Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/628

 GON

550

A

refer1,200,000, from Re. 1-3-10 to Re. 1-6-8 per head of inhabitants. ence to the different pargana articles will show that the rates vary enormously in different parts of the district, and are in the south almost twice as high as they are in the north. J^ote.

—Abirtpatr bearing the name of Raja Achal Narain Singh, which

my hands fortuitously, and under circumstances which render it impossible for me to doubt its being genuine, confirms the general accuracy of the conjectural chronology of the district article.

Came

into

It is dated 931 San, which must have been by the Hijri era, or 1524 A. D. The destruction of the Kalhans dynasty must therefore be moved about a quarter of a century further on than the time at which I had conjectured that it occurred.

—

GONDA

—

—

Pargana* Taksil Gonda District GondA. Gonda, a large par-gana, covering 509 square miles, is bounded on the north by the Kuwana, on the east by the river, which divides it from Balrampur and Utraula parganas of Sadxillahnagar and Manikapur ; on the south by Mahadewa, Digsar, Guwarich, and Paharapur on the west by the Bahraich district. In appearance it is a large, feirly wellIts greatest breadth is 37 miles. wooded plain, with hardly perceptible undulations. The rain-water drains off along the slight depressions into shallow channels, which combine with the Bisuhi, the Manwar, the Chamnai, and the Tirhi, and carry off the surplus moisture in a south-easterly direction. The extreme minuteness of the deviations from the general level makes an unimpeded drainage of bank a foot high across any main channel the greatest importance. will be sufficient to flood and destroy the rice crops of square miles, and the roads laid out since annexation are much complained of. They are, however, fortunately extremely simple in structure, and if culverts and bridges are sadly wanted, they can be, and are, cut through by the villagers whose fields they damage, and are repaired again without difficulty at the end of the year. The only extensive tree jungles now left are to the north, along the Kuwana. They contain a great deal of sfil, but little of sufficient size to be of any considerable value. Large trees are occasionally met with, and will fetch as high a price as fifty or sixty rupees each, so it is a matter for wonder that such valuable timber is not more carefully looked The cane-thickets along the river are to by the jungle proprietors. haunted by a few panthers, and innumerable wild pig and monkeys, while the open forest contains nil-gtie, and spotted and hog-deer. The jungle is divided by belts of grass-plain, roved over by herds of black anteFrom the beginning of the cultivated portion of the pargana all lope. over the north the population is comparatively scanty, and the rice and wheat fields are interspersed with barren tracts, covered by groves of mahua trees, which, where there is no very close competition for land, are kept all over the district for their valuable flower and fruit, ^the one yielding an intoxicating spirit, the other oil. Across the centre of the pargana runs a slight depression, which in the rainy season forms a series of large



A

—



By Mr. W.

C. Benett,

c.s.,

Assistant Commissioner.