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List and short description of places

(Mentioned in this, and not described in the preceding volume)

ALAMBAGH, The, is a garden in the suburbs of Lakhnao, literally “The Garden of the World,” within an enclosure of 500 square yards. There is a building within the garden, containing many rooms in the second story. The Alambagh was built by the last King of Oudh, Wajid Ali, as an occasional residence for a favourite wife. Within the garden is Sir Henry Havelock’s tomb, surmounted by an obelisk with an inscription written by his widow. The place commands the road from Lakhnao to Kanhpur.

BIHAR, EASTERN, a division of Bihar, called also, from its chief station, Bhagalpur, on both sides of the Ganges, between western Bihar and Bengal proper, with an area of 20,492 square miles and a population of eight millions. It comprises the districts of Munger, Bhagalpur, Panda, the Santal Parganahs, and Rajmahall.

CHAIBASA, the capital of the Kolhan, or Laud of the Kols, in the Singhbhum district of Chutia Nagpur (the south-west frontier agency). It has a population of 6,000, but at its annual fair, which is famous, and held at Christmas time, upwards of 20,000 pilgrims are present. It lies on the right bank of the River Roro.

CHATR MANZIL, The, a handsome building in Lakhnao, lies to the north-east of the gaol, on the west bank of the Gumti. It was built by Nasir u’d din. In 1857 it was surrounded by a high brick wall, which has since disappeared.

CHATRA, a town and municipality in the Chutia Nagpur district.

CHUTIA NAGPUR, a mountainous district lying between Southern Bihar, Western Bengal, Orisa, and the Central Provinces. It is called Chutia Nagpur from Chutia, near Ranchi, the residence of the Rajahs of Nagpur. It is chiefly inhabited by aboriginal tribes, such as the Kols, Ordons, Mundas, Bhumij, and Korwas. It contains the districts of Hazaribagh, with an area of 7021 square miles; of Lohardaga, with 11,404; of Singhbhum, with 4503; of Manbhum, with 4921; and of tributary Mahalls (districts), with 12,881 square miles. The highest summit of the mountainous range is attained at Parisnath, 4500 feet above the sea. The chief towns are Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Chaibasa, Terrill, and Palamau.

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Chitragaon, incorrectly spelt Chittagong, is a hilly division in eastern Bengal, between the Pheni and Nap rivers. It comprises the districts of Chitragaon (called Islamabad by the Emperor Aurangzib), of Noakhali, or Bhalua, and of Tiparah and Hill Tiparah. The district of Chitragaon is bounded to the west by the sea.

Dhakah, strangely called Dacca by the early settlers, despite the fact that there is no letter “c,” except in combination with an “h,” in the language of the country of which it is a town, derives its name from Dhak, the Butea frondosa. It lies on the Vuri Ganga river, and is the chief town of the district and division of the same name. The division is bounded on the north by the Garo hills, on the east by the Silhat district and Hill Tiparah, on the south by the Noakhali district and the Bay of Bengal, and on the west by the Jasar, Patna, Bogara, and Rangpur districts.

DARJILING, a mountain sanitarium in the division of Koch Bihar, near Sikkim. The sanitarium lies about 7000 feet above the sea. The distance from Calcutta is 246 miles, the whole of which can be travelled on a rail and steam-tramway.

DILKUSHA, The, literally “the heart-expanding; the exhilarating,” is a villa outside the city of Lakhnao, built by Saadat Ali Khan, in the centre of an extensive deer-park. It stands about three-quarters of a mile S.S.E. of the Martinière. The building is now used as a hospital.

FARHAT BAKSH PALACE, the, was the royal palace in Lakhnao from the time of Saadat Ali Khan II. till 1850. It stands to the east of the Observatory and overlooks the river. The throne-room, known as the Kasr-i-Sultan, or Lai Barahdari, was set apart for Royal Durbars. The gaol, considered the healthiest gaol in India, adjoins this palace to the south.

GANDAR, The. There are three rivers of this name – the Great, the Lesser, and the Little. The Great Gandak rises in the Nipal hills, and flows through the districts of Gorakhpur, Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Saran, and Patna, near which city it falls into the Ganges. The Lesser Gandak rises also in the Nipal hills, and flows through the districts of Gorakhpur and Saran, uniting in the latter district with the Ghaghra. The Little Gandak rises on the northern boundary of the Saran district, flows in a south-easterly direction for about 120 miles, then enters the Tirhut district, traverses it in the same direction for about seventy miles, where it joins the Baghmati, which, in its turn, falls into the Great Gandak.

