or more properly Oudh, a compact and important province of Hindustan, lies between N. Lat. 25° and bound. 34° and 29° 6', and E. Long. 79° 45' and 88° 11', and is now about 270 miles in length from N.W. to S.E., and 160 in breadth. The area is computed at 23,738 square miles, by Thornton; but Butter makes it 23,923, and by some it is raised to 25,000. Exact statistics, however, of the province in this or other particulars are not yet procurable. It is bounded on the N. and N.E. by Nepaul, on the N.W. by Rohilkhand (Rohilcund), on all other quarters by provinces which have at various times been wrested from it by the English,—viz., on the E. by Gorakhpur (Goruckpore), on the S.E. by Azimgurh (Azimgurh) and Jaunpur, on the S. by Allahabad, and on the S.W. by Fatehpur (Futtehpore), Kãnpur (Cawnpoor), and Farrukhabãd (Farrukhabad), districts of the Doab.
The general aspect of the country is that of a fertile plain, being, in fact, a continuation of that immense level valley which extends in a curved line from the sources of the Western Banãs River, in E. Long. 73° 28', to the junction of the Ganges and the Brahmapootra, in E. Long. 90°, a distance of 1100 miles. Along the eastern frontier, from a few miles north of Bahraina, begins the great Tarãi Forest—marshy, and in some places almost impassable, but nevertheless studded with the strongholds of the great baronial landholders, as the Raja of Tulsipir. The plain of Oudh slopes gently at the rate of about 7 inches in the mile to the E.S.E. The only irregularities on its surface are caused by the greater or less resistance of its soil to the rivers which traverse the province, and of which the five principal are the Ganges, Sai, Ghãnti, Deoãh, and Rapti. The courses of these streams are almost parallel, and the order in which they are here named is the order of their succession from W. to E. The Ganges then forms the western boundary of Oudh; the Sai, which comes next, unites with a western branch called the Lon, a little above Rāc Bareli, and falls itself into the Ghūmti in about N. Lat. 25.30. The Ghūmti is the river which washes Lucknow (Lakhnau), and passes through the centre of the province of Oudh. Faizābād, the ancient capital of Oudh, is situated on the Deohā, which has two other names, the Sarjū and the Ghāgrā; and to the E. of this, and on the extreme E. of the province, is the Rapti, also called the Airavati. These rivers are the principal cause of the great fertility of Oudh; but it is remarkable that they are decreasing in volume in a way which may well lead to grave apprehensions. Everywhere the wave-worn marks on the banks, much above the highest level to which the waters now attain, attest the decrease which is going on. It is a historical fact, that in 1773 Sir Robert Barker's brigade sailed over the famous stone bridge at Jaunpūr; and within the last fifty years the Ghūmti has fallen 5 or 6 feet. Were the great tracts of jungle, which with provident care have been fostered by the Oudh government, to disappear, it cannot be doubted that the rivers would be still farther diminished by the cutting off of all the small streamlets, which are at present nourished by the moisture collected on the leaves of the forests, and which serve as feeders to the principal streams. The vast quantity, also, of sand and dust which during the hot season is brought by the westerly winds, would, but for the jungles, gradually overlay the country, and turn what are now expanses of verdure into dry deserts. Even now the old inhabitants of the country assert that the deposit brought by the lāk or hot wind is greater, and the heat of the wind itself fiercer, than in former times; and this may well be the case, from the extensive clearance of jungle which has everywhere taken place in the adjacent British districts. European observers record the fact, that it is now requisite to dig wells deeper than in times within the memory of man; and that the annual fall of rain, though extremely irregular, is upon the whole gradually diminishing.
The soil of Oudh is the finest in India; and from the numerous rivers which flow through the country, the water is everywhere near the surface. Sleeman conjectures that the whole province once formed part of the bed of a lake which contained a vast fund of soluble salts (nitrates of ammonia), which, combining with magnesia, lime, soda, potash, alumina, and oxide of iron, form double salts, become soluble in water, and are fit food for plants, to the growth and perfection of which they are all more or less conducive. According to the distribution of these salts, the soil may be divided for agricultural purposes into matiyā, domatiya, bhār, and āsor. Of these, matiyā is a rich clay soil, mixed with a small proportion of sand, or one-tenth of silex; the rest alluvial mould. It differs from the domatiya in containing a greater proportion of those elements which constitute what are called good clay soils. It is more capable of absorbing and retaining moisture, and of fixing ammonia, than the domatiya, of a darker colour, and forms more into clods. The domatiya is of a light-brown colour, soon powders into fine dust, and requires much more outlay in manure and labour. It has a considerable admixture of sand, and in some places about ⅓th of lime. The bhār consists of ⅔ths of sand and the rest clay; and being not retentive of moisture, is far less productive than the two classes of soil above mentioned. Lastly, the āsor lands, having a superabundance of salts, are more or less unfit for cultivation; but in general, if flooded with rain-water for two or three seasons by means of artificial embankments, and then well watered, manured, and ploughed, will bear tolerable crops. From the worst āsor soils common salt or saltpetre, or both, are made by washing the earth, and removing the water by evaporation. The most important feature in the soil of Oudh is the abundance of kankar, nodules formed of the elements of chalk and oolite, which opposes such resistance to the rivers as to keep them in permanent banks, thereby insuring a perfect drainage of the country; and when an exit is once established from a hollow, the channel gradually deepens until the hollow is perfectly drained. In patches of ground where kankar largely predominates, are found the only irregularities of surface noticeable in Oudh. Ridges are thus formed 70 or 80 feet above the surrounding country, the less coherent materials of whose soil has, in the course of ages, been swept away by the agency of wind and water. Hence, too, the channels of the rivers have gradually deepened, so that the surface of the water is never less than 20 feet below the level of the bank, and in many places as much as 80. The Ghūmti is intersected at every 4 or 6 miles by kankar ridges of 2 or 3 yards in width, which, in the dry season, sometimes diminish the depth of water to 2 feet. The right bank of this stream from Pāli to Sultānpur, a direct distance of 40 miles, but nearly double as much if the windings of the river are followed, consists of solid kankar, and resembles in miniature the mountain ranges on the right bank of the Jumna and Ganges. The left bank is low and sandy, and these remarks apply also to the Deohā; but in both cases the stream sets against the high bank, and has therefore no tendency to spread.
