or Terra-Japonica. See Cutchu.

a native state in the south-western extremity of Hindustan, situated between the 68th and 72nd degrees of east longitude, and the 22d and 25th of north latitude. It is a peninsula-like tract of land, inclosed towards the west by the eastern branch of the Indus or the Kores; on the south by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Cutch; and on the north and east, towards the interior, by the great Northern Runn, an extensive salt morass or lake, which from May to October is flooded with salt water, and communicates its greatest extent with the Gulf of Cutch on the west, and the Gulf of Cambay on the east, these two gulfs being united during the monsoon.

The interior of Cutch is studded with hills of considerable elevation, and a range of mountains runs through it from east to west, many of them of the most fantastic shapes, with large insulated masses of rock scattered in all directions. In the intervening valleys the country is not deficient in fertility and verdure, and is sufficiently productive in all cases where the nature of the government permits the cultivator to enjoy the fruits of his labour. But this very seldom happens. Many of the hills are covered with jungle, and with the strongholds and dens of petty chiefs, who sometimes protect, but more frequently issue forth to plunder the lower country. The general appearance of Cutch is barren and uninteresting. The greater part is a rock destitute of soil, and presenting the wildest aspect; the ground is cold, poor, and sterile; the rains are generally scanty, and often fail altogether; and the whole face of the country bears marks of volcanic action. From the violence of tyranny, and the rapine of a disorderly banditti, by which this district has from time immemorial been infested, as well as from shocks of earthquakes, the villages have a ruinous and dilapidated appearance; and, with the exception of a few fields in their neighbourhood, the country presents a rocky and sandy waste, with in many places scarcely a show of vegetation. Water is scarce and brackish, and is chiefly found at the bottom of low ranges of hills, which abound in some parts; and the inhabitants of the extensive sandy tracts suffer greatly from the want of it. Mrs Elwood, who visited this country in her overland journey to India, observes, that "she could imagine that Cutch had been originally a rocky island of volcanic production, thrown up at some great convulsion of nature, and that in the course of ages soil had been washed down by the Indus, the Bunnass, the Phurraun, and other streams, which now lose themselves in the sand." Owing to the uncertainty of the periodical rains in Cutch, the country is liable to severe famines, which, along with the internal broils by which it has been harassed, have greatly obstructed cultivation, and thinned the inhabitants, many of whom have been induced to emigrate to Bombay and Gujerat; and, in addition to all these evils, an uncommonly violent earthquake, which occurred on the 16th of June 1819, nearly destroyed Bhooj, the capital, and greatly injured the towns of Anjar, Mandavie, and Moondria or Mundra. The soil of Cutch produces grain, cotton, tobacco, ghee, &c.; and iron and coal have been discovered, the latter near the surface of the ground, on the banks of one of the rivers, seven miles north-east of Bhooj, but it is not in general used as fuel.

The Runn, which communicates with the Gulf of Cutch, and sweeps round the northern side of that province, is a very extensive salt morass, varying in breadth from five to eighty miles across, and during the rains nearly impassable for horsemen. The total area of this immense morass may be estimated at about 8000 square miles, without including any portion of the Gulf of Cutch, which is in many parts so shallow as to resemble a marshy fen rather than an arm of the sea. The Runn is said to be formed by the overflow of the rivers Phurraun, Loone, Bunnass, and others, during the monsoon; but in December it is quite dry, and in most places hard. The wild ass is very common on the borders of this lake, being seen in herds of from sixty to seventy at a time.

