Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/91

 AJO foundations and built the plinth, 1818.

when he

13 also died,

on the 10th of Aiiwust

Panah Ali, vakil, and Mirza Haidar, the son of an adopted dauglitor, then carried on the work through a series of years, when, with the Cdinpletion of the brick work, the grant of three lacs came to an end, and the beautiful edifice remained unfinished till after the mutiny of 1857. In Ghazi-ud-din Haidar's time the assignment of revenue was given up on his placing in the hands of the British Government Rs. 1,66,666-10-8, the interest of which, at the then prevailing rate of 6 per cent., was to yield the equivalent annual sum of Rs. 10,000, for the support of the tomb. This sum seems to have been regularly received and disbursed by the native management until the year 1839. Complaints were then made to the Resident of irregularity in the disbursements, and this led to the organization of the Wasiqa Department in 1840. this new management a considerable surplus was soon accunmand in 1853-54 a proposition was submitted to and sanctioned by Government, under which Rs. 41,727-11-3, out of a then existing surplus of Rs. 59,262-11-6, was to be spent in finishing the tomb, the balance being carried to the credit of Government. The work was being carried on under the supervision of Captain A. P. Orr, when the mutiny occurred, and the unexpended balance of the sanctioned estimate, or about Rs. 6,000, was plundered. The tomb was finally completed by the Department of Public Works, after the re-occupation of the province.

Under

lated,

In sanctioning the proposition mentioned in the penultimate paragraph in January 1854, the Government remarked that it was a great loser by the arrangement it had entered into, under which it was to allow 6 per and, looking to the cent, on the money funded by Ghazi-ud-din Haidar fact that in late years the whole grant had not been expended, it resolved on reducing the interest on the loan from 6 to 4 per cent., the then current rate. At this rate the annual income of the endowment was reduced from Sikka Rs. 10,000 to Company's Rs. 6,606-10-8.

This latter sum was still further reduced in January 1855 to Company's Rs. 5,833-5-4 but it was again raised to that sum under the orders of September 1859, at which it has since been continued.

Rs.

its

allowance

is

annum

by Government for the repairs, and the remainder of the annual spent by the native managers in religious ceremonies, periodi-

1,000 per

through

own

are

reserved

oJKcers, of the building,

cal illuminations, &c.

Had the arrangements entered into with the Begam been throughout maintained, instead of a considerable diminution, there would have been a large increase in the sum now annually available, for the suitable keeping up of the finest building of the kind in Oudh. The population

„ Musalmans ,

I

of

Shia g^jj^j

Ajodhya ... _

is

...

7,518

...

1,6.30

__

889

Shaivi