Mahua Dabar before 1857: A Significant Township

These web pages present contemporary sources in an attempt to sort out the confused story of the massacre of British army officers near the village of Mahua Dabar, south of Basti in northern India, in June 1857, and the subsequent reprisals by the British. Please note that I have not (except for the substitution [N-word]) changed the quoted texts, which very often display 19th-century attitudes and terminology, plus a wide variety of attempts to transliterate local names and other words. However, I have sometimes added my own comments and clarifications [in italics in square brackets].

This supplementary prologue page describes the township as it was before 1857. The main narrative of the Mahua Dabar massacre can be found here.

"The History, Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India" compiled by Montgomery Martin (vol. 2, 1838)

p377 [here bullet-listed to distinguish text about the whole Mahuyadabar Police Circle from text about individual villages; please note also that details are based on Francis Buchanan's survey of the area, made around 1813]: "MAHUYADABAR- Very much resembles Sanichara, that is, it has a bare sandy tract on the side of the Ghaghra, and several stunted forests in the centre, and along the northern boundary. The whole, however, is as well cultivated as the western parts of Sanichara, and the plantations as moderate as there, although many still are superfluous. There are many small pools, and one of some consequence named Chanda Tal [FOOTNOTE: "Tal generally signifies a marsh ..."], which at the end of the rainy season is reckoned 1½ coss long, and one broad. The Raja has in his house one room of brick. There are 100 houses of two stories with mud walls; 70 are covered with tiles, and 30 are thatched. There are 200 huts with mud walls and tiled roofs. Of the remainder, all thatched with grass, 31 parts have mud walls, and one part walls of hurdles.

Mahuyadabar is a scattered place buried in plantations, but contains 200 houses, many of which are tiled, and some have two stories.
Piparaich contains 200. [On p352 the author notes another "Pipraich" in Munsurgunj Police Circle]
Ganespoor 200, many of them good. Part is surrounded by a rampart of earth, a ditch, and bamboo hedge, and is still occupied by many houses of a younger branch of the Gautamiya chief's family, although the property has been alienated. [On p458, the author notes "The Gautama Rajputs must be distinguished from the Gautamiyas, who are a spurious breed of the same family, but by low born mothers."]
Nagar contains 100 houses, among which is that of the Gautamiya chief. The whole is defended like that of his kinsmen, and the defences are in good repair. [On p361 the author notes that the town of Selempoor (or Islampoor) in Majholi Police Circle was also formerly called Nagar]
Uji contains 100 houses.
Kaptangunj has only 25 shops; but it is a small military station, and the residence of the native collector of revenue." [On p352 the author notes another "Kaptangunj (Captain's Town)" in Munsurgunj Police Circle]

[On p391, in his description of Basti Police Circle, the author mentions ancient ruins "at the west end of a marshy lake called Bhwilatal, about 15 miles west from Basti" including "a Lingga called the Bhuileswar". However, he names no communities within Basti Police Circle except Basti town itself and Pakoliya "the only other place, that can be called a town"; hence he gives us no clue whether the post-1857 other Mahua Dabar existed in his time]
Appendix p9: Division or Thanah: Mauhuyadabar. 693 Mohammedan families; 9533 Hindu families (Total 10266 families) of which: 3960 Gentry; 263 Traders; 1669 Artificers; 4334 Ploughmen. Total population of the northern part of Gorukhpoor District: 277099 families, of which 20575 Mohammedan; 256524 Hindu.
Appendix p10: Division or Thanah: Mauhuyadabar. Total area 212 square miles, of which 13 are water, and 32 are liable to annual flooding. Of the remainder, 25 square miles are woods, bushes or deserted villages; 24 reeds or pasture; 18 "Broken corners, burial grounds, roads, markets, and barren land". There are 7 market places; exports were 35,138 rupees; imports 18,800 rupees. Total area of the northern part of Gorukhpoor District: 7423 square miles; exports 2,143,446 rupees; imports 1,292,440 rupees.
Appendix p13: "List of the Hindu Academicians in the northern part of the District of Gorukhpoor [numbers in each Police Circle, with subjects covered, including:]
Gorukhpoor- Grammar, Poetry heroic, Law, and Astrology 15 ... Mahuyadabar- Grammar, Metaphysics, Theology, Law 20 ... Basti- Grammar, Law, Legend, Metaphysics, Astrology 42 ... [etc.] Total 622.
[The "Academicians" statistics need to be interpreted in conjunction with the 1847 survey information on schools in Goruckpore District from "Memoir on the Statistics of Indigenous Education Within the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency" by Reginald Thornton (1850) which explains on page 83 that the 428 schools in the district had between them just 3,808 pupils, of whom over 2,200 were Brahmins, and that the main language of instruction was Sanskrit, or Persian in Muslim schools (which were also attended by members of the 'Kayeth' or Kayastha caste of administrators- although the book notes disapprovingly that the detailed land records compiled by the 'putwarrees' or patwaris, an administrative post traditionally held by Brahmins, were in Sanskrit).]
Appendix p16: The northern part of Gorukhpoor District imports 212,450 rupees-worth of cotton wool; R.87,725 R. cotton cloth (export R.27,100); R.28,350 chintz and coloured cloth (export R.10,800); R.20,452 Cloth of Tasar and cotton thread mixed (export R.700); R.17,050 Cloth of silk and thread mixed (export R.1,300); R. R.8,350 other cloths & carpets (export R.25 of Patuya sack-cloth).
Appendix p16-17: MARKET TOWNS IN GORUKHPOOR [listed by Police Circle] "Mahuyadabar.- Mahuyadabar. Pipara. Nagar. Ganespoor. Captaingunj. Avadbutnagar. Uji."

