BUNDELCUND, or Bandelkhand, an extensive district of the province of Allahabad, in Hindustan, between [7:5:704] the rivers Cane and Betwah, occupying a superficies of about 11,000 square miles. The south-west frontier lies in about 24° north latitude, and 80° 45' east longitude, and the territory extends about two degrees farther north. In general the face of this country is mountainous, high, and rocky; its vegetation is scanty, and the inhabitants do not bestow much care on the cultivation of it. The summits of many of the hills,, however, are covered with low copses, amidst which there is but little grass interspersed. Other parts of the district exhibit a close jungle; and there are portions, consisting of fertile soil, which are brought under suitable culture. ,

The most valuable of all fossils, diamonds, have been long found here, particularly near the town of Purna or Pannah. The mines producing them are situated in a range of hills called by the natives Bund-Ahill, extending above twenty miles in length by between two and three in breadth, and are said to be partitioned into twenty-one divisions; but we do not know that the whole belong to Bundelcund. Of these, the mines of Maharajepoor, Raje-poor, Kimmerah, and Guddaseah, contain the finest diamonds; and one dug from the last has been reputed the largest in the world. It was kept in the fort of Callinger, among other treasures of Rajah Himmut Bahadur. Several different rajahs are proprietors of the mines, each having the charge of his own, without any interest in the produce of the rest. A superintendent is appointed to inspect the produce; and every diamond, when found, is registered, valued, and, if the rajah does not choose to keep it, is offered for sale. When sold, he receives two thirds of the value. In the reign of the emperor Acbar, the mines of Pannah produced to the amount of L. 100,000 annually, and were then a considerable source of revenue; but for many years they have not been nearly so profitable, and it appears that about the year 1750 the government did not derive more from them than about L.50,000 per annum. Their present value is not exactly known. According to tradition, the mines were discovered by a fakir or religious mendicant.

The country at a distance from the mountains is agreeably diversified with clusters of eminences or small hills, separate from each other, exhibiting a picturesque appearance; and the inhabitants invariably build their villages at the bottom of a hill. They are seldom seen in any situation, and it is chiefly around the villages that the small quantity of grain raised in the district is cultivated. But Bundelcund not being a fertile country in itself, grain is brought from the banks of the Jumna and the Ganges. Many other commodities are supplied from the Deccan, or middle region of the peninsula; and large herds of bullocks are seen continually passing to the hilly part of the territory. The forests abound with tigers, and the nhil-gau or white-footed antelope, as also the wild boar, which are all hunted by the chief men of the country.

he inhabitants, who are called Bondelas, are a brave and warlike people, entertaining high notions of independence, and impatient of constraint or indignity. They act under the full impulse of those violent passions which sway the inhabitants of the East, and lead to catastrophes of a nature unknown to Europeans. An instance of this once occurred, when the fortress of Adjyghur, besieged by the British troops, was evacuated by the garrison. The removal of the family of the refractory zemindar who had occasioned hostilities having been directed, his father-in-law was desired to prepare the females of the family for it. Instead of doing so, however, he murdered the whole with their children, eight in number, and then put an end to his own existence. But what was still more extraordinary, the perpetration of this horrible deed was apparently with the consent of the sufferers,, and without any complaint from them. The Bondelas are either Brahmins or Rajpoots. About Ditteah and Jhansi they are a stout and handsome race of men, exhibiting an appearance of opulence and contentment. They commonly go armed with a bow and spear, both of which are of excellent quality; and they know very well how to use them. They testify no apprehension in engaging veteran troops. Owing to the intestine commotions which long pervaded this district, every man carried arms; and many, availing themselves of superior force, attacked and plundered travellers, or levied contributions from them on pretence of guarding the passes which they had necessarily to traverse among the hills. Very little of their manners and customs is known. Women occasionally burn themselves along with the bodies of their deceased husbands, according to a remarkable religious principle diffused in the East, which now seems universally on the decline. The inhabitants dwell in towns and villages, of which the latter are much better than most others in India; and they have numerous strong forts, which they are accustomed to take and defend with determined vigour.

