The Kalhans is an Indian Rajput dynasty belonging to the clan that ruled over the districts of Gonda, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Bahraich, Barabanki, Balrampur, and Ayodhya in the region of Oudh and Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh and adjoining area of Nepal.^[1]

Map showing the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and Nepal

History

The overthrow of the Dom power may be ascribed with some certainty to the Kalhans Chhattrís, the story of whose settlement is related in a fairly coherent and probable tradition. Sahaj Sah, one of the chieftains of Gohumunj Bagulana , a territory situated on extreme west of Rajputana who had joined the rebellion Baha-ud-din ,Governor of Malwa against Muhammad Tughlak, and on its suppression fled for refuge to an old friend, Malik Ain-ud-din, who ruled the south of Oudh from Karra Manikpur. That officer found him and his band of of the Rajput soldiers useful in suppressing the internal disorders of the province,and assigned him the trans-Ghaghra district afterwards known as Khurasa, in jagir, for the support of himself and his troops. Expelling the Doms, he established on the banks of the Pathri jhíl, a few miles to the south of the present town of Gonda, a Chhatrí ráj, which covered the whole of the cultivated south of the district, and extended from the boundaries of Bahraich to far into Basti district.

The Bandhalgotis, who settled in pargana Mankapur and the north of Nawabganj, and whose representative subsequently assumed the title of Rája, came in with his forces, and held their villages in subordinate jagir from him. The Goraha Bissens of Mahadewa, who, however, have no tradition of an immigra-tion, and were probably old inhabitants, received in a similar way the jágír of that pargana from himself or one of his successors.

With the exception of vague traditions of wars with the Janwars of Ekona, nothing is recorded of the succeeding Rájas of this house, and their very names are involved in doubt, as two different and contradictory pedigrees are given by the two branches of their descendants, the Rája of Bamhanipáir and the Thakurs of Chhedwara. The account of the former, which gives eight generations, is, however, probably the more accurate. The last of the line was Rája Achal Narain Singh of Khurasa, whose destruction is ascribed in a picturesque legend to his tyranny and cruelty towards a subject Brahman, Ratan Pande, and the divine vengeance of the river Sarju. ^[1]

Since writing the district Gazetteer, I have acquired fresh evidence as to the date of this disaster, which I then fixed by conjecture about half a century too soon. The most convincing proof I have of the era of Rája Achal Narain Singh is a birt deed under his signature, which I discovered by the merest accident, which was never pro duced in a lawsuit, and which could hardly under any con ceivable circumstances be of practical service to its proprie tor. Its appearance, its language, and the manner in which it was procured leave no doubt in my mind that it is a genuine document; and, as the earliest existing grant of this kind which has come under my notice, I think it worth tran scribing in full. It is as follows:

"Likh Shri Maháráj Rájadhiraj Achal Narain Singh

Jiú, áge ham Chaube Madhukar ka mozeh Mahrámpár

birt kushat din adand apne khátir jama se basen basáwen ábád karen yih siwáe án karen to jhuthho amal karen to chittor ká dokh, tehkar sáchhí Mani Rám Dube Bhaduá ke sachhi Lilkanth Pandit Chauháni ke dastkhatt Lachhan Singh Kánúngo miti Asárh Sudi Panchami, San 931, Sal Mah. ^[1]”

This is earlier than the introduction of the fasli computation, so the epoch used is that of the Hijra, and the date is 1524 A.D. A more prosaie version of the Raja's story attributes the commencement of his troubles to an arrear of revenue due to Mubariz Khan Adili in Sambat 1601, or 1544 A.D., for which Ratan Pande had stood security; and the two dates agree so nearly, and are so probable in themselves, that there is no difficulty in accepting both. The Kalhanses therefore ruled over nearly the whole of the then cultivated part of the district for the time which intervened between Muhammad Shah Tughlak and the Afghan kings of Delhi who preceded Akbar, or from early in the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth...

References