01The rajas at Bahraich
Salar Masud, called in the later texts a nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni, led a raiding army into Awadh in the early 1030s. The Mirat-i-Masudi of Abdur Rahman Chishti, written in the 17th century from older stories, says that the Hindu rajas of the region, led by Suheldev, gathered against him and that he and his army were killed near Bahraich in 1033. No account written at the time names Suheldev; his memory came down in the songs and village tradition of eastern Uttar Pradesh, where Pasi, Rajbhar and other communities claim him. The traditional battlefield is Chittaura lake, a few kilometres from the town.
02Two memorials
The grave of Salar Masud at Bahraich became a shrine; Ibn Battuta found it visited by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq in the 1340s, and it still draws a large fair every summer. For a long time the raja who stopped him had no monument. On 16 February 2021, Basant Panchami, the Prime Minister laid the foundation of a memorial to Maharaja Suheldev at Chittaura lake, with a tall equestrian statue. Bahraich itself is an old town near the Nepal border; local tradition links its name to Brahma and to the rishis of the forest country of the Terai.
The life of this place
- 1033Salar Masud and his army are destroyed near Bahraich by the rajas under Suheldev (Mirat-i-Masudi and regional tradition).
- 1340sIbn Battuta records Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s visit to Salar Masud’s tomb.
- 16 February 2021Foundation of the Maharaja Suheldev memorial at Chittaura lake.
