BHU
291
it nowtouches the river at Aliganj at the -western extremity of the
pargana; is never more than 5 miles distant from the stream, and rejoins it at Bharguda, about 31 miles to the east of Aliganj.
it
This bank marks the old course of the Chauka river, and the g^njar or between the high bank and the river, consisting of about onefourth of the whole pargana, is a very low plain, extending over about eighty square miles, which is regularly inundated by the river during the tract of land
autumn
rains.
In describing the pargana I begin with the ganjar. The plain is very sparsely inhabited, abounds in large tracts ofgxass jungle," jhau, khajtir, and underwood, and the villages and hamlets are very widely scattered, those spots being selected as sites which are a few feet higher than the surrounding country, and which, therefore, escape the floods, except in very rainy seasons. Groves of fruit trees are very few and far between, but the whole face of the country is thickly dotted with catechu and wild fig-trees. Throughout the whole of this tract water is only about 3 feet below the surface, and it is intersected by an immense number of streams flowing in almost all directions, but with a general inclination from north-west to south-east.
Many of these are back-waters on a higher level than the Chauka, and frequently flowing at right angles to it they are dry for six months of the year, but rapidly fill with the first rise of the stream, and carrying off its surplus waters, distribute them over the low plain lying between the present bed of the river and the high bank a few miles to the south. They then gradually dry up, and can frequently be crossed dry-shod in the cold weather.
The river Chauka did not leave its old bed under the high bank and flow off into its present bed all at once. At some period, which, as it is far beyond the memory of the present inhabitants, is referred by them to times of remotest antiquity, the river which till then had flowed in its old bed under the high bank as far as Jagdispur left its old bed at that point, and going off in a due easterly direction joined its present bed opposite Patwara Ghat. The village of Shahpur contains the ruins of an old fort, and tank, ascribed to Raja Ben, which were built at a time when the Chauka flowed under Shahpur, which is nearly 5 miles south-west of Patwara, where the river flows now, and 3 miles south-east of Jagdispur, where it flowed up to about thirty-five years ago. But there are many persons still living in the pargana who can remember the last great change. Up to about thirty-five years ago the river flowed under the high bank from the ruins of the old fort of K^mp close to Aliganj down to the villages of Bhtir, Barheya Khera, and Jagdispur, the headThe ruins of the fort of Jagdispur quarters of the great taluqa of Bhur. destroyed after the rebellion are now 5 miles from- the river, but the fort was built at a time when it commanded the stream. At the last settlement of pargana Palia, fifty-two years ago, the whole of the pargana was to the north of the stream, whereas now there are parts of seven villages to the south. T 2