The temperature of Cutch during the hot season is high, the thermometer frequently rising to 100° or 105°; and in the months of April and May, clouds of dust and sand, blown about by hurricanes, which are common in these months, envelop the houses, and the glass windows scarcely afford any protection. The hot wind in May is so scorching that it has been compared to the feeling which would be experienced on standing near a burning prairie. For nine months of the year the climate is comparatively temperate and agreeable; but the approach of October is equally dreaded both by the native and European population as extremely unhealthy, and at the close of the monsoon the oppression of the atmosphere is described as being intolerable. The influence of the monsoon is greatly moderated before it reaches this country, and the rains sometimes fail altogether; but although in this case the necessary consequences are want and misery to the great body of the people, yet these dry seasons are far more favourable to the health of Europeans. In 1825, when the monsoon rains were copious, the country was extremely unhealthy; and, on the other hand, the years 1823 and 1824 were equally remarkable for salubrity and for drought. The monsoon generally sets in with great violence from the north-east before it settles in the south-west. The prevailing wind is westerly, and it blows west by south and west by north ten months in the year. The easterly winds, which do not blow more than a month in the year, are always unhealthy and unpleasant, and bring with them, if they continue long, epidemics and locusts. Cutch is considered unhealthy by the natives from other parts of the country; and Dr Burnes, who was stationed there, and gives an account of its medical topography, mentions that he has known many persons from Bombay, especially servants, who were perfectly useless from continued sickness in Cutch, but who recovered their health the moment they left it. He also adds, that he never was at any station where recoveries from fever were so tedious and incomplete. The hospital returns do not, however, he adds, show any extraordinary sickness. The cholera, that dreadful scourge of Europe as well as of India, has made no progress in Cutch. The most common diseases among the natives are fever and rheumatism; and fever is also the prevailing disease among Europeans, the first attacks of which are always the most dangerous. These, Dr Burnes mentions, "are generally in the form of bilious remittents, leaving a tendency behind them to intermittent fever, liable to produce a paroxysm on any exciting cause;" and in elucidation of this, he mentions, that of five officers resident in Cutch (of whom he was himself one) not one was exempt from periodical attacks of this malady, and scarcely at any time enjoyed six months' uninterrupted health. These, however, are not severe, and easily yield to the remedy of sulphate of quinine without any serious injury to the constitution. There are some stations at Cutch particularly noxious, such as Narona, a village in a marsh twenty-four miles north-east of Bhooj, near the Runn; and Luckput Bunder, remarkable for the badness of its water.

The principal towns are Bhooj, Anjar, Jharrah, Kuntcote, and Kuttaria. The principal seaports are Mandavie and Mundra. The town best known to Europeans is Bhooj, which is situated inland, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, some of which approach within three or four miles of the city. The hill of Bhoojesh, on which the fort is situated, and under the S.W. angle of which is the cantonment of the Cutch brigade, rises to the height of 500 feet in the middle of the plain, and is detached from other high ground. The residency is four miles distant in a westerly direction. There are many mountain streams, but no navigable rivers. They scarcely contain any water except in the rainy season, when they are very full and rapid, and discharge themselves into the Runn, all along the coast of which the wells and springs are more or less impregnated with common salt, and other saline ingredients.

