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. https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7434278182063497637/3162980977026679503

MAHELWALE;

I do not know much about the hierarchy of the family but from my personal observation and knowledge:

1. One group of family used to live in the Mahel with the heads; Shri Goipnath jee, Shri Niyader Mal jee, Shri Raghunath Prasad jee ( His father shri Baldev Prasad jee??); Shri Kishan Lal jee ;

2. Second group: Just in front of Mahel: Shri Rajju Mal jee, Shri Roshan Lal jee,

3 Third group: Shri Chiranjee Lal jee ( sons; Ram Gopal jee and Om Prakash jee);

   Shri Ram Prasad jee - Known as Kanoogo jee ( sons......                               )

   Shri Faqir Chand jee ( sons; Jai Prakash, Ram Kumar, Rameshwar Prasad, Devendra Kumar, Sushil Kumar  ;  ?????) 

KOTHIWALE:

I do not know much about the hierarchy of this group of our family;

the oldest pesron, I know- Shadi Lal and his son Asharfee Lal ; Asharfi Lal ,s sons are; Shri Anand Prakash, Veer Prakash and Dheer Prakash : 

Om Prakash, ( son; Ishwar Chandra Agarwal) Satya Prakash ( Son; Hari Prakash) and Shyam Prakash, ( sons;                                       ) 

Jyoti Prakash, Ved Prakash, and  

Roshan Lal, ( Sons: Ram, Lakshman, Charat Bharat, Bhole) Jagdish Prashad ( sons, Sushil Kumar,             ???)