Baiswara

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Baiswara

The name given to several tracts of country in various parts of the United Provinces, from the fact that they belong or have belonged to the Bais Rajputs. The most important of these includes a number of parganas (traditionally twenty-two) in the eastern half of Unao District, the western half of Rae BarelT, and the extreme south of Lucknow, with a total area of nearly 2,000 square miles. The Bais Rajputs first became of importance here in the thirteenth century, when two of them, named Abhai Chand and Nirbhe Chand (who are supposed to have come from MungI Patan in the Deccan), rescued the Gautam Rani of Argal, who had been attacked by the Muhammadan governor of Oudh. Nirbhe Chand died of his wounds, and the Raja of Argal gave his daughter to Abhai Chand, who settled at Daundia Khera.

Tenth in descent from him was Tilok Chand, who lived about 1400, and extended the area held by the Bais to the limits described above. Legends are numerous about Tilok Chand, who became the greatest noble in Oudh, and opposed the Muhammadans, as did his immediate successors. According to one account, he defeated the Chauhan Raja, of Mainpurl, who thereupon gave him a daughter to wife, though the Bais were reckoned inferior to the Chauhans. In the eighteenth century the bravery of the chiefs of Baiswara gained the admiration of Saadat Khan, founder of the Lucknow dynasty. Under the Nawabs Baiswara formed a separate administrative division, as described above. The Baiswara Division formed by the British Government after annexation consisted of Rae Barell, Partabgarh, and Sultanpur, the last two Districts having nothing to do with the real Baiswara. The tract has given its name to a dialect of Eastern Hindi, which differs very slightly from other dialects of that language. Its inhabitants still bear a reputation for bravery. It was a Bais chieftain, Drigbijai Singh, who saved the four survivors of the Cawnpore massacre from their pursuers in 1857. [C. A. Elliott, Chronicles of Oonao, p. 66 et seq.]