Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/352

This page needs to be proofread.

— BAW

274

BAWAN BUZURG

Pargana Bareli Tahsil Rae Bareli District Rae Bareli. This town is situated on the road from Bareli to Digbijaiganj. It was founded by the Bhars and conquered from them by Faqir Khan, an Afghan follower of Ibrahim Sharqi his descendants still own it.

There It is embosomed in trees, and boasts of twelve masonry houses. a school attended by only 27 children the manufacture of shields was formerly carried on here with great success. The population is 4,607. is

BilWAN

Tahsil Hardoi DistrictKAHDOi. Pargana Bdwan, Hardoi, lies midway between the rivers Garra and Sai, and forms part of the watershed of both. Parganas Sandi and Bangar bound it on the south, Barwan and Saromannagar on the west, North Sara on the With an extreme north, and on the east South Sara and Gopamau. length and breadth of 11| and lOJ miles, it covers an area of 69 square No stream or river fertilizes it, but miles, 45 of which are cultivated. there are numerous (591) jhils and tanks, especially down the middle and eastern portion of it. From these a tenth of the cultivated area is irrigated, and two-tenths more are watered from wells.

Pargaria*

district

For the most part the tract is level, but here and there on its western side it breaks into slight undulations, especially where it nears the sandy ridge that, running from north to south through the district nearly parallel with the old high road from, Bilgr^m and Sandi to Shahjahanpur, seems

mark the easternmost point from which at some remote period the Ganges commenced its gradual recession westwards. Here, as elsewhere, the predominance of light, sandy, uneven bhtir indicates that the area in which it occurs was once wandered over by a shifting river. Such soil covers two-fifths of the cultivated portion of the pargana. Water is procurable at a depth of from twelve to eighteen feet on the right western On the bhiir, side, and from twenty-five to thirty-five feet on the east. hand wells (" rahti" or " charkhi"), costing from eleven to three rupees, are mainly used. They rarely last more than one year. On the eastern side, where the soil is more tenacious, the large (pur) wells worked by buUocks are used, as well as the smaller hand and lever ones.

to

In the south and east of the pargana there is still ^ considerable quantity dhak (Butea frondosa) jungle, but it is rapidly disappearing. As the country is generally open, and nowhere cut up by streams or rivers, it sufThe unmetalled fers less than other tracts from the want of good roads. road from Lucknow to Shahjahanpur vid Hardoi and Shahabad traverses a great part of its eastern side, while a few villages on the west lie on the district road (like all the Hardoi roads unmetalled) from Sandi to Shahabad. In the south the pargana is crossed by a cart-track leading from Hardoi to the Garra on the way towards Farukhabad. This line of road has never been finished, and the portion of it which was lined out The Bawan country as far as the Garra is not now repaired and kept up. to the west will greatly benefit whenever funds can be found for opening up this, the most direct route to Farukhabad, as an alternative to the of

present road vid Sandi.

By

Mr. A, H. Harington

c.

s.,

Assistant Commissioner,