GHAGHRA, The, also called Gogra, the chief river of Oudh, rises in the Nipal hills, traverses in Oudh the districts of Kheri, Bahraich, Gondah, Borah Banki, and Faizabad; then, in the north-west provinces, those of Basti, Gorakhpur, and Azamgarh; then, in western Bihar, the district of Saran. It falls into the Ganges at Chapra, after a course of about 600 miles.

GHAZIPUR, chief town of the district of the same name in the Banaras division, so called after its founder, Malik Saiyid Masud Ghazi, in A.D. 1330. Lord Cornwallis, who succeeded Marquess Wellesley as Governor-General of India, died here in 1805. The district is bounded

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on the north by the Azamgarh and Saran districts; on the west by those of Jaunpur and Banaras, on the south by that of Shahabad. Its chief rivers are the Ganges, the Ghaghra, the Sargu, and the Gumti.

GORAKHPUR. The division thus called is bounded to the north by Nipal, to the east by the Gandak, to the south by the Ghaghra, and to the west by Oudh. The capital, also called Gorakhpur, is on the left bank of the Rapti. It has an imambarah (a kind of mosque) built by one of the rulers of Oudh, and near it is the temple of Gorakhnath, worshipped by the Jains. ‘The means of communication in this district still leave much to be desired.

GUMTI, The, rises in the mountains north of the Shahjahanpur district. It flows through the districts of Kheri, Lakhnao, and Sultanpur, in Oudh, and through those of Jaunpur and Banaras, in the North-West Provinces, falling into the Ganges seventeen miles north-east of Banaras. The length of its course is about 500 miles.

GWALIAR, the capital of the dominions of Sindhia. It lies on the Subanrekha river, sixty-six miles south of Agra. Within its limits may be comprehended the famous hill fort on an isolated rock 300 feet high, and about three miles in circumference; the Lashkar, or standing camp of the Maharajah, extending several miles from the north-west end of the rock; the old town along its eastern base; and the cantonment of Morar, on the Chambal, to the north, occupied, before the Mutiny, by the Gwaliar contingent, officered by British officers.

The dominions of Sindhia, known under the generic term “Gwaliar,” consist of several detached districts, covering an area of 29,067 square miles, and having a population of 3,115,857 souls. Of the districts so detached, the principal is bounded on the north-east by the Chambal, which divides it from the British districts of Agra and Itawah; on the east, in a very tortuous line, by Bundelkhand and the Sagar districts; on the south by the native states of Bhopal and Dhar; on the west by those of Rajgarh, Jhalawar, and Kota; and on the north-west by the Chambal, which separates it from the states of Karauli and Dholpur. The chief rivers are the Chambal, which receives the Chumbla, the Sipri, the Chota Kala Sind, the Niwaj, and the Parvati, the Narbada, and the Sind.

IMAMBARAH, The great, in Lakhnao, is a kind of mosque, built by one of the kings of Oudh, formerly contiguous to, now incorporated in, the Machhi Bhawan. Its central hall, 163 feet long, 53 feet broad, and 49½ feet high, has an arched roof without supports. The curve of the arch is 68 feet, and the wall is 16 feet thick. The Imambarah is 303 feet long from east to west, 160 feet broad, and 62½ feet high. The reader will find an admirable description of this building, and of the other buildings in the great northern cities of India, in Murray’s Handbook of the Bengal Presidency, compiled on the spot by Captain Edward Eastwick.

ITAWAH, the chief town of the district of the same name, lies on the left bank of the Jamnah. The district forms part of the Agra division. It is bounded to the north by the Mainpuri and Farrukhabad districts; to the west by the Agra district, from which it is separated by the

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Jamnah, and the Gwaliar state; to the south by the Jamnah; and to the east by the Kanhpur district. The town lies sixty-three miles south-east from Agra.

JAGDISPUR, a town in the Shahabad district of the Patna division (western Bihar), ninety miles east of Banaras. About it, in and prior to 1857, were the ancestral estates of Kunwar Singh.

JAIPUR, capital of the state of the same name in Rajputana. The state has an area of 15,250 square miles, and a population of two millions. It is bounded on the north by Bikanir and Hisar; on the east by Alwar and Bhasalpur; on the south by Karauli, Gwaliar, Bundi, Tonk, Mewar, and Ajmir; in the west by Kishngarh, Marwar and Bikanir. The centre is an elevated tableland, 1500 feet above the sea. The capital of the same name was founded by Rajah Jai Singh II. in 1723, and partially rebuilt and beautified by Rajah Rain Singh in 1843-6. It lies 140 miles west from Agra, 150 south-west from Dehli, and 400 northwest from Allahabad.

