Saturday, July 4, 2009

GULJANA - A VILLAGE IN GAYA,BIHAR.

GULJANA -THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT STORY OF A VILLAGE.

Dear Readers,

I have already published 'Introduction, Geographical Location,Boundary and Administrative Control' portion of Guljana in my previous blogs. However just to make it comprehensively acceptable as a whole some story I am repeating these portions again for easy assimilation. The Genealogical Table of various Bhumihars mentioned through out this script will be published later. Technically the power point presentation is not being hyperlinked in this blog and neither being transmitted along with this script. Please bear with me for a while.

Introduction.

It has been generally experienced that there is no custom and tradition of maintaining a comprehensive and consolidated record of the inhabitants of the village. At times people have been found wanting in their knowledge of their ancestors and their place of origin if they migrated to a particular village. I felt that it is high time we kept a consolidated record of my village consisting of all the people right from the time they settled in this GULJANA village so that all future progeny having roots in this village could have a very easy access to the information specially in this IT savvy world. It is very heartening to see that our off springs are advancing in their career and getting settled in towns, cities, metroes and even abroad. As I can foresee, the future descendants of these people will have no knowledge about the place of origin of their forefathers and the circumstances under which they lived, grew up and prospered in this Guljana village. I am also putting up a google map of the village along with names of the various places within the precincts of the village boundary so that any new person visiting the village in near or remote future could feel at home equipped with a downloaded copy of this map from the Net and could brief even existing inhabitants also on a point or two on Guljana environs!! I am grateful to Shri Sudama Singh (great grandson of Dubri Singh), the oldest surviving person in the village for putting me wise on genealogy of Bhardwaj bhumihars and other few interesting features of Guljana village.

Geographical Location

Guljana is located at Longitude 84°54'9।22"E and latitude 24°57'43।42"N on a height of 92 meter MSL(mean sea level), situated at a distance of 32 KM north west of district town Gaya, 6 .5 KM east of Sub Divisional/Block town Tekari and 8 KM west of railway station Belaganj town and about 85 KM south of State capital city Patna (Bihar State).

Boundary.

Guljana is bounded by village Bhawanpur to the north, vill Sindani and Belarhi to the east, vill. Mussi and Pura to the south and vill Alalpur to the west and is encircled from east by river Budhnadi, south and west by river Dardha and is situated to the south of Belaganj-Tekari road between K.M. stone 7-8.

Administrative Control.
Guljana comes under Gaya Dist,Tekari Sub Division,Block and Police sataion, Pura Panchayat and PO- Ark Dhibaria PIN No is 824236. Its Cadastral village number is 124 on the cadastre map of the village. Its revenue Hulka(zone/area) No is 5.It falls under Tikari Assembly constituency No 231 and its Booth No is 253. Its total voters as per 2010 electoral roll are 649, male voters 353 and female voters are 296, although total population of Guljana including minors and out of village service men is 1487. Bhumihar voters are 314. Total household is 163 and bhumihar households are 71.

HISTORY OF GULJANA.

As the name suggests, Guljana is an Urdu word meaning ‘as dear as flower’ which indicates that the village was predominantly a muslim village. In old cadastre map, its Urdu name appears as ‘Gulzana’ which means “born out of flowers”. Some of the names indicating land mark/areas in the village like (Roza Par ) also supports this view point.

JINNAH EFFECT

With the gradual resurgence of approaching Indian independence during the thirties and emergence of Jinnah as a provocative mouth piece of muslims, a feeling was sent across the muslims that they may not be safe in an independent India. Muslims sensing the fear gradually, peacefully and deliberately started shifting to their places of convenience even to the cities and towns which now come under Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is a different story altogether whether they are any better there as compared to their counterparts in India today. However leaving it to the future to decide, I intend stating that once a muslim dominated Guljana, now had a room for others to settle and consolidate by buying landed properties sold by the outgoing muslims families.

Land in vill. Sindani.

Immigration of muslims even from muslim dominatrd village like Sindani by selling their land to bhumihars of Guljana proves two points. Firstly, muslims in Sindani preferred to sell their land to bhumihars in Guljana in preference to bhumihars of vill. Bhawanpur, Mussi or Pura. It could be only because of the fact that hindu-muslim relations in Guljana must have been very cordial. Secondly, the settlements of bhumihars in these three villages must have been older than that of Guljana.

Situation During The Mughal Period.

