CHAPTER XV.
Oudh — lying about the centre of the great sub-Himalaya valley, and watered by such magnificent rivers as the Ganges and Ghagra, as well as by many smaller though navigable streams — was regarded by the Brahmanical tribes, from time immemorial, as the granary and garden of Hindustan.
The extraordinary fertility of its soil; its vast pastoral and agricultural resources; its beautiful rural districts; its majestic forests; its handsome capital city (Luknow ranked next to the imperial city of Delhi); its splendid temples; its great traditions, like those appertaining to Bhinswara; its ancient memorials, like Ajudya, the birthplace of the far-famed Rama, whose name is the Hindu’s Bond of Brotherhood over the whole of Hindiistan; its grand martial race of men, like the Bhinswara Rajputs — all combined to make its proud and warlike people reverence the region as a “paradise,” in which lay their homes, and the heritage of their offspring.
Notwithstanding, therefore, all that was urged to the contrary by interested “outsiders,” the annexation of Oudh took its population by surprise; and from the hour in which this superb kingdom unjustifiably passed
