Gaharwar Rajputs of Sainthwar Community

The other dominant estate in the Gorakhpur Province of British India was Padrauna whose rulers trace their lineage from the Gaharwar / Gahadvala branch of Kshatriyas. The etymology of Padrauna is related to the abundance of Pander trees in the area which are now very less. The area was initially known as Pandran, which slowly changed to Padrauna. The rulers of Padrauna belong to Suryavanshi sect of Kshatriya Varna and trace their lineage from Chandra Deva who established a very small estate around Varanasi in the mid of the 11th century AD. The territory ruled by Chandra Deva slowly spread covering the areas of Varanasi to Kannauj [1].

10.1 Origin according to Hindu mythology and history

The Gaharwars are considered as one of the ancient Kshatriya tribes similar to the Bisens and Chandels with their settlements dating to Vedic age civilization [2]. According to the myths, the daughter of Manu was Ela. She was married to the Himalayan king Chandra’s son Buddha. The son born from this relation was Pururawa. He settled at Prasthanpur (situated adjacent to Allahabad and today known as Jhunsi) and became the first King of Chandravanshi lineage. The 45th generation of this clan was King Yudhisthir of Mahabharata who gave the throne of Indraprastha (present Delhi) to King Parikshit, the son of Arjuna. Total 30 generations ruled over Indraprastha beginning King Yudhisthir. The last or 30th King was Kshemaka who was killed by his minister Vishrava. The minister declared himself the new emperor of Indraprastha. From this clan, total 14 emperors came and the last one was killed by his minister Viramaha. The succeeding rulers of Indraprastha were 16 generations of Viramaha followed by 9 generations of Dhanadhara. The 9th generation of Dhanadhara clan was Rajapala who was killed by Kumauni king Samata Mahapal. The Kumauni King ruled for the next 14 years before Vikrmaditya of Ujjain (1st century BC) conquered him. Vikrmaditya brought the entire region along with Kannuaj and Awadh under his dominion. He founded the era of Vikram Samavat after defeating Sakas in 56 BC, a calendar widely followed in the northern India and designated as the official calendar of Nepal (Bikram Samwat or B.S.). Vikramaditya was one of the great follower of Brahmanical religion and the worshipper of both Shiva and Vishnu. He has been, therefore, associated with many Brahmanical mythical stories, the famous being Vikram-Baital and Sinhasana Battisi. Puranas like Bhavishya Purana put him as one of the ten great Kings who ruled over the earth. The name of Vikrmaditya became so famous in the religion of Brahmanism that many Kings in later period took the honorary title of ‘Vikramaditya’, notable among them was Chandragupta (II) of Gupta dynasty (375-415 D) whose period is defined as the ‘Golden Age of India’.

The number of kings from mythical Manu till Vikramditya is 114. If one assigns an average 20 years for each king, then the period of Manu will come around 2300 BC, very close to the Aryan’s invasion in the Indus Valley. On the same scale, the period of King Yudhisthira or Mahabharata war will come around 1400 BC, very near to the estimated period of 1200-900 BC. Here also, the major conflict in dating Mahabharata war comes when one considers the number of years mentioned in mythological literatures for each dynasty on their face value. For example, the average ruling period for each king from Yudhisthira to Kshemaka i.e. total 30 kings comes at 58 years while for the later dynasties, it comes at 35, 28 and 42 years respectively. If one sees the list of Kings who ruled over Indraprastha after Vikramaditya till Prithviraj Chauhan of 12th century AD, the period in which the history of India was broadly captured in written form, we come across an average period of 23, 19, 12, 13, 18 and 17 years for each King of different ruling dynasties [3]. Further in the entire human evolution cycle, it is a remote possibility that the humans of the Vedic period, more specifically the kings, had a longer life span than those lived from 1st century BC onwards. Based on these arguments, it can be said that the ruling periods for early dynasties are highly stretched, possibly due to recording of incidents in form of smiriti or folk tales, and therefore not reliable. However, many historians take these figures on their face value and thus stretching the occurrence of Mahabharata war to 3500 BC.