The 9 generations of chronology of the two oldest families of Sonebhadra 1 (SOVARAN SINGH), Sonebhadra 2 (MARDAN SINGH) and 7 generations of Bhardwaj 1(RAJARAM SINGH) reveal that Guljana has a live history of the bhumihars for at least 200 years living in this village dating back to around 1780-1800 AD which means that it was a transition phase of dwindling era of Mughals and advent of East India Company- the onset of the British Raj.

Mughal system of ruthless collection of taxes without corresponding irrigational facilities, Dola system of subjugation of newly wed females and consequent forcible conversion to Islam were some of the few barbaric acts of the Mughals which compelled some of the Hindu rulers(Bhumihars/Rajputs) to take some remedial measures to overcome this malady.

Background of Settlements in Village Gulajana.

If we closely look and appreciate the topographical dispositions of Guljana, we find that villages east of Budhnadi (Dardha) eg, Sindani, Belarhi, Lachhmipur, Kadirpur etc are still dominated by muslim community. Ancestors of Maharaja Gopal Sharan Singh of Tekari Estate (His Nana & great grand fathers) must have visualized as per military tactics that Guljana is the only village west of Budhnadi which must be made a stronghold to counter and repel the spread of Islam west of river Dardha due to the peculiarity of its location. It was with this aim in view that Maharaja’s ancestors started shifting bhumihars from as far a place as UP and also started encouraging and settling the migrants from other places oppressed by Muslims to come and make Guljana their homestead.

Heterogeneous Mix

Despite different religious beliefs the Hindu-Muslim populace in Guljana co-existed with mutual respect and harmony with each other. An anecdote in this regard will not be out of place to mention which proves the Hindu-Muslim mutual love and regards for each other. Way back in 1935-36, when muslims had left Guljana to settle somewhere else, Prithwi Singh (great grandson of Kanhai Singh) alongwith Sudama Singh went to a bicycle repair shop to get his cycle repaired in Gaya town at around 3 P.M. The shop owners were Noor Mohammad and Dil Mohammad. When Prithwi Singh told them to repair the cycle urgently as he had to return to Guljana which is quite a distance away from Gaya for a cyclist. Noor Mohammad immediately fixed his cycle which cost a rupee. When Prithwi Singh paid him the amount, he returned it saying that he once belonged to Guljana and it was a God sent opportunity for him to do something for his “once-upon-a-time” village-mates. It will be pertinent to mention here that with one rupee in the forties (1930-40) a family of four could feed themselves for a week!!! We can simply fancifully imagine the cost of feeding a family of four for a week in the year 2009. This clearly goes to show that had the muslims left Guljana with sour feelings in their hearts, such rare display of attachments and filial bondage would not have been expressed by the two muslim brothers!!

Demographic Composition.

Demographic caste composition of Guljana as of now is as under:-

• Bhumihar- Sonebhadra,bhardwaj,athrab and dronetikar.
• Kayastha
• Dusadh (Paswan)
• Mushahar
• Yadav
• Hazzam(Barber)
• Teli (Oilman)
• Badhai (Carpenter)
• Dome.
Note;- It should be well understood that although accounting of population as per census procedure is caste based, my aim of enumerating above castes is historically objective and not subjective as I do not believe in superiority of any caste.

CHRONOLOGY OF BHUMIHARS IN GULJANA

My aim is only to chronologise and describe the migratory history and genea- logical tables of bhumihars only as other castes have not kept/maintained their historical flux and influx of ancestors and neither they take any pride in keeping their ancestors records preserved for posterity. The details of bhumihars settled
in Guljana are as under:-

Sonebhadra Bhumihar.

Sonebhadra Bhumihars source their origin to Rishi “Vats” who has been named in the Vedas also. Due to their origin from Rishi vats, all Sonebhadra Bhumihars belong to the “Vats” Gotra. The three Sonebhadra Bhumihar families in village Guljana are as described below:-

• Sovaran Singh – history of 9 generations – Sonebhadra 1
• Mardan Singh - - do - 9 – do- - Sonebhadra 2
• Komal Singh – - do - 3 –do- - Sonebhadra 3

SONEBHADRA 1 (Sovaran Singh Family)

I have the pride and pleasure of being the seventh descendant in the genealogy and below me are the next two generations to add to the glory of this family. Taking a general thumb rule that each of the ancestors were blessed with the first male child at their twentieth year of age, Sovaran Singh must have been born around the year 1815 AD, though in many of the cases the first child might have been a female child also. In such cases the first male child must have been born to his parents at their age of 25 years also. I am particularly emphasising on the male child birth because family genealogy traditionally accounts for male progeny.

