SHER MAAR PANJU
SHER MAAR PANJU; Our earliest known ancestor; Historical Background of our family in Jhalu
A little background about our family as I knew from my grandparents and other elders; It comes from a small rural background, small town, JHALU, (Bijnor, UP). Our ancestors lived there for long time, but the earliest story is known that they were land lords and their rivals, pathans-a muslim community also had farm lands over there. On one occasion of RAKSHABANDAN day, those pathans killed all our male ancestors and then according to the custom of that time, ladies committed SATTI (Satti was the rituals those days that after the death of husband, widow used to self immolate). We still have that old Satti House in the town. In fact, our Grah Devta also lives there.In earlier days, we used to go there and bring our Grah Devta home for important ceremonies like marriage, naming and yagopaveet etc. It was only one pregnant lady living with her parents away from Jhalu, survived. Later, she gave birth to a baby boy who when grew adult , thought seriously to find out his roots. In fact, a deep feeling of revenge for that carnage happened to his ancestors. Having this in mind and determination , with all opposition from his mother and other parental relatives, he walked to JHALU. He came up to our garden ( where we had a well and a small room for shelter) near KHARI , he faced a lion. The lion was chased by the ruler (Nawab) of Ruhelkhand for hunting. He had no option except to face the lion. He took out his turban and inserted in the mouth of the lion and thus lion was suffocated and died. Nawab chasing the lion , found the young boy holding the lion dead. He appreciated his courage and awarded him the title of " SHER MAAR PANJU" ( meaning the person who killed the lion by his Punja-hands ) for his bravery. He was so pleased that he further on asking his welfare etc. awarded him back the land of his ancestors and asked the pathan to go away from the town to a new town established for their resettlement- NAWADA KALAN ( New village/settlement ) and warned them not to look back for any revenge or atrocities to the young person. He then, resettled in his ancestors town , JHALU with all his property and land given back to him. I could not get his real name but SHER MAAR PANJU. He is the most recent historical ancestor of our GARG family which is now quite big and wide spread all over, ( broadly known Mahalwale , kothiwale and us ) . Most of the family members settled in other cities and abroad, now only a few are left in the town.
The history of my own family is given in another blog.
श्री देवेंद्र गुप्ता जी के ब्लाग से साभार
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