Between Pedigrees: F E Part 3

An interesting piece of narrative belongs to a strange beginning of my connection with the Bengal-based royalty namely the mansab of malduar during or before the arrival of the British in the region. According to the famous three authors Datto, Majumdar and Roy Chaudhuri of The Classical Age, regarding the history of Bengal, they held their view that this maithil royal lineage had been founded during the 11th century under one Bengoli prince namely Ishwar Ghosh with a donation of five revenue villages to that princes family Guru, akin to the beginning of the Darbhanga royalty. Their such findings might be based on a copper plate inscription still in the possession of the family. My father and uncles had another story that a saint had given an idol of Shyamrai(Krishna and Radha) to a poor brahman family cautioning them that if they worship HIM, they would become highly influential but one day, their descendants must return the same to that sage. It is noteworthy that the owners always held themselves as caretakers and the family diety Shyamrai, held their superior lord and real owner of all their possessions. More precisely, after obtainment of the power as a result of the famous battle of Buxar amongst the East Ind. Co., the Nawab of Bengal and the Mughal emperor- the new ruler sent their revenue officers cum surveyors in their possessions, one of them had been J. Rennell (the Agent Surveyor) who had taken his detailed inquiries and had found a certain defined territory of the then Malduar ruler under undivided Suba of Bengal, through his first published Map on 15th of August 1779, also found in the present day revenue records in Purnea collectorate. The famous Bucanan Hamilton, an author of various gazetteers of Dinajpur and Purnea regions in early 19th century had given some details of this family. We can thus conclude from these sources of knowledge that the family lineage may take vexing and serpentine overtures regarding Malduar genealogy but the final part of the same had its relatively recent pedigree connected with a maithil shrotriya brahman infant adopted as the only successor of the Malduar family. The minor child was declared as the heir to the household and thus had started a fresh lineage of descendants. Subsequently the surname of the heir infant was changed. From Ramlochan Jha, he became Ramlochan Chaudhuri. The new seat of his royalty was shifted to Ramganj from the old one rooted at Rajour. According to Bucanan H. the surname of the former ruling family was Roy which had been more common surname for the chieftains under the Mughal Rule in India. Chaudhuri had become a popular surname among such families specially in the East India Company regime. To conclude i may add here that my grand fathers great grand father was the same person .