Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/55

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MUTTRA. the road from Salon to Mánikpur. Formerly a flourishing place, with many handsome buildings and toinbs. Rájá Darshan Singh plundered wn in the later years of native rule, and since then it has declined. Population (1881) 2528, namely, 1566 Hindus and 962 Musalmáns. Village school. Muttra (Jathurá). —British District in the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-Western Provinces, lying between 27° 14' 30" and 27° 58' n. lat., and between 77° 19' 30" and 78° 33' E. long. Area, 1452°7 square miles. Population (1881) 671,690 persons. Muttra forms the north-western District of the Agra Division. It is bounded on the north by the Punjab District of Gurgaon and the NorthWestern Provinces District of Aligarh ; on the east by Aligarh and Etah Districts; on the south by Agra District; and on the west by Bhartpur State and Gurgaon District. The administrative headquarters are at the city of MUTTRA, on the right bank of the Jumna (Jamuna). Muttra is mentioned by Ptolemy as the 'Modoura of the gods' (Mosovpa ý tov 06wv), and by Arrian and Pliny as Methora' (McDopa). Physical Aspects.—The District of Muttra comprises an irregular strip of territory, lying on either side of the river Jumna (Jamuná). The general level is only broken on the south-western angle, along the Bhartpur frontier, by low ranges of limestone hills, nowhere rising to more than 200 feet above the plain, the general elevation above sea-level falling from 620 feet in the north-north-west to about 566 feet in the south-south-west, following the course of the Juinna. The chief natural peculiarity of the District is the want of rivers. The one perennial stream, the Jumna, divides it into two not very unequal portions, the eastern tract containing about 640, and the western about 810 square miles. The eastern half of the District, comprising the Mát, Mahában, and Sádábád tahsils, presents the usual features of the Gangetic Doáb, consisting for the most part of a rich upland plain, abundantly irrigated by wells and rivers, and traversed by distributaries of the Ganges canal. Its luxuriant crops and fruitful orchards indicate the fertility of the soil; but it possesses little historical interest, and owes its present prosperity chiefly to the security of British rule. Above Bhadaura, several old beds of the Jumna have transformed themselves into lagoons. The western or trans-Jumna portion, on the other hand, comprising the Kosi, Chháta, and Muttra tahsils, though comparatively unfavoured by nature, is rich in mythological associations and antiquarian remains. The aspect of this sacred tract, where the divine brothers Krishna and Balarama grazed their herds, is very disappointing to the traveller. The crops are scanty, and the larger forest trees are not found. The dust lies deep on every road and field,