The Migration Story.

This family migrated from village Keyal (also known Keyal Garh) now under Aurangabad district of Bihar. The land in Keyal though fertile, was completely dependent on ‘Weather God’ the unpredictable monsoon. To cap it all, the tyrannical reign of terror of the fading Mughal chieftans and emerging East India Company, the British Raj in waiting, tax collection was a second name of cruelty, deprivation and extortion, irrespective of the fact whether cultivation and population was effected by flood, famine, drought or epidemics. The Reyaya (subjects) were tortured to the” blood sucking” stage of revenue collection without any corresponding facility of public irrigation and other agro- relief measures.

The Treasury Loot.

Having been forced by the fire of hunger and deprivation and unable to feed, sustain and maintain their off springs, the fore fathers of Sovaran Singh among others, looted the mughal’s treasury being transported on camel back. The two brothers (father and uncle of Sovran Singh) among others were apprehended and produced to the mughal court. A mughal farmaan was issued that they be “beheaded” or embrace Islam. To escape death, both the brothers agreed to the conversion which was to be performed on the coming Friday. They were kept with the group earmarked for conversion. They somehow managed to runaway in the night few days before the coming Friday.

They came back to vill. Keyal, narrated the entire story to the family members, prepared the family to leave the village to head for Tekari where ancestors of Maharaja Gopal Sharan Singh (the only savior of such threatened bhumihars) had some semblance of a social security scheme to protect and settle such migrants in various villages.Thereafter,they themselves disappeared incognito into the thin air to avoid death or more ignominious – the forcible conversion. This arduous, dangerous and responsible task of bringing the dislodged family from Keyal toTekari without being detected by the mughal karindas and spies was entrusted to the only youngster son Sovaran who might have just crossed his adolescence and must have entered his twenty fifth years in life!!

We, today, his surviving descendents must bow our heads to the courage, capabilities, capricious cleverness, extremely decisive sense of shrewdness and responsibilities demonstrated by this brave youngster – our loving and respected forefather. Can we be more grateful, proud and indebted to any other person in the world than him??? His journey from Keyal to Tekari and then to Guljana, covering an approximate distance of about 50 miles on foot during the hours of blinding and pitch darkness, accompanying and protecting his mother (our Mother Superior-the “Adi Mata”), his wife and probably the four- five year old toddler – ‘Ganauri’ his son, undaunted by piercing and all pervasive cruel and revengeful sipasalars and mukhbirs must have been like an advance through the hostile enemy lines full of mine fields. Somehow, he reached and knocked at the famous 9 ft high Gate(main gate of Tekari Maharaja Palace) and narrated his woes of migration where he was taken care of alongwith his mother, wife and suckling baby- Ganauri (Singh). He was escorted to this famous and auspicious village Guljana, given some piece of arable land and a small piece of land for the shelter and thus ended the ordeal of a great grit and determination of our most venerable, adorable and respected greatest, grandest of ancestral fore father – Sovaran(Suvarn/Gold) Singh, really more than gold worth his weight for which we, today have every reason to feel proud of and elevated.

As on today, i.e. 28 March 2009, we, his 55 surviving descendents (even I am a proud grand father of 15 grand children in the Sovaran family), pay the deepest and most sublime sense of obeisance and adoration and wish and expect our coming progeny to similarly respectfully and proudly remember him and his exceptionally exemplary contribution and take the family glory to further loftier heights.

THE FEW FIRSTS

This family, as on today, has not only added feathers to its family hat but has also contributed not only to the village but to the nation also, two Lieutenant Colonels-Vidya Sharma(Retired)(grand son of Sahu Singh) and his son Vasant Kumar Sharma (grand son of Shiv Nandan Singh)still in colours as the first two Commissioned Officers from the village Guljana. This family has also given one Electronic & Telecom engineer Arun Sharma (grandson of late Shiv Nandan Sharma and son of Lt Col Vidya Sharma) who is a Sr Manager responsible for connecting Earth to Satellite for communication. In addition,this family has also given two hospitality managers and one determined MBA aspirant. I wish them all well and success in life. I also wish many more glories to come this family way. The genealogy of Sovaran family is at SONEBHADRA 1.

SONEBHADRA 2.

