household was in their charge, and his whole establishment under their orders. For many of them he obtained the title of Nawáb from the Emperor.

Of whatever caste a chela had been, he was married to the daughter of a chela originally of the same caste, a Rájput was given to a Rájput, a Bráhman to a Brahman, and so forth. This plan was followed till the time of Nawab Ahmad Khán Ghálib Jang (1752—1771). After that time they all got mixed together, so that one caste cannot be distinguished from another. Among the chelas were the sons of powerful Rájahs, who by misfortune had been captured and made Muhammadans. Thus Shamsher Khán “Masjidwala" is reported to have been a Banáfir Rájput, Sher Dil Khán was a Tomar, Pur Dil Khán a Gaur, Dáúd Khán a Bráhman and so forth.

The Nawab used to tell his chelas to collect as much money, goods or jewels as possible. In adversity such property could be made of use to him or themselves. But he who built a masonry structure in any village would be at once removed from employment. Nothing was to be built but with sun-dried bricks and mud mortar, and to each chela permission was given to build a single brick room as reception hall. The only exception was in favour of Yáķut Khán, Khán Bahadur, of whom we will speak again presently.*

A teacher was appointed for the boy chelas, his name was Káli Miyan Sháh. When a boy could read and write, he was taken before the Nawáb, who presented him with one hundred rupees, a shield, and a sword, by way of khila't.

From among the chelas of eighteen to twenty years of age, the Nawáb selected five hundred youths, and trained them as a picked regiment. They had firelocks of Lahore, accoutrements of Sultáni broad-cloth, powder-horns each holding two and a half seer of powder, and each a pouch with one hundred bullets. One day, they were drawn up along the Jamna bank under the fort at Delhi while the Emperor was seated on the fort wall, with Muhammad Khán standing in an attitude of respect beside him; Muhammad Sháh ordered them to fire at some moving object in the river, and was so delighted with the good practice they made, that he asked for a gift of the whole corps. Muhammad Khán made the objection that they were a lot of Brahmans and Rájputs, who could do nothing but talk a rustic patois and use their swords. The Emperor accepted the excuse, and sent one thousand rupees to be distributed.

The names of the principal chelas, with any facts known about them, will now be given.

*Only one or two other chelas founded any ganj, and the fact will be mentioned under each man's name.

1. YÁKUT KHÁN, KHÁN BAHADUR.

On the day after the battle, in which Sayyad Abdulla Khán was taken prisoner, 'Azim Khán Baṛá Khail, a friend of Muhammad Khán's, presented him with a eunuch whom he named Yákut Khán, and he obtained for him from Muhammad Sháh the title of Khán Bahádur. Yakút Khán is said to have held the office of Názir. On his seal were the words

Yákút surkh-rú ba-tufail-i-Muhammad ast.

In his case, the Nawáb removed. the prohibition against building or founding towns, saying that as he had no children it did not matter. Seven ganjes were founded by Yákút Khán.

1. Kásganj, also sometimes called Yáķutganj. It is now the most important town in the Eta district with, in 1872, 15,764 inhabitants. It lies nineteen miles N. of Eta.*

2. 'Aliganj, in parganah 'Azimnagar of the Eta district, 34 miles E. of Eta, and about 30 miles N. W. of Farrukhábád. The date of the fort is 1143 H. (6th July 1730-25th June 1731), and the mason Muhammad Adam "Muhammad Kháni" appears to be the same as the man mentioned at p. 278, who built the fort at Farrukhábád.†

3. Kauriyaganj. The only identification I can suggest for this place is the Kauriyaganj in parganah Akrabád of the Aligarh district, 12 miles from Aligarh.‡

4. Khudáganj, on the left bank of the Kálinadi, in parganah Bhoj pur of the Farrukhábád district, on the main road to Cawnpur, 17 miles S. E. of Farrukhábád. The ancient name of the village was Sanauli. Yákút Khán, besides the bazár, built a masonry saráe with a high gate, and a mosque. The date on the gateway was 1152 H. (30th March 1739-18th March 1740) ;§ it was removed in 1855-6 to make way for the metalled road to Fatehgarh.

5. Nabiganj. This is a small bazár on the Grand Trunk Road, in the parganah of Kishni Nabiganj in the Mainpuri district. It lies about half way between Bewar and Chibramau. ||

6. Yákútganj. This town is in parganah Bhojpur of the Farrukhábád district, about seven miles S. E. of the city of Farrukhábád. Kali Ráe

* Gaz. N. W. P. IV, 152.

+ Gaz. N. W. P. IV, 110. The date, 1747 A. D., must be wrong, if the date in the Persian inscription, 1143 H., is correct.