The principal rivers have been already named in describing the configuration of the country, and the effect of the marshy tenacious kankar upon their streams has been noticed. The next remarkable point regarding them is the singular multiplicity of their windings, from which feature, indeed, the Ghūmti derives its name. The water of this latter stream becomes unfit for drinking during the rainy season, owing to the immense quantity of yellow clay with which it is loaded. When epidemics prevail at Lucknow, or generally along its banks, a putrid scum forms on the surface of this river, owing to the multitudes of dead bodies which are thrown into it. Yet it abounds in fish; and thus supplies one-fifth of the population with a considerable portion of their diet, especially during the rains. The Ghūmti has a total course of 482 miles, rising in the district of Shahjehanpur, in N. Lat. 28.35., and falling into the Ganges in N. Lat. 25.29. It enters the territory of Oudh about 96 miles from its source, and after a course of 250 miles, crosses the frontier into the British district of Jaunpūr. During the rainy season boats of 4 or 5 tons weight can go up to Lucknow, but all supply-boats return from that city empty. The Ganges and Derhā are usually open at all seasons for the largest class of boats. Their annual rise is about 30 feet, their courses are comparatively straight, and their currents proportionally rapid during the freshes. The Ganges has a low bed, 4 miles in average width, within the limits of which it changes its course annually. The Deohā or Ghāgrā has its latter name from a Sanscrit root which signifies "to gurgle," and is a considerable river, equal, indeed, in volume and rapidity to that part of the Ganges which runs parallel to it. Its total course is 606 miles from its source in Kumaon, in N. Lat. 30.28., to N. Lat. 25.46., where it falls into the Ganges. At 181 miles from the point where it rises it first touches the Oudh territory, which it continues to bound for a distance of 316 miles. The Sai is, in the rains, navigable for boats of a ton or a ton and a half as far as Rāc Bareli, above which point there is no trade carried on. This river winds exceedingly, and the route by the Ganges or Ghūmti is therefore preferable. At Rāc Bareli the Sai is as broad as the Ghūmti, but only half the depth. It abounds in fish,
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1 Sleeman's Journey, vol. i., p. 64. 2 Wilson's Glossary, p. 335; Sleeman's Journey, vol. i., p. 225. 3 Ibid., vol. i., pp. 224, 225. 4 Butler's Topography of the Southern Districts of Oudh, p. 12. of which all classes partake, even the Brahmins, except those that are pundits. The Tons, Teons, Marhis, or Bisohi, is a branch of the Deoláh, which leaves 5 miles above Faizábád; and after uniting with the Little Tarjú, runs into the Ganges 10 miles below Buxár. A cross branch, the Khajuhá Tal, 15 miles below Faizábád, again unites the Tons with the Deolás; and during the dry season is embanked at different points for irrigatory purposes. This has a most prejudicial effect on the climate, however beneficial it may be in another point of view. The Tons is not navigated above 'Azimgarh. The Son rises near Sháhábád, and running midway between the Ganges and the Sai, falls into the latter about 3 miles above Ráe Bareli. During the rains it is a considerable torrent, but at no time navigable.
There are no large permanent lakes in Oudh, but in the rains large jhils or collections of water, shallow but extensive, are formed, and, in the hot weather, dry up or are drained off by the water-courses. The largest of these is situated 8 miles N.W. of Mánikpúr, in the deserted bed of the Ganges, and is 16 miles long and 8 broad. The town of Betágánw, at its N.W. extremity, is the most unhealthy spot in Oudh, owing to this vast marsh, and the neighbourhood is infested with mosquitoes to an intolerable degree. It always contains water, and much rice is planted along it towards the end of March.
The climate of Oudh, more especially of the southern portion, is chiefly characterized by its dryness. Being beyond the equalizing influences of the sea-breeze, it is marked by extremes of heat and cold, the temperature at one time rising to 112°, and at another sinking to 28°. The mean daily range is 30°, and the mean temperature 74°. The annual fall of rain is very irregular, varying from 70 to 30 inches, and extending over a period of from four to two months. The gradual diminution in the quantity of rain is remarked by all the inhabitants of Oudh, and in places where grass formerly grew tall enough for thatch, it now scarce supplies pasturage for animals. Hoar-frost used to happen once in every ten or fifteen years; but within the last half century the recurrence of it has become much more frequent, and is now almost annual. West winds blow about 200 days in the year, and east winds during the remainder. The former winds are dry, and cold, or intensely hot, according to the season of the year, and loaded with fine sand. The easterly winds are damp, and bring with them the malaria of Bengal and Assam. During the hot weather the air is so loaded with particles of dust or sand as to curtail the view, and give a grayish aspect to the sky. But towards the end of the rains the atmosphere becomes highly transparent, and the Himalaya Mountains are seen at a distance of 200 miles. The sky is then of the brightest blue, and the phenomenon of converging rays in the quarter opposite to the rising or setting sun is not unfrequently seen in great perfection. The cold season extends over November, December, January, and February, and few climates then equal that of Oudh. Throughout these four months the nights are cold; and in January the cold is sometimes so great that thin ice is formed on shallow pools of water. By filling shallow vessels with water, and protecting them from the heat of the earth, and the warmer strata of air, ice is easily obtained during this and the following month. Fires are required during part of December, and in January and February, and during this period the fruits and vegetables of Europe are produced in great perfection. The hot weather begins with March, but the mornings are pleasantly cool till the middle of May. The hot winds usually commence in April, but in general abate towards sunset, so as to admit of riding or driving without discomfort. Sometimes sudden storms occur at this season from the north-west, which are attended with phenomena terrifically grand. An immense gloomy arch of clouds is formed, which assumes the appearance of a gigantic wave about to break over the earth. The sun gives to the summit of this wave a reddish-brown colour, and a rolling motion is observed in it like the smoke of artillery. When the storm is about a mile distant, a dead stillness prevails. As it approaches, eddies of wind toss leaves and branches on high, and the temperature falls twenty or thirty degrees. A continued roll of thunder has been heard from the commencement of the storm. This is now suddenly mixed with the rushing sound of the tempest, and so thick is the dust that all nature is shrouded in patchy darkness. The fury of the wind is so great that trees are torn up, buildings demolished, and in spring-harvest the produce of whole fields is swept away. Occasionally hail falls in globules an inch in diameter, destroying tiled roofs, and stripping the trees of their leaves and branches. Sometimes neither rain nor hail falls, but in all cases the air is cooled and purified. The lightning is terrific, and but too often fatal to life. At the height of the hot season, and during the hot winds, which are called by the natives lók, travellers fall dead from the heat.
The rainy season commences generally about the 15th of June, and lasts till the middle of October. The first fall is very violent, often from 8 to 10 inches in forty-eight hours, and is accompanied by strong winds which bring down the frail tenements of the natives in every direction. As the rains become sparse and uncertain in September, there is considerable insularity owing to the rapid evaporation of the water-courses and marshes. October is hot and unhealthy, and the sun is not to be encountered with impunity till the beginning of November, when, as has been said, the temperature cools, and the climate becomes one of the most delightful known to man.
In the great forests of the Tarái, elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses are very numerous, and very destructive to human life. The tiger is also found in different jungles throughout Oudh; and the kings of Oudh have in general taken great interest in hunting that animal. Wolves are beyond measure numerous and daring, and destroy scores of children every year. A full-grown wolf stands ten hands in height, and will singly attack and kill a strong man. The natives have a superstition against spilling the blood of these animals, and say that the family of the wolf-slayer is certain to become childless; "a village community within the boundary of whose lands a drop of wolf's blood has fallen believes itself doomed to destruction." The lowest class of natives, who correspond to the gypsies of the West, seldom catch wolves, though they know their dens, and could easily dig them out, as they do other animals. It is supposed that they abstain from destroying wolves on account of the profit they make from the gold and silver bracelets, and other ornaments, worn by children who are devoured by these animals. The ornaments are frequently found at the entrance of the dens, and the people referred to are in the habit of searching for them. Sir W. Sleeman records some surprising but well-authenticated stories of infants carried off and nurtured by the wolves. In particular, he mentions the case of a boy who was captured in the den of a wolf near Chandír, and whose habits were entirely those of a wild beast. He lived three years after his capture, and was in the charge of Captain Niçoletts, the European officer commanding the 1st regiment of Oudh local infantry at Latampúr. He died in August 1850; was never known to laugh or smile; and only spoke once, when he asked for water a few minutes before his death.