The descendants of Mardan Singh are described at Sonebhadra 2 families. When Mardan Singh along with his two sons came to Guljana, he was very old and his sons very elderly in age and hence the family came to be known as Baba Gotia. This family migrated from Dillia village also in Aurangabad district. Story has it that one of the grand parents of Sovaran Singh (Sonebhadra 1) had migrated to Dillia in Aurangabad district over a small issue of wearing the elder brother’s cap by the younger brother. The story goes like this:-

• “The grandfather of Sovaran Singh had one more brother. There was a social custom of wearing a cap whenever a respectable person used to go out of his village to any other village/town. Every person of repute had his own cap which had a sanctity to the extent that no body else in the family could wear the cap of any other person. The younger of the two grand fathers of Sovaran Singh had to go out of the village in an emergency but he found his cap fallen on the ground off the cap peg and badly soiled".

He therefore, wore the identical clean cap of his elder brother which was hung on the adjoining peg and went off. When his elder brother entered his home, he found his cap missing. On inquiry, it came out that his younger brother had put on his cap and had gone out to some other place. When the younger brother returned the next day, the elder brother expressed his feelings and could not take it supportingly and took it as a personal affront to himself by his younger brother. He decided to leave his village Keyal and migrate to village Dillia in the same district of Aurangabad. After some decades when our Sovaran Singh had left for his heavenly abode, a Sonebhadra family migrated to Guljana from Dillia. It is presumed that it could be the same family which distanced itself from Keyal to Dillia, might have returned to Guljana as a well rooted and settled family from Dillia had no reason to get evicted from Dillia and come to Guljana for resettlement. This is the reason why I have logically concluded that Sonebhadra 1 (Sovaran Singh) family is older in chronology of Guljana than Sonebhadra 2 (Mardan Singh) family. However, I leave it to you all readers, objectively interested in searching your roots of ancestries in Guljana to find out if any thing else contrary to my assumptions comes out.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF BABA GOTIA (SONEBHADRA 2).

Bhairo Singh’ Story. Mardan Singh’s younger son Bhairo Singh had one daughter only. He married her off in a near by village-Lodipur underTekari thana(PS). After having been blessed with four sons, the daughter and son in law of Bhairo Singh died in an epidemic. The economic conditions of four nawasaas/Natees (sons of the daughter) of Bhairo Singh became very deplorable and they were unable to make both ends meet. So the four sons migrated to Guljana in anticipation of some economic support from his maternal grandfather(Nana). These four sons were Girdhar Singh, Jeevdhar Singh, Biggan Singh and Manohar Singh dealt with and described under Atharab 2 chapter.

Ritu Singh. One of the four grandsons of Mardan Singh, Ritu Singh was reputed to have a very kind, compassionate and large heart. He never missed an opportunity to call on the distressed family of the village and provide succour - personal, financial or social. He has become a history now but elderly people still tell his stories. He has really justified the name and fame of ‘Baba Gotia/Gharana’. People have started breaking their connections from the village but let this piece of historical information of Guljana be on this blog in the universe for the progeny
to read, rejoice and acquaint themselves as to how a small kind gesture in the time of need eulogises a person to a state of immortality!!

Baba Gotia is also known for their meticulous skill in financial and asset managements. One could always learn a trick or two from them in the field of wealth creation. The genealogy of Baba Gotia is drawn at Sonebhadra 2.

Glory to the Village.

Sonebhadra 2 has also given “Few Firsts” to Guljana as follows:-

• First Graduate – Mathura Singh (late) in its 7th genealogical table.
• First Gazetted Officer- Dr(BVSC)Shatrughna Pd Sinha – 7th generation.
• First IAS(Allied) – Arvind Kumar- son of Dr Shatrughna Pd Sinha- 8th -

Sonebhadra3(Komal Singh).

This is one Sonebhadra family which comprises of only four generations. Late Komal Singh, his son late Dina Nath Singh, his son Shri Gaurishankar Singh and his three daughters are the Sonebhadra 3 family. Though the family has been very small in head counts but it will always be known for its simplicity, humility and honesty. What to talk of human beings, there is not a single living being on this mother earth, which can talk of anything ill about this family. Guljana shall miss the sole contributions of Shri Gaurishankar Singh in all its festive and cultural activities. He is the only reliable surviving person in the village who can play Dholak in Holi/Shiv Ratri or any other festive occasions. We are lucky that he is still here with us!! So far as the three daughters are concerned, the eldest one is married in village Panchmahala under Tekari and the next two in village Khalkochak under Belaganj PS.

