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 BHOPAL TOWN.

405

Maulvi Muhammad Sadik Husain, and has resumed the retirement which the pardah imposes, but continues to conduct personally the business of all departments of the State. Her Nawab consort is not outwardly invested with authority.

The same honours

are paid to

her present husband as were enjoyed by his predecessor, and he has title of Nawab. The Sultan Jahan Begam, the present was married in 1874, with the consent of Government, to Ahmad Ali Khan, who is of the same tribe as that to which the Bhopil family belongs (the Mirazai Khel), but he is not a member of the family itself. This lady has two sons and one daughter. The Begam of Bhopal is entitled to a salute of 19 guns. The force maintained by the State consists of 694 horse, 2200 foot, 14 field and In commutation of a contingent 43 other guns, with 291 artillerymen. of 600 horse and 400 infantry known as the Bhopal battalion, which the State had stipulated to furnish under treaty, Bhopal now pays

received the heir,

annually

2

ofp£’5oo

is

The

lakhs of rupees (say jQ2o,ooo) in cash.

made by

contribution of ;^i2oo per

the construction

and

A

further

payment

the State for the support of the Sehorehigh school.

annum

formerly paid by the State for

repair of roads within

its

territory

was remitted

in

1873, on the understanding that the Begam will keep in proper repair the roads already made, and spend a reasonable sum annually in open-

ing up others.

amount sanctioned

for roads by the which the Begam herself added a donation of i lakh of rupees (^10,000) and the Kudsia Begam ^2500 per annum. A branch line, called the Bhopfil State Railway,’ leaving the Great Indian Peninsula Railway at Itarsi station, runs to Bhopcil via Hoshangabad. The cost of this work, fifty lakhs of rupees (^£^^qo.,qo 6), was borne by the Bhopal Government, without a guarantee. The extension of the line from Bhopal to Bhilsa, Jhansi, and Gwalior, by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, is projected. I'he British Government has, by a sanad of 1862, recognised the right of succession in BhopM according to Muhammadan law and the customs of the State. The chief has power of life and death in judicial matters ; and the territories of Bhopal are beyond the jurisdiction of British courts. An allowance of ;^iooo a year is made by the British Government as compensation for the loss incurred on the remission of transit duty on all salt passing through the State. BhopaL Principal town of the State of the same name in Central Height above seaLat. 23° 15' 35" n., long. 77° 25' 56" e. India. Surrounded by a masonry wall two miles in circuit, level, 1670 feet. Outside within which is a fort, also of masonry ; both in good repair. the town is a ganj or trading quarter ; and to the south-west, on a large rock, is a fort called Fatehgarh, with a masonry rampart and square

In 1875,

Bhopal Darbar was ;^2io per annum,

to

‘

—

towers

—the

residence of the ruler of the State.

South-west of this