Various causes have contributed to thin the population of this country. In 1812 it was ravaged by a famine and pestilence, which destroyed a great proportion of its inhabitants; according to some accounts, nearly one-half. This, joined to the tyranny and violence of the government until the year 1819, and more lately to a succession of unfavourable seasons, has forced many of the cultivators to remove to Scinde and other countries. At present the inhabitants may be estimated at 500,536, of whom one-third are Mohammedans, and the remainder Hindus of various castes, resembling in their habits and manners those of other parts of India. The Jharejah Rajpoots form a particular class, being the aristocracy of the country; and all are more or less connected with the family of the Rao or prince. There are in Cutch about 200 of these Jharejah chiefs, who all claim their descent from Sacko Goraro, a prince who reigned in Scinde about a thousand years ago. From him also the reigning sovereign is lineally descended, and he is the liege lord of whom all the chiefs or nobles hold their lands in feu, for services which they or their ancestors had performed, or in virtue of their relationship to the family. They are all termed the brotherhood of the Rao, and supposed to be his hereditary advisers, and their possessions are divided among their male children; and to prevent the breaking down of their properties, the necessary consequence of this law of inheritance, there is no doubt that infanticide is common among them, and that it extends to the male as well as the female progeny. The British have exerted their influence to check this inhuman practice; and though it has been found to be closely interwoven with the state of manners and the succession of property, its complete suppression at no distant period is anticipated. The Jharejahs consider it as unlawful to marry any female of their own tribe, being all descended from a common parent. They accordingly marry into the families of other Rajpoots; and to this unfortunate regulation may be chiefly ascribed the destruction of all the female children. The Jharejahs have a tradition that when they entered Cutch they were Mohammedans, but that they afterwards adopted the customs and religion of the Hindus. It is certain, indeed, that they still retain many Mohammedan customs. They take oaths equally on the Koran or on the Shastras; they employ Mussulman books; they eat from their hands; the Rao, when he appears in public, alternately worships God in a Hindu pagoda and a Mohammedan mosque; and he fits out annually at Mandavie a ship for the conveyance of pilgrims to Mecca, who are maintained during the voyage chiefly by the liberality of the prince. The Mohammedans in Cutch are of the same degenerate caste with those usually found in the western parts of India. The Mecanahs form a particular class, who claim the same descent as the Jharejahs, and boast of their constancy to the Mohammedan creed, while the latter apostatized; but they have now entirely degenerated, and are little better than banditti, always ready to commit outrages, and to sally out in disorderly bands to plunder the defenceless country. Such has been the weakness and tyranny of the rulers of Cutch, that they have frequently had recourse to these wretched auxiliaries in order to aid them in their inordinate exactions, while at other times they recruited the army from the same race. They were nearly extirpated under the rigorous rule of Futteh Mohammed, but of late years they have returned in considerable numbers to their villages among the hills. In the seasons of scarcity of 1823 and 1824, many of them emigrated to Scinde, where, joining with other adventurers, they formed disorderly bands, who made forays into Cutch, several villages of which they plundered and burned. The natives are in general of a stronger and stouter make, and even handsomer, than those of western India; and the women of the higher classes are also handsome. The Ryots are described as intelligent, and the workmen are justly celebrated for their ingenuity and mechanical skill. The palace at Mandavie, and a tomb of one of their princes at Bhooj, are fair specimens of their architectural skill. In the manufacture of gold and silver ornaments they display a taste and nicety far beyond any Asiatic artists, except those of China; and there is scarcely any piece of mechanism which, with some instruction, may not be imitated by the goldsmiths and carpenters at Bhooj. The natives of this country are in general peaceable and obedient subjects, for robberies and murders are seldom committed except by the Mecanahs. They are universally addicted to the use of opium and the hookah. The quantity of opium which they take is enormous; and its effects, according to Dr Burnes, are less deleterious to their constitution than might be supposed; though he mentions, that from being continually under its influence, they appear to be of a dull and phlegmatic character.

The country of Cutch was invaded about the ninth century by a body of Mohammedans of the Summa tribe, who under the guidance of five brothers emigrated from Scinde, and who gradually subdued or expelled the original inhabitants, consisting of three distinct races. The descendants of these five leaders assumed the name of Jharejah, from a chief named Jharrah, who set an example of female infanticide by putting to death his seven daughters in one day. Cutch continued tranquil under their sway for many years, until some family quarrel arose, in which the chief of an elder branch of the tribe was murdered by a rival brother. His son fled to Ahmedabad to seek the assistance of the viceroy, who was married to his sister, and who reinstated him in the sovereignty of Cutch, and Moorvee in

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1 See Narrative of a Visit to the court of Scinde; also a Sketch of the History of Cutch, &c. By J. Burnes, Surgeon to the Presidency at Bhooj. 1831. Cutch. Kattiwar, with the title of Rao or Rawul, in the year 1519.

