Tekari Raj

Tekari Raj (sometimes spelled Tikari Raj) was a zamindar family of the Bhumihar community in South Bihar. They controlled 2,046 villages on their estate, which covered a 7,500 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi) area, near to the town of Gaya.

Maharajas of Tekari like Maharaja Mitrajit Singh were renowned for their scholarship and for their works of poetry and history. Their emblem was a pigeon attacking over an eagle sat on the perch of a tree.

The Tekari family played an important role in the socio-economic and political history of Bihar from medieval times, during the Mughal period. Known as the Tekari Raj, their zamindari estate was situated about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to the west of the modern town of Gaya in the present-day state of Bihar and was surrounded by the rivers Morhar and Jamune. The Tekari Rajas were Bhumihars, chief of the Drontikar (or Dronticar) clan of the Bhardwaj gotra from the village of Tekar, which no longer exists. They held their estates in Pachrukhi.

Kumkum Chatterjee says that "The zamindari of Tekari owed its origin to an imperial grant made about the time when the Mughal empire first began to decay." Dhir Singh played an important role in defeating the rebellious potentates in his neighbourhood. In recognition of the support, in 1719-20, the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah honoured him with a khalat and the title of Raja.

Sundar Singh, who was Dhir's son, extended the family estates through both annexation and partnership agreements. This increased influence led to recognition by the Mughals in 1738, when they gave him authority to collect revenues in various parganas. According to a history published in 1878, proved his allegiance to the Mughal court in Delhi during various battles involving the Marathas, pleasing Nawab Alivardi Khan and other Bengali subadars. Khan recommended that Singh be awarded the khalat robe as recognition of his fealty. The relationship between the declining empire and zamindars such as Sundar Singh was, however, a complex one and not always harmonious. His family had come to prominence through opportunism and Sundar sometimes found himself facing Mughal forces when he defied the imperial authority that was nominally vested in provincial governors. These local rulers needed the zamindars to collect revenue, and the zamindars sought the legitimisation that association with the empire would bring, yet the zamindars also generally refused to hand over the money they collected and they operated in a fairly lawless environment. He died in battle in 1758 after completing the fort that now exists in the town of Tekari.

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