There are several considerable towns in the district, ∣ such as Pannah, Pirna, or Purna, where the rajah resides, on account of its proximity to the diamond mines; Chatterpoor, Ditteah, Callinger, Jyghtpoor, and Jhansi. Chatterpoor, thirty miles distant from Pannah, and six hundred and ninety-eight from Calcutta, is extensive and well built, the houses consisting chiefly of stone. Formerly it was ih a flourishing condition, a place of great and active commercial transactions, and a kind of depot for goods carried between the Deccan and Mirzapour, which is also in the province of Allahabad, and one of the principal trading towns of Hindustan. The goods were afterwards transported by numerous bullocks and camels to the places of their destination; and so much commerce was conducted here, that when Chatterpoor preserved its greatest importance, the duties levied amounted to L.50,000 yearly. It was founded by one of the rajahs of Bundelcund, and was occasionally his residence. Ditteah or Dutteah is a large town, surrounded with a stone wall, and provided with gates. It extends a mile and a half in length by nearly as much in breadth, and is populous and well built, the houses being of stone, and covered with tiles. A spacious edifice, with seven cupolas, stands at the north-west extremity, and was the former residence of the rajahs; but a palace has recently been built for them on an eminence without the town, close to which is a considerable lake. The district of Ditteah was tributary to the Mahrattas, and the rajah could raise two thousand horse and as many infantry, esteemed excellent troops. Some years ago they testified how much they were to be dreaded, in an engagement with the veteran forces under Μ. de Boyne, a famous French general in the Mahratta service, where all the skill and ability 7 of the commander could scarcely preserve the latter from destruction. But among the most important places of Bundelcund is Callinger, the chief town of a subdivision of this district, which seems to have once been an independent government, and now includes ten pergunnahs or circles of villages. It has a fortification built on a lofty rock, of great extent, and is deemed impregnable by the natives. The walls are said to be six or seven miles in circuit; a hundred and seventy pieces of cannon are mounted on them, and a garrison of five thousand men is necessary for their defence. Nevertheless, its natural strength has enabled a smaller number to sustain long sieges; and the earlier invaders of Bundelcun have been compelled to retire, after unsuccessful blocka es protracted during several years. So lately as the year 1810, the British army having attempted to take it J storm, was repulsed with great slaughter. However, t e [7:5:705]garrison of this fortress, probably dreading a repetition of the assault, evacuated the place during the night. No fortress can be more secure against the irregular approaches of an Indian army. Here the rajah kept his military stores and treasure, and it was also the residence of the Europeans in his service. It is twenty or thirty miles from Pannah, and lies in 24° 58' north latitude. Jhansi is a considerable town, but smaller than Ditteah, commanded by a stone fort on a high hill in 25° 31' north latitude, and thirty-two miles distant from Chatterpoor. There is a district dependent on the town, which, from having been seventy or eighty years in the uninterrupted possession of the peshwa or chief of the Mahrattas, is in a more tranquil state, and better cultivated, than most of the neighbouring territories, which have undergone frequent changes. Hence it is frequented by caravans from various commercial towns of India; and its wealth is augmented by a trade in cloths, and the manufacture of carpets, bows, arrows, and spears, the principal arms of the Bondela tribes. In the year 1790 it afforded a revenue of about L.50,000 annually. There is an ancient city called Ouncha, but now in decay, whose rajah was formerly the head of all the tribes of Bundelcund, and from whom their chiefs received tokens of their investiture. A castle which stands here, or in the neighbourhood, resembles a Gothic building, and is said to have been erected by a rajah of old, who in one day gave orders for building fifty-two forts. This may account for the places of strength seen in Bundelcund, for which the particular character of its surface is extremely favourable.

Besides these, there are several towns, villages, and fortifications of consequence in this district; but recent events have rendered the preservation of the latter of less importance to their owners.

From ancient times Bundelcund has been divided into many petty territories, whose chiefs have incessantly disturbed the peace of their subjects by predatory incursions on each other. The successful capture of strongholds in the mountains was an encouragement to the subsistence of warfare; and in addition to the numerous ordinary sources of dispute, it is not unlikely that their joint interests in the diamond mines contributed to excite dissension. Though the predominance of power induced some one of the contending parties to claim the superiority, it was reluctantly acknowledged by the rest; and hence, instead of a common bond of union to defend the country, it was weakened by the distractions of the whole. The rajahs of Callinger are mentioned by Mahommedan writers as early as the year 1008; but it does not appear to have been incorporated with Bundelcund for several centuries afterwards. Some time in the sixteenth century, it is said that a Bondela, living in Benares, removed to a fort in the district of Ouncha, then governed by a rajah, whose confidence he speedily obtained. This Bondela had a daughter of exquisite beauty, of whom the rajah became enamoured, and demanded her in marriage. But her father, considering the proposal as a grievous insult from one whom certain circumstances now unknown prompted him to regard as his inferior in rank, he, in concert with his daughter, plotted a diabolical revenge. Acquiescence was given on the part of both; and the rajah was invited by his bride to the house of the Bondela, where the ceremony was to be performed. Here a magnificent entertainment was prepared, of which he partook plentifully along with his attendants; but it was soon succeeded by excruciating tortures: poison had been treacherously administered; and when the victims became incapable of lefence, they were barbarously massacred. The Bondela -hen placed himself on the musnud of the rajah, which le enjoyed peaceably until his death. He was succeeded by his son Ber Sing Deo, whose descendant is the rajah of Ouncha; and he gained an accession of power by his services to the Soubahdar of Allahabad. But he is accused of being a great plunderer; and his history is stained by the assassination of the celebrated Abul Fazel, prime minister of Acbar, which is said to have been committed by a banditti under his command. Nay, it is affirmed that he acted in compliance with the wishes of Jehangeer, the emperor’s son, who was jealous of Abul Fazel’s influence over his father, and who, on his accession to the throne of Delhi, intrusted Ber Sing Deo with the government of all Bundelcund, then called Dungush. On descending to a later period, we find that this territory was invaded during the government of the rajah Chattersaul, about the middle of last century, by the chief of Furruckabad; and the rajah, to aid him in repelling the enemy, applied for support to the peshwa, Sewai Bajerow. Success having attended them, he adopted Sewai Bajerow as his son, and partitioned Bundelcund between him and his own sons, allotting him a third of his dominions, the land revenue of which was estimated at about L.1,300,000 sterling, but under an express stipulation that his posterity should be protected by the peshwa in independent possession of the remainder. The rest of his male issue, said to exceed fifty, were in a state of dependence on their two brothers. In time this division opened the way to dissensions, a civil war ensued, and the consequent weakness of the chiefs afforded an opportunity for other invasions. Ali Bahauder, an illegitimate grandson of Bajerow, held a command in the army of Scindia, the noted Mahratta chief; and in the same army was the rajah Himmut Bahauder, who not only commanded a great body of cavalry, but was the spiritual head and military leader of a numerous sect of devotees called Gosseins. Both seem to have fallen under the displeasure of the peshwa; and the latter, after retiring to his estate in 1786, soon united with the other in attempting the conquest of Bundelcund. The rajah Himmut seems to have had it in contemplation to establish a sovereignty elsewhere; and about the year 1787 he was actively engaged in assisting the prince Mirza Jurvaim Buklit in raising an army; but the death of the latter, which happened suddenly in 1788, probably allowed him more leisure to attend to the other object in view. He and his associates agreed that a large portion of the territory to be conquered should be assigned to himself, and its revenue applied to the support of certain troops which he engaged to maintain in the service of Ali Bahauder. The projected invasion took place in 1789, when Ali Bahauder conquered much of the district in the name of the peshwa, of whom he rendered himself nearly independent; and in a short time the whole was subdued except some fortresses, which the Mahrattas have never been able to reduce.

