Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/407

 SRI 399 extent consist of an account of the numerous changes in the course of this river. At Buseha in Bhúr, which lies to the north of the village of Srinagar in the pargana of that name, there occurred many years ago a great and important change in the river's course; this has now to be des- cribed. Up to about 40 years ago the Chauka seems to have flowed from Buseha to Pachperi, and so on in its present channel, along the frontier of Srinagar and Dhaurahra. In these days a small back water of the river left it at Buseha and passed under Srinagar to the south, and after a winding course of about 12 miles, it was joined by the river Kandwa under the old village of Mahewa, the headquarters of the Mahewa taluqa. Those two villages were large, populous, and prosperous places ; both had bazars and temples and maugo groves; the former had a large brick fort built at a time when Srinagar gave its name to a taluqa of Muhammadan Bisens, of which it was the headquarters. About forty years ago an unusually heavy rainfall caused the Chauka to rise about Buseba beyond its banks. It swept over into the back water communicating with the Kandwa, rushed up it, and covered the surounding low country with deep floods over an extent of about 50 square miles. Those foods caused widespread ruin ; Mahewa and Srinagar and several intervening villages were completely destroyed, and a large tract of country was depo- pulated and remained for many years a desolate waste. After the autumn rains had ceased, the main body of water continued to flow down the bed of the back water, partially deserting the old chan- nel on the north. The Kandwa, which flowed into the back water at Mahewa, had up to this time given its own name to the united streams from that point, and they had flowed on till they rejoined the Chauka at Rabria, 16 miles east of Mahewa. But from this time the little Kandwa lost its identity by its connexion with its big neighbour, and for the last 16 miles of its course the united stream became known as the Chauka, and by way of distinction I will now call it the southern Chauka. It is gene. rally called the Chauka in this pargana while the name Sárda is reserved for the more northerly stream. After this for about 30 years the Chauka flowed in two large streams; its own channel to the north and that of the Kandwa or south Chauka to the south, which channels now average about six miles apart. About ten years ago the fickle waters again completely returned into their old bed and left the back water communicating with the Kandwa quite dry. Thus that branch of the river Chauka which I call the southern Chauka does not now carry the waters of the real Chauka in any part of its course. It is merely a continuation of the Kandwa and its tributaries. In the last few years since the back water dried up, the villages of Srinagar and Mahewa and those between them have greatly improved, and will pro- bably in time regain all their former prosperity. Population has been attracted in large numbers in the last few years, but a considerable period must still elapse before the villages in this part of the pargana are once more as well inhabited and cultivated as they used to be. The high ridge as marking the southern limit of the river Chauka in pargana Bhúr has almost disappeared at the point where the river