Page:Professional papers on Indian Engineering (second series).djvu/315

 No. CCCVII.

WATER SUPPLY FOR THE CITY OF JEYPORE.

[Vide Plates I.-III.)

BY MAJOR S. S. Jacob, B.S.C., Exec. Engineer, Jeypore State. The town of Jeypore is situated in a small valley surrounded by hills on the north, the north-west and the east; and is open only towards the west and south-west. The city walls stretch from hill to hill across the open face and enclose the city.

The city was founded A.D. 1718 by Maharajah Sewaie Jey Singh, whose Encyclopædia of Hindoo Theology, Mathematical Tables, and Ob- servatories at Delhi, Benares, Oojein and Jeypore prove him to have been a man of great attainments. During the greater portion of his life, how- ever, he was engaged in active warfare, and it was no doubt the strong defensible position, which the surrounding hills give the present city of Jeypore, as well as its proximity to Amber, the old capital of the State, which induced Maharajah Sewaie Jey Singh to found the modern city where it now is.

There is a small stream called the Amani Shah which rises in the hills north of the city, and flows past about 1} miles west of the city. The soil through which it passes is soft sand. From traces of an excavated channel, which still exist, it is evident that formerly the bed of this stream was about 25 feet below the surface, and that it was at one time diverted towards the city, probably by an earthen bund annually constructed, as is done every year on this stream a few miles further down, where the banks are sufficiently low to admit of the water being taken away.