JODHPUR, or Marwar, is a native state in Rajputana, lying to the east of Jaisalmir and Bikanir, having an area of 37,000 square miles, and a population of a million and three quarters. Its principal river is the Luni. The capital, Jodhpur, is a town surrounded by a wall, in which are seventy gates, each named after the place to which it leads. A fort, built on a rock 800 feet above the level of the court at its base, commands the city.

KADAM RASUL, a brick building in Lakhnao, about 300 yards to the east of the Shah Najaf. The literal meaning of its name is “the foot of the prophet.”

KAISARBAGH, the, a palace in Lakhnao built by the last of the kings of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah. It was begun in 1848 and finished in 1850, at a cost, including furniture and decorations, of £800,000. It includes the Badshah Manzil, built by Saadat Ali II., previously the private residence of the King. The ladies used to occupy apartments round the magnificent square beyond the Lakhi gate, so called from having cost a lakh of rupees. For a detailed description vide Murray’s Bengal.

KALPI, a town in the Jalaun district, N.W.P., on the right bank of the Jamnah, was a very important place under Muhammadan rule. It lies forty-five miles south-west of Kanhpur.

KANAUJ, a town on the Hall Nadi, near its confluence with the Ganges, in the Farrukhabad district. Before the Muhammadan invasion it was the most famous city in India. It is now too ruinous for the ordinary geographer to do it reverence. Yet it was mentioned by Ptolemy (A.D. 140). Here Humayun was finally defeated by Sher Shah, in May, 1510.

KATAK, a town and district in Orisa, strangely miscalled by the barbarians who first visited it “Cuttack,” which misnomer has been as barbarously perpetuated and retained. The district, covering an area of 3178 square miles, and watered by the Mahanadi, and its branch, the Katjuri; by the Brahmani, and its branch, the Kharsua; and by the Baitarani; is hilly in its western, and low and swampy in its eastern sections. The

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population is about a million and a half. The town of the same name, also called Katak Banaras, lies on the right bank of the Mahanadi. It was built, 1200 A.D., by Anang Bhim Deo, King of Orisa.

MOTI MAHALL, The, includes three buildings in Lakhnao. That, properly called by the name, is at the north end of the enclosure. It was built by Saadat Ali Khan. Along the river face Ghazi u’d din built the Muharak Manzil to the east of the old bridge of boats, and the Shah Manzil close to the bridge. In this latter used to take place the wild beast fights so dear to the rulers of Oudh.

MULTAN, the chief town and fortress of the district of the same name, lying between the Satlaj, the Chinab, and the Ravi, and having a population of over half a million. The town lies four miles from the left bank of the Chinab. It is one of the bulwarks of India.

NIPAL, an independent state in the mountainous range to the north of Bihar and Oudh. It is 500 miles long from east to west, and about 160 broad. It is mostly mountainous; but behind the lower range of the Himalayas are long, narrow, fertile valleys, about 4000 feet above the level of the sea, well watered and cultivated. The population numbers two millions. Of these 270,000 are aboriginal, called Newars, Buddhists. The remainder are Gurkhas, who conquered the Newars about the year 1700 A.D.

ORISA, once a kingdom, then a province; now a division, comprising the districts of Katak, Puri, or Jaganath, Baleswar, sometimes, but incorrectly called Balasor, and nineteen tributary Mahalls. The division is bounded on the north and north-east by Chutia Nagpur and Bengal; on the east and south-east by the Bay of Bengal; on the south by the Madras Presidency; and on the west by the Central Provinces. Exclusive of the Tributary Mahalls, it has an area of 9053 square miles, and a population of nearly four millions. Consult Murray’s Handbook to Bengal for a graphic account of the journey from Calcutta to Puri and Katak.

PURNIA, a district in Eastern Bihar (q. v.) between Bhagalpur and Nipal, with an area of 4957 square miles, and a population of a million and three quarters. The chief station, also called Parnia, lies on both banks of the Little Kusi river, 78 miles to the north-east of Bhagalpur; 283 miles north-west of Calcutta; and 98 miles south-west from Darjiling.

RAJPUTANA, a tract of Western India, so called from its being inhabited mainly by Rajputs. It is bounded on the north-east by the Panjab and North-Western Provinces; on the south-east by the Indur and Gwaliar states; on the south-west by Barodah and the districts of Bombay; on the west by Sindh; and on the north-west by the state of Bahawalpur. It has an area of 129,750 square miles, and a population slightly in excess of ten millions. The states within it, all of which are under British protection, are, Bikanir, east of Bahawalpur; Jaisalmir, south-west of Bikanir; Kishngarh, between Ajmir and Jaipur; Karauli, between Jaipur and Dholpur; Alwar, north of Jaipur and west of Mathura; Tonk; Dholpur; Udaipur or Mewar, south of Ajmir; Dongapur; Banswara, south-east of Dongapur; Partabgarh, north of Banswara; Jaipur; Jodhpur, or Marwar; Bharatpur; Bundi; Kota; Jhalawar; and Sirohi.

