Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/465

 — BILGRAM FARGANA AND Muhammadans, 24,643



total,

The

259,278.

TOIVN.

455

ia/isU consists of the 5

pargands of Bilgram, Sandi, Katiari, Mallanwan, and Kachhandan.

The

Sub-division contained, in 1883,

i

civil

and

i

criminal court, with

men; municij)al watchmen {c/iauk'iddrs), 681. Bilgram. Pargand of Hardoi District, Oudh bounded on the north by Sandi, on the east and south by Mallanwan, and on the west by Bangar. The pargand was formed in the time of Akbar, and is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as covering 192,800 bighds, and paying a land revenue of 5,124,113 ddms, besides 356,690 ddms of cesses. It was held by Sayyids, and garrisoned by 1000 foot soldiers and 20 troopers, lodged in a masonry fort. Its area included pargand Bangar. 2 police stations (thdnds)-, strength

police, 47

village

—





The Raikwars, who town and

of regular police, 46

fort

now

expelled the Thatheras, founded the

ruined

of Srinagar in the 9th or loth century, and held the

surrounding country up to the time of the campaign of Shahab-ud-din in 1193, which resulted in the fall of Kanauj, and the subsequent subjugation of Oudh by Shams-ud-din Altamsh in 1217. The two

Ghori

officers

who reduced

Srinagar and the surrounding country are

ancestors of the present

Muhammadan

tdlukddrs of Bilgram.

the

Area,

1 17 square miles, of which 71 are cultivated. Staple products, barley, bdjra, wheat, arhar,jodr, and gram. Tobacco is largely grown in the

vicinity of Bilgram town. Government land revenue, ;,^7468, showing an average incidence of 3s. q|d. per acre of cultivated land, and IS. ii|d. per acre of total area. More than half the pargand is held by Sayyids, who own 64 villages ; Shaikhs and Pathans each hold i Rajputs, 27, of which only 5 now remain to the Rdikwars ; other The different castes, 10, while 2 are in the possession of Government. tenures under which the villages are held are tdlukddri, 58^^; zamtnddn, 34I; pattiddri, 21. Population (1881) 57,360, namely, 30,762 males and 26,598 females; average density of population, 490 per square mile. The Chamars form a seventh, the Ahi'rs a ninth, and the



Brahmans

rather less than a tenth of the population.

Two

unmetalled

roads intersect the pargand.

— Chief town of Bilgram

and the bank of the old channel of the Ganges, about 1 5 miles south of Hardoi town. Lat. 27° 10' 30" N., long. 80° 4' 30" E. In olden times this place was held by the Thatheras, who were expelled by the Raikwars under Raja Sri Ram, w'ho founded a city which he named after himself, Srinagar. The Raikwars in their turn were ousted by the Muhammadans about 1217 A.D. A famous Muhammadan saint, whose tomb is the oldest

Bilgram.

twelfth in importance

Musalman

among

building in the place,

is

Bel by his enchantments, and the

Belgram or Bilgram.

tahsil, in

the towns of

Hardoi

Oudh



District,

near the

said to have slain a

name

left

demon named

of the place was changed to

The town abounds

with fragments of carved