1904] 
G. N. Dutt —History of the Hutwa Raj. 
181 
By tlie same method of calculation we arrive at the date of the 83rd 
Raja, Jay Mall, to be about 1525 A.D. This was an age of unrest and 
disorder in India. The last of the Lodi kings fell into the hands of 
Babar in the Battle of Panipat and Babar became master of an exten" 
sive territory from the western limits of Bengal to the eastern bound¬ 
ary of Persia. The Pathans had attempted to set up a new kingdom 
at Jaunpur under the leadership of Darya Khan Lohani. On hearing 
of this Babar set out for Jaunpur and defeated him. In his expedition 
he obtained possession of Benares and Patna, and his son Prince 
Humayun was left to tranquilise and settle Oudh. Behar was in pos¬ 
session of Mahmud Lodi, 1 who made himself master in 1529. Babar 
defeated Mahmud Lodi and appointed the grandson of Darya Khan to 
the Government of Behar. Then followed the memorable fights between 
Humayun and Sher Shah resulting in Humayun’s flight. The battles 
of Buxar (1539) and Kanauj in which Humayun was completely routed 
by Sher Shah took place at this time, and Sher Shah ascended 
the throne of Delhi in 1540 A.D. Such times of disorder and troubles 
gave ample scope for exhibiting one’s military genius, and there 
seems little doubt that Raja Jay Mall had aided one of the parties 
and received, or more probably assumed, the title of “ Malla ” (mean¬ 
ing in Sanskrit, ‘Wrestler),’ for it is not likely that any Mahomedan 
kings of such remote date would have conferred a title which has purely 
a Sanskrit origin and signification. To fix accurately the dates of these 
earlier Rajas is, if not altogether hopeless, a hard task, and in this respect 
the Sanads, &c., if available, would have been of much use, but all earlier 
records of the Raj were either destroyed or taken away by the rebel 
Maharaja Fateh Shahi of whom we will speak later on. In the absence 
of any such documentary evidence, the materials for the history of the 
period of these earlier Rajas are necessarily the composition of the 
hereditary bards (Raj Bhats) retained in the Durbar, the tradition 
current in the Raj family and in collateral branches and the popular 
belief in the places alleged to have been connected with any historical 
incidents. 
We have come to the Raja who is the 86th in descent, Kalyan Mall, 
the first in the line to receive the title of Maharaja. He had made his 
seat at Kalyanpur, named after him, where the ruins of his fortress 
and a big well of 50 feet in diameter, said to have been constructed by 
1 Copper coins of tlie Lodis are often found in these parts. The author found 
some, as also the former D.S.P. of Saran, Mr. Knyvett, near Kataya Police outpost 
in 1898. 
2 The title “ Malla ” is very old. As for the “ Mallas ” of Kusiwara and Pava, 
vide Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XI, Buddhist Suttas. 
