Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/311

 SAN 303 population among the towns of Oudh, and second among those of the Hardoi district. It lies nearly midway between Lucknow and Hardoi, at a distance of 32 miles north-West from Lucknow and 34 miles south- east from Hardoi. It is 31 miles east from Bilgrím. There is a station of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway at it. For an account of its foundation and political history the pargana arti- cle should be referred to. Its four muhallas are named Ashraftola, Mahetwana, Mandai, and Málkána. The population is 15,786, of whom 7,629 are Hindus and 8,157 are Muhanımadans. They are lodged in 1,114 brick and 3,986 mud-built houses. Being the headquarters of a revenue subdivision, the town has the usual Government offices, tahsil, police station, dispensary, and Anglo- vernacular school. Markets are beld on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Pán and ghi are sold for export in considerable quantities. There are no buildings of special interest or antiquity. The Bára Kambha, a hall of the twelve pillars, was built of stone a century and half ago by an ancestor of Farzand Ali and Musharraf Ali. Sir W. Sleeman's notes on the place are worth quoting, written as they were six years before annexation (Volume II., p. 2, Volume I., pp. 336-337) : “ Halted at Sundeela. To the north of the town there is a large incul. tivated plain of oosur lands that would answer for cantonments, but the water lies, for some time after rain, in many places. The drainage is defective, but might be made good towards a rivulet to the north and west. There is another open plain to the west of the town, between the suburbs and the small village of Ausoo Serae, where the trigonometrical survey has one of its towers. It is about a mile from east to west, and more from north to south, and well adapted for the location of troops and civil esta- blisbments. The climate is said to be very good. The town is large and still populous, but the best families seem to be going to decay or leaving the place. Many educated persons from Sundeela in our civil establishments used to leave their families here; but life and property have become so very insecure that they now always take them with them to the districts in which they are employed, or send them to others. I observed many good houses of burnt brick and cement, but they are going fast to decay, and are all surrounded by numerous mud houses without coverings, or with coverings of the same material, which are bidden from view by low parapets. These houses have a wretched appearance. “ Several of the villages of Sundeela are held by Syud zumeendars, who are peaceable and industrious subjects, and were generally better protected than others under the influence of Chowdhree Sheik Hushmut Allee, of Sundeela, an agriculturalcapitalist and landholder, whom no local authority could offend with impunity. His proper trade was to aid landholders of high and low degree, by becoming surety for their punctual payment of