Other wild animals are—the hyena, jackal, wild hog,
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1 Vol. I., pp. 208, 211, 214, 215; ii., p. 60. The wild buffalo is found in the high 'jhan jungle which clothes the banks of the Ganges in Bainswár, and in a few of the large forests in the interior. The birds are—the adjutant, crane, partridge, quail, vulture, hawk, kite, crow, raven, jay, parrot (excessively numerous and destructive to crops), paddy-bird, magpie, swallow, sparrow, dove, cuckoo, lark, kingfisher (many splendid species), wild goose, wild duck, woodpecker, and a species of Canyris, similar to the humming-bird of America. There is a great variety of fish. Porpoises are seen in the Ghumti only during the rains. Two species of crocodiles are found in the Ganges and Deoáh at all seasons, but venture into the smaller rivers only in the rains. Snakes and lizards abound; the most venomous are the cobra and karaíit. Scorpions, centipedes, locusts, the sandfly, eye-fly, and white ants, are among the most troublesome of the crustaceous and insect classes. The cochineal insect is sometimes seen on the prickly pear bush.
Domestic animals are numerous. Large flocks of sheep and goats are bred for the supply of the surrounding provinces. The price of a sheep is from 9d. to 1s. A milch goat sells for 2s., and one out of milk at from 10d. to 1s. Bullocks are exported at from L.l to L.2 the pair, which is the common price in Oudh. A she-buffalo or two, or a cow or two, are kept by almost every person of substance, whether villager or townsman.
The chief crops are—the Sinapis dichotoma, Cicer arietinum, wheat, barley, beans, linseed, safflower, Paspalum frumentaceum, Cynodon coracorum, millet, cotton, maize, Holcus sorgum, Holcus spicatus, Phaseolus maximus, Cyttus cajan, sesamum, and rice; which are reaped in the order in which they are now mentioned, beginning with the end of February. Sugar-cane is grown in small patches here and there, particularly between the Sai and Ganges, but there is but little sugar made. The same is the case with indigo; and though many districts, particularly about Faizábád, are most favourable to the poppy, the production of opium is comparatively small. Dr Butter, however, expresses an opinion, that the time is not far distant when the growth of opium will constitute one of the principal sources of the revenues of Oudh. The cotton produced in Oudh is nearly the same in quality as that of Bandalkhand, but is not so long in the staple, nor so soft. The rice of Oudh is described in the Institutes of Akbar as incomparable for whiteness, delicacy, perfume, and digestiveness.
Oudh has long been renowned for its groves of fruit trees, in the vicinity of which is excellent pasturage. The principal trees are—the mango, tamarind, banyan, pipál or Ficus religiosa, and the mahái or Bassia latifolia, the flowers of which are sweet, and yield by distillation a spirituous liquor. The nuts also of this tree are valuable, as producing an oil which is used instead of butter. In the district of Bainswár, and near Faizábád, forming a marked exception to the rest of Oudh with respect to the decay of arboriculture, extensive plantations have been lately made, chiefly of the mahái, but in less proportion of the mango, the Ficus glomerata, the Eugenia jambolana, the Melia Azadirachta, the jack-tree, the Artocarpus lacucha, and Phyllanthus emblica. The mahái, the Eugenia jambolana, mango, and Melia Azadirachta are the only trees fit for building. The Cedrela Toona, which furnishes a yellow dye, the Ficus venosa, and the bamboo, are also common in many parts of Oudh. The bamboo, however, will not grow in high kankar soils.
The territory of Oudh, which in 1775 was among the largest and wealthiest provinces in India, extending from Mirzapur, in 25° N. Lat., on the S., to Haridwár, in 30° N. Lat., on the N., and from Kánhpúr (Cawnpore) on the W. to Nepal on the E., now comprises but twelve chaklás or counties, and is shrunk to one-third of its former size. The chaklás are, beginning from the S.W. and S., and proceeding to the N.E. and N.—1. Ahládganj; 2. Pratágarh; 3. Sultánpúr; 4. Aldemau; 5. Salon; 6. Bainswár; 7. Pachíramát; 8. Lakhmau; 9. Rasúlábád; 10. Khánrábd; 11. Gondá-Bahráich; 12. Sándi. The chaklás are again subdivided into parganas or districts, sometimes compared to our baronies.
The principal cities in the twelve chaklás are the following—Chief town—Mánikpúr, in Ahládganj, is a decayed city, once the capital of a principality, which extended over a large portion of Southern Oudh. It is situated on the left bank of the Ganges, along which it extends for upwards of a mile. The population is now about 10,000, of whom one-half are Muslims. The fort on the bank of the river, now in ruins, but once strong, extensive, and built of brick hardened by fire, resembles that of Allahábád. Pratágarh, or Belhágát, 2 miles W. of the Sai River, is the chief city in the chaklás of Pratágarh. The population is about the same as that of Mánikpúr. It is surrounded with a decayed wall of sun-dried bricks, and on its western side is a ruinous citadel of the same material. Until 1834 there was a cantonment for a Company's regiment, with two guns, 3 miles to the N.E. of the town, in an extremely healthy spot. Sultánpúr, the capital of the chaklás so called, in N. Lat. 26° 16', E. Long. 82° 8', is a ruined city, about a mile from the eastern bank of the Ghumti River, 92 miles S.E. of Lakhmau. The inhabitants do not number 2000, and are nearly all Muslims. The town is built on the site of the capital of an aboriginal people called Bhars, now extinct, but whose possessions once extended to Allahábád, Banára, Faizábád, and almost to Lakhmau. Their capital, called Kasbhwánpur, was 8 miles in circumference; and having been taken through a stratagem by Sultan Básháh Kaikubád, of the dynasty of Ghaur, between the years 1286 and 1289 A.D., he razed it to the ground, and built a new city, which he named after himself. Some remains of the Bhar city are said to exist in the mound-called Majhárgáwn, in the middle of the city, and two wells at its southern verge. On the summit of the mound, which is formed of the debris of the palace of the Bhars, is a fort built by Kaikubád. Tándá is the most thriving town in the chaklás of Aldemau, being the seat of the chief cloth manufactories in Oudh. The population is about 6000, of whom the greater portion are weavers. The town stands about a mile from the western bank of the Ghágrá River. Ranjitpúrúá is the capital of Bainswár, and has a population of nearly 60,000, of whom one-third are Muslims. There is a fort of unburnt bricks, and two or three of the King of Oudh's regiments were always quartered in this city. Cutlery is the chief manufacture. Ráé Bareli, in Bainswár, one of the most healthy spots in Oudh, was once a city of upwards of 50,000 inhabitants, but this population has now dwindled to 8000. Extensive manufactories of cloth once existed here. The fort is of solid masonry, a mile in circumference, with a dry ditch 50 feet wide and 25 feet deep. The walls are 8 feet thick, 50 feet high on the outside, and 25 feet inside, and have 24 bastions. The description just given applies also to the fort of Dalamau, which is an ancient city of Bainswár, having a population of 10,000, on the eastern bank of the Ganges, about 40 miles to the N.W. of Mánikpúr. Salon, which gives its name to the chaklás so called, is a town with 2000 inhabitants, 3 miles to the W. of the Sai River. It originally belonged to Kánhpúriya (or, according to Sleeman, Kumpareya) rājputs; but they were dislodged for rebellion, by the náwáb Asíf-ud-daulah, who granted the town and its attached lands to a fakir named Miyan Pir' Atá, for the perpetual support of a religious eleemosynary establishment.
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1 Sleeman's account differs, see below, under "Inhabitants."