Bhardwaj Bhumihars.Bhardwaj or Bhardawaji as they are colloquially called source their origin from Rishi Bhardwaj and thus belong to Bhardwaj Gotra. The sole surviving most elderly person amongst Bhardwaj Bhumihars as on today is Shri Sudama Singh who has given me the entire history of Bhardwaj 1,3 and 4 families which I most gratefully acknowledge as his part of contribution to the village history. As per him, Bhardwaj 1 family was brought to be settled in Guljana from some village in UP State by ancestors of Maharaja Gopal Sharan Singh with the aim of buttressing his stronghold west of river Dardha (Budh Nadi) against the last of the Mughals as explained in the heading ‘Background of settlement’ above.

There were following four Bhardwaj families in Guljana but as on today, complete Bhardwaj 4 and two of the three branches of bhardwaj 3 families have perished. The details of bhardwaj 1 to 4 families are as per Bhardwaj 1 to 4 in the Bhardwaj genealogy.

• Rajaram Singh – history of 7 generations – Bhardwaj 1
• Teja Singh - -do - 7 -do- - Bhardwaj 2
• Ramadhin Singh - -do- 2 -do- - Bhardwaj 3
• Rameshwar Singh - -do- 2 -do- - Bhardwaj 4

Rajaram Singh’s Family (Bhardwaj 1).

This family has 33 surviving members.As on today it has added 5 engineers to the roll of engineers of village Guljana namely Awadhesh Sharma, the two IITian brothers Dhananjay and Sanjay Sharma both sons of Shri Baleshwar Sharma, Vijay and Ajay Sharma, sons of Shri Suresh Singh and Awadh Singh respectively.

Teja Singh’s Family (Bhardwaj 2)

This family is renowned, notorious as well as memorable in more ways than one which is outlined at Bhardwaj 2 in the family tree. This family is renowned in more than one way. It has given two Matriculates to the village even during the British Raj. First one was late Bal Govind Singh – the great grandfather of Shri Braj Bhushan Sharma and the second was Brahm Deo Singh who fell prey to drugs whose descendants have a great history of exceptional resilience and determination of fighting the odds and recovering the lost glory.

Family Feuds.

Shivgovind Singh, the elder son of Kanhai Singh purchased Zamindari (right to receive/collect land revenues from the raiyats- the cultivators of land) as a subletee and became rich. He had two sons – Raghunandan Singh alias Bade Babu (died issueless) and Parmanand Singh who studied in Gurukul in Hririkesh as per Vaidik Ashramanushasan and had gained exceptionally great physical strength so as to stop a motor car from moving ahead(although today it is a trick display), breaking a steel chain, letting a Jeep cross over his chest(again a trick). He is also known to have killed a tiger with a lota ( a metal pot to carry water) when he was returning from the morning call in the jungle in the Gurukul days.

Shivgovind Singh (Mokhtar Saheb) and his elder son Raghunandan Singh had a tiff and differences in a land dispute with his cousins Rachheya Singh on the one hand and the sons of Rup Mangal Singh ie Brahmdeo Singh, Ramdeo Singh, Sahdeo Singh and sons of Nanhu Singh ie Harkishun Singh and Manoranjan Singh on the other. Due to three sons of Teja Singh ie Jhari Singh, Hajari Singh and Kanhai Singh, he (Shivgovind Singh) was only entitled to 1/3th of the property which was accordingly decreed by the District Court, Gaya. In the appeal at High court, they (Mokhtar Saheb & Bade Babu) are alleged to have manipulated and won the entire property by getting the opponents shares auctioned and purchased it themselves on a dirt cheap price and forcefylly evicted the opponents families(family members of Rup Mangal Singh and Nanhu Singh) from the village also. They all went to their Nanihals/sasurals for survival and were forced to lead a wretched and precarious life. However, their situation improved with coming in of the canals in their area and their fortunes grew by leaps and bounds. They managed to return to Guljana and today they are one of the richest and most prosperous families of Guljana and the inheritors and progeny of Shivgovind Singh(Mokhtar Saheb)deteriorated progressively. That is how the wheels of fortunes move!!! All four sons of Paras Nath Singh(Late), a World War II veteran are today metro based and placed on very respectable assignements and have very humanely supported their cousins during their (cousin’s) hard days.

Ramadhin Singh(Bhardwaj 3).

