330 NIMAR. of Gujarát and Málvá rendered their independence little more than nominal, and Burhanpur was several times sacked by invading armies. In 16oo, the great Emperor Akbar annexed Nimár and Khándesh, capturing Asírgarh by blockade from Bahadur Khán, the last of the Fárúkhís. Akbar divided Northern Nimár into the Districts of Bijágarh and Handia, and attached it to the Subah of Málwá. Southern Niniár became part of Súbah Khandesh. The Prince Dányál was made Governor of the Deccan, with his seat at Burhanpur, where he drank himself to death in 1605. Under the enlightened rule of Akbar and his successors, Nimár reached the highest degree of prosperity it has ever known. The plains and valleys were carefully cultivated; the roads were thronged with traffic between Málwa and the Deccan; and everywhere resthouses and wells, aqueducts and reservoirs, studded the District. In 1670, the Maráthás first invaded Khandesh, and wasted the country up to the gates of Burhanpur. During successive harvest seasons they returned ; and, in 1684, plundered the city itself immediately after Aurangzeb had left it with his unwieldy army to subdue the Deccan. By 1690 they had overrun Northern Nimár; and in 1916, the chauth or fourth of all revenues, and the sardesmukhí, or tenth part of the land revenue, were formally conceded to them by the Mughals. Four years later, the Nizam, Asaf Jah, seized the Government of the Deccan At first he confirmed the alienations of revenue to the Maráthás; but disputes soon arose, and the Peshwá repeatedly plundered the District, until he acquired Northern Ninár by the Treaty of 1740. Fifteen years afterwards, Southern Nimár was also ceded to the Peshwá, except Burhánpur and Asirgarh, which, however, followed in 1760. Under the Peshwa's Government, the District recovered from the evils which had befallen it during the struggle between the Mughals and Maráthás. In 1778, the whole of the present District, except parganás Kánápur and Beriá, was transferred to Mahárajá Sindhia. Holkar, at the same time, acquired nearly all the rest of Pránt Nimár. Up to 1800 the District enjoyed tolerable peace; but from that year till 1818 it was subject to one increasing round of invasion and plunder, still known as the time of trouble,' from which it lias not yet recovered. In 1803 a terrible famine bcfel the country, and in the same year Southern Ninár was taken by the British after the battle of Assaye, but restored to Sindhia. During the next fifteen years the District was constantly pillaged by Holkar's officers, by the Pindáris, and by the rebellious deputies of Sindhia himself. The Pindáris, in fact, were at home in Nimár; their chief camps were in the dense wilds of Handiá, between the Narbadá (Nerbudda) and the Vindhyan hills; and it was in a Nimár jungle that their daring leader Chitú was killed by a tiger.
