271 
1878.] W. Irvine —The Bangash Naiudhs of Farrukhdhdd. 
Any money collected was forwarded to the Rajah who had engaged the band, 
after deducting any balance that might be due. Whatever they had gained 
was divided, and the share of any man killed was set apart and sent to his 
widow at Mau. For eight months these plundering expeditions continued, 
and when the month of June came, they all returned to Mau. Owing to the 
rank of ’Ain Khan’s family and his own relationship to them, Yasin Khan 
had great affection for Muhammad Khan. Yasin Khan was an Ustarzai 
Bangash, a native of Mau, and a relation of Muhammad Khan’s mother. 
One day while besieging Orchha,* on the Datiya frontier, Yasin Khan 
w r as killed by a shot from a villager’s gun. The Pathans then chose as 
their leader Shadi Khan, Bangash, of Mau, Yasin Khan’s maternal uncle. 
Soon after, Muhammad Khan having quarrelled with Shadi Khan, left 
him, and with his seventeen followers, sought employment on his own 
account. Gradually all the Mau Pathans joined Muhammad Khan’s stan¬ 
dard They went from the service of one Rajah to another, and in this 
manner many years were passed in the Dakhin and Bundelkhand. 
Bundelkhand politics during the second half of the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury seem to be unusually obscure, and as I have not been able to verify 
them from other sources, I only give for what they are worth the one or 
two stories, relating to this early part of Muhammad Khan’s career, which 
appear to have some sort of historical character. One is that when the 
Rajah of Datiya died, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Pirthi Singh, who 
at once set to work to turn out his brother, Ram Chand. The latter called 
in Muhammad Khan on the promise of a large sum of money, and with his 
aid Pirthi Singh was defeated, the Rajah being killed by Muhammad 
Khan’s own hand. The Pathans had hardly reached Mau with their plunder 
when an emergent call for succour was received from Madar Shah of Siprif 
and Jalaun. He reported that Muhammad Amin Khan, with more than 
forty thousand imperial troops, was coming to overwhelm him. Muhammad 
Khan, hastily collecting all the men he had ready, marched to the Rajah’s 
aid ; but, before his arrival, the Rajah had already been forced to seek safety 
in flight. There were, however, several encounters between Muhammad 
Khan and Muhammad Amin Khan before a final peace was concluded. 
The usual routine of these free-booting expeditions was for the leader 
to put himself at the head of from five hundred to a thousand men of his 
own and other clans. Muhammad Khan had by his boldness and bravery 
gained such a reputation, that all the Rajahs of the country trembled at 
his name. If he saw a village, town, or city weakly defended, he surrounded 
it, and sent to the headmen for his black mail ( nazarand ). If one or two 
thousand rupees were forwarded, he went away—otherwise the place was 
* Gazetteer, N. W. P. I, 554. On the Betwa, 142 miles S. E. of Agra. 
f About 55 miles west of Jhansi in Bundelkhand. 
