Page:EB1911 - Volume 04.djvu/821

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BUNDI—BUNKER HILL
  

and in 1792 the peshwa was acknowledged as the lord paramount of the country. The Mahratta power was, however, on the decline; the flight of the peshwa from his capital to Bassein before the British arms changed the aspect of affairs, and by the treaty concluded between the peshwa and the British government, the districts of Banda and Hamirpur were transferred to the latter. Two chiefs then held the ceded districts, Himmat Bahadur, the leader of the Sanyasis, who promoted the views of the British, and Shamsher, who made common cause with the Mahrattas. In September 1803, the united forces of the English and Himmat Bahadur compelled Shamsher to retreat with his army. In 1809 Ajaigarh was besieged by a British force, and again three years later Kalinjar was besieged and taken after a heavy loss. In 1817, by the treaty of Poona, the British government acquired from the peshwa all his rights, interests and pretensions, feudal, territorial or pecuniary, in Bundelkhand. In carrying out the provisions of the treaty, an assurance was given by the British government that the rights of those interested in the transfer should be scrupulously respected, and the host of petty native principalities in the province is the best proof of the sincerity and good faith with which this clause has been carried out. During the mutiny of 1857, however, many of the chiefs rose against the British, the rani of Jhansi being a notable example.


BUNDI, or Boondee, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency, lying on the north-east of the river Chambal, in a hilly tract historically known as Haraoti, from the Hara sept of the great clan of Chauhan Rajputs, to which the maharao raja of Bundi belongs. It has an area of 2220 sq. m. Many parts of the state are wild and hilly, inhabited by a large Mina population, formerly notorious as a race of robbers. Two rivers, the Chambia and the Mej, water the state; the former is navigable by boats. In 1901 the population was 171,227, showing a decrease of 42% due to the effects of famine. The estimated revenue is £46,000, the tribute £8000. There is no railway, but the metalled road from Kotah to the British cantonment of Deoli passes through the state. The town of Bundi had a population in 1901 of 19,313. A school for the education of boys of high rank was opened in 1897.

The state of Bundi was founded about A.D. 1342 by the Hara chief Rao Dewa, or Deoraj, who captured the town from the Minas. Its importance, however, dates from the time of Rao Surjan, who succeeded to the chieftainship in 1554 and by throwing in his lot with the Mahommedan emperors of Delhi (1569) received a considerable accession of territory. From this time the rulers of Bundi bore the title of rao raja. In the 17th century their power was curtailed by the division of Haraoti into the two states of Kotah and Bundi; but they continued to play a prominent part in Indian history, and the title of maharao raja was conferred on Budh Singh for the part played by him in securing the imperial throne for Bahadur Shah I. after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. In 1804 the maharao raja Bishan Singh gave valuable assistance to Colonel Monson in his disastrous retreat before Holkar, in revenge for which the Mahratas and Pindaris continually ravaged his state up to 1817. On the 10th of February 1818, by a treaty concluded with Bishan Singh, Bundi was taken under British protection. In 1821 Bishan Singh was succeeded by his son Ram Singh, who ruled till 1889. He is described as a grand specimen of the Rajput gentleman, and “the most conservative prince in conservative Rajputana.” His rule was popular and beneficent; and though during the mutiny of 1857 his attitude was equivocal, he continued to enjoy the favour of the British government, being created G.C.S.I. and a counsellor of the empire in 1877 and C.I.E. in 1878. He was succeeded by his son Raghubir Singh, who was made a K.C.S.I. in 1897 and a G.C.I.E. in 1901.


BUNER, a valley on the Peshawar border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions. The Mora Hills and the Ilam range divide it from Swat, the Sinawar range from Yusafzai, the Guru mountains from the Chamla valley, and the Duma range from the Puran Valley. It is inhabited by the Iliaszai and Malizai divisions of the Pathan tribe of Yusafzais, who are called after their country the Bunerwals. There is no finer race on the north-west frontier of India than the Bunerwals. Simple and austere in their habits, religious and truthful in their ways, hospitable to all who seek shelter amongst them, free from secret assassinations, they are bright examples of the Pathan character at its best. They are a powerful and warlike tribe, numbering 8000 fighting men. The Umbeyla Expedition of 1863 under Sir Neville Chamberlain was occasioned by the Bunerwals siding with the Hindostani Fanatics, who had settled down at Malka in their territory. In the end the Bunerwals were subdued by a force of 9000 British troops, and Malka was destroyed, but they made so fierce a resistance, in particular in their attack upon the “Crag” picket, that the Indian medal with a clasp for “Umbeyla” was granted in 1869 to the survivors of the expedition. The government of India refrained from interfering with the tribe again until the Buner campaign of 1897 under Sir Bindon Blood. Many Bunerwals took part in the attack of the Swatis on the Malakand fort, and a force of 3000 British troops was sent to punish them; but the tribe made only a feeble resistance at the passes into their country, and speedily handed in the arms demanded of them and made complete submission.


BUNGALOW (an Anglo-Indian word from the Hindustani banglā, belonging to Bengal), a one-storeyed house with a verandah and a projecting roof, the typical dwelling for Europeans in India; the name is also used for similar buildings which have become common for seaside and summer residences in America and Great Britain. Dak or dawk bungalows (from dak or dawk, a post, a relay of men for carrying the mails, &c.) are the government rest-houses established at intervals for the use of travellers on the high roads of India.


BUNGAY, a market-town in the Lowestoft parliamentary division of Suffolk, England; 113 m. N.E. from London on a branch from Beccles of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 3314. It is picturesquely placed in a deep bend of the river Waveney, the boundary with Norfolk. Of the two parish churches that of St Mary has a fine Perpendicular tower, and that of Holy Trinity a round tower of which the lower part is Norman. St Mary’s was attached to a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1160. The ruins of the castle date from 1281. They are fragmentary though massive; and there are traces of earth-works of much earlier date. The castle was a stronghold of the powerful family of Bigod, being granted to Roger Bigod, a Norman follower of the Conqueror, in 1075. A grammar school was founded in 1592. There are large printing-works, and founding and malting are prosecuted. There is a considerable carrying trade on the Waveney.


BUNION (a word usually derived from the Ital. bugnone, a swelling, but, according to the New English Dictionary, the late and rare literary use of the word makes an Italian derivation unlikely; there is an O. Eng. word “bunny,” also meaning a swelling, and an O. Fr. buigne, modern bigne, showing a probable common origin now lost, cf. also “bunch”), an inflamed swelling of the bursa mucosa, the sac containing synovial fluid on the metatarsal joint of the big toe, or, more rarely, of the little toe. This may be accompanied by corns or suppuration, leading to an ulcer or even gangrene. The cause is usually pressure; removal of this, and general palliative treatment by dressings, &c. are usually effective, but in severe and obstinate cases a surgical operation may be necessary.


BUNKER HILL, the name of a small hill in Charlestown (Boston), Massachusetts, U.S.A., famous as the scene of the first considerable engagement in the American War of Independence (June 17, 1775). Bunker Hill (110 ft.) was connected by a ridge with Breed’s Hill (75 ft.), both being on a narrow peninsula a short distance to the north of Boston, joined by a causeway with the mainland. Since the affair of Lexington (April 19, 1775) General Gage, who commanded the British forces, had remained inactive at Boston awaiting reinforcements from England; the headquarters of the Americans were at Cambridge, with advanced posts occupying much of the 4 m. separating