2 Sleeman's Journal, vol. i., p. 247. The revenue is about 42,000 rupees a year, of which 30,000 are expended by Shāh-paṇḍā 'Atīs, the descendant of Pir 'Atīs, in alms to Hindū and Muslim itinerant mendicants. Tilōi, in the same chākla, is a town 55 miles S.E. of Lakhnau, with a population of 10,000. It is remarkable as the residence of a chief who is the lineal representative of the ancient kings of Oudh, a family which dates perhaps thirty centuries back. In the chākla of Lakhnau (Lucknow), besides the capital of Oudh, which, before the late troubles, contained a population of perhaps half a million (stated by Heber at 800,000), there are no towns of great note. In Pachhamrāt is the city of Faizābād; and adjoining it, on the east side, the remains of the renowned and world-old city of Awadh, or Ayodhya (from a, "not," and yuddha, "to make war"—"the inexpugnable" in Sanskrit), the capital of the divine Rāma. There are still 8000 inhabitants in this most ancient city; and houses extending along the River Ghāgrā or Sarjū, connect it with Faizābād. Sa'dād 'Ali, the first nūwāb of Oudh, made Faizābād his residence, and built a palace there in the year A.D. 1730. His successors, Sa'dād Jang and Shujā'ud-Daulah, further embellished the city; but when the latter acquired Rohilkhand, he removed the seat of his government to Lakhnau. This was in 1775, and the population of Faizābād from that time began to decrease, but is still 100,000, of whom about one-tenth are Muslims. The chief manufactures are cloth, metal vessels, and arms. The Hindūs call the city Bangla, which signifies "residence," and Ayodhya, which latter appellation properly belongs to the ruined city adjoining Faizābād on the E., as above mentioned. Rasulabad and Miyānganj, the two chief towns of the chākla called after them, are situated 3 miles from each other, and about 30 miles to the W. of Lakhnau. Miyānganj was built by the famous eunuch Miyān Almis 'Ali Khan, minister of Sa'dād 'Ali II., and, according to Sleeman, "the greatest and best man of any note that Oudh has produced." On being visited by Sa'dād Ali at this place, he built up a throne of a million of rupees, and after the nūwāb had taken his seat upon it presented it to his highness. Almis built here a large fort with eight circular bastions, surrounded at 500 feet distance by a mud fortification with great Gothic gateways. The whole intervening space was planted with mango trees, of which there were magnificent avenues in Heber's time.
The chākla of Khairābād contains several large and populous towns. Of these, Khairābād, from which the chākla has its name, is distant from Lakhnau 62 miles N.W., and lies in N. Lat. 27° 32', E. Long. 80° 49'. Tiefenthaler speaks of it eighty years ago as populous, and situated in a plain abounding in fruit trees, the cultivation of which yielded L.120,000 annually. Six miles to the N.W. of this stands Sitāpūr, where the 41st Bengal Native Infantry mutinied and murdered all Christian and other Europeans. Sandilā is a large and populous town, 30 miles N.W. of Lakhnau, with many good houses of burnt brick and cement. Thirteen miles N.W. of this is Hatyā Haran, which is held sacred as the spot where Rāma purified himself from the sin of having killed a Brāhmaṇ in the person of Rāvaṇ, King of Ceylon. Misrik, a few miles from Hatyā Haran, is another very holy place, and celebrated as the residence of the sage Dadhič, with the bone of whose leg the gods defeated the Titans. Bilgirām is a place once considerable, and remarkable as the spot first fixed upon as the British advanced post, which was subsequently withdrawn to Kāmpūr (Cawnpore). Heber saw here the ruins of officers' houses, and what were once bells of arms.
Bahraich, the chief town in Gonda-Bahraich, situated about 2 miles to the E. of Sa'thī, an eastern branch of the Sarjū River, is celebrated as containing the shrine of Saiyid Sālār, who was killed in the beginning of the eleventh century, when fighting against the Hindūs in the army of his maternal uncle, Mahmūd of Ghazni. It is remarkable that Hindūs as well as Muslims make offerings at his shrine. The river here is a beautiful clear stream, winding as through a park. In many of the villages around the people are afflicted with the goitre. The Tarāi Forest begins a few miles to the N. Bahraich has been a very populous town, but has greatly declined, and no part of Oudh has suffered so much from lawless violence as the districts surrounding it. Sandilā, which gives its name to the chākla so called, is stated by Heber to be a poor little village. It is, however, remarkable for the noble mango groves that surround it, and for a fine lake on the south side, abounding in fish and covered with wild-fowl. The River Ghāgrā flows under the town to the north. Near it is a very holy place called Brahmapurast, situated on the lake to the south. The principal town in the chākla is Shāhabād, which is a very large and ancient city, though Tennant in 1799 spoke of it as an expanse of ruins. But both Heber and Sleeman speak of it as populous; and the latter says it is inhabited by Pathāns, who are a very turbulent race. The approach to the town is beautiful, from the rich crops which cover the ground up to the houses, and the fine groves and majestic single trees which surround it.
Though the extreme antiquity of the city of Awadh or Oudh, is habited in Sanskrit, Ayodhya, and the legend of the Rajput princes, sires such as Rāma, who reigned there, appear to be incontrovertible evidence that the Aryān race bore away in Oudh from a very remote period, there is proof that from the earliest times the aboriginal tribes preceded the Aryān race in the possession of the country, and attained many centuries back, to some degree of civilization. The following passage from Sleeman's Journal refers to one of the most important of these aboriginal tribes, called Bhrs, and into it is compressed almost all that is known regarding them:
Passed over some more sites of Bhar towns. The Oudh territory abounds with these sites, but nothing seems to be known of the history of the people to whom they belonged. They seem to have been systematically exterminated by the Mohammadan conquerors in the early part of the fourteenth century. All their towns seem to have been built of burnt brick, while none of the towers of the present day are so. There are numerous walls still in use, which were formed by them of the finest burnt brick and cement; and the people tell me that others of the same kind are frequently discovered in ploughing over fields. I have heard of no arms, coins, or utensils peculiar to them having been discovered, though copper smelting, or deeds of grant from the rajahs of Kanooj, to other people in Oudh, 600 years ago, have been found. The Bhrs must have formed town and village communities in this country at a very remote period, and have been a civilized people, though they have not left a name, date, or legend, inscribed upon any monument. Brick ruins of forts, houses, and wells, are the only relics to be found of these people. Some few of these castles are still found in the humble garths of society's cultivators, police-officers, &c., in Oudh, in other districts north of the Ganges. Up to the end of the thirteenth century their sovereignty certainly extended over what are now called the Baimarwār and Bandā districts; and Sultanpur, under some other name, appears to have been their capital. It was taken and destroyed early in the fourteenth century by Allākhūd-Dīn, Sultan of Delhi, or by one of his generals, and named Sultanpur. Chandūr was another great town of these Bhrs. I am not aware of any temple having been found to indicate their creed.
Another aboriginal tribe are the Pāsās (Pausies) of whom there are said to be about 100,000 families in Oudh. They are employed as village watchmen, but, with few exceptions, are thieves and robbers by hereditary profession, and many of them adopt poisoning as a trade. They form the worst part of the gangs of refractory chiefs, using the bow and arrow so expertly that they can send an arrow through a man at the distance of 100 yards. There is no species of theft or robbery in which they are not skillful, and they prosper as the disorders of the country increase. In the forces of any enterprising chief or bandit they serve without
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1 Vol. I., p. 228, ed. 1843. 2 Vol. I., p. 320. 3 Sleeman's Journal, vol. II., p. 2. 4 Heber's Journal, vol. I., p. 230, ed. 1843. 5 Vol. I., p. 232. 6 Sleeman's Journal, vol. II., p. 31. wages, for the sake of the booty to be acquired. But low as the caste of these miscreants is, they assume the name of rājputs, when by murder and robbery they have acquired wealth and landed property. Then, by giving their daughters in rājputs, they often assert their pretensions to that proud name admitted. Thus Sleeman mentions that Ghulām Bakhsh of Kānaujī is a Pāśa, and his family, after some years' lance-panning by the murder of the old proprietors, called themselves rājputs, and had their claims allowed.
