32 
On several places in Sub-Division Banka. 
[No. 1, 
which, the following tradition exists. In the year 965, Fasli, 
two brothers, Sinha Bai and Sursi Bai, having been deprived 
by their relations of their share of ancestral property, abandon¬ 
ed their native place of Khurchuta in Hazaribagh, and arriving 
at Deogarh, fell in dhurna before the great idol. The oracle 
commanded them to travel towards the north, where riches and 
prosperity awaited their descendants. They accordingly came 
to this Sub-Division, which was then full of jungles, and as the 
present thakur of Lachmi'pur traces his genealogy to these bro¬ 
thers, the prediction of the oracle is believed to have been fulfilled. 
Sinha Bai’s son, Banbhim Bai, cleared the forests and founded the 
village which is now called Jamdaha ; but it was at the time of his 
grandson, Sujun Bai, that the place rose to great importance, and 
excited the cupidity of the Baja of Kharakpur. The latter ac¬ 
cordingly equipped with a large army, and built an outpost at 
Daopur. The rapid Chandan*' flowed between the two contend¬ 
ing parties. Sujun Bai, of course, thought himself no match for 
his rival, who had just then established his sovereignty over the 
ruins of the states of fifty-two Khetauri Bajas. So he adopted a stra¬ 
tagem instead of having recourse to open battle. He spread a rumour 
to the effect that he had collected a very large army in the jungles, 
and in order to confirm this, he caused several thousands of donas 
(cups made of sal leaves) to float down the stream with sathu and 
dahi sprinkled over each, so as to lead to the impression that the 
soldiers had taken their meals on them. The course of the stream 
brought these donas below Daopur, and as each dona represented 
a soldier, the Baja was led to conclude that he had to deal with 
an army much larger than his own. This was not all. Su¬ 
jun Bai, with the aid of a very powerful horse, leaped unseen over 
the Baja’s battlements at night, and having fixed a dart into 
the masonry floor where the Baja slept, came away without 
taking his enemy’s life which he might easily have done. The 
Baj a was not only frightened at these proofs of his antagonist’s skill 
and prowess, but was filled with admiration at his magnanimity. 
# According to Col. Franklin, the Chandan is the Erannoboas of the Greeks ; 
vide his ‘ Inquiry into the site of the ancient Palibothra.’ 
But vide Cunningham’s Ancient Geography of India, Yol. I, p. 453. The 
Editor. 
