba, first wife of Nawáb Muhammad Khán, was a soldier of fortune who had risen to the command of some three hundred men, in the service of some Rajah of the South. In 1126 H. (6th Jan. 1714 to 27th Dec. 1714) Kásim Khán was on his way home to Mau with all his wealth. Near where the native infantry lines and the European barracks now stand, a place then covered with jungle, he was set on by a Thákur Rájah of the Bamṭelat tribe, whose villages were in the direction of Muhamdábád. Hundreds of men followed this Kájah in his plundering forays up to the bank of the Ganges and as far west as Mau. Kásim Khán and his party defended themselves bravely, but were at length overpowered and slain. He was buried where he fell. One ruined arch of his tomb still stands, in the middle of an enclosure surrounded with palm trees. A mango grove was planted to the west of the tomb, and the name of the village changed from Jamalpur to Kásim Bágh, under which name it was known in the revenue records till it was absorbed within the boundaries of the Fatehgarh cantonment.‡

* Sce note on Khánzádahs. † Note No. B. on the Bamtelas. Kálí Rae, p. 120.

The survivors of Kásim Khán's party arrived the next morning at Mau. To console his wife, Muhammad Khán set out for Delhi. There he was graciously received by the Emperor Farrukhsiyar who, by way of price for her father's blood, made over to the Bibi Sáhiba the whole fifty-two of the Bamtela villages. Muhammad Khán received a dress of honour, and they say he was made Názim of Gwáliyar: the truth of this latter statement is, however, extremely doubtful. The Emperor expressed a wish that a city called after his name* should be founded on the spot where Kásim Khán was killed, and that the fifty-two Bamṭela villages should be included within its walls.

No better site could have been selected than that chosen for his city by Muhammad Khán. The strip of land along the right bank of the Ganges from Kampil to Kanauj is one of the most thickly-peopled and the most fertile in Northern India. There is abundance of water, for from the firmness of the subsoil, wells can be dug at pleasure; and the native saying. is true without exaggeration, that in Farrukhábád there is a well in every house. They say that before the city was founded the Nawáb once came by chance to the high mound, the site of a Dhi or abandoned village, where the city fort now stands. The Ganges then flowed much nearer than it does now, and a delightful view extended on all sides to a distance of several miles. The Nawáb took a liking to the place, and said that a dwellinghouse there would be very pleasant. In the tarai or low land the Paṭháns shot many alligators and crocodiles (magar and goh). There were quantities of wild geese and other game; they even say that the high grass and reeds concealed tigers, which sometimes devoured men.†.

In truth, there is to this day no pleasanter view in the whole of the plains of Upper India than that obtained at all seasons from the fort of Farrukhábád. Passing the tiled bungalow used for the Munsiff's Courthouse and the square unshapely mass of the tahsil building, we wend our way up to the pretty garden at the summit. There we pause a moment to take our breath, and admire the grandiose outline of Mr. C. R. Lindsay's Town Hall. As we turn with our face to the north, our gaze first falls on the ruins of the once magnificent pleasure-house of the Nawáb in the Páen Bágh; further on, the eye rests delighted on the slender minarets of the Karbala; beyond stretches all that remains of the Nawáb's hunting-ground or Ramna, still dotted here and there with trees; and closing in the horizon * Farrukhábád was sometimes styled Ahmadnagar Farrukhábád, as in the coin of Sháhjáhán II. struck there in 1174, H. (Proc. B. A. S., July, 1876, p. 138,) and in the Persian accounts of 1209 and 1210, Fusli (1801-1802) preserved in the Collector's office. It got the second name, I suppose, in Ahmad Khan's time (1750-1771).

+ This is really not so improbable as it sounds to us now, for so late as 1803 tigers were shot along the Ganges below Kanauj. See Major Thorn's "Memoir of the War in India.'

is the faint silver streak of the Ganges. Turning half round to the right we see the city, looking like a vast wood of deep-shaded Ním trees, from which there peeps here and there a corner of the double-storied mansion of some Sáhib-záda or wealthy banker. Turning back again and looking westwards, we find before us the domed tombs of the former rulers, of Ahmad Khán in the Bihisht Bágh within the walls, of Muhammad Khán and Kaim Khán further on beyond the Mau gate.

