According to tradition, Sandila was originally founded by the Arakhas and called Sital Purwa. The Arakhs were then driven out in the late 14th century by a Muslim force under Sayyid Makhdum Ala-ud-Din. The town’s name supposedly derives from an exclamation from Makhdum Ala-ud-Din, who had been given a charter by the Delhi Sultan but threw it into the Yamuna on the way there, saying “Sanad Allah“, or “God be my charter”. The place he settled is called Makhdumpura in his honor, and his dargah still stands here.
The growth of Sandila was sped up by an influx of refugees, many of whom are said to have been fleeing persecution by Muhammad Shah Tughlaq. His successor Firoz Shah visited Sandila twice, once in 1353 on the way to Lucknow and again in 1374 on the way to Bahraich. The oldest mosque in Sandila, now in ruins, was built in 769 AH on his orders. The Tarikh-e-Mubara Shahi records that Sandila was ruled by Malik Hisam-ul-Mulk in 1375, and in 1394 it came under the control of Khawaja-e-Jahan, the first ruler of the Jaunpur Sultanate.
By the time of Sher Shah Suri Sandila had become so crowded that one Sayyid Husain founded a new town next to it, called Ashraf Tola. The Sayyids were supporters of Sher Shah, and when Humayun was returned to power, he expelled them and looted the city. The Sayyids’ estates were given to the Chandelas instead, but the Sayyids gradually recovered them beginning during the reign of Aurangzeb and then especially under the Nawabs of Awadh.
Up to this point, Sandila had never been a centre of government. In fact, the lack of government officials here made Sandila a convenient refuge for people who wanted to avoid imperial writs. That changed during the reign of Akbar, who transferred the Qazi of Mahona to Sandila, and then the other Pargana officials came. This is reflected in the Ain-i-Akbari, which lists Sandila as the seat of a pargana in Lucknow sarkar of Awadh subah. It supplied the imperial treasury with a revenue of 10,623,901 dams and contributed a force of 5,000 infantry and 100 cavalry to the imperial army. Sandila itself is recorded as having a brick fort at the time. In addition, another mosque was built in Akbar’s time, in 962 AH. Another historic monument is the Bara Khambha, or “hall of twelve pillars”, was built in 971 AH; it contains the tomb of Makhdum Sahib, the ancestor of Sandila’s preeminent Muslim family.
A third old mosque was built in 1121 AH according to its Persian-language inscription. In 1850 the European traveler W. Sleeman visited Sandila; he described it as somewhat in decline but “well-situated and possessing an excellent climate.”
At the turn of the 20th century, Sandila was the 7th-largest city in the Awadh region, with a population of 16,843 people. A slight majority (8,876) were Muslim, while Hindus formed the second-largest religious group (7,948). Sandila then comprised four mohallas: Ashraf Tola, Malkhana, Mandai, and Mahetwana. The town had a tehsil office, a police station, and a town hall, along with a post office, a cattle pound, and a dispensary. There was a middle school, a boys’ lower primary school funded by the municipality, a private school in Ashraf Tola, and two girls’ lower primary schools. A new sarai, called the Quinn Sarai, had recently been built by Kunwar Durga Parshad near the railway station. Sandila hosted markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays; the main items for sale were paan, ghee, and laddu. It was also known for door parddahas and coloured cotton tablecloths “of a pretty design in large checks.” Firewood was also exported to Lucknow via train. The largest source of income for the municipal government was through the collection of octroi.
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