Brahmans and rājputs are exceedingly numerous in Oudh; and, according to Butler, the former out-number the latter throughout the province, though their arrival in it was of later date. Thus, it is said, that about the Christian era Trilok Chand, a chief of the Baisa rājputs, came into Oudh from Ujjain, and that it was after his tribe had become settled that some Brahmins immigrated from Kanauj. The Oudh Brahmins have 22 subdivisions, of which the Miar, the Shukl, the Tiwari, the Dikshā, the Thakhat, the Upādhyāya, and the Chāube are the principal ones. The Miar has 28 subdivisions, the Shukl 13, the Tiwari 23, the Dikshā 14, the Thakhat 15, the Upādhyāya 5, and the Chāube 3. Sleeman informs us that the Kanauj Brahmins succeeded to hold and drive their own ploughs, a thing which cannot be affirmed of any other family of Brahmins in Oudh.
Of rājputs, 29 tribes are enumerated, of which the most renowned are the Baisa, Rāthūr, Hārā, Kachwā, Sombari, Bisen, Solankhi, Bachgōtī, Dīchit, Rājkumār, Chāchan, Janwar, and Sengar, or Sanger. Butler affirms that these tribes differ in name only, and all intermarry without restriction of family. There is no doubt, however, that this is a mistake, and that it is owing to excessive restrictions upon contracting marriages with inferior tribes that the dreadful and almost universal practice of female infanticide is prevalent among them. He was informed by the rājputs themselves that this unnatural custom arose from the Muhammadan princes of Delhi, and other Muslim chiefs, demanding the daughters of rājputs in marriage, and they, being too proud to comply and too weak to resist, determined upon putting all their female infants to death. The same authority states that the Dhānkāris and Sengars are the only exceptions to the rule which stigmatizes all rājputs as murderers of their daughters; and that no rājput can give his daughter to a rājput whose tribe is a shade lower, though he can take a daughter from him. Thus the Sombari cannot bestow their daughters to any but Rāthūrs and Chāchanas, and must give their whole property with them. The custom of disposing of female infants has prevailed everywhere from the time of the first founders of their race, according to their own account, but this is extended to females only. It is remarkable that the greater portion of the Akbar rājputs have become Muslims. They still eat together with those who have not changed their creed, but from different dishes; and no member of the tribe ever forfeited his inheritance by changing his religion. They are very numerous in the northern part of Oudh, where, in Bharwār alone they once possessed 989 villages, of which about one-tenth are now occupied. Loni Singh of Mithauli, who sent in the English fugitives from Sitāpūr to Lakhman, is of this tribe.
Of the cultivating classes, the principal are the Kurmis, Lodhis, and Kachis. Muhammadan, probably do not exceed one-eighth of the whole population of Oudh.
As has been already stated, Oudh was one of the first provinces of India colonized from the West, and, according to Buchanan, this settlement took place 1366 years B.C. The same authority places the reign of Rāmaścandra, the son of Dasharath, about 775 B.C. The Hindū legends, however, assign as the epoch of this prince, the conqueror of Ceylon, the conclusion of the Treta Yuga, or Second Age. The kingdom of Oudh was then called Koishala, and its capital Ayodhyā; and it is remarkable that Koishala, a word of kindred etymology to Koishala, was the name of the great and ancient city of Kanyakubja, or Kanauj situated close to the junction of the Kali Nadi with the Ganges, and the ruins of which, there is no doubt at times bore sway over Oudh. This is the opinion of Mr Elphinstone, and it is confirmed partly by the etymological coincidence of the names, partly by the actual immigration of a numerous tribe of Brahmins from Kanauj, who are still called by the name of their original country. After Rāma, the legendary conqueror of Ceylon, sixty princes reigned in Ayodhyā, but nothing is recorded of them. The Rāmāyana, or epic poem which relates the exploits of Rāma, is now assigned by Professor Wilson to 300 B.C. Ayodhyā is not mentioned in the Mahābhārata, the next epic poem of the Hindūs, which dates 240 B.C. With the exception of the immigration of Trilok Chand, the Rājput princes, from Malwa into Oudh, about the commencement of the Christian era, there is little to be collected regarding Oudh until the Muhammadan invasion. It must be remembered, however, that hundreds of works exist in Hindū, Persian, and Urdu, on the history and antiquities of India, which have not only not been translated by Europeans, but have never even been read by them; and in these much that will throw light on the ancient annals of Oudh may yet be discovered.
In his eighth invasion of India, Mahmūd of Ghazni, in 1018 A.D., marched through North India, and captured the city of Kanauj. There is good reason to think that a division of his army then invaded Oudh, for the shrine of Saiyid Shāh, his reputed nephew, is said to have been killed in battle against the Hindūs. It is still the object of pilgrimages to Bahrāk. However this may be, it is certain that in 1196 A.D., Muhammad Bakhshīya Khālid, the general of Kubūr-d-Dīn Albak, Emperor of Delhi, conquered Oudh. In 1279, Tīgīl, who was governor of Oudh for Ghīyās-d-Dīn Bulbūn, was defeated by the rebellious governor of Bengal, and hanged by the enraged emperor over the gates of Awadh, as Ayodhyā began to be called. About 1304 A.D., Allāhbūr-d-Dīn, Emperor of Delhi, took the capital of the Bhārs in Southern Oudh, and having razed it, built on its site the present city of Sultanpur. From 1400 to 1478, there was an independent kingdom of Jaunpur or Jaunpur, the ruler of which had possession of Kanauj, and in 1462 even laid siege to Delhi, but was finally overcome by the Emperor Bihār. In 1528, Bihār's army, which had been sent to reduce Oudh, was there defeated by an Akbari chief named Bābdān, whereupon Bihār threw up the bridge across the Ganges, under the fire of his artillery, crossed into Oudh, and drove his opponents out of the province. He was compelled, however, to make a second campaign against Bābdān who, when Bābdān was retiring to Agra, made a fresh incursion into Oudh, and captured Lakhman (Lucknow). After the death of Bābdān, Akbar raised a fresh insurrection in Oudh against Humayūn, but was finally crushed by that prince. At the accession of Akbar in 1556, Jaunpur, with its adjoining districts of Oudh and the Doab, had again been erected into an independent kingdom, but in 1559 Akbar re-conquered it. From this time till the reign of Muhammad Shah, and the commencement of the government of Sa'idat 'Ali Khan, and the dynasty of which he was the founder, the princes of this dynasty, and the dates of their accession, are as follows:
1. Sa'idat 'Ali Khan, 1720 2. Safdar Jung, nephew and son-in-law of Sa'idat 'Ali, 1739 3. Shujā'uddaulah, son of Safdar Jung, 1756 4. Shujā'uddaulah, son of Shujā'uddaulah, 1775 5. Nasiruddin Haider, son of Sa'idat 'Ali, 1814 6. Nasiruddin Haider, son of Shujā'uddaulah, 1827 7. Muhammad 'Ali Shah, brother of Shujā'uddaulah, 1837 8. Amjad 'Ali Shah, son of Muhammad 'Ali, 1842 9. Wajid 'Ali Shah, son of Amjad 'Ali, 1847
The origin of the Qaidī family, and the character of the first three princes, have been grossly misrepresented by the historian Alexander Dow, who, having been refused the saltpetre farm of the Allāhbād districts by Shujā'uddaulah, took this base method of gratifying his resentment. His slanders, however, are completely refuted by the unanimous voice of all the contemporary native authors, by the evidence of Mr George Forster of the Bengal civil service, a contemporary of Dow, and by the plain admission of facts to be found in Mill, Grant Duff, and other English writers. Dow imputes to Sa'idat 'Ali, the first of this account of that chief's actions, the vilest treasons to his emperor and his country; asserts that Nadir Shah was invited to invade India by him and his Nizam; and introduces the conqueror upbraiding these two nobles as "ungrateful villains to their king and country," and spitting upon their beards. He also speaks of Shujā'uddaulah as "the infamous son of a still more infamous Persian pedlar enjoying the extensive provinces of Oudh as a reward for a series of uncommon villainies."