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RAMGANGA, the eastern, a river of the Kumaun district rising on the southern declivity of the main chain of the Himalayas, at an elevation of 9000 feet. It holds a course generally south-easterly for about fifty-five miles, to Ramesar (in the Kumaun district, 1500 feet above the sea-level), where it unites with the Surja.

RAMGANGA, the western, rises in the southern declivity of the slopes of the Himalayas, not far from the eastern river of the same name; runs for twenty miles in a south-easterly direction; then becomes south-westerly, and so continues to its exit from the hills, ninety miles from its source. Ten miles further on it takes a southerly direction, holds it for fifteen miles, then receives, on its right, the waters of the Koh, and a little further on, on its left, those of the Sunka. Sixty miles lower it is augmented by the waters of the Deoha or Garah. Ten miles below this last confluence it falls into the Ganges nearly opposite the ancient city of Kanauj (q. v.). Its whole course is about 373 miles.

ROHILKHAND, a division of the North-West Provinces, bounded by the Ganges, by Oudh, and by Kumaun, and watered by the Ramganga, the Bosila, the Ganges, and the Ghaghra. It has an area of 10,882 square miles and a population slightly in excess of five millions. It is divided into the districts of Bijnaur, Muradabad, Badaun, Bareli, Shahjahanpur, and the Tartu Parganahs. It includes also the territory of the Nawab of Rampur.

RAPTI, The, rises in the sub-Himalayan ranges of Nipal, and, after many windings, enters the plains of Oudh, which it traverses in a south-easterly direction for ninety miles, passing through the Bahraich and Gondah districts. After running 400 miles it falls into the Ghaghra shortly before that river joins the Ganges. Its tributary, the Burha Rapti, has a course of 134 miles.

SHAH NAJAF, The, a palace built in Lakhnao by Ghazi u’d din Haidar, the first king of Oudh, in memory of a town in Arabia, where Ali, the successor of the prophet, was buried. It stands about 350 yards to the east of the Moti Mahall, and 180 yards south of the west bank of the Gumti. It is a white mosque of scanty elevation, with an enormous dome.

SILHAT, sometimes but barbarously spelt “Sylhet,” is a district in the Dhakah division, having an area of 5440 square miles, and a population of over 1,700,000 souls. The northern, eastern, and southern parts of the district are hilly. Its principal river, on the banks of which lies the chief station, also called Silhat, is the Surma, which rises in Kachhar and falls into the Brahmaputra. Its chief products are lime, timber, oranges, ginger, and tea.

SON, The, rises in the elevated table-land of Amarkautak in the Bilaspur district of the central provinces, at about 3500 feet above the sea level, and flows northerly through an intricate chain of hills till it strikes the Kaimur range, the dividing range between the Jabalpur and Shahabad districts. From this point it takes an easterly course till it falls into the Ganges, about ten miles above Danapur, having meandered about 465 miles. In its lower section, of upwards of 160 miles, it first flows across the British district of Mirzapur, and then, passing into western

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Bihar, separates Shahabad from Gaya and Patna. The Son is crossed by the grand trunk road from Calcutta to the north-west on a stone causeway, and lower down, near Koelnar, the East India railway has been carried across it on a lattice girder bridge.

TARA, or TARAWALI, KOTHI, The, the observatory, or star house, at Lakhnao, was built by Nasir u’d din Haidar under the superintendence of Colonel Wilcox, Astronomer Royal. In 1857 the famous Mau’att., Ahmad Ullah, of Faizabad, had his head-quarters here, and here were held the councils of war.

TIRHUT, a district in western Bihar, between Nipal and the Ganges, with an area of 6343 square miles and a population of four and a half millions. It is watered by the Ganges, the Gandak, and the Baghmati. To the north of it are the swampy forests of the Tarai. It comprises the towns of Muzaffarpur, Hajipur; near it, Sonpur, famous for its fair, and Darbangha, the seat of the Tirhut Rajahs. The district produces indigo, cereals, sugar, tobacco, opium, and saltpetre.

TISTA, The, flows from the Chatamu Lake, Thibet, through Sikkim, for about ninety-seven miles, marking the boundary between the Sikkim and Darjiling districts for some distance till it receives the waters of the Great Ranjit. It then turns southward, and traverses the Darjiling and Jalpaiguri districts in a south-easterly direction, then the Rangpur district. In the two last-named districts it is navigable, though navigation is often difficult. Finally, after a tortuous course of 313 miles from its source, it falls into the Brahmaputra. The Usti is noted for frequent and violent changes in its course.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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