Buchanan during his visit in 1811 was told that Maner was once “the residence of a Brahman Chief”, which was destroyed by the Muhammedans. That it was an important place in the pre-Muhammadan times is quite obvious from the inscriptions of 11th -12th centuries A.D as referred above. Several inscriptions, have been noted at Maner so far, and more may be revealed if a proper excavation around the ruins is carried out. 

D.R. Patil mentions in the Antiquarian Remains of Bihar (1963) “Earlier Hindu remains are, therefore, to be expected to exist at the place; but they do not seem to have been looked for carefully uptil now and the village explored for this purpose. Some ancient mounds are, however reported to exist at the village, yielding, it is said, pieces of the famous northern black-polished pottery belonging to the 2nd – 6th centuries before the Christian era. If this is so, the place would be a very ancient one and thus deserves a thorough exploration. A stone colossus of a lion figure of the late medieval period (i.e. 10th – 12th centuries A.D.) still exists near the site of the tomb of the Muslim saint, testifying to its pre-Muhammadan antiquity to a certain extent.”

It is thus certain that upto A.D. 1175, Maner was part of the territory of the Gahadvalas of Kanauj, as indicated from the copper plate referred above. As per the Muslim traditions, Islam had arrived here several years before the invasion of Bihar and Bengal by the invader Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji around 1193 A.D., and was certainly in existence in 1180 A.D., when the Raja of Maner was defeated by one Muhammad alias Taj Faqih, a resident  of Jerusalem, who after hearing of cruelties done by the Raja of Maner to one Hazrat Momin Arif – who originally belonged to Yemen but had settled at Maner – came all the way to Bihar with his followers and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Raja.

To be continued.....