These assertions have been largely credited and copied by writers of repute, but they are entirely without foundation. According to native authors of eminence, the royal family of Oudh are Salividīs, or descendants of the Prophet through Imam Musa Kazim, and therefore of the noblest Arabian descent. Forster mentions that, during his journey through Persia, he had an opportunity of conversing with some of the inhabitants of Naishāhpur, "who bore indelible testimony to the ancient rank of the family of Shujā'uddaulah." Naishāhpur is one of the oldest cities in Khurasān, and was for a long period during the ninth and tenth centuries after Christ the capital of that province. Here the ancestors of the Oudh family have, for a very long space of time, held landed possessions and ranked among the princes of the place. Mirza Nasir, one of this family, and the father of Sa'dat Khan, the first nizam of Oudh, came to Hindustan in the beginning of the reign of Bahadur Shah, the second son of Aurangzeb. The emperor appointed him to a high office at 'Azimabad, where his tomb yet remains. His second son Muhammad Amir was in Peshawar when Nasir died, and on being apprised of his father's decease, immediately set out for Hindustan, and was made by the Emperor Farrukh Siyar colonel of his body-guard. Being a man of extraordinary personal courage and prowess, he soon rose to still higher distinctions, and was made governor of the fort of Agra. It was he who was the main instrument in delivering the Emperor Muhammad Shah from the tyranny of the two Sayids, who had already murdered his predecessor Farrukh Siyar. During a terrible émeute at Delhi, when the pusillanimous emperor hid himself in the seraglio, he rushed in, forced him from his retreat, made him mount an elephant, and cut a way for him, sword-in-hand, through a multitude of rebels. At the battle of Chupar, in 1720, when Sayid Abdul Malik was defeated and put to flight, he greatly distinguished himself, and received the title of Sa'dat Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk, "the glorious lord, establisher of the realm," by which name he was ever afterwards known. He was then appointed governor of Oudh, and reduced it from a state of anarchy to complete order, for which he was promoted to the rank of darogah khas, with the titular command of 7000 horse. In 1736, Raj Rao, advancing to the Jamna, 40 miles south of Agra, ravaged the country far and near. Three of his generals—Muhammad Ria Holkar, Pillai Jadar, and Wittoji Bole—committed great depredations in the Doab, when Sa'dat Khan, advancing from Oudh, overthrew their forces with great slaughter, and chased them for miles. He then moved on to Agra, and took a prominent part in the subsequent operations against the Marathas. In the meantime, Muhammad Mukim, nephew of Sa'dat, came to India, and married his cousin, the daughter of Sa'dat. He soon distinguished himself, and was ennobled by the title of Abul Mansur Saffdar Jang, by which name he is afterwards known in history. In 1737, he, with the raja of Kotah, commanded the rearguard of the Moghul army in that year's campaign against the Marathas. Some years after, Nadir Shah invaded India; and the calamities of the Daraspecting the treachery of Sa'dat Khan, and his aid of the invader, are refuted by the unanimous testimony of the historians of Motaakhabkhana, the Nadi, the Nizam-ul-Daula, the Zafar Naumah, and all the histories of the time. Sa'dat Khan advanced with an army of 30,000 men to the assistance of his own emperor Muhammad Shah, fought a severe action with Nadir Shah, was made prisoner, and shortly after died of cancer in the back. That his action with Nadir "was no concerted plan," as Dow pretends, was proved by the fact, that seven principal Persian leaders, and 2500 inferior officers and men, were killed, and upwards of 5000 wounded. Sa'dat received no token of favour from his conqueror; and when Nadir retired, Muhammad Shah appointed Saffdar Jang to the government of his deceased uncle. The character of Sa'dat is thus given in the Siyar-i-Mutaakhabkhana:—"He was excessively brave, chivalrous, and valiant; a man of great parts, thirsting after glory and renown, and of singular firmness and wisdom."
Saffdar Jang, together with the government of Oudh, had the appointment of mir diwán, or commander of the artillery. In 1748 he was one of the chief leaders of the imperial army of Delhi that defeated Ahmad Shah Durrani, and caused him to retire to Kabul. Next year Muhammad Shah was succeeded on the throne of Delhi by Ahmad Shah, his eldest son, who raised Saffdar Jang to the dignity of viceroy of the empire. In 1753 a powerful confederacy was formed against him, at the head of which was the viceroy of the Dakhin, Najib-ul-Daula, the chief of the Rohillas, and the favourite eunuch. Saffdar Jang was compelled to resort to arms; laid siege to Delhi; and after an investment of the capital for six months, compelled the emperor to grant to him in perpetuity the provinces of Oudh and Allahabad. The same year he died, and was succeeded by his son Tillikhu-d-Din Haider, known to the English by his title of Shuja-u'd-Daulah, who is thus described by his enemy Dow:—"Shuja-u'd-Daulah is extremely handsome in his person; about 5 feet 11 inches in height; and so nervous and strong, that with one stroke of the sabre he can cut off the head of a buff-
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1 Siyar-i-Mutaakhabkhana. 2 Grant Duff's Moréthás, vol. i., p. 532. 3 Forster, vol. i., p. 136. 4 According to Forster and Grant Duff, in 1754. Mill gives 1753 as the year of his decease, Thornton 1756; but the authentic annals of the Oudh family, written in Persian, give 1166 A.H. = 1752-53. 5 Molesworth spells this name Shindá; the above is the Hindustání form of it, though Shakespeare makes it Sendhiyá. 6 Dow, vol. ii., p. 394. 7 Grant Duff, vol. ii., p. 135. 8 Mill, vol. iii., p. 405. the Court of Directors utterly disapproved and disallowed these terms, on the ground that extension of territory was impracticable and disadvantageous. Colonel Munro's army advanced from Bandera to the attack of Chunar, and after two unsuccessful assaults, returned to its quarters, but two battalions of natives occupied Lakhman. Munro resigned in January 1765 and was succeeded by Major Fletcher, who, dividing his force, with one part of it reduced the Allahabad district; and with the other, commanded by Major Stubbs, invested the fort of Chunar.
