284 
F. S. Growse —The town of Bulandshahr. 
[No. 3, 
tinuation of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri of Minhaj-ud-din Jurjani. It con¬ 
tains the history of eight kings, Balban, Kai-Kubad, the three Ivhiljis, the 
two Tughlaks and Firoz Shah. The history of the last reign, though the 
one which gives its title to the book, is incomplete and of less interest 
than the other portions, the value of the narrative being affected by a 
strain of excessive adulation. He is said to have died in such poverty 
that even a proper shroud could not be provided for his body, which had 
to be wrapt up in a piece of coarse matting. But the truth of this tradi¬ 
tion mav be questioned ; the continuer of his history expressly states that 
his death was greatly regretted by the Emperor, and both his father and 
uncle had occupied important positions at Court, the latter, Ala-ul-Mulk 
having been the Kotwal, or Police Magistrate, of Delhi. 
In the reign of Firoz’s predecessor, Muhammad Tughlak, (1325 to 
135 L A. D.) the town of Baran suffered dearly for its proximity to Delhi, 
being one of the first places where that sanguinary tyrant diverted him¬ 
self with his favourite spectacle of an unprovoked massacre. In the great 
famine of 1344, after the removal of the Capital to Deogiri, the country 
of the Doab—to use the language of the local historian—“ was brought 
to great distress by heavy taxation and numerous cesses. The Hindus 
burnt their corn-stacks and turned their cattle out to roam at large. Under 
the orders of the Sultan the Collectors and Magistrates laid waste the 
country, killing some of the land-owners and village chiefs and blinding 
others. Such of the unhappy inhabitants as escaped formed themselves 
into bands and took refuge in the jungles. So the country was ruined. 
The Sultan then proceeded on a hunting excursion to Baran, where— 
under his directions—the whole of that neighbourhood was plundered 
and laid waste and the heads of the Hindus were brought in and hung 
upon the ramparts of the Baran Fort. ” Though it was a matter of 
impossibility to collect the revenue, the Hindu Governor was put to death 
for his failure to do so, and a vast number of his kinsmen, a Baniya clan 
called Baran-walas, whose ancestors had been settled in the town by its 
first founders, were driven into exile Some of them emigrated to Mura- 
dabad, while others fled as far as Azamgarh and Ghazipur, in both which 
districts they are now more numerously represented than in their original 
home. 
Of those who remained at Baran, one family in the reign of Akbar 
acquired for themselves the post of hereditary Kanungo; and one of their 
descendants, Shaikh Roshan, who was converted to Islam by the persuasive 
arguments of Aurangzeb, founded the suburb—as it then was—called 
Shaikh Sarae, which now by the increase of population has become a very 
central locality. Of the same stock are Munshi Shahab-ud-din, the build¬ 
er of the large mosque, which from its lofty situation is the -most con- 