"Report on the Census of the North West Provinces of the Bengal Presidency, Taken on the 1st of January, 1853" (1854)

p344-5 [Goruckpoor district]: Purgunuh Nugur [i.e. Nagar; by this time, Mahua Dabar seems to have lost its status as the head of any administrative district], Hindoo agricultural population: 47,417 M, 41,281 F; Hindoo non-agricultural population: 14,493 M, 12,368 F; Mahomedan [etc.] agricultural population: 3,300 M, 3,023 F; Mahomedan [etc.] non-agricultural population: 4,120 M, 3,600 F. Total: 129,602

Purgunuh Bustee, Hindoo agricultural population: 59,734 M, 53,311 F; Hindoo non-agricultural population: 14,719 M, 13,558 F; Mahomedan [etc.] agricultural population: 7,060 M, 6,376 F; Mahomedan [etc.] non-agricultural population: 2,619 M, 2,375 F. Total: 159,752

[Population of Goruckpoor town, 54,529, Jungul Punouna, 15,592; Mahua Dabar had a population below 5,000, but so did over 13,000 other places in Goruckpoor district for which no detailed figures were given, so it is impossible to state whether the population was 4,999 or 1.]

"A Gazetteer Of The Territories Under The Government Of The East-India Company" (1857)

MAHUYADABAR, in the British district of Goruckpore, lieut.-gov. of the N. W. Provinces, a small town on the Manaura, a feeder of the Koyane, and with it ultimately discharged into the Ghagra. Buchanan [Nearly half a century before this book was published!] describes Mahuyadabar as a straggling place, buried in plantations, and containing 200 houses, many of which are tiled, and some have two stories. Distant S.W. from Goruckpore cantonment 40 miles. Lat. 26° 34', long. 82° 44'.

"A History Of The Sepoy War In India 1857-1858" by John William Kaye (vol. 3, 1876)

p468 footnote [on the village of "Mahwah-dabur" where the British officers were killed]: "This was a Mahomedan village, held by a family that had discharged the office of Kagee" [more commonly spelled Kajee, or Kazi, from the Arabic for a judge; this might explain why Mahua Dabar in Buchanan's time was the centre of a Police Circle]

[PS: A tantalising thought:]

"Notes on the English pre-mutiny records in the United Provinces" by Douglas Dewar (1911)

"A NOTE ON THE PRE-MUTINY RECORDS IN THE OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GORAKHPUR DIVISION" p4: "The Basti district formed part of the Gorakhpur district until 1865. Most of the Basti pre-mutiny records are therefore in the record room of the Collector of Gorakhpur and, as in the case of the Azamgarh district, records relating to Basti occur in the offices of the Commissioners of the Gorakhpur and Benares divisions.
On the formation of the Basti district a number of pre-mutiny settlement records were transferred to the record room of the newly formed district.
These settlement records have been bound up in 82 volumes and fall into six series.
Series I. Village statements of the year 1830 ... 29 volumes.
II. Annual jama statements of 1830 ... 6
III. General statements in acres of 1830 ... 9
IV. Police jagir registers of 1830 ... 8
V. General village registers of 1830 ... 3
VI. Plans of villages surveyed in the year 1836, 27

The best page to read next is probably this one about the ejection of British officers from Faizabad in 1857.