This family is very new so far as Guljana entrants are concerned. Progeny of
Ramadhin Singh ie, Ramautar Singh and Kailash Singh could not grow beyond their sons. Mathura Singh could not get married because of poverty and his brother Raj Shekhar Singh died young leaving behind a widow. The property was inherited by their Bhanja (sister’s son) - Bhuneshwar Singh from vill Nimsar who is a Bisnoba bhumihar. Sons of Kailash Singh namely Arjun Singh and Balli Singh (both unmarried) died and the landed property whatever was left, was inherited by their bhanja who does not stay at Guljana. The most amusing thing to note in this family is that the existing progeny of Ramautar Singh who are only fourth in the table of ascendancy do not know the name and details of their great grandfather and the place they came from to Guljana.!!

Rameshwar Singh (Bhardwaj 4).

The name of the father of Bulak Singh is not known to the third generation of inheritors. Amarender Sharma does not know the name of his fourth ascendants (his Nana’s grand father) whose hard earned property he has inherited, deserting his parental village Ikkil and pouncing on his maternal(Mama’s) property. This third generation of inheritor does not also know as to which place his Mama and Nana came from to settle down in village Guljana.


A SAD NOTE OF OBSERVATION.

While writing and compiling this small piece of Guljana’s history, I have come to this sad and painful realisation that whosever’s property has vested to a non family inheritors like Bhanjas(Bhaginas) these classes of inheritors have not bothered to keep the donors history in tact and in high esteem!!! Just look at the instance of Bhuneshar singh (Nimsar). Amarender Sharma (Ikkil) and Athrab 2(Girdhar/Jivdhar Singh) – the name of the father of the four brothers of Girdhar Singh in not known to their 4th generation though they came to their Nanihal for their survival!!!

Athrab Bhumihars.

History.

The word ‘Athrab’ seems to be a colloquial slang for ‘Atharva’ taking the name from Rishi ‘Atharva’. Athrab Bhumihars belong to ‘Kaundinya’ Gotra originating from Rishi ‘Kaundinya’. This means that Rishi Kaundinya though belonging to Atharva descendence started his own dynasty disregarding his ancestral origin.

• Sanehi Singh - history of 7 generations – Atharva - 1
• Bullak Singh - -do- 5 -do- Athrav 1 A
• Girdhar brothers - -do- 5 -do- Athrav 2
• Jhankhuri Singh -do- 5 -do- Athrav 3A
• Durga Singh -do- 5 -do- Atvhra 3B
• Bhagwat Singh -do- 5 -do- Athrav 3C

In village Guljana, the migratory history of Athrab does not go more than seven generations back. The details of the families are as under:-

• Vill. Sanda Migrants -Athrav 1 & 1A
• Vill. Lodipur Migrants -Athrab 2.
• Vill. Parsurampur Migrants -Athrab 3, 3A & B

Sanda Migrants.

There are two Athrab families who migrated from Sanda Vill to Guljana. They are Sanehi Singh’s (Athrab1) and Bulak Singh’s (Athrab 1A) families. The oldest amonst them is Sanehi Singh’s family who has a history of seven generations in the village. Since Village Sanda is located just about 5-6 KM away from Guljana the reasons behind migrating to Guljana could only be either extreme poverty or erstwhile Tekari Raj’s aim to strengthen the front line west of river Dardha(Burhnadi) against the declining (though existing) Mugal empire, the background of which has already been explained earlier.

The next Sanda migrant family is Bulak Singh’s family(Athrab1A) which has a presence of only four generations in the village.This family has also contributed one engineer(Raghuvansh Sharma) to the gallery of engineers of Guljana.

Lodipur Migrants(FamilyTree Athrab 2).

It has already been stated earlier while describing Baba Gotia (Sonebhadra 2) that Bhairo Singh - second son of Mardan Singh had only a daughter who was married in vill Lodipur in the Athrab familiy. The four Naties(daughter’s sons) of Bhairo Singh were finding it difficult to make both ends meet. On the assurance of their Nana (maternal grand father) the four naties migrated to their Nanihal (Mother’s vill-Guljana ) in search of better means of survival. Their Nana, Bhairo Singh helped them out by giving some land on Bataiya(share cropping) basis.

Years went by and with passage of time they developed some difference with their nana and were forced by the circumstances to leave this village. They migrated to Vill. Uchauli, east of river Falgu under Khizer Sarai PS. There also they could not pull on well with the co- villagers and had again to leave that village and fall back on village Guljana again.Since they had neither won the heart of their nana’s family members nor of the villagers they had to really struggle hard for their survival. Due to extreme state of poverty only first two of the four brothers namely Giridhar Singh and Jivdhar Singh got married.

