Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/449

 DEW

371

In shape it is triangular, with its apex extending in an easterly direction Bara Banki, and its base lying on the Kursi pargana.

into

The town

of Dewa is situated towards the north-east of the triangle, and connected by good unmetalled roads with Kursi lying west, Mahmudabad on the north, Bara Banki on the south-east, and Lucknow on the south-west. The road to the latter joins the Fyzabad and Lucknow imperial road at Chiohat, about seven miles distant from Lucknow.

is

Its greatest length from north to south is twenty miles, and its breadth from east to west, through Dewa from the apex of the triangle to its base, is eleven miles. Its area is one hundred and forty square miles, and the number of villages one hundred and sixty-three, with an average area of five hundred and fifty acres to a village.

The rivers in the pargana are inconsiderable. The Kalydni follows its northern boundary for a short distance, and in the centre it is crossed by the Reth, a small stream that originates in jhils to the north of pargana Mahona. Its bed lies low, and the land on either side is almost barren ; it is tiot much used for irrigation. The pargana is, on the whole, dry ; fortythree per cent, only of irrigated land is under cultivation, and more than three-fourths of this is due to jhils. The jhils lie principally to the north of Dewa, and near Dewa itself is a fine piece of water known as the Barela jhil, of some four or five square miles in extent. To the south of the pargana also, near Basti, are some useful pieces of water for irrigation. But this source of irrigation is always precarious, and through the centre of this pargana, up in a north-westerly direction towards Dinpanah in Kursi, rains have often been known to fail when they have fallen plentifully round Lucknow. Perhaps the rain-fall is influenced by the course of the rivers, and from this tract up to the Gogra, some twenty miles east, there are none. To the north-east of Dewa, towards Nar4in-bhdri, the pargana is particularly dry wells are dug with great difficulty, the sides will not stand, and often the spring level is not reached at all.

The pargana is not, on the whole, well wooded groves round the villages are not so abundant and fine as in the other parganas of the district wide tracts of dhdlc jungle cross the centre of the pargana, but this tree never attains to any height, and is cut down every third year for firewood.



The barren land amounts to ,,

,,

The barren able

lies

culturable cultivated

13'74 per cent, of the whole.

„

„ 27'34

,,

,,

58'94

„ „

,,

„

plains chiefly follow the course of the Reth,,

and the

cultur-

on the jungle land already mentioned.

The percentage of cultivated laud is higher than in of the district, and to the south of Dewa the soil is very great many of the cultivators there are cultivated. class of Ahirs, and they pay high rents to the Musalman

A

The revenue assessed at summary settlement was ... ... ... ... The revised demand is The rate falls at Es. 2-13-0 on cultivated. „ „

Es. „

any other pargana fertile and highly of the industrious, proprietors.

1,05,955 1,52,030

„

„ 1-15-0 on cultivated and culturable

„

„ 1-10-0 throughout.

AA2.