Sheikhpura --- A village in the extreme south-west of the Monghyr subdivision wiith a station situated on the South Bihar Railway. Population (1901) 10,135. I is an important centre for the grain trade and for the manufacture of hookah tubes, and contains a District Board bungalow,police station,and dispensary. Sheikhpura has been identified by General Cunninghum with a village visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsiang in the seventh century A.D. Hieun Tsiang after leaving the Gaya district arrived at a large and populous village to the south of the Ganges, which possessed many Brahmanical temples ornamented with fine sculptures. There was also a great stupa built on the spot where Buddha had preached for one night. " Both distance and direction point to the vicinity of Sheikhpura, a position which is confirmed by the subsequent easterly route of the pilgrim,through forests and gorges of mountains." There are very few ancient remains except a fine tank,two mules west of the village,called Mathokar Tal on the bank of which there is a dargah,said to be the tomb of one Mathokar Khan. But as the site is said to have been originally occupied by a temple of Kali, and as the tank is still called Kali Mathokar, the name is probably only a contraction of Math Pokhar, or the temple tank, the full name having been Kali Math Pokhar temple-tank, i.e, the tank of the temple of Kali*.
About three miles to the east, near a place called Pachna there is a pass over the hills called Goalin Khand to which an interesting legend attaches. The emperor Sher Shah, it is said, was always fond of Monghyr because it was there that he obtained an early success which formed a stepping stone in his career. Once when marching to quell a rebellion in Bengal, he stopped for a week in the fort during the month of Baisakh, the best time of the year for hunting. The governor had made preparations for a hunt in the jungles near the Sheikhpura Hills; and much to the surprise of his courtiers, the emperor, on coming to the line of elephants drawn up, ordered the Mahout to give him the reins. The astonished Mahaout replied that an elephant was guided not by reins but by Ankush, whereupon Sher Shah, jumping down, mounted his horse and rode off. The courtiers were astonished, and while some admired his courage in wishing to control an elephant by reins, others exclaimed his whimsical temper, while others murmured that the jagir of Sasaram could still be smelt through the perfume of the throne of Delhi. In the meantime, the emperor was wandering by himself in disguise, making the acquaintances of his subjects like Harun-Ul-Rashid. Among others he met an old Goalin or Milk-woman of Sheikhpura who watered his horse and gave him the milk to drink and some pulse to eat. While conversing with her, one of his followers Mian Suleman, who had been searching for him, and addressed him as emperor. He asked her what he could do for her to repay her kindness, and she then replied that the best thing he could do was to make a straight road over the hills to save her and the villagers from the tedious track around them. The emperor promised to make a road, and was as good as his words. He would not, however, let it be named after himself but called it Goalin Khand or the milk-woman's road.
0 comments:
Post a Comment