In 1126 H. (Jan. 6th 1714-Dec 27th 1714,) the foundations were laid under the auspices of Neknám Khán, chela. The date is denoted by the words "Allah Ghaní" which were commonly used in the family at the head of documents. All the buildings at Farrukhábád or Muhamdábád were built after the plans and under the care of Adam, mason, whose name used to be seen on the inscription of one of the fort gateways now destroyed. We learn from a scolding letter to Yákúb Khán, about the dilatoriness and dishonesty of one Muhammad Dánish, that the rates of wages were then, labourers two falús or pyce a day, skilled bricklayers, five fulús a day, and those imperfectly skilled four falús. The wages were to be paid direct to the men every night.

The Bamţelas did not resign their ancient possessions without a struggle. The work of building the city wall went on by day, but the Bamtelas, who lived all round, came in force every night and knocked the wall down again. They also destroyed some of the buildings in the fort. To get rid of the annoyance caused by these turbulent Thákurs, Muhammad Khán called in the imperial troops who were stationed at intervals round the city. The Bamtelas were ejected from the nearer villages, and any villagers aiding them were severely punished. The imperial forces remained till the city was well established, when their places were taken by the Nawáb's own men.

Aid was also obtained from friendly Rájáhs. They relate that Rájáh Tilak Singh Gaur of Siroli, Parganah Shamshábád East, ten or eleven miles south-west of Farrukhábád, unable from old age to come himself, sent his son Akbar Sáh (afterwards a chela under the name of Purdil Khán), aged fifteen or sixteen, at the head of seven hundred Rajputs of his own clan. They were posted just outside the Mau Darwáza where the Bamţelas usually passed. They had been there a week or ten days when the Bamtelas as usual came to damage the wall. This time they went round to the Kutb gate, on the north face of the city, and effected an entrance. Akbar Sáh Gaur drew out his men, and there was a good deal of fighting. On the one side three hundred and on the other five hundred men were killed. the head of all the Bamţelas, was wounded and made prisoner. In spite of these interruptions Neknám Khán, chela, had fort, to which he made three gates opening to the north.

Lál Sáh,

laid out the He also dug a

ditch as deep as the height of a man, and set up twenty earthen bastions. These, in 1839, could still be traced, though even then they had fallen out of repair. Not a vestige now remains. The same chela also built a palace, a mosque, and a hall of audience. The palace was called the Bará Mahal. In 1839 only the Bárahdari was left, the rest of the site was occupied by the private garden of Mukhtár Mahal, widow of the deceased Nawab Shaukat Jang. The mosque was known as the "Bari Masjid," and the audience hall was called the "Bara Diwán-Khána." This latter was demolished by Nawab Muzaffar Jang (1771-1796); and Nawáb Násir Jang (1766—1813) built a dwelling-house (kothi) on the spot. There were several shops of petty traders within the fort, but at first there were no other buildings except the above. After the mutiny, the Nawáb's palace was entirely dismantled; and beyond a small mosque, which may be the one referred to, there is not a trace left of any building in existence at the time of the mutiny.

There were twelve gates to the city: 1, Kutb gate; 2, Páen gate (also called the Husaini gate); 3, Gangá gate; 4, Amethi gate; 5, Kádirí gate; 6, Lál gate; 7, Madár gate; 8, Dhaláwal gate; 9, Khandiya gate; 10, Jasmai gate; 11, Taráen gate; 12, Mau gate. The first, eighth, and eleventh are now closed; Amethi, Dhaláwal and Jasmai are the names of adjoining villages; the other names explain themselves.

