PREDECESSORS and SHORT
HISTORY:
The
ancestor of the Bisen Dynasty of Gonda, Bhinga, Kalakankar
etc was Raja
Prithvi Mull of Majhauli in Gorakhpur. Gonda was founded
by Man Mull,
the
first to use the surname of Singh, who was given the
title of
Raja
in 1618 by the Mughal Emperor. He was also the ancestor of
the Rulers
of
Bhinga and Mankapur. Rulers were...
- Raja PRITHVI MULL,
Raja of Majhauli in Gorakhpur, married and had
issue.
- Raja Pratap Mull (qv)
- Raja Hom Mull, ancestor of the Rajas of Kalakankar.
- Raja PRATAP MULL,
Raja of Majhauli
- Raja SHAH MULL,
Raja of Majhauli
- Raja KUSUM MULL,
Raja of Majhauli
- Raja MAN SINGH,
Raja of Majhauli then of Gonda, changed his surname to
Singh, married
and
had issue (continued below)
- Raja MAN SINGH,
1st
Raja of Gonda 1618/-, in 1618 he presented to the
Mughal
Emperor a
fine
elephant at Ajmer and in reward obtained the title of
Raja.
- Raja LAKSHMAN SINGH,
2nd Raja of Gonda
- Raja NIRVAHAN SINGH,
3rd Raja of Gonda
- Raja AMAR SINGH,
4th Raja of Gonda
- Raja RAM SINGH,
5th
Raja of Gonda 1665/1693, in 1665, Raja Ram Singh, came
to
the throne
and
his reign marked a period of prosperity for the clan.
He promptly
carried
a war with the Janwars and destroyed their fort at
Bhatpuri around 1665
and succeeded in ejecting them from that place. He
then turned his
attention
to the west and drove out the Raikwars from the
lowlands, annexing 74
villages
which were formed into a new pargana of Paharapur. He
married and
had issue. He died 1693.
- Raja Dutt Singh (qv)
- Raja Bhawani Singh, he received the estate of Bhinga
from his brother.
- Raja DUTT SINGH,
6th Raja of Gonda 1693/- , he rose to be the most
powerful of
the
chieftains
north of the Ghaghara. His first expedition is said to
have been
against
the Pathans of Bahraich in revenge for an outrage of a
Brahmana women.
He then turned his arms southwards and with the help
of the Pathans of
Utraula he conquered and annexed Paraspur and Ata and
thus the boundary
of the Bisen was fixed to the south of the town of
Paraspur. The extent
of his dominions was the whole of the Paraspur Gonda,
Digsir Mahadeva
and
part of Gunwarich. After an insult by Alawal Khan an
Afghan of
Bahraich,
the Raja of Gonda refused to pay revenue, and Alawal
Khan was sent with
a big force to Gonda. Crossing the river Ghaghara at
Paska he was
joined
by the Kalhans, with whose aid he stormed the Paska
fort and then
defeated
a Brahman contingent at Malauna. Advancing towards
Gonda, after a short
delay the Raja collected his forces and a fierce
encounter took place
at
Sarbhangpur in pargana Paharapur, Alawal khan was
killed and the
Nawab's
forces fled. Raja Dutt Singh regained his position,
though not for
long,
shortly afterwards, Gonda was besieged by a second
army but the siege
was
eventually raised on the arrival of a large force of
Bisen of Ramapur
in
the north of the pargana. The Raja then came to
terms with the
government
and agreed to pay revenue, but his territories were
made into a
separate
jurisdiction, independent of the Nazim of Baharaich.
This arrangement
did
not curtail Datt Singh's power but rather his power
increased. He
managed
to place his brother Bhawani Singh in possession of
the Janwar estate
of
Bhinga which henceforth was held by the Bisens . He
also seized the
Bandhalgoti
rai of Mankapur and gave it to his younger son, Azmat
Singh who was
still
an infant. So great was his influence that all the
chieftains north of
Ghaghara, acknowledged him as suzerain and brought
their forces into
the
field at his command, between the Ghaghara and the
Kuwana, the Bisen
Raja
had no rival, and power remained in the hands of his
descendants till
the
advent of British rule. He married and had issue.
- Raja Udit Singh (qv)
- Raja Ajmat Singh, he received the estate of Mankapur
from his father.
- Raja UDIT SINGH,
7th Raja of Gonda, like his father he retained the
engagement
of the
whole
of his estate as a separate revenue division under the
Lucknow
government.
He was more given to religion than to war and made
several expeditions
to Mathura and other places of pilgrimage. He is
remembered as the
builder
of the temples on the artificial island and lake
between the town of
Gonda
and the station. He married and had issue.
