[CHAPTER II.]
Bahraetch—Shrine of Syud Salar—King of the Fairies and the Fiddlers—Management of Bahraetch district for forty-three years—Murder of Amur Sing, by Hakeem Mehndee—Nefarious transfer of khalsa lands to Tallookdars, by local officers—Rajah Dursun Sing—His aggression on the Nepaul Territory—Consequences—Intelligence Department—How formed, managed, and abused—Rughbur Sing's management of Gonda and Bahraetch for 1846-47—Its fiscal effects—A gang-robber caught and hung by Brahmin villagers—Murder of Syampooree Gosaen—Ramdut Pandee—Fairies and Fiddlers—Ramdut Pandee, the Banker—the Rajahs of Toolseepoor and Bulrampoor—Murder of Mr. Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service, at Bhinga, in 1823.
Bahraetch is celebrated for the shrine of Syud Salar, a martyr, who is supposed to have been killed here in the beginning of the eleventh century, when fighting against the Hindoos, under the auspices of Mahmood Shah, of Ghuznee, his mother's brother. Strange to say, Hindoos as well as Mahommedans make offerings to this shrine, and implore the favours of this military ruffian, whose only recorded merit consists of having destroyed a great many Hindoos in a wanton and unprovoked invasion of their territory. They say, that he did what he did against Hindoos in the conscientious discharge of his duties, and could not have done it without God's permission—that God must then have been angry with them for their transgressions, and used this man, and all the other Mahommedan invaders of their country, as instruments of his vengeance, and means to bring about his purposes: that is, the thinking portion of the Hindoos say this. The mass think that the old man must still have a good deal of interest in heaven, which he may be induced to exercise in their favour, by suitable offerings and personal applications to his shrine.
The minister reports to the Resident on the 9th, that the King had relented, and wished to retain the singer, Ruzee-od Dowlah, and his sister, and Kotub Allee, at Lucknow, with orders never to approach the presence. Captain Bird, in a letter, confirms this report.
December 11, 1849.—Left Bahraetch and came south-east to Imaleea, on the road to Gonda, over a plain in the Pyagpoor estate, almost entirely waste. Few groves or single trees to be seen; scarcely a field tilled or house occupied; all the work of the same atrocious governor, Rughbur Sing. No oppressor ever wrote a more legible hand.
The brief history of the management of this district for the last forty-three years, is as follows. The district consisted in 1807, of
Khalsa Lands Present Khalsa Lands
Bahraetch . . . 2,50,000 4,000
Hissampoor . . . 2,00,000 40,000
Hurhurpoor . . . 1,25,000 10,000
Buhareegunge . . . 1,50,000 15,000
________ ______
7,25,000 69,000
________ ______
The contract was held by Balkidass Kanoongoe, for five years, from 1807 to 1811, when he died, and was succeeded in the contract by his son, Amur Sing, who held it till 1816. In the end of that year, or early in 1817, Amur Sing was seized, put into confinement, and murdered by Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for 1817 and 1818. In the year 1816, Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for the Mahomdee district, at four lacs of rupees a-year, and that for Khyrabad at five, heard of the great wealth of Amur Sing, and the fine state to which he and his father had brought the district by good management; and offered the Oude government one lac of rupees a-year more than he paid for the contract for the ensuing year. Hakeem Mehndee resided chiefly at the capital of Lucknow, on the pretence of indisposition, while his brother, Hadee Allee Khan, managed the two districts for him. He had acquired a great reputation by his judicious management of these two districts, and become a favourite with the King, by the still more skilful management of a few male and female favourites about his Majesty's person. The minister, Aga Meer, was jealous of his growing fame and favour, and persuaded the King to accept the offer, in the hope that he would go himself to his new charge, in order to make the most of it. As soon as he heard of his appointment to the charge of Bahraetch, Hakeem Mehndee set out with the best body of troops he could collect, and sent on orders for Amur Sing to come out and meet him. He declined to do so until he got the pledge of Hadee Allee Khan, the Hakeem's brother, for his personal security. This mortified the Hakeem, and tended to confirm him in the resolution to make away with Amur Sing, and appropriate his wealth. Both Hakeem Mehndee and his brother are said to have sworn on their Koran that no violence whatever should be offered to or restraint put upon him; and, relying on these oaths and pledges, Amur Sing met them on their approach to Bahraetch.
After discussing affairs and adjusting accounts for some months at Bahraetch, the Hakeem, by his courteous manners and praises of his excellent management, put Amur Sing off his guard. When sitting with him one evening in his tents, around which he had placed a select body of guards, he left him on the pretext of a sudden call, and Amur Sing was seized, bound, and confined. Meer Hyder and Baboo Beg, Mogul troopers, were placed in command of the guards over him, with orders to get him assassinated as soon as possible. Sentries were, at the same time, placed over his family and wealth. At midnight he was soon after strangled by these two men and their attendants. Baboo Beg was a very stout, powerful man; and he attempted to strangle him with his own hands, while his companions held him down; but Amur Sing managed to scream out for help, and, in attempting to close his mouth with his left hand, one of his fingers got between Amur Sing's teeth, and he bit off the first joint, and kept it in his mouth. His companions finished the work; and Baboo Beg went off to get his fingers dressed without telling any one what had happened. In the morning Hakeem Mehndee gave out, that Amur Sing had poisoned himself, made the body over to his family, and sent off a report of his death to the minister, expressing his regret at Amur Sing's having put an end to his existence by poisoning, to avoid giving an account of his stewardship. The property which Hakeem Mehndee seized and appropriated, is said to have amounted, in all, to between fifteen and twenty lacs of rupees!
Amur Sing's family, in performing the funeral ceremonies, had to open his mouth, to put in the usual small bit of gold, Ganges water, and leaf of the toolsee-tree; and, to their horror, they there found the first joint of a man's finger. This confirmed all their suspicions, that he had been murdered during the night, and they sent off the joint of the finger to the minister, demanding vengeance on the murderer. Aga Meer was delighted at this proof of his rival's guilt, and would have had him seized and tried for the murder forthwith, but Hakeem Mehndee gave two lacs of rupees, out of the wealth he had acquired from the murder, to Rae Doulut Rae, Meer Neeaz Hoseyn, Munshee Musaod, Sobhan Allee Khan, and others, in the minister's confidence; and they persuaded him, that he had better wait for a season, till he could charge him with the more serious offence of defalcations in the revenue, when he might crush him with the weight of manifold transgressions.