Shuja's now called in the Shuja, who entered Oudh by Karha, and on the 3d of May 1765 they defeated near that place by General Carne, and a second time near Akbarpur, where, however, they plundered a great part of the English baggage. At the ford of Kalpi (Calpe) they again attempted to make a stand, but after a short action, were finally broken and dispersed. Shuja's, with an appreciation of the English character which did him credit, now determined to throw himself on their generosity; and in August 1765 they concluded a peace with him, the principal conditions of which were, that he should pay £50,000 towards the expenses of the war, surrender the fort of Chunar, not receive Kashi Ali or any deserters into his service, cede Karha and Allahabad to Shah 'Alam, levy no duties on any of the Company's merchandise throughout his dominions, pardon those of his subjects who had aided the English in the late war, and not molest Balwant Singh, their ally. He also covenanted to aid the English with his troops if their territories were invaded; and they, in return for all these advantages, agreed to furnish him assistance when like necessity. It has been said that, from the battle of Baksar (Buxar), Oudh was a conquered country; and that the English having then given it to Shuja's Danah, might be justified in resuming their gift if badly administered. But Oudh was never entirely subjugated, or even overrun; and the utmost that was ever promised by the Bengal government was to make it over, when conquered, to Shah 'Alam; a design that was bitterly censured by the Court of Directors. The words of Lord Clive are conclusive as to the motives of the treaty. He says: "Our restoring to Shuja's Danah the whole of his dominions proceeds more from the desire of not extending the Company's territorial possessions, than the generous policy of attaching him for ever to our interests by gratitude, though this may be the apparent, and is by many thought to be the real, motive. Had we ambitiously attempted to retake the conquered country, experience would soon have proved the impracticability of such a plan." Shuja's, brought by his misfortunes, set to work to remedy his reverses with an energy and success which were proofs of a superior mind. In return for the districts ceded to him, the emperor granted to Shuja's the hereditary possession of his dominions; and so well did the nawab arrange his financial system, that in 1768 he had not only paid off all his debts, but possessed a full treasury and a flourishing revenue. He disbanded his irregulars and reduced the cavalry—which at the battle of Baksar amounted to 30,000, and had deserted him there without striking a blow—to 5000. With the help of some Frenchmen, he reorganized and arm raised ten disciplined battalions, and founded an arsenal at Faizabad. This progress aroused the jealousy of the English, who, in November 1768, imposed a new treaty on him which limited the number of his troops to 35,000 men, including irregulars. This restraint was exceedingly galling to the nawab; and he henceforth viewed the English with distrust. However, in 1772 the Doab and Rohilkhand were overrun by a powerful Maratha army under Sindhyya, Holkar, and Hari Pant, who possessed themselves of all the territory belonging to Ahmad Khan Bangash, except the town and environs of Farrukhabad. Alarmed at this formidable invasion, the Rohillas besought Shuja's Danah to procure the aid of an English brigade, and engaged to pay £400,000 for its support. Shuja's obtained the troops required, and the Marathas were compelled to retire from their conquests; but the Rohillas then could not, or would not, make good their promise. And here occurs one of the blackest pages in the history of the nawab of Oudh. Shuja's was under obligations to the Rohillas, though there had been many passages of arms between them. They had sheltered his family in his misfortunes after the battle of Baksar, and had forborne to strike when he was unable to resist. It was therefore infamous to design their ruin,—a design which he now framed and accomplished with the aid of the English, who sold the liberties of this brave people to him for £400,000. At the same time Hastings made over to Shuja's, for £500,000, the districts of Allahabad and Karha, which belonged to the emperor, and had been solemnly assigned to him by the British ministers in return for an important service. The treaty was concluded in the end of 1773; and on the 17th of April 1774, Colonel Champion, with an English brigade accompanying the Oudh army, entered Rohilkhand. On the morning of the 23rd a decisive battle was fought, in which the Rohillas were utterly broken, and their general, Hafiz Rahmat was slain.
After this dishonourable success, Shuja's gave still stronger proofs of his callousness to generous sentiments in the cruel severity with which he treated the conquered Rohillas. It must be remembered, however, that, as a Sufi demagogue with Sufi ideas, he had a religious incentive to rigour, similar to that which steeled the heart of the English conqueror against his Protestant subjects, and made Philip II. despoil the Netherlands with blood. This fact has been wholly lost sight of by the English historians. It must be added that Shah 'Alam had given his sanction to the conquest; that the English supported Shuja's in all his proceedings; and that, as a mere question of policy, it was certainly for his interest to crush, and if possible extirpate, such warlike and dangerous neighbours as the Afghans, who have given their name to Rohilkhand. He was yet busy with the arrangement of the conquered province, when a disease with which he was afflicted broke out so violently that he was compelled to retire to Faizabad, where he died in January 1775, aged forty-six. He had received from his father a considerable principality, surrounded by invulnerable and powerful enemies; he left to his son an extensive and flourishing kingdom, secure from all aggressors. Whatever his private character, he must be regarded as one of the ablest and most successful princes that have ruled in Hindustan. He was succeeded by Mirza Ar-pani, his eldest legitimate son, who assumed the title of Asaf'ud-Daulah, and who removed the royal residence to Lakhman, then a mere village. The Bengal Council, in opposition to the opinion of Mr. Hastings, shamelessly seized this opportunity to extort immense sums from the young nawab; and, to use the words of Mr. Mill, "while they exacted all, and far more than had been covetously by Shuja's, from his son, declared their own engagements to be void by Shuja's death." They compelled Asaf'ud-Daulah to pay of the brigade which they had lent to his father, and which was no longer required in Oudh, to Lakhman, and to pay the fixed territory bringing annually £230,000. The first object of the new nawab was to obtain from the emperor the office of viceroy, which had been held by his father. This was secured in 1776, by sending at an opportune time 5000 men and some guns to the emperor's assistance. But this was the only gleam of sunshine during his reign, the history of which is that of a continual struggle with the exorbitant demands of the English. They drew from Oudh enormous sums, to supply which the wretched kingdom was parcelled out to farmers of revenue, who, as they grew powerful by draining the country of its wealth, gradually shook off their allegiance to the nawab, and defied his authority. In addition to the brigade which, by the treaty of Faizabad, had been quartered on him, a second, called the temporary brigade, was added in 1777, and several detached corps were from time to time dispatched to the unfortunate Asaf, at an expense of £120,000 a year more. Besides the Resident, who, by an agreement between Shuja's and Mr. Hastings, had been located in Oudh, another Company's agent was now added; and the expense of their establishments, and of the pensions, allowances, and gifts to various Company's officers, grew to that height, that no revenue, however elastic, could bear. In 1779 the unfortunate nawab petitioned for the removal of the troops quartered upon him, stating that they were "not only quite useless to his government, but, moreover, the cause of much loss, both in the revenue of the state, and that the detached bodies of troops, under the European officers, brought nothing but confusion into the affairs of his government, being entirely at variance among themselves." But the exigencies of the governor-general were such that he was determined to force a supply of means from Oudh, in defiance of all reason and justice. The alleged debt to the English now amounted to £1,400,000, and the salaries of the nawab's own servants, and even of the members of the royal family, were deeply in arrears. Of the way in which this ruin had been caused a single specimen will suffice. Colonel Hanna, a Company's officer greatly in debt, was forced into the nawab's service in 1778, as farmer of the rich and Gauharabad, and in 1781 had realized a fortune of £200,000. On the 19th September 1781, Mr. Hastings signed a new treaty with the nawab at Chunar, by which he was relieved of the burdens which had been so unjustly imposed upon him, on condition of his plundering his grandmother, the Bahu Bigam, and his mother, of all their wealth, and sending it over to the English. This resulted in the famous spoliation of the Bigams, which formed the subject of the eloquent denunciations of Sheridan and Burke. A brief resumé of the question will be found in the pages of Mill and Wilson, the former of whom concurs the conduct of Hastings in the strongest terms, while the latter inclines to defend him, but indirectly admits that the spolia-