On one summer afternoon of June when Giridhar singh was sitting under the peepal tree along the road side at Bhawanpur school, one person from Bhawanpur namely Balak Singh asked him about his sad and poor state of affairs. Hearing the tragic tail, he offered to sell his 7.5 Bigha land to Giridhar Singh for a paltry Rs 56/-. Giridhar Singh requested for some time to muster this sum. After disposing of all moveable properties he could collect only Rs 28/-. He went to Balak Singh (Bhawanpur) and expressed his inability in arranging 56 rupees. Balak Singh was so kind hearted that he sold his 7.5 bigha plot to Giridhar singh on a promise that the balance of Rs 28/-will be paid by Giridhar Singh in due course of time by the proceeds and income earned from this cultivation.

From that day on the family toiled laboured and struggled the hardest way, repaid the dues in time and produced the first MA,Economics(Bhuwaneshwar Singh) to the village. This family today, is making a respectful living in the village. The aim of my elaborating this incidence in details is only to make sure that it might act as an inspiration to all those who may be passing through the phase of struggle in life and take lessons from it as to how one can win over the odds in life if only one does not lose heart and nerves.

Parsurampur Migrants (Athrab 3A,B & C).

These families seem to be very recent migrants as history of only four generations are known to the present descendants in the village. They migrated from the same vill to this village and that also almost simultaneously but details of their common ancestor is not known to them though they claim to be progeny of common ancestor and thus are Gotia (families originating from same common ancestor). The family tree of these families are drawn at Athrab 3A 3B & 3C.

Dronetikar (Domekatar) Bhumihar.

• Huseni Singh - history of 5 generations

There is one Drontikar (or Domkatar as colloquially called) family in this village.This family is the same Bhumihar clan to which Tekari Maharaja Gopal Sharan Singh belonged. Dronetikars belong to Bhardwaj Gotra. This family has just entered in its fifth generation but the surviving third generation does not know the details/name of great grand father although they claim to be the ‘ab- originals’ of this village. The contention of this family is also not beyond logic as all neighbouring villages eg, Pura, Mussi,Bhori Sowal etc are Domkatar bhumihars. Even one brother of Krishna Deo Sharma’s grand father had migrated from Guljana to Bhainsmara and got settled there .The argument that all existing bhumihars except the Domekatars migrated to Guljana from other places but Domkatar from Guljana migrated to some other place proves the point that probably Domkatars are the original inhabitants of this village. The only point to be considered here is that if this family is an original inhabitant, how is it that only one family without any Gotia consisting of 8-9 members are exsisting for almost 150 to 200 years!!!

Contribution To The Village Glory.

None the less, this Domkatar family has given the FIRST Engineer in form of Shri KRISHNA DEO SHARMA to this Guljana village and all other engineers have followed suit. The point to note here is that the father-son duo(Krishna Deo Sharma and his son Rakesh Sharma) is an engineer combination in Guljana.!! The family tree of this Domkatar(Dronetikar) family is at Dronetikar(Domkatar) Table.

CONCLUSION.

Here I come to put a final full stop to my efforts of collecting, collating, sifting and disseminating these small pieces of facts, figures and dwindling information which was nearing extinction. I am grateful to Shri Sudama Singh who was kind enough to piece up the rare facts to me even in his late eighties and despite his poor state of health. It was my earnest desire to weave through these disjointed facts together so that it could be of some meaningful use not only to the people away from Guljana but even to the inhabitants of the village.

You readers, have seen for yourselves that some people in this village do not even know the names and details of their great grandfathers!! Hope this efforts of mine do prove to be a reference point to all those who want to know what they want to know about their ancestors. Please do feel free to enrich me and my efforts by sending your valuable views on this presentation. God speed and good luck to all of you.(Lt Col Vidya Sharma).

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 July, 2009

    A great herculian task undertaken and accomplished by u. It's a rare history colle-cted at one place and so handy. Very many con-gratulations to you for the permanent docu-mentary. Now Guljana lives for ever on net!!

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  2. 1. any specific reason, why have not u mentioned even a single name from Baba Gotia in the attached map?????????

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  3. Nice approch i salute your potential sir

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  4. Dear anonymous,
    Yes, the aim of marking few houses almost on all co-ordinates was to help the enthusia-sts to locate their own houses and not to give any undue importance to any body. Any way,I am publishing more detailed landmarks in my next blogs. Hope it satisfies ur hurt ego.R u Abhishek in any way?
    Sincerely with luv & regards,
    Vidya.

