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Kishanganj, 15 July (HS). Like the Churli estate of Thakurganj in the district, the history of Kishanganj's Mahingaon is also centuries old but today this history has vanished. Mahingaon was developed as an estate. Currently, about four and a half thousand people are living here. Mahingaon estate was settled in the 18th century. Then the Nawab of Purnia was Shaukat Jung, who was made the governor of Purnia division by Alivardi Khan of Murshidabad. This is from the beginning of the 18th century when the Sultanate of Bengal started sending its government representatives to the interior areas of Bihar, Odisha and the rest of Bengal.
One of the important Faujdars of Bengal Sultanate, Panaullha, came to Mahingaon and later became known as Diwan Panaullha. Diwan Panaullha established Mahingaon Estate. He became the Zamindar there and also built a mosque in the village, which has a shape similar to Indo-Afghan buildings. Today, only that mosque is left among the old buildings in Mahingaon Estate. The old buildings of Diwan Panaullha and other Diwans who came in his lineage either fell down or their relatives demolished those dilapidated buildings and built new houses.
Safir, a farmer by profession, while giving information on Monday said that after the arrival of the British, the land ownership of this estate was increased further. Safir's elder brother Mohammad Saifullah said that Ahmedullah, the great grandson of the first Dewan Panaulllah of Mahingaon Estate, i.e. his father Dewan Ahmedullah was the last landlord of this estate. The accounts of Mahingaon Estate were sent to the palace of Nawab Shaukat Jung of Purnia. Shaukat Jung was the representative of Alampanah Alivardi Khan of Murshidabad in Purnia Division. He held a good position during Alivardi Khan's lifetime.
Nawab Shaukat Jung of Purnia was the cousin of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah and grandson of Nawab Alivardi Khan. After the death of Alivardi Khan, his daughter Ghaseti Begum instigated Shaukat Jung to claim the throne of Bengal and Odisha against Siraj-ud-Daulah. Nawab Shaukat Jung did something similar. He wrote a letter to Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah and said that from now on he is the Almapanah of the province. Not only this, Nawab Shaukat Jung ordered Siraj-ud-Daulah to go to Dhaka and become his representative. After reading the letter, Siraj-ud-Daulah, furious with anger, immediately sent his soldiers towards the Nawab of Purnia. In front of the military power of Siraj-ud-Daulah, Nawab Shaukat Jung of Purnia was defeated and he died in this battle.
Before that time, the Mahingaon estate used to collect all the taxes under Shaukat Jung. A year after Shaukat Jung's death, Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated by the British in the Battle of Plassey and after that the East India Company started a new type of landlordism. After the implementation of the Land Settlement Act of 1952, the Government of India took over most of the land from all the estates. In the Mahingaon estate too, the lands were handed over to the Government of India as soon as this Act came into force. According to Md. Saifullah, some percentage of land was handed over to his father and the last landlord of Mahingaon, Dewan Ashhadullah. The government had given a bond in the name of Dewan Ashhadullah as compensation.
Mohammed Saifullah told us that the 1975 ceiling act ordered that each family of the landlords would be given 30 acres or less of land. Till the 80s, the family of Dewan Ashjadullah and his elder brother Dewan Ashjadullah, who was an MP in 1924, used to get some pension as compensation. There is a mosque in Mahingaon State which is more or less 250 years old, which still shows the architecture of the 18th century. Mohammed Saifullah showed us a Quran from the time of Aurangzeb. The verses of this handwritten Quran are in Arabic and its translation is in Persian. Some people believe that this Quran was written by Aurangzeb.
In this age of internet when every information is just a click away, dozens of historical markers like Mahingaon are vanishing. The descendants of Diwan Panaullah do not have any documents related to the estate. Mahingaon is only 8 kilometers away from the hustle and bustle of Kishanganj, but there is no mention of it on any Google page or on the page of any digital newspaper.
