clerks have any larger or different jurisdiction than they had before. They are still the representatives of and responsible to the judges to whom the chambers are attached. The judge may either hear an application in chambers, or may direct any matter which he thinks of sufficient importance to be argued before him in court, or a party may move in court to discharge an order made in chambers with a view to an appeal, but this is not required if the judge certifies that the matter was sufficiently discussed before him in chambers.
Under the existing rules of court many orders can now be made on summons in chambers which used formerly to require a suit or petition in court (see Order LV. as to foreclosure, administration, payment out of money in court and generally). The judge is also enabled to decide any particular question arising in the administration of the estate of a deceased person or execution of the trusts of a settlement without directing administration of the whole estate or execution of the trusts generally by the court (Order LV. rule 10), and where an application for accounts is made by a dissatisfied beneficiary or creditor to order the accounts to be delivered out of court, and the application to stand over till it can be seen what questions (if any) arise upon the accounts requiring the intervention of the court (Order LV. 2, 10a). Delay and consequent worry and expense are thus saved to the parties, and, at the same time, a great deal of routine administration is got rid of and a larger portion of the judicial term can be devoted to hearing actions and deciding any question of importance in court. The work of the chambers staff of the judges has probably been increased; but, on the other hand, it has been lightened by the removal of the winding-up business. The chancery division has also inherited from the court of chancery a staff of registrars and taxing masters.
In the United States “chancery” is generally used as the synonym of “equity.” Chancery practice is practice in cases of equity. Chancery courts are equity courts (see Equity). For the diplomatic sense of chancery (chancellery) see Chancellor.
CHANDA, a town and district of British India, in the Nagpur division of the Central Provinces. In 1901 the town had a population of 17,803. It is situated at the junction of the Virai and Jharpat rivers. It was the capital of the Gond kingdom of Chanda, which was established on the ruins of a Hindu state in the 11th or 12th century, and survived until 1751 (see Gondwana). The town is still surrounded by a stone wall 512 m. in circuit. It has several old temples and tombs, and the district at large is rich in remains of antiquity. There are manufactures of cotton, silk, brass-ware and leather slippers, and a considerable local trade.
The District of Chanda has an area of 10,156 sq. m. Excepting in the extreme west, hills are thickly dotted over the country, sometimes in detached ranges, occasionally in isolated peaks rising sheer out from the plain. Towards the east they increase in height, and form a broad tableland, at places 2000 ft. above sea-level. The Wainganga river flows through the district from north to south, meeting the Wardha river at Seoni, where their streams unite to form the Pranhita. Chanda is thickly studded with fine tanks, or rather artificial lakes, formed by closing the outlets of small valleys, or by throwing a dam across tracts intersected by streams. The broad clear sheets of water thus created are often very picturesque in their surroundings of wood and rock. The chief architectural objects of interest are the cave temples at Bhandak, Winjbasani, Dewala and Ghugus; a rock temple in the bed of the Wardha river below Ballalpur; the ancient temples at Markandi, Ambgaon and elsewhere; the forts of Wairagarh and Ballalpur; and the old walls of the city of Chanda, its system of waterworks, and the tombs of the Gond kings. In 1901 the population was 601,533, showing a decrease of 15% in the decade. The principal crops are rice, millet, pulse, wheat, oil-seeds and cotton. The district contains the coalfield of Warora, which was worked by government till 1906, when it was closed. Other fields are known, and iron ores also occur. The district suffered severely from famine in 1900, when in April the number of persons relieved rose to 90,000.
CHANDAUSI, a town of British India, in the Moradabad district of the United Provinces, 28 m. south of Moradabad. Pop. (1901) 25,711. It is an important station on the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway, with a junction for Aligarh. Its chief exports are of cotton, hemp, sugar and stone. There is a factory for pressing cotton.
CHAND BARDAI (fl. c. 1200), Hindu poet, was a native of Lahore, but lived at the court of Prithwi Raja (Prithiraj), the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. His Prithiraj Rasau, a poem of some 100,000 stanzas, chronicling his master’s deeds and the contemporary history of his part of India, is valuable not only as historical material but as the earliest monument of the Western Hindi language, and the first of the long series of bardic chronicles for which Rajputana is celebrated. It is written in ballad form, and portions of it are still sung by itinerant bards throughout north-western India and Rajputana.
See Lieut.-Col. James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han (2 vols., London, 1829–1832; repub. by Lalit Mohan Auddy, 2 vols. ib., 1894–1895), where good translations are given.
CHANDELIER, a frame of metal, wood, crystal, glass or china, pendent from roof or ceiling for the purpose of holding lights. The word is French, but the appliance has lost its original significance of a candle-holder, the chandelier being now chiefly used for gas and electric lighting. Clusters of hanging lights were in use as early as the 14th century, and appear originally to have been almost invariably of wood. They were, however, so speedily ruined by grease that metal was gradually substituted, and fine and comparatively early examples in beaten iron, brass, copper and even silver are still extant. Throughout the 17th century the hanging candle-holder of brass or bronze was common throughout northern Europe, as innumerable pictures and engravings testify. In the great periods of the art of decoration in France many magnificent chandeliers were made by Boulle, and at a later date by Gouthière and Thomire and others among the extraordinarily clever fondeurs-ciseleurs of the second half of the 18th century. The chandelier in rock crystal and its imitations had come in at least a hundred years before their day, and continued in favour to the middle of the 19th century, or even somewhat later. It reached at last the most extreme elaboration of banality, with ropes of pendants and hanging faceted drops often called lustres. When many lights were burning in one of these chandeliers an effect of splendour was produced that was not out of place in a ballroom, but the ordinary household varieties were extremely ugly and inartistic. The more purely domestic chandelier usually carries from two to six lights. The rapidly growing use of electricity as an illuminating medium and the preference for smaller clusters of lights have, however, pushed into the background an appliance which had grown extremely commonplace in design, and had become out of character with modern ideas of household decoration.
CHANDERNAGORE, or Chandarnagar, a French settlement in India, with a small adjoining territory, situated on the right bank of the river Hugli, 20 m. above Calcutta, in 22° 51′ 40″ N, and 88° 24′ 50″ E. Area 3 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 25,000. Chandernagore has played an important part in the European history of Bengal. It became a permanent French settlement, in 1688, but did not rise to any importance till the time of Dupleix, during whose administration more than two thousand brick houses were erected in the town and a considerable maritime trade was carried on. In 1757 Chandernagore was bombarded by an English fleet under Admiral Watson and captured; the fortifications and houses were afterwards demolished. On peace being established the town was restored to the French in 1763. When hostilities afterwards broke out in 1794, it was again taken possession of by the English, and was held by them till 1816, when it was a second time given up to the French; it has ever since remained in their possession. All the former commercial grandeur of Chandernagore has now passed away, and at present it is little more than a quiet suburb of Calcutta, without any external trade. The European town is situated at the bottom of a beautiful reach of the Hugli, with clean wide thoroughfares, and many elegant
