Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/319

 SAR 311 confluents of the Kauriala on the west, the Suheli, the Sárda, the Dah-aura, the Chauka, the Ul; they joined it at intervals from Shitábi Ghát down to Fyzabad. The tendency has been to select one main channel, and now the Sárda and the Chauka uniting into one pour nine-tenths of the drainage into the Kauriála at one central spot. The back water of the Chauka and the Ul still form a languid stream uniting at Bahramghat, but the ancient channel of the Ul and Ghaghi which joined the Kauriála near Fyzabad is quite dry. The same slow process has been at work in the Kauriála, the lateral streams have shrunk down to rivulets or have quite dried up, and the central channel has attracted the waters of all. As the name Sárda is still sometimes applied to the Chauka, and as the waters are still undoubtedly those of the Sárda, although the bottom and banks may be those of the Chauka, I now proceed to give an account af the latter river. “ River Chauka-A tributary of the great river Gogra, rises in the district of Bareilly, North-Western Provinces, about latitude 28°59, longi- tude 80°4. It takes a south-easterly direction, and passing through the districts of Bareilly and Sháhjahanpur, enters into the Kheri district in latitude 28° 21, longitude 80°31'. At the distance of forty miles from the source and in latitude 28°43,"longitude 89°15,' it, on the left sidle, is joined by an offset from the river Gogra (Šárda). It passes on in the same direction dividing the pargana of Palia from that of Bhúr, and then continuicg the same course, and having traversed throughout the latter pargana forms the boundary of the parganas of Srinagar and Dhaurahra, having the for- mer on its right and the latter on its left side. Lower down, in latitude 27°42, longitude 81°13, it receives on the right side the Ul, and continuing a south-easterly course for about forty miles further, falls into the Gogra on the right side, in latitude 27°9, longitude 81°30%." The above extract from Thornton's Gazetteer accurately describes the Chauka river as it flowed forty years ago. It was then one of the four rivers which running tolerably parallel in a south-east direction drained Northern Oudh, commencing with the most southerly, their names were the Ul, the Chauka, the Sárda, the Suheli. Details of the various changes which they underwent come more fitly under the name Sárda, that is, the proper name of the great river which bursting through the mountains at Barmdeo beyond the boundaries of Oudh occupied sometimes one, some- times several at a time of these channels, all of which probably it scooped for itself in the deltaic soil, together they take the drainage east of the water shed which is marked by Mina Koth* The point where the river seems to have diverged into one or other is near the present Mothia Ghát, twenty four miles north-west of Marauncha Ghát, a little north of this are two lateral channels; one breaks off to the north and can be still traced, though silted up, as far as the Suheli in whose new course the Sárda's waters flowed probably till 1810; to the south a channel now almost effaced loads south-east, and after a few miles drainage or percolation again creates a stream called the Ul. Midway between the two is the now Chauka or Sárda. A comparison of the maps, even of such recent charts as that of the country bordering the grand trunk road published by the Surveyor
 * Sárda Canal Report, para. 3.