In the early 11th century AD, Bhoja from the Paramara Rajput dynasty became king of Ujjain. He gained popularity similar to Vikrmaditya. In his lineage was King Bas Deo who ascended to the throne of Ujjain after 50 years of Bhoja. Bas Deo had two sons who killed each other. Therefore Ram Deo, the chief military officer of Ujjain, was declared as the King of Kannuaj. Ram Deo gave some portion of his territory (present Manikpur) to his brother Man Deo [4]. He named the region as Manpur. In the family of Ram Deo, Jaychand and Manikchand were born who became the rulers of Kannuaj and Manpur respectively. The daughter of Jaychand was Sanyogita who got married to famous Rajput King Prithviraj Chauhan. When Manikchand became the king of Manpur, the region was renamed as Manikpur. The defeat and death of Jaychand in 1194 AD from the hand of Mahmud Ghori forced Manikchand to shift towards Benares. He settled in the region which was at the bottom of Vindhyachal Mountains and south of Allahabad (present Raj Kantit). In present time, the entire region is divided between Allahabad and Mirjapur districts of Uttar Pradesh. Manikchand had four sons namely Tal Deo, Ala Deo, Lakshman Deo and Premjeet. Tal Deo, who was declared as successor by Jaychand before his death, was defeated by Sultan Qutubuddin Aibak at Chandwar place in Etawah. After the defeat, he fled towards Marwad Bikaner and established a kingdom there. In the lineage of Ala Deo, was King Gudan (Gadan) Deo, who established the Kantit-Bijaipur Raj in 1401 AD (or 1542 ??). The descendants of Gudan Deo also ruled over Manda and Daiya estates in Allahabad district [5] [6]

In the lineage of Gudan Deo at Kantit came Dadu Rai. He was very famous and associated with folk song kajli / kajri. In one of his essays, Bharatendu Harishchandra writes – “In Kantit country, there once was a Gaharwar Kshatriya King named Dadu Rai. He ruled over Mara, Bijaipur etc. Ruins of his broken down fort can still be seen at the nala near the Vindhyachal Devi temple. He had made his fortress (garh) in the middle of four mairag and he would not allow Musalmans to touch Gangaji in his raj. The rains failed in his kingdom and he performed many a religious deeds; and then it rained. On his death and his Rani committing Sati, the women of Kantit sang their glory (kirti) in ragas and dhuns of their own composition. That is how it came to be called Kajli.” Very similar description about Kajli has been given by Ram Gharib Chaube who writes that ‘After death of Dadu Rai, musalmans touched the Ganges and troubled the Hindus of Raj in various ways. It seems that Musalmans particularly outraged his harem. Those who could manage fled to a dense forest in the vicinity of his capital with all female attendants, whose number was very great. They sang the trouble and indignities that befell them at the hands of the Musalmans in a gloomy strain. The same song was later named as Kajli. The following couplet is common among the educated natives of Mairzapur district -

'Kahan gaye Dadu Raiya, jeh bin sab jug soona

Turkan Ganga jhutara bin Arjun'

‘where you went Dadu Rai, the entire world is gloomy without you. The Turks have sullied Ganga in the absence of Arjuna (Dadu Rai is compared with hero Arjuna of Mahabharata)’ [7]. The folk tale is confirmed historically too. Dadu Rai was killed by Ali Quli Khan Zaman and Bahadur Khan in 1564 AD. The queen committed sati. The young and small Bhupal was taken to Majhauli Raj by his fufa Madhav Mall. The entire region faced atrocities from Khan brothers till they were killed by Akbar in June 1567. Sakat Singh, son of Dadu Rai, became Raja of Kantit in the sub-ordination of Mughal empire. It should be noted that by this period, all Rajput estates of eastern Uttar Pradesh including the Majhauli Raj became part of Mughal Empire headed by Akbar. Sakat Singh brought tappah Kon of Bhadoi (in the period after compilation of the Ain-e-Akbari) under Kantit’s control by getting the same in dowry after marriage with the daughter of Raja Maunas. He built Saktisgarh after destroying the strong settlements of Kols [8]. The young Bhupal Rai, who was shifted to Majhauli Raj, joined the Mughal army. From Majhauli King, he got small zamindari of 5 villages near Padrauna as a reward for his bravery. This seeded a new estate belonging to the Gaharwars of Kantit.

The descendents of Lakshman Deo, the third son of Manikchand, are now the rulers of present Saktisgarh and Bijapur estates. The fourth son Premjeet became Muslim at Gajni and was known as Sultan Alauddin Mohammed Saheb. He got the area of Khairamgarur in Benares. His entire estate is now divided between his descendants. Even though they are Muslims, they still participate as pattidars (kin) in the functions of Kantit Raj.

10.2 The establishment of Padrauna Estate Click here to read

Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

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