- Raja Mangal Singh (qv)
- Kanwar Pahlwan Singh, married and had issue.
- Kanwar (name unknown) Singh, married and
had
issue.
- Raja Guman Singh (qv)
- Kunwar Daljit Singh, married and had issue.
- Raja Devi Baksh Singh (qv)
- Kanwar Hindupat Singh
- Raja MANGAL SINGH,
8th Raja of Gonda, his reign was very short, he had
been
invited to
arbitrate
between the two sons of the Raja of Bansi and while
absent in Basti was
murdered by Zalim Singh, a Surajbansi of Amarha, a
partisan of one of
the
claimants. He married a Kalhans lady of Paraspur, and
had issue.
- Raja Sheo Prasad Singh (qv)
- Maharani Ser Kunwar, married (as his first wife),
Umara-i-Uzzam
Maharaja Mahendra Aniruddh Singh of Bhadawar.
- Raja SHEO PRASAD
SINGH,
9th Raja of Gonda, he at once marched into
Amorha and laid
the
pargana waste and annexed the same to his own
dominions. He was a
peaceful
and prudent prince and retained the whole of his
ancestral possessions.
- Raja JAI SINGH,
10th Raja of Gonda, he refused to pay the customary
tribute and
incurred
the
wrath of the authorities as he interfered in the work
of an English
officer
who had been sent to assist the nazim in the
collection of the revenue
and who had established salt and indigo works at
Gauhani (in Digsir),
he
resented violation of his territories as a personal
insult and took up
arms against the Avadh government.The result was a
short and decisive
battle
on the banks of the river Terhi, in which Jai Singh
was defeated. He
fled
to the hills, where he died. He married (amongst
others), Rani Phul
Kanwar.
Rani Phul Kanwar, for some time
managed
to exercise
her authority over the domain, later on she adopted
Guman Singh,
(?grand
son of Pahlwan Singh.)
- Raja GUMAN SINGH,
11th Raja of Gonda -/1836, his uncle Hindupat Singh
objected
to his adoption
and compelled Rani Phul Kanwar to flee and while
crossing the Bisuhi,
she
was murdered by him, who also endeavored though
unsuccessfully to
secure
the person of Guman Singh. After a short time the
latter was induced to
leave his hiding place at Ayodhya and went to Gonda,
where his life was
preserved through the vigilance of the Pandes.
Eventually, after
several
attempts had been made on the life of Guman Singh ,the
Pandes attacked
Hindupat Singh and murdered him and his whole family.
Though Guman
Singh
became Raja, yet on account of his youth and the
disturbences that
attended
his accession, the revenue officials stepped in and
Nirmal Das brother
of the famous minister Tikait Rai, who was then at
Bahraich, marched
with
a large force to Gonda and took the estate under his
direct management.
He seized Guman Singh and sent him in custody to
Lucknow. There he
remained
in confinement till he invited the interest of the
celebrated Mahant
Jagjiwan
Das of Kotwa in Barabanki, who was the founder of the
Sattnami sect and
who was a person of great influence. It was his
intercession, which
secured
the release of the Raja. He subsequently gave him in
marriage his
daughter,
Bhagwant Kunwar, a lady of great ability. Rani
Bhagwant Kunwar survived
the whole of her husband's family. Guman Singh
returned to Gonda and
was
allowed for his subsistence 32 villages and a cash
assignment in the
revenue.
He lived on good terms with the officials and from
time to time added
the
engagement of other villages to those which he held in
Nankar. When he
died in 1836, he left a large estate and considerable
wealth but with
no
son. A short interregnum ensued,and the Pandes
favoured the cause of
Sanumam
Singh, son of Madho Singh of Mahnon. However
eventually the widow of
Saif-ud-daula,
who was then nazim, placed on the throne Devi Baksh
Singh, son of
Daljeet
Singh, the younger brother of the late Raja. He
married Rani Bhagwant
Kaur.
He died sp 1836.
INTERREGNUM
1836/183x
- Raja DEVI BAKSH
SINGH,
12th Raja of Gonda 183x/1857, this prudent and active
prince built a strong
fort at Jigna in the east of the Pargana, from where
he managed his
estate.
He increased his property rapidly, disallowing any
interference between
him and the cultivators of his land, by marrying a
daughter of the Raja
of Bhadawar, he formed an alliance with one of the
highest Rajput
families
in northern India. He fought alongside Begum Hazrat
Mahal of Oudh
against
the British forces and reportedly went to Nepal with
the Begum, where
he died at an unknown date. He
married
the daughter of the Raja of Bhadawar,
and
may have had issue.
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