Mursan
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, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Mursan
Estate situated in the AlTgarh, Muttra, and Etah Dis- tricts of the United Provinces, with an area of 60 square miles. The demand for land revenue in 1903-4 was a lakh and for cesses Rs. 16,000, while the rent-roll was 2-1 lakhs. This is the most important Jat estate in the United Provinces. In the sixteenth or seventeenth century a Jat, named Makan, came from Rajputana to the neighbourhood of Mursan town, and he and his descendants acquired considerable estates, partly by clearing waste land. The result was the formation of a number of talukas or baronies, linked together by the kinship of the owners. Nand Ram, head of the clan, submitted to Aurangzeb, when the latter had firmly established himself, and was appointed an administrative official. He died in 1695, leaving fourteen sons, the eldest of whom was called Zulkaran, and predeceased his father.
The Jat possessions were divided among the other children of Nand Ram ; but Zulkaran's son, Khushal Singh, who obtained only two villages, attracted the notice of Saadat Khan, Nawab of Oudh, and was granted the farm of other property. In 1749 he was succeeded by Puhup Singh, who largely increased the estates he had inherited by obtaining from the dtnils leases of villages which had fallen out of cultivation, or in which arrears of revenue were due. He also acquired a considerable share in the talukas left by Nand Ram, though dispossessed for a time by Suraj Mai, Raja of Bharatpur, and was the first of the family to assume the title of Raja.
In 1803 Bhagwant Singh, son of Puhup Singh, was allowed to engage for payment of revenue of all the estates held by him, without any detailed inquiry into their internal circumstances, and retained some independent judicial authority. He also received a jagir for services rendered in Lord Lake's campaign. A few years later both Bhagwant Singh and Daya Ram, talukddr of Hathras, another descendant of Nand Ram, came into conflict with the authorities for persistent default in the payment of revenue and defiance of the courts, and in 181 7 troops were sent against them. Daya Ram at first resisted, and on the fall of Hathras his estates were confiscated ; but Bhagwant Singh surrendered. He was treated leniently, and his possessions were not escheated, though his special police jurisdiction was cancelled. On his death in 1823 the process of direct engagement with the village pro- prietors was commenced, and his son, Tikam Singh, lost considerably.
The separation of subordinate rights was completed in the first regular settlement, and was resisted in the courts by the Raja, but without success. Owing to his loyalty in the Mutiny, Raja Tikam Singh received an abatement of Rs. 6,000 in his assessment, and was also created C.S.I. The present owner of the estate is Raja Dat Prasad Singh, who succeeded a grandson of Tikam Singh in 1902.
The principal place in the estate is Mursan, a small town on the Cawnpore-Achhnera Railway, with a population (1901) of 4,395, which is administered under Act XX of 1856. A primary school here is attended by 120 pupils.