Gaz. N. W. P. II, p. 572.

§ Káli Ráe, p. 133.

Gaz. N. W. P. IV, 746.

(p. 133) says five villages were absorbed: (1), Jakhá; (2), Jyáuți; (3). Mukarrabpur; (4), Musṭafábád alias Ganwaganw; (5), part of Nagla Khem The place used to be called Sarái Núri, from Miyan Núri Sháh, a faqir, or as some say a eunuch, who built it. In Yákút Khán's time the site had become deserted; he built a masonry sarái and changed the name. There is still an old masjid, bearing the following inscription:

Masjid-i-’ali biná ráhat fizá

Az laṭáfat Núr Bakhsh-i-Faiz-zá

Sál táríkh-ash Khirad guft andar ín
"Farz adá shud andar án bahr-i-Khudá.”

This gives the year 1086 H. (March 1675-March 1676).

7. Daryáeganj, in parganah 'Azimnagar of the Eta district, on the Aliganj and Patiáli road, 28 miles N. E. of Eta. The remains of a large brick fort built beneath the old bank of the Ganges are still to be seen. *

The chelas of former days used to say that Miyan Khán Bahádur spent twenty-five lakhs of rupees on these gunges, his house, and the búghs he planted. The house in which Bakhshi Fakhr-ud-daula used to live was built by Khán Bahádur; and he planted the Kálá Bagh, and built in it the Bárahdari where Nawab Muzaffar Jang (1771-1796) was interred.

YÁKUT KHÁN lost his life with his master, Káim Khán, in the disastrous battle of November 1748, fought with the Rohelas at Dauri Rasúlpur near Budáon. The tradition is, that his elephant carried off his dead body to 'Aliganj, and that he was buried there. His tomb is in the midst of an enclosure lying at the foot of the fort, surrounded by a low wall of block kunker. At the foot of his tomb is a mound which is, tradition says, the burial-place of his elephant. The tomb with its well-preserved enclosing walls forms, together with the handsome frontage of the ruined tomb on the high mound above, the chief feature of interest in the place. In the statement, on the page just cited, that Yákút Khán was originally a Katiya Thákur of Angraiya, I suspect there is some confusion between him and another chela, Báz Bahádur Khán. At p. 154 of the Gazetteer, we are told Khán Bahádur had no issue, which is probably true, as he was a eunuch. Yet at p. 69 we hear of his son, Bakhtbuland Khán. In Káli Ráe's “Fatehgarh Náma", p. 108, line 15, the Kesri Singh Katiya of Angraiya, who became a Muhammadan, is said to have borne the name of Báz Bahádur Khán, and it is he who was the father of Bakhtbuland Khán, and not Yáķút Khán, Khán Bahadur.

2. DALER KHÁN. We have already given an account of this chela at p. 286. There is a Dalerganj called after him. It lies 9 miles N. W. of Farrukhábád, on the road to Káimganj.

*Gaz. N. W. P. IV, p. 218.

+ Gaz. N. W. P. IV, p. 110.

3. SHAMSHER KHÁN. In 1720-1 he was appointed 'amil of the parganahs of Budáon, Sáhaswán and Mihrábád (see p. 283). At one time he had charge of the parganahs of Musenagar, Bilhor, Akbarpur, Sháhpur and Kanauj, all, except the latter, now in the Cawnpur district. Abdul Mansúr Khán Safdar Jang on his way from Faizábád to Delhi crossed the Ganges at Nánámau ghát in parganah Bilhor. Shamsher Khán said that Safdar Jang's advanced tents should not be pitched within his jurisdiction, unless compensation were paid for any damage caused to the crops. This order displeased Safdar Jang, and halting, he despatched a camel rider to Farrukhábád with a letter to this effect: Nawáb námdár salámat, Shamsher-ikhud rá dar miyán bakun, wagarna áb na khwáhad mánd. Respected Nawáb, greeting! put up your sword (shamsher) in its scabbard, else it will lose its edge." Muhammad Khán ordered Sahib Ráe, his scribe, to write an answer to match. The Munshi wrote thus on the back of the note, Nawáb námdár salámat, ín shamsher mardán dar maʼrkah-i-maidan be-khún chashidah ba-miyán na míáyad. "Respected Nawáb, greeting! this sword, till it has tasted blood in battle, never returns to its sheath." Safdar Jang, on receipt of this reply, wished to attack Shamsher Khán at once. His courtiers dissuaded him, pleading the displeasure of the Emperor, adding that if he won, it would be said he had fought a slave, while if he lost, he would be dishonoured for ever. Accordingly he left the neighbourhood at once, and went on to Delhi. Shamsher Khán caused the rear guard to be plundered. It is said that the ill-feeling between the rulers of Lakhnau and Muhammad Khán's family commenced from this trivial quarrel. On Shamsher Khán's seal were the words Nigahdár, ai Muhammad, áb-i-shamsher. He played a principal part in the events following the death of Nawáb Káim Khán; he was one of the five chelas arrested and sent to Delhi, where he was executed in 1750, as will be more particularly related hereafter. His sons were: 1, Hasan ’Ali Khán ; 2, Rahm ’Ali Khán ; 3, ’Umr ’Ali Khán; 4, Kázim 'Ali Khán; 5, Rasúl 'Ali Khán. There is a Shamsherganj, called after him, in parganah Bewar of the Mainpuri district.

