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 BI/J TURIA—BHA UNA GAR. sandy

Skirts the borders of the great

desert,

Numerous

small and scattered population.

and

379

at present contains

and

ruins of towns

a

villages

show

that the valley of the Ghagar, and the tract on either side of it, was once the home of a thriving people. But Timur, who passed through the District on his invasion of India, devastated the tract, and when it came into our hands it was almost uninhabited. It has since been settled by immigrants from the Sikh States and Rajputana, and

the population

The Ghagar

fast increasing.

is

a valley of

flows in

of some three to four miles in width, within which

alluvial clay

its

But the rude dams which it was the custom to construct have lately been removed on the complaint of the Bikaner State. The stream, which once joined the Sutlej waters are used for irrigation purposes.

now

(Satlaj)

near Bahawalpur,

At

close of the last century, the tract, then utterly deserted,

the

disappears in the desert of Bikaner.

into the hands of the Bhattis, a

fell

band of nomads and robbers, who

planted a few fortified villages in the midst of the waste, as places of

In 1795, George Thomas, the

refuge on the approach of danger.

adventurer of Mariana, extended his influence over the Bhatti chiefs,

who

paid him at least a nominal allegiance.

Lord Lake

After the victories of

in 1803, Bhattiana passed with the rest of the Delhi terri-

tory under British rule



but no practical steps were taken to secure

until 1810. A military force was then despatched against two Bhatti chieftains, Bahadur Khan and Zabta Khan, who had proclaimed their independence. Bahadur Khan was overpowered and expelled the country ; but Zabta Khfln swore fealty this

outlying

possession

Government, and secured possession of

to the British

his territory for

In 1818, however, he connived at certain attacks

the time.

and a second

made

was sent to expel him and confiscate his estates. After protracted boundary disputes with the Sikh States, a District of Bhattiina was formed in 1837 and when it passed in 1858 to the Punjab Government, it was called SiRSA District, which name it now bears.

against Fatehab^.d within British limits

Bh^Lturia.

—Village

in

Bardwan



force

Lat. 23° 26' n.,

District, Bengal.

long. 88° 20' E.

Bhaun.

—Town

in

Chakwdl

tahs'il,

Jhelum (Jehlam)

Population (1881) 5080, namely, Muhammadans, 3262 and Sikhs, 214; number of occupied houses, 461.

Bhaunagar

{Bkdvanagar).

— Native

State

Punjab. Hindus, 1604;

District,

within

the

British

Province of Gujardt (Guzerat), Bombay Presidency, lying between 20° 56' 30" and 22° 16' 30" N. lat., and

Agency of Kdthiawdr, between 71°

in the

and 72°

2860 square miles; villages, and consisting of 346,094 Hindus, of the Vaishnav, Smdrta, and Jain sects, 37,040 Muhammadans, and 17,189 ‘others.’ Gross revenue, 16'

population in

20' 45" e. long.;

1881, 400,323,

distributed

area,

among 659