250 
H. R. Nevill —Mahals in SarJcar Lahhnciu. 
[No. 3, 
Mahals in Sarkar Lahhnau . —By H. R. NeVILL. 
[Read March, 1904]. 
In the Journal for 1884, p. 215, there appeared an article by Mr. J. 
Beames entitled—“ On the Geography of India in the Reign of Ak- 
bar, ” in which he dealt with the mahals and sarkars of the Subah of 
Avadh, as recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari. In this he identified the 
great majority of the mahals with the parganas of the present day, 
and thereby provided the student of fiscal geography with a mass of 
valuable information. His list was admittedly imperfect, and he 
invited others to complete the work .he had begun. Moreover, it was 
not correct in all points. By referring to the original authorities and 
by consulting others, I think that many of the gaps can be filled up and 
one or two discrepancies removed. At present, I am merely able to 
deal with the Sarkarof Lakhnau; but it will be something accom¬ 
plished if we can be fairly sure of the identification of the mahals of 
this sub-division which in Akbar’s day numbered 54. 
The district of Unao is the most difficult. It now contains twenty- 
one parganas, and four of these have double names, which imply a 
later reduction of a former larger number. On page 230 of Vol. liii of 
the Journal, Mr. Beames states that Unchganw with Tara Singhaur 
and Sidhupur is now the pargana of Daundia Khera, the cradle of the 
Bais clan. This assertion is apparently taken from Mr. A. F. Millett’s 
Settlement Report of Sultanpur, p. 119, where it says that Rao Mardan 
Singh, an ancestor of Ram Bakhsh Singh, of mutiny notoriety, united 
these three mahals into one. Mr. Millett refers to Mr. Benett’s “ Clans 
of the Roy Bareilly District, ” but in that work I can find no reference 
to Tara Singhaur whatever. The same statement occurs in Major Mac- 
Andrew’s Settlement Report of Rai Bareli, an earlier work than either 
the Sultanpur report, or the Oudh Gazetteer. When Sir C. A. Elliott 
wrote his “ Chronicles of Oonao, ” Daundia Khera was still in Rai 
Bareli; but I am not satisfied that the report on the latter district was 
the ultimate authority, for the article on Daundia Khera in the old 