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1 Mill, vol. iii., p. 590. 2 Sleeman, vol. i., p. 137. 3 Mill, vol. iv., p. 420. 4 Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 429–459. tion of the royal ladies was a thing wholly at variance with the "easy temper" of the náwáb, and that he was driven to it by the insatiable demands of the English. For his part in the transaction, Mr. Hastings accepted—that is, extorted—a dower of L100,000. The next step was to despoil Faizul-Khan, a Rohilla chief who had been suffered to remain in Rohilkhand, and Shuja'd-Daulah, and who had brought his territories into the most flourishing state. It would, however, be impossible to condense into a short space the details of the proceedings of the English government with Asafu'd-Daulah. Suffice it to say, that from 1777 to 1786 the náwáb was compelled to pay the Company L840,000 per annum, instead of L350,000, which had been forced from him by the iniquitous treaty of 1775, and L360,000 extorted by the still more iniquitous treaty of 1781. In addition to this, his country had been plundered by the gigantic frauds, bribery, and extortions of the Company's officers, as a sample of which may be taken the expenses of Major Palmer, the agent of Hastings, which alone were L112,000—L22,800 being the gross salary of the officer, and his salary Sir J. Shore, and Lord Cornwallis alleviated this frightful oppression to some extent, but they only pruned and did not extinguish the evil; and in March 1797 Sir John Shore commenced new exactions, and imposed on the wretched náwáb the expense of two additional regiments of cavalry—one European, the other native. A few months after, Asafu'd-Daulah expired, leaving an impoverished country, a bankrupt treasury, and a dissatisfied people. He was a mild, easy, and somewhat indolent and sensual prince; but no abilities or virtues could have protected him against the relentless tyranny of the English governments. He himself admitted that he had been rendered reckless and desperate by its insatiable demands. Mirzā 'Ali, the reputed son of Asaf, known to English writers as Vazir 'Ali, was now raised to the throne, and was publicly acknowledged by the English government. There was, however, a powerful faction against him; and Sir J. Shore hearing that he was a youth of impracticable temper, visited Lakhman, and received proffers of vast sums if he would set him aside. "A large pecuniary sacrifice," says the governor-general, "was promised as a compensation for my acquiescence." Accordingly, on the 21st of January 1798, the náwáb was deposed, and Sa'ídát 'Ali II., brother of Asafu'd-Daulah, was placed on the throne on payment of L120,000 per annum, and on condition of raising the annual subsidy to the English to L760,000, and paying all the expenses of the English armies in Oudh when exceeding 13,000 men. He further ceded the fortresses of Allahabad and agreed to employ no Europeans, except Company's officers, in his service, nor permit them to settle in his dominions; to hold no communication with any foreign state; and to settle L15,000 a year on the deposed Vazir 'Ali. The latter having been deprived of a kingdom on evidence upon which, to use the words of the historian Mill, "a court of English law would not have decided against him a question of a few pounds," was removed to Banaras. In 1799 it was resolved to enter into a treaty with the Mahrattas, and in 1800 with the Sikhs. On the 14th of January in that year, he called on the Resident at Bandras, Mr. Cherry, to complain; and on being chidden, rose from his chair and struck at him with his sword. His attendants immediately despatched the Resident and two other gentlemen; but on the arrival of a party of horse, took to flight. Having thus made his escape, Vazir 'Ali was soon joined by several thousand men, and maintained himself in rebellion for some time. He was at last traitorously given up to the English by a Rajput chief, and carried to Calcutta, where he died in prison in Fort William in 1811.
Sa'ídát 'Ali II. is represented by Sleeman at his first accession as a careless jovial prince, fond of the chase and the glass. He was, nevertheless, deeply impressed with the miserable condition of Oudh, and the impossibility of satisfying the demands of the English, that he at one time contemplated the abdication of his throne. Lord Wellesley, the then governor-general, eagerly grasped at this proposal, and used every stratagem and menace to secure the whole kingdom for the Company, but finding that Sa'ídát had no intention of trafficking away the birthright of his sons, and would not resign except in their favour, he compelled him to cede the richer half of his territories, including Etawah, Karcha, Farrukhabad, and the whole of Rohilkhand, Agra, Gorakhpur, Alláhábád, and many other districts, producing in all L1,234,730 annually. The náwáb was further bound to dismiss all his regular troops, save five battalions of infantry, 200 cavalry, and 300 artillerymen; the English government undertaking to defend the kingdom against all foreign aggression, and to coerce all rebellious subjects. Of foreign aggression there never was the least probability; but when called upon to reduce rebellious chiefs, the English refused, or yielded a grudging compliance, and in the succeeding reigns altogether refused to observe this condition of the treaty. The treaty was signed on the 2nd of November 1801, and from that hour Sa'ídát 'Ali became a cipher monarch. He gave up all the material pleasures to which he had been accustomed, and devoted himself heart and soul to the management of his kingdom. For the remaining fourteen years of his life five princes in ancient or modern times have displayed such self-denial and such attention to the business of their government as Sa'ídát. During his "salutary rule" a great part of Oudh is described as "a magnificent garden." By his prudence and economy he so reduced his expenditure within his income, that on his death, on the 12th of July 1824, he left fourteen million sterling in a treasury which he found empty when he entered upon the government in 1798. He was a man of great general ability; had seen much in the society of British officers in different parts of India; had been well trained to habits of business; understood thoroughly the character, institutions, and requirements of his people; and, above all, was a sound judge of the relative merits and capacities of the men from whom he had selected his officers, and a vigilant supervisor of their actions. He had a thorough knowledge of the rights and duties of his officers and subjects, and a strong will to secure the one and enforce the other. Yet this was the man that Lord Wellesley would have put aside as worthless and incapable. Sa'ídát 'Ali II. was succeeded by his second son, styled Sháhíb'd-Din Haidar, Sháhíb'd-Danlah, the eldest son of Sa'ídát, died before his father, and his son Sháhíb'd-Din, according to the Muslim law, was excluded from the succession by his father's death in his grandfather's lifetime. Ghází'd-Din was young and in possession of vast wealth; he gave himself up to pleasure, and neglected the government. He was, besides, unfortunate in his selection of a minister—Aghá Mir, who was utterly dishonest, though a man of abilities. The young náwáb, immediately on his accession, gave to this minister L500,000 to be expended in public works and charity. This Aghá Mir retained for himself, and forged letters to show that he had expended it as desired. Another million was borrowed by Lord Moira for the expenses of the war. The Resident, Major Baillie, was instructed to apply for the money, and to make it appear as a voluntary offer on the part of the náwáb. In March 1815, the Resident was instructed to apply for a second million, which he did in so disrespectful a manner that the náwáb, although he surrendered the money, insisted on his removal, and to this the governor-general assented; and on the 1st of May 1816 granted to the náwáb, in discharge for the millions just lent, an unproductive marshy forest called the Taraj, just taken from Nepal. This region became the sanctuary for all the rebels and banditti in Eastern Oudh, and there they built their strongholds. But money was not the only thing supplied by the náwáb to the English. In addition to the vast sums just mentioned, he mounted a whole regiment of English cavalry at his own expense, and supplied various provisions towards the wars the Company were carrying on. In return for these services, and to sow jealousy between the courts of Delhi and Lakhman, Lord Moira encouraged the náwáb to assume the title of King. Accordingly, in 1817, Ghází'd-Din for the first time coined money in his own name, and assumed the title of King in the year following. At the end of 1825, another "perpetual loan" of a million was borrowed from the king by the Company, the interest of which was to be paid to the minister, Aghá Mir, who, by a gross fraud, had obtained the king's consent. Next year another loan of half a million was obtained for as it was said, two years. On the 20th of October 1827 Ghází'd-Din died, having expended, or rather given to the English, four millions of the fourteen bequeathed to him by his father.