218 NARSINGHPUR. known by the name of Star or pig, till a Muhammadan of rank took pity on the stream, and, emptying into it a cart-load of sugar, gained for it a more honourable appellation. The fall from east to west is so gradual that, except when in flood, the Narbadá creeps slowly along its narrow bed of basalt, with precipitous banks on each side ; but the Sher and Shakar are mountain torrents throughout. With their tributaries, the Máchá-Rewa and Chitá-Rewá, they rise in the Satpuras, and pour through rocky channels, fringed on either hand with a series of ravines. Here and there, however, their beds open out into small oases of rich alluvial deposit, which are cultivated like gardens with the finer kinds of sugar-cane and vegetables. The Sonar resembles these streams; but the Dúdhi and Bárú-Rewá flow along sandy channels, utilized only for an occasional melon bed. All these rivers, including the Narbadá itself, rise with extraordinary rapidity in time of flood and even the little Singhri has more than once inundated the town of Kandeli, and caused serious loss of life and property. History.-The history of Narsinghpur is the history of an outlying District. The great Sangrám Sáh, the forty-eighth Rájá of the Garhá. Mandlá line (see MANDLA), extended his dominion over Narsinghpur and the surrounding country, and built the fortress of Chauragarh. Situated on the crest of the outer range of the Satpura table-land, embracing within its circle two hills, and supplied by numerous tanks and wells, this stronghold is less a fort than a huge fortified camp; and it has been the theatre of most of the historic scenes enacted in Narsinghpur. After the defeat and heroic death of Queen Durgávatí in 1564, Asaf Khán stormed Chauragarh, and seized the enormous booty of 100 jars of gold coin and 1000 elephants. Probably this expedition first opened out the valley to the foreign immigration which has reclaimed it from barbarism. In 1593, when the Bundela invasion under Jújhár Singh took place, Prem Náráyan sustained a siege of some months in Chaurágarh ; and it was not till he had been treacherously assassinated that the fortress fell. At Chauragarh, also, Narhar Sá, the last of the Garhá-Mandla line, took refuge when pressed by Morájí, the Maráthá Governor of Ságar (Saugor). The Gond prince was betrayed, and ended his days in iniprisonment at Kurai, while his dominions fell into the hands of his conquerors in 1781. Their administration lasted for seventeen years, and is only remarkable as having caused a considerable influx of Hindu immigrants from the north. The Ságar Governors were in their turn expelled by the powerful Bhonsla Rájás. Before occupying Narsinghpur, the Nagpur army overran Hoshangábád; and that District, left utterly defenceless, was periodically plundered by the Pindárís and the Nawab of Bhopal until 1802. The distress thus occasioned resulted, in 1803 and 1804, in actual famine, and forced a
