About the author of the plebeians who would be kings

About the author of the book: the plebeians who would be kings.

Born in the house of Sees Chand, at the time when Adolf Hitler was occupying Gdansk in Poland and the Indian Empire of the British was about to disintegrate and the Congress Party of India was on the ascendancy , about to win freedom for the country , Gandhi had already acquired the stature of a deity and everyone had a Congress revolutionary in the family , his own father being arrested for burning the Kaiser Hind aerodrome, built on his own mangroves and land, training young American fliers for the war, his one uncle being arrested for Congress agitations and activities in and around Azamgarh ,and a brother-in-law for refusing to pay in the War-fund kitty of the ruling British class ,and mother’s maternal-uncle for Quit-India movement in Varanasi. The name of his first cousin changed from Bhagat Singh to Virendra Pratap. Born to the rural middle-class affluence ,acquired over regular tilling of soil for frugal subsistence over five hundred years and twenty-two generations of the men of grit and resolve to have claimed their entire possession as “independent land-owners ”,recognizing none as their over-lords or even as sovereigns since their migration from Ayodhya in or around 1194 AD, till 1793.

The most amazing factor of his life is to have been born in the same family, where the Bhrigu-sanhita- mentioned Mahayogi Bharat Singh presided, as the 110 years old sage till 6th of December 1944.However that saw the end of the golden-era of the 1st House of Katehar and by 28.06.1952,three days prior to Zamindari-abolition in United-Provinces or Uttar Pradesh and every thing seem to have evaporated in the thin air over-night. He was but an impressionable young lad of twelve .The Sees Chand Mansion was totally deserted and forlorn ,people took away any thing and every thing they could lay their hands on, there was no one to stop them. By and by the heavy teek doors and almirahs were unhinged and removed after a roomful of teek-slabs had been gradually removed from the house. Huge wooden boxes were shifted away. One such box carried the 1st House genealogical table, which took people by surprise as it was not decipherable. So the word went around of such a find, which was handed-over to him by a stroke of good luck and people’s well-wishes for the family after the return of the prodigal son.

The riddle of the large sheet of high-class Italian art paper supported by cotton-mesh at the back took much of the time and curiosity of the author till a clerk in the Varanasi courts solved it in a couple of Sundays riddle-solving session. This was like a Pandora’s box and a thrilling mystery-book which set the tone of the book to be written by him. The author by now had concluded his ten-year long sea-career and got around to Indian Council of Historical Research and read four papers, mainly based on the knowledge gained from his abovementioned Pandora’s box, aided by the tales of the family bard since shifting from Ayodhya in around 1194AD.

However, the urge to complete the history of migration from Ayodhya to Varanasi and Jaunpur was nipped in the bud, by the horrendous deeds of the river Gomti in 1979 and 1980,on 7th of September, when the author’s village lost 626.04acres of riverine land in one big shifting to south- detour of the river. This and the head of the 1st House of Katehar,Rai Saheb Thakur Ram Rup Singh kept the author busy, from dawn to past midnight(preparing notes to face from the smallest to the highest revenue officials of the State, legally and morally and desperately to claim what was theirs) for next ten years, till the time the author’s spouse rebelled(owing to the needs of the growing family and the prime source of livelihood having gone on the other side of river Gomti) and she very forcefully and resolutely, packed the author, once more , back to sea.

With good sea-wages the priorities changed overnight with improved living conditions and a certain amount of both sloth and indolence setting –in , however starting work on a new mansion in the city(dedicated to the memories of the survival in his last residence: the glorious Sees Chand Mansion in the village, since 1485 till 28.06.1952,by his ancestor Rai Chan Singhjudeo to his own father Babu Rishabh Deo Singhji-aptly calling it the R.M..House) being erected on the insistence of the spouse, and the historicity in mind in altogether a different prospective, the relegated back-ground bringing-out in the open and to city-lights

However the relegated realization of the over-bearing importance of the edifice still holding-on it’s own and standing-by as a reminder of the past history dawned-upon once more, on the occasion of the last rites of the author’s mother in 2005.It came like an awakening of dulled senses and it seemed to the author that he was born only for the purpose of recording the art of survival and passing their time, incognito, also for the sake of survival of the Raghuvanshies migrated from Ayodhya in the thick forests of Katehar,particularly and to hand -over the knowledge to the new generations, of today, for inculcating a sense of pride and humility ,so as not to forget that the Raghuvanshies are born to help the humanity,even today,i.e.in the Kaliyuga.

It is a different matter that in a book-form,it would throw light on many things, unrecorded hitherto by the historians,like the Raghuvanshies of Katehar holding parganas of Katehar,Sultanipur,Barah,Mahaich and Narwan in Varanasi(plus Chandauli,now) as independent land-owners for nearly six hundred years, so much so that historians refer to them as Hindu Kings,after the fall of the Gaharwars.And that from Ghiasuddin Tughlaq in 1321 to Sikander Lodi to Sher Shah Suri in 1545 could’nt object to their style of functioning(mainly of not paying any revenue cess) or do any thing about their haughty arrogance.

The author took to solitary living in his Mumbai-flat to translate the greatest Sanskrit poet Kaldas’s description of his famous ancestor Raghu,the first ever world-conqueror,as in his quest for realization of his dream to write a Magnum Opus on Ayodhya’s glory from seven millennium BC to 1194AD,when the Raghuvanshies ,more or less,fled from there,or were removed by their benefactor Jai Chand,the then the sovereign of Ayodhya,as well as of Kashi(Varanasi) and Kannauj,as well,of course.That task will take him to Kolkata’s Central Library,in the near future.

The Permanent Settlement of Lord Cornwallis and Jonathan Duncan has found a detailed description owing to his proximity with an authority on revenue matters and an advisor to many ministers in the government of the State, and the author’s own uncle, guiding him and tutoring him, like a stern head-master for days, before sending him to argue-out his case, and of the village, of course, from deputy secretary upto the Secretary ,himself and insisted on getting an order for the same, or else to stay-on in Lucknow,till a copy of the order was in his hands. The officials argued, relentlessly, but obliged most graciously ,after being convinced of the author’s arguments.

That may have made him very stubborn, in defence of his own arguments.

A Hall of Fame of the Raghuvanshies of Katehar is his latest fad,other than a Hall of Fame of the First House of Katehar ,and now he is stationed in Mumbai to go back to sea ,to earn for the same purpose but his detractors are up in arms against him and are throwing their spanners in the works all the time.But he is pressing -on regardlesly and resolutely as in the days when he was facing a battery of revenue officials from the Secretariat to the Board of
Revenue as well as locally, from the Divisional Commissioner to the Qanungo.

So before the book goes to print,dear readers of his blog(just search for Raghuvanshies on google blog search and you will get two on the subject)do read his blog and help him do, what he is trying to do ,for you.