To seven of the gates, saráis were attached, so that from whatever direction a traveller arrived, he might find a convenient resting-place. The Mau sárai near the gate of that name, was erected by the Bibi Sáhiba, the Nawáb's wife. A sarái at the Jasmai gate was half built, then knocked down; the land was owned (1839) by the sons of Nawáb Azim Khán; at the Madár gate was a brick-built sarái, where now stands the Madár báṛi built by Nawab Muzaffar Jang, which, in 1839, was occupied by the son of Muhammad 'Ali Khán, alias Bulákí, son of Dildaler Khán and nephew of Muzaffar Jang. There was also a brick sarúi at the Amethi gate opposite the Angúri bágh; this the Nawáb's descendants have demolished, and they have sold the materials, the site is used for the sale of wood and thatchinggrass. A substantial sarái was also built near the Lál gate, which we English have taken to pieces and rebuilt after our own fashion.*

At each gate were stationed five hundred armed men and two guns, one on each side. The Nawáb's sons and slaves (Khánazáds), who had troops in their pay, were allotted places of abode round the outer part of the city. It was intended that money-changers, merchants, and the working-classes generally, should occupy the centre. The whole was surrounded by an earthen wall. For each of his twenty-two sons, Muhammad Khán built a brick fort and women's apartments. At each house he planted a private garden (Khána bágh) surrounded with a high wall. Round the city * This was done by Mr. Newnham, Collector, in 1825.

wall was a ditch, with sloped and levelled sides, fifteen yards wide and thirty feet deep. So long as Muhammad Khán lived, this ditch was cleaned every day, and the gates were kept in good order.

Round the fort were the houses of the chelas who were on duty day and night. Many groves were planted, especially noteworthy were the Naulakha and Bihár Bághs beneath the fort, which did not contain any mango trees, but consisted entirely of guava, ber, custard-apple and orange trees. The Nawáb's sons and chelas had orders to plant groves outside the city wherever they pleased. The soil is very favourable to the mango and it comes to great perfection; the water-melons are also very large and sweet and plentiful.

Two entire villages, Bhíkampura and Deoțhán, were included within the walls, besides portions of other villages. It was intended that each trade should occupy a separate bazar, hence we have the quarters named after trades such as Kasarhaṭṭa (braziers), Pasarhaṭṭa (druggists), Saráfá (money-changers), Lohai (iron-mongers), Núnhai (salt-dealers), Khanḍhai (sugar-merchants), and so forth. Other quarters were set aside for particular castes, such as Khatrána (for the Khatris), Mochiána (for shoe-makers), Koliána (for Hindu weavers), Sadhwára (for Sádhs), Bamanpuri (for Brahmans), Juláhpura (for Mussulman weavers), Rastogi muhalla, Agarwál muhalla, Kághazi muhalla (for paper-makers), Mahájanpura, Bangashpura, Khaṭakpura, Sayyadpura, and so on. This arrangement has been upset in more recent times, and the castes have become more or less mixed. Still it is observed to some extent, for I doubt if a single Sádh lives outside the Sadhwára, and its offshoot the Sáhibganj muhalla.

Events from 1719 to 1726.

During the reign of Farrukhsiyar, Nawáb Muhammad Khán would appear to have attended Court seldom, being occupied with the founding of Farrukháhád. Meanwhile Delhi had been the scene of much intrigue. On the 9th Rabi II, 1131 H. (18th Feb. 1719) the Sayyad brothers,* 'Abdullah Khán and Husain 'Ali Khán, had deposed and imprisoned the Emperor Farrukhsiyar, After the short reigns of two boys successively raised to the throne, Abul Fath Násir-uddin, entitled Muhammad Sháh, succeeded on the 15th Zi'l Ka'd, 1131 H.† (18th Sept. 1719), his reign counting, however, from the deposition of Farrukhsiyar. After intrigues against the power of the Sayyads, with which we need not concern ourselves here, it was agreed that Husain 'Ali Khán, accompanied by the Emperor, should march to reduce the revolted provinces of the Dakhin. The march of the Sayyad began at the end of Shawwál‡ (end of August 1720). On the 9th Zi'l Ka'd, 1132 H. (3rd Sept. 1720), the Emperor made a first march from * Siyar-ul Mutákharin 418 (Lakhnau Edition). † S-ul-M 422, S-ul-M. 433.

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