    P.S. Will it not be better if I had the rare pleasure of addressing u by name??

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  5. a very commendable effort indeed sir.

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  6. i am one of the critics of the Guljana gaon culture, in particular of the high earning elite class like u....who has done nothing for the
    village. the village is still the same, it used to be 40 years ago. I still remember
    those days. Matter of fact, instead of making progress, it has deteriorated to the dust.
    I have great anger for those who just show off their being in high class and do nothing for the vilage.
    And harshly i write here....u are one of those.

    Had u pple done something for village, i would have had a great pleasure in making due contribution. But due to lack of any such momentum, its not apt now to start afresh. Any way, i hope some one will come out and will show something on ground. Not over net, which is reachable to only a handful. I hope i may be one of them.
    I hope i will attain a position, will have enough resource and will power to do a little at least for the Gaon.

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  7. I am also from the same village sir,and after reading this blog feeling proud to be belonging to this most prestigious and honourable place.

    indeed a great and huriculum work by u sir but better if u had added some more stuff about bhardwaj bhumihar.

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  8. Dear Anonymous,
    I'm grateful to u for ur nice feelings for my blogs. I thought I have given desired space to Bhardwaj families to the extent that I have even included old feuds between Shivgovind Singh vs Rachheya Singh & Rup Mangal Singh's families and the rebounding resurgence of sons of Paras Nath Singh. I had a desire to highlight achievements of Mukul & his brothers but even Dilip could not give me reqd details.I had no contact with his family at M'bai either. Any way, please do let me know ur suggestion to add to the contents of the blogs.tw'll give me great pleasure.U may also visit www.guljanaweebly.com to see revised latest English & हिंदी version.
    Loving regards,
    Vidya.

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  9. Dear sir ,
    It was a great effort you have did in highlighting the Dronetikar bhumihars from
    a historical range eg Magadh, but how you forgot Murera a cluster of the afforssaid genera under Konch block.

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  10. i appreciate the work you have done to collect so much facts about a unknown village and put it on a website. i am also from guljana. i know that it was difficult for you to collect data for people other than bhumihar but still u could have mentioned about some of the noteworthy personal of the village other than bumihars. i mean how could explain a multicultural village with so much of heritage with view point of a single caste and there achievements. there are persons other than bumihar i know who have achieved so much and there achievement equally counts in the pride of guljana. from my experiences i can say that bumihars are predominantly casteists and do discriminations based on castes and not mentioning about any other person in your note has proved them right.....,.

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  11. I appreciate the work done by u 2 make it known even 2 non-natives of guljana. Iam also a regular visitor 2 guljana.
    I don't think the village has changed much when i was 5 years old and now 16 years.I think everybody should be blamed 4 that.
    SOMEONE will have 2 start.I am only wondering who it will. CAN YOU BE............?

    Rajnish kumar(Lal Babu)

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  17. RAVI PRAKASH CHANDRA17 January, 2017



    TO.

    WITH RESPECT;

    VIDYA SHARMA

    (RETD. COLONEL)





    गुलजाना से सम्बन्धित आपके द्वारा लिखित इतिहास को पढ़कर काफी ख़ुशी हुई ।

    इसमे बाहर से आकर बसनेवालो का

    काफी जिक्र है.परंतु मूल निवासियों के बारे  मे भी खोज करने की आवश्यता महसूस होती है ।

    गुलजाना  के इतिहास के एक प्रसंग से ऐसा प्रतीत होता है की गुलजाना शब्द और गाँव को मुस्लिम बस्ती साबित करने का प्रयास किया  गया जो की सही जान पड़ता है ।

    शयद शब्द मड़बापर कभी इमामबारा रहा होगा ।

    भवनपूर मे अभी कब्रिस्तान का निशान मौजूद है ।

    भोरि मे मस्जिद का होना मुसलमानों के निवासी होने का जीता जागता उदाहरण है ।

    सम्भवत: उस जमाने मे इन तीनो गाँवों के लोग मुसलमानों के अत्याचार से उब कर "DO OR DIE" का  सिधाँत अपनाया होगा जिसमे मुसलमानो को पलायन करना पड़ा होगा । इस सम्बन्ध मे एक लोकोक्ति  काफ़ी प्रसिध है -"भोरि भवनपुर और गुलजाना. इन तीनो के हाल कसाइये ने जाना"।

    इस लोकोक्ति को लोग अब विकृत रुप मे जानते है ।



    WITH DUE RESPECT

    RAVI PRAKASH CHANDRA




















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