Bog Alcund

The chief town of Bogalcund is Rewah, which is large and populous. It is situate on the small river Bichanuddy, rising. twenty miles to the east, and joined by the Behaouddy just above the town. The united stream runs immediately under a large fort in the capital, which includes the houses of the most wealthy and respectable inhabitants, and where the Rajah resides. In the neighbourhood are some me morials of the slain, who lately fell in a great battle, wherein the Bogals were victorious against an invad ing enemy. Rewah stands in lat. 24° Sr north, and 81° 25' east longitude ; distant 126 miles north-east of Benares.

This district is under the government of an inde pendent Rajah, who is said to be the Maher-Rajah or sovereign of several neighbouring territories; and although the Rajah of Bundelcund is himself quite independent, and infinitely the more powerful of the two, it is necessary for him to be invested by the Ra jah of Bogalcund, wherein we find another to feudal principles. His revenues are very small, principally owing to the subdivisions of the district ; for it has sometimes excited astonishment that the sovereign of so fertile a territory should be so poor. He receives an inconsiderable tribute from the Ra jahs acknowledging his superiority, land-rents, and customs on merchandise passing through the ca pital.

All Bahauder, a Mahratta chief who holds

a powerful command in the army of the Peshwa, or Head of the nation, threatened Bogalcund with in. vasion about the year 1794 or 1795, to levy contri butions from the Rajah, which he was little enabled to afford. But he was beloved by his subjects, and Ali Bahauder having put his menaces in execution, he raised an army of about 3000 men to oppose him. The enemy advanced with 6000 men, carrying every thing in his course, until arriving within two miles of the capital. There he was encountered, and totally defeated by the Rajah, with the less of his General and his cannon. The invader vowed to revenge the destruction of this army, and the death of his Gene.- . nil. He again collected a powerful force, and in vaded Bogalcund a second time, in the year 1795; but the Rajah, then aged and incapable of the ex ertion necessary to resist so active an enemy, pur chased peace by concessions. Either at this time or previously, he engaged to pay Ali Bahauder L.14,500 Sterling,—a stipulation which he proved totally unable to perform, and a neighbouring Ra jah, who had become security payment, and required hostages for his indemnification, afterwards obtained the cession of a valuable district in Bogal cund, probably from having been obliged to fulfil his part of the engagement. But this was not the

only calamity ; for a supervening scarcity in the succeeding season followed the depredations of All Bahauder's troops. The natural fertility of the soil, however, and importation of various commodities from Misapour, contributed to relieve the inhabi tants, and the country began to recover speedily . • from the disasters it had been exposed to. Never theless, its dismemberment, at no distant period, was anticipated, from the growing poverty and de clining power of the Rajah, though the nature of the soil, and the state of agriculture, were both auf ficient to support a numerous population. Former the influence of the Rajahs of Bogalcund was , very considerable in Indian affair, and they have been known to afford an asylum to powerful Princes, whom temporary adversity exiled from their own , dominions. Here the illustrious Emperor of the Moguls, Ackber, was born in the year 1542. On occasion of a usurpation of the empire, his father, Humayoon, retired from Delhi ; and his mother, when pregnant, was, for greater security, sent to a strong fortress, where, tradition reports, she was almost immediately taken in labour. But the As trologers of the day having previously determined that future felicity would attend the child who should be born at a certain moment, she was sus pended, during two hours, by the legs, in order to retard the period of delivery, and then being taken down, the great Ackber saw the light. More re cently, when his descendant, Shah Aulum, was dis possessed of the throne of Delhi, in the course of last century, by the invasion of another potentate, he sought refuge with Ajet Sing, the Rajah, of whom we have already spoke ; and here, also, between the years 1750 and 1760, one of his wives was de livered of a prince, whom she called Aekber, in commemoration of his ancestor, and who lately sur vived at the capital, Delhi, which was restored to him. But the future greatness of the latter Prince being of less importance, his mother probably eseaped the cruel experiment to which the parent of Ackber was subjected. (a.)