BAN
219
and now has a large and comfortable shooting-box. annexation were employed in incessant frontier disputes with the Raja of Utraula, which completely desolated the country for miles on either side of the doubtful line. When the mutiny broke out, he alone of all the chieftains of the division never wavered in his allegiance to the British power. The commissioner and district officers were then at Secrora, the civil station of Colonelganj, and the Raja sent a powerful escort to protect them from the mutinous soldiery. On their arrival at Balrampur he removed them at first to his strong fort of Pathankot between the two Rdptis, and finally sent them on with a sufficient guard to Gorakhpur. This loyal behaviour exposed him to the hostility of the rebel Government and a farman was issued from Lucknow dividing his dominions between his old enemies of Utraula, Tulsipur, and Ikauna. At the same time the rebel nazim was directed to burn down Balrampur and carry out the partition. He marched into the pargana, but though the hostile forces remained in opposite encampments for a few days, neither of them cared to attack the other, and the Government officer was soon In the trans-Gogra campaign called away by more pressing necessities. which concluded the mutiny, the Begam, Raja Debi Bakhsh Singh of Gonda, the Nazim of Gorakhpur, and the Marahta leaders, had all concentrated their broken forces at the foot of the hills. Rdja Digbijai Singh joined the advancing British force, and remained with it till the remnants For his distinguished of the rebel army were finally driven into Naipal. loyalty he was granted the whole of the confiscated pargana of Tulsipur, besides large estates in Bahraich 10 per cent, of the Government revenue on his ancestral estates was remitted, and it was promised that the first regular settlement of his estates should be perpetual. He was also honoured with the title of Maharaja and the Knight Gommandership of the Star of India. The last fifteen years have been marked by that peaceful progress in wealth and population which leaves nothing for the annalist to record.
he built a small
The
fort,
last four or five years before
BANGAR Pargana^— Tahsil Hardoi— District Hardoi. —ParganaBangar high and level along the right bank of the little river Sai in the midway between the Ganges and the Gumti. its eastern side the Sai separates it from parganas Gopamau and Balamau Bawan bounds it on the north Sandi and Bilgram on the west Mallanwan on the south. lies
heart of the Hardoi district, Along the greater part of
Populous, well-wooded and watered, and fairly tilled, its 96 villages cover an area of 143 square miles, of which 85 are cultivated. Its greatest length and breadth are twenty and fourteen miles. Rivers and streams it has none except the Sai, here called Bhainsta but a wealth of jhlls and ponds (1,252 ) spreads over it, and a host of wells (2,736) attests the
copiousness of the water-supply. Thirteen per cent, of the total area is returned as barren, 58 per cent, is cultivated, and 29 per cent, culturable. Of the cultivated area a third is irrigated tank irrigation is somewhat in excess of that from wells. Some parts of the villages along the Sai are third of the soil is third class ( bhtir ) but except irrigated from it. towards the Sai on the east, where, as in the neighbourhood of all rivers, the bhur is generally of fair quality and it is Hght, uneven, and sandy,
A
•
By
A. H. Harington, Esq.,
c.
s.,
Assistant Commissioner,
