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 with a view to utilizing the excellent fighting qualities of the tribesmen. This corps has done good service in gradually reducing their more lawless countrymen to habits of order, and many Bhils are now settled in regular industries.

The pure Bhil is to-day much what he has always been, a savage forest dweller. The Bhils are a stunted race, but well built, active and strong, of a black colour, with high cheek-bones, wide nostrils, broad noses and coarse features. Like all Dravidians the hair is long and wavy. The lowland Bhils are not now easily distinguished from the low-caste Hindus. Surgeon-major T. H. Hendley writes:—“The Bhil is an excellent woodman, knows the shortest cuts over the hills; can walk the roughest paths and climb the steepest crags without slipping or feeling distressed. Though robbers, and timorous owing to ages of ill-treatment, the men are brave when trusted, and very faithful. History proves them always to have been faithful to their nominal Rajput sovereigns, especially in their adversity. The Bhil is a merry soul, loving a jest.” The hill Bhils wear nothing but a loin-cloth, their women a coarse robe; lowland Bhils wear turban, coat and waist-cloth. The Bhils have oaths none of them will break. The most sacred is that sworn by a dog, the Bhil praying that the curse of a dog may fall on him if he breaks his word. Their chief divinity is Hanuman, the monkey-god. Offerings are made to the much-feared goddess of small-pox. Stone worship is found among them, and some lowland Bhils are Moslems, while many have adopted Hinduism.

The Bhils of pure blood number upwards of a million, and there are some 200,000 Bhils of mixed descent.

 BHIMA (Sanskrit, “The Terrible”), in Hindu mythology, a hero, one of the Pandava princes who figure in the Mahabharata. He was distinguished by his huge body, strength and voracity.

 BHIWANI, a town of British India, in the Hissar district of the Punjab, 38 m. S.E. of Hissar town by rail. Pop. (1901) 35,917. It is an important centre of trade with Rajputana, and has factories for ginning and pressing cotton, and metal manufactures. Its rise dates from 1817, when it was made a free market.

 BHOPAL, a native state of India, in the central India agency. Its area is 6902 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 665,961, showing a decrease of 30% in the decade. This seems to be in part due to a difference in numeration, but the state suffered heavily from famine in 1896–1897 and 1899–1900. Bhopal is the principal Mussulman state in central India, ranking next to Hyderabad among the Mahommedan states of India. The surface of the country is uneven, being traversed by the Vindhya ranges, a peak of which near Raysen is upwards of 2500 ft. above sea-level. The general inclination of the country is towards the north, in which direction most of the streams of the state flow, while others, passing through the Vindhya ranges, flow to the Nerbudda.

Bhopal state was founded in 1723 by Dost Mahommed Khan, an Afghan adventurer. In 1778, when General Thomas Goddard made his bold march across India, the state of Bhopal was the only Indian power that showed itself friendly; and in 1809 when another British expedition under General Close appeared in the same parts, the nawab of Bhopal petitioned earnestly but in vain to be received under British protection. But in 1817, at the outbreak of the Pindari War, a treaty of dependence was concluded between the chief and the British government. Since then Bhopal has been steadily loyal to the British government, and during the Mutiny it rendered good services. The throne has descended in the female line since 1844, when Sikandar Begum became ruler. Succeeding begums have taken a great interest in the work of governing the state, which they carried on with marked success. The sultan Jahan Begum, succeeded on the death of her mother, Shah Jahan Begum, in June 1901, being the only female ruler in India.

The estimated revenue of the state is £250,000, and the state pays a subsidy of £13,000 for the Bhopal battalion. Besides the Bhopal battalion, a regiment of imperial service cavalry is maintained, under the name of the Victoria Lancers. There is a branch railway from Itarsi to Bhopal city, continued to Jhansi. The British currency has been introduced, and in 1897–1898, Rs. 71,00,000 of Bhopali coins were converted. The residence of the political agent and the headquarters of the Bhopal battalion are at Sehore, 20 m. west of Bhopal city. The city of Bhopal, a railway station, had a population in 1901 of 76,561. The palace, with its rock fortress, is called Fatehgarh. An excellent water-supply has been provided from two large artificial lakes. There are two hospitals. There is an export trade in opium.

, an administrative section of central India, takes its name from the state of Bhopal, which is included in it. The Bhopal agency is administered by the agent to the governor-general in central India. Its area is 11,653 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 1,157,697. It was created in 1818. In 1900 this district suffered severely from famine owing to the complete failure of the monsoon, and the cultivated area decreased by 50 or 60%; but, on the whole, trade has improved of late years owing to the new railways, which have stimulated commerce and created fresh centres of industry.

 BHOPAWAR, an agency in central India. It consists of the Dhar and Barwani states, three minor states, Ali Rajpur, Jhabua and Jobat, and a number of districts and estates. Its total area is 7684 sq. m., and its population on this area in 1901 was 547,546. But in 1901 and 1904 certain districts were transferred from this agency to the Indore residency, created in 1899, and the area of Bhopawar was thus reduced by 3283 sq. m. The chief towns are Dhar (pop. 17,792), Barwani (6277) and Kukshi (5402).

 BHOR, a native state of India, in the Poona political agency, Bombay, forming one of the Satara Jagirs; situated among the higher peaks of the Western Ghats. Its area covers 925 sq. m. The population in 1901 was 137,268, showing a decrease of 12% in the decade; the estimated gross revenue is £21,437; the tribute, £310. The chief, whose title is pant sachiv, is a Brahman by caste. The town of is 25 m. south of Poona. In 1901 the population was 4178. The Bhor Ghat, on the northern border of the state, has always been the main pass over the Western Ghats, or means of communication between the sea-coast and the Deccan. Since 1861 it has been traversed by the main line of the Great Indian Peninsula railway.

 BHUJ, a town of India, the capital of the native state of Kach, in the Gujarat division of Bombay, situated at the base of a fortified hill. Pop. (1901) 26,362. It contains some interesting examples of architecture of the middle of the 16th century and later; it was a place sacred to the snake-god Bhujanga.

 BHUTAN, an independent kingdom in the Eastern Himalayas, lying between the Brahmaputra and the southern face of the mountains. It is under various commercial and other arrangements with the government of India, from whom it receives an annual subsidy of £3333. It is bounded on the N. by Tibet; on the E. by a tract inhabited by various uncivilized independent mountain tribes; on the S. by the British province of Assam, and the district of Jalpaiguri; and on the W. by the independent native state of Sikkim. The whole of Bhutan presents a succession of lofty and rugged mountains abounding in picturesque and sublime scenery. This alpine region sends out numerous rivers in a southerly direction, which, forcing their passage through narrow defiles, and precipitated in cataracts over the precipices, eventually pour themselves into the Brahmaputra. Of the rivers traversing Bhutan, the most considerable is the Manas, flowing in its progress to the Brahmaputra under the walls of Tasgaon, below which it is unfordable. At the foot of Tasgaon Hill it is crossed by a suspension bridge. The other principal rivers are the Machu, Tchinchu, Torsha, Manchi and Dharla. Information respecting the country accumulates but slowly. In 1863 Captain Godwin Austen accompanied Sir Ashley Eden’s mission to the court of the Deb raja, and made a survey of the route to Punakha. There has also been a certain amount of geographical sketching combined with trigonometrical<section end="Bhutan" />