Note 42 — C

The Chauhâns of the Ganges-Jumna-Duâb. 3. The most conspicuous families and those of the bluest blood are those of Mainpuri, Rajor, Pratâpner, and Chakarnagar. The Mainpuri family,42 the head of the sept, is said to have settled in the Central Duâb in the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. They are generally represented to be the lineal descendants of Pratâp Rudra, who was son of Râna Sangat, the great grandson of Chahir Deva, the brother of Prithivi Râja, the last Chauhân King of Delhi, who was conquered by Shahâb-ud-dîn Ghori in 1193 A.D. It is almost certain, however, that the real founder of this important branch of the Chauhâns was Deva Brahma, a less distinguished cadet of the same house. Shortly after the defeat of Prithivi Râja and the fall of the Chauhân dynasty, Brahma, accompanied by a numerous following of kinsmen and retainers, left his original seat at Nimrâna and settled at Pratâpner, near Bhongâon, in the Mainpuri District. The founder of this branch was Pratâp Rudra, who is constantly mentioned in the Makhzan-i-Afghâni of Niyâmat-ulla as having played a prominent part in the reign of Muhammad Ala-ud-dîn and Bahlol Lodi. He held Bhongâon, Kampil, and Patiyâli, and was confirmed by Bahlol Lodi as Governor of that part of the country. In the war between Bahlol and the Sharqi monarch of Jaunpur, Râê Pratâp and Qutb Khân, the Afghân Governor of the adjoining District of Râpri, acted in concert, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other, and presumably on account of the assassination of Narasinha Deva, son of Râê Pratâp, they organised a conspiracy against Sultân Bahlol and compelled him to retreat towards Delhi, leaving the Jaunpur King in possession of the Central and Lower Duâb. A tradition runs that a Chauhân being sorely pressed by his son-in-law, and smarting under the sense of disgrace, as the father of a married daughter seemed to entail upon him, called together his son and bound them by an oath to save his family from future contempt by killing every female child that might be born to them. Since then the sept has borne an evil reputation for the practice of infanticide.43