The succession continued in the same line from the time of this prince until the year 1666, when a younger brother, Pragjee, murdered his elder brother, and usurped the sovereignty. This line of princes continued till the year 1760 without any remarkable event, when, in the reign of Rao Gore, the country was invaded four times by the Scindians, who wasted it with fire and sword. The reign of this prince, as well as that of his son Rao Rahiden, by whom he was succeeded in 1778, was marked by cruelty and blood. The latter prince was dethroned, and, being in a state of mental derangement, was during his lifetime confined by Futteh Mohammed, a native of Scinde, who continued, with a short interval (in which the party of the legal heirs, Bhijece Bawa, gained the ascendancy), to rule the country until his death in 1813. It was in the reign of Futteh Mohammed that a communication first took place with the British government. During the contests for the sovereignty between this usurper and the legal heir, the leader of the royal party, Hunraj, the governor of Mandavie, sought the aid of the British. But no closer connection followed at that time than an agreement for the suppression of piracy, or of any inroads of troops to the eastward of the Rurn, or Gulf of Cutch; and in return the company's government agreed to warn the rulers of Scinde against any attempt to invade the neighbouring country of Cutch. But the Gulf of Cutch, notwithstanding this agreement, continued to swarm with pirates, who were openly encouraged or connived at by the son of Hunraj, who had succeeded his father; as well as by Futteh Mohammed, who also permitted bodies of banditti to cross into Kattiwar, which they laid waste, and even proceeded to lead a force across the Rurn into Purkurk, with a view of extending his authority in that quarter. Futteh Mohammed left several sons by different wives, who were competitors for the vacant throne. Hussein Meyan succeeded to a considerable portion of his father's property and power. Juggjevan, a Brahmin, the late minister of Futteh Mohammed, also received a considerable share of influence; and the hatred of these two factions was embittered by religious animosities, the one being Hindu and the other Mohammadan. The late Rao had declared himself a Mohammadan, and his adherents were preparing to inter his body in a magnificent tomb, when the Jharejhas and other Hindus seized the corpse and consigned it to the flames, according to the forms of their superstition. The two factions declared, the one for Ladoba, the nephew of the late prince Rao Rahiden; the other for Maum Sing, his son by a slave girl, who was elevated to the throne under the name of Rao Bharra, or Bharmuljee.

The administration of affairs was nominally in the hands of Hussein Meyan and his brother Ibrahim Meyan. Many sanguinary broils now ensued, in the course of which Juggjevan, with several of his family, were murdered, and the executive authority was much weakened by the usurpations of the Arabs and other chiefs. In the meantime Ibrahim Meyan was stabbed by an assassin; and after various other scenes of anarchy and blood, the Rao Bharmuljee, by general consent, resumed his lawful power. But his reign was one continued series of the grossest enormities; his hostility to the British was no longer concealed; and his inroads into their territories were continued with increased activity. There was no longer, therefore, any room for hesitation; and accordingly a force of 10,500 men crossed the Rurn in November 1815, and were within five miles of Blooj, the capital of the country, when a treaty was concluded, by which the Rao Bharmuljee was confirmed in his title to the throne, and agreed to pay for the losses sustained by the chieftains of Kattiwar from predatory incursions; to re-imburse the expenses of the expedition, which, however, was not insisted on by the British; to make himself responsible for the good conduct of his subjects; to disband the Arab mercenaries; and to fix the Rurn and the Gulf of Cutch as the eastern boundaries of his principality, and to cede in perpetuity to the British Anjar and its dependencies. The Rao, however, was far from fulfilling the terms of this treaty. He gave himself up to intemperance and the grossest indulgences; and being a tool in the hands of an unprincipled faction, he gave orders for the murder of his cousin Ladoba, the nephew of the late Rao; and on every occasion he displayed his hostility to the British. On these grounds, it was determined to depose him; and an army was assembled at Anjar under the command of Sir William Keir, where it was joined by the five principal Jharejha chiefs. The British force soon approached the capital, and having taken the fort of Bhorjeah by assault, the Rao Bharmuljee surrendered his person to the British, who made a provision for his maintenance, and elevated his infant son to the throne.

In 1822 the relations subsisting between the ruler of Cutch and the British were modified by a new treaty, under which the territorial cessions made by the Rao in 1816 were restored in consideration of an annual payment. The sum fixed was subsequently thought too large, and in 1832 the arrears, amounting to a considerable sum, were remitted, and all future payments on this account relinquished. From that time the Rao has paid a subsidy of L20,000 per annum to the British for the maintenance of the military force stationed within his dominions. Sutte has been prohibited in Cutch; and, under the influence of British counsel, various other measures of a salutary and beneficent character have been adopted.