4. MUKÍM KHÁN. This chela held Ujjain during the time Muhammad Khán was Subah of Malwá. He was one of the five sent in custody to Delhi by Safdar Jang and there executed. The motto of his seal wasNuh falak az nám-i-Muhammad Mukim. He was with the Nawab from his early days, and the Bibi Sahiba observed no pardah to him. His sons were−1, ’Azim Khán, 2, Hasan ’Ali Khán.

5. JA'FAR KHÁN. He was the Nawab's Bakhshi. His house was near the Takya of Muhammad Zamán Sháh, a faqir brought by Nawáb Ahmad Khan from Delhi; it was afterwards occupied by Nawáb Himmat Bahádur. He was another of the five chelas executed at Delhi. There is a Bazarya Ja'far Khán in the city called after him.

6.

ISLÁM KHÁN. One of the five principal chelas executed at Delhi. There is an Islámganj in parganah Bhojpur; and parganah Amritpúr in the Farrukhábád District is also called Islámganj, but whether after this chela or not, I do not know. He had a son named 'Usmán Khán.

7. SARDÁR KHÁN.

He, too, was one of the chelas executed at Delhi.

8. DÁUD KHÁN. He is said to have been originally a Bráhman. He was one of the chelas, with the Nawáb in his younger days, to whom the Bibi Sahiba observed no pardah. We have seen him employed to take a rebel Rájah to the Emperor in 1713-14 (see p. 275). In 1720-1 he was appointed 'amil of parganah Shamshábád. He had charge of the collections of Jaunpur and Banáras, when the subah of Allahábád was under the Nawáb, and he acted as náib faujdár of Sárangpur in Málwá. Dáudganj, in parganah Azimnagar of the Eta district, was founded by him.

9. BHÚRE KHÁN. A story told of this man shows the amount of license accorded to these chelas. One day Bhúre Khán, coming into darbár late, could find no place to sit. Kicking away the pillow separating Muhammad Khán and Kám Khán, he sat down between the Nawáb and his son. Káim Khán turned angrily to his father, and said "You have given such freedom to these chelas that they will never respect me." Muhammad Khán replied that he loved them as he did his sons. Káim Khán got up in a rage, and went off to his home at Amethi. Muhammad Khán then scolded Bhúre Kháng saying, that he had lost confidence in him, for if while he was alive they did not respect his sons, who knew what they would do when he was dead. Bhúre Khán putting up his hands, said "May God Almighty grant that I never see the day when you no longer live." He was the Nawáb's deputy in the Súbah of Allahábád. He was killed in 1728 in the battle against Rájah Chattarsál at Ichauli. (See p. 290.)

10.

Sa’DAT KHÁN. He was 'amil of Mandeshwar* in Málwá, south of Nímach, during the time the Nawab held that subah. His seal bore the words Be lutf-i-Muhammad Sa'dat na búd. A grandson, Imám Khán, lived in Shaukat Jang's time (1813-1823) at the gateway of the Khás Mahál, and received an allowance of a rupee a day. Another descendant, Ghairat Khán, was alive in 1839, but so poor that he had not even food to eat. When Muhammad Khán quarrelled with Sa’dat Khán Burhán-ul-Mulk, Subahdar of Audh, he gave his chela, Sa'dat Khán, the ironical title of Burhán-ul-Mulk. The revenues of the Gwáliár country, then under immediate charge of 'Umr Khán Gwáliári, were paid in at Mandeshwar.

11. NEKNÁM KHÁN. He was one of the four chelas to whom the Bibi Sahiba used to appear unveiled. He had the charge of the buildings at Farrukhábád; his masjid and well, fort and bágh still existed in 1839; *Thornton, 615. In Scindiah's territory and the chief place of a parganah. It lies 350 miles S. W. of Gwáliár and 80 miles N. W. from Ujain.