Some years elapsed before the complete establishment of their authority; but an arrangement was made with the peshwa, whereby he was acknowledged lord paramount of all the conquests effected in Bundelcund by Ali Bahauder, who engaged to obey him as his sovereign, and to pay him tribute. But the latter contrived to evade both conditions; and, after being occupied fourteen years in endeavouring to subjugate the country, died in 1802, during the blockade of Callinger, which, during ten years, he had fruitlessly endeavoured to capture. All was succeeded by his eldest son, Shumshere Bahauder, then absent at Poonah; and Himmut Bahauder, who, to retain his own influence, had for years been exciting disaffection among the different chiefs, now appointed a relation of Shumshere, the young rajah, regent of Bundelcund until his return.

A war next broke out between the British and the [7:5:706]Mahrattas. Himmut Bahauder endeavoured to accomplish the transference of this district to the former, while Shumshere was determined to oppose them vigorously. In September 1803 Colonel Powell crossed the river Jumna for the purpose of entering Bundelcund, and was joined by Himmut, with a body of thirteen or fourteen thousand men. The united forces, arriving on the banks of the river Cane, which passes the fort of Callinger, and falls into the Jumna near the town of Oorah, found the army of Shumshere on the opposite side. It was numerous, occupied a great extent, and was strongly posted; but, after a short cannonade on both sides, it precipitately retreated.

At this time a proposal was made by the Mahrattas, and acceded to by the British, for the cession of a portion of the territory of Bundelcund in lieu of certain districts in the Deccan, which had been ceded to them by a former treaty. Forces were then stationed in Bundelcund for the protection of other parts; and successive engagements of a conciliatory nature were formed with Shumshere and all the rest of the chiefs, whereby the British authority was rendered paramount. Himmut Bahauder had previously secured an advantageous arrangement for himself; and his death ensuing in the year 1804, government provided for his family, and assumed possession of his territory. The troops who had been retained in his service, a kind of irregular force, now dispersed. Still, however, the tranquillity of the country was liable to be disturbed; and indeed the cession of some parts of it by the Mahrattas was only nominal, as they had never been able to occupy the strongholds themselves. Thus it was judged expedient by the British to bestow a considerable tract in 1807 on a descendant of the rajah Chattersaul, who had been long dispossessed amidst contending factions, on condition of guarding the passes, and preserving his territory in peace. Other arrangements were made, conceding to the chief of Calpee, on the confines of Bundelcund, a portion of the interior, in lieu of the city and district of Calpee, and several villages on the Jumna. Meantime it became necessary to besiege the fortress of Callinger; but notwithstanding the British forces had captured many strongholds of the Indians, previously deemed impregnable, they were unsuccessful in attempting to take it by assault, and, as already observed, gained possession by the garrison retiring in the night. Its reduction proved a great accession of power, and tended materially to tranquillize the district, which had previously been incorporated with the British empire in the East, and a civil establishment constituted for the regular management of its affairs.

The possession of a country such as Bundelcund, occuPy in g 11,θθ0 square miles, is of considerable consequence in several respects; and it has been suggested that the revenue derived from it might be materially augmented, by assuming the direction of the diamond mines of Pannah. Nevertheless the occupation of the whole does not seem to have been judged an important object, more especially as, by the arrangement above alluded to with the chief of Calpee, he was left in the enjoyment of a third part of them, to which he was originally entitled.