BUNDLLA, a tribe who claim to be Rajputs. They give a name to the province of Bundelkhand (corruptly Bundelcund). They are descended from the Garliwars of Kantit and Khairagarh, and first settled in Bundelkhand in the 13th or 14th century. There are few genuine Bundelas in the British portion of the province, except in the pargana of Panwari. The province of Bundelkhand is a mountainous hilly tract of country lying between lat. 23° 52' to 26° 26' N., and long. 77° 53' to 81° 39' E., between the rivers Jumna and the Chambal on the N. and N.W., the Jubbulpur and Saugor divisions on the south, and Rewa and Baglielcund and the Mirzapur hills on the S. and E. Within these bounds are five British districts ; it encloses the three Treaty States of Orcha or Tehri, Datia, and Sainthar, and the states of 26 chiefs who have sunnud or Ikrarnarnah from the British Government. Iron and copper are obtained, and diamonds from Patina. It seems to have been occupied successively by Gonds and Rajputs ; and to the latter are due the forts of Ajyegarh and Kalinjar, the temples at Khajuraka, and Mahoba, and the Hamirpur irrigation works. A vast
portion of Bundelkhand is hilly and unproductive, li forming the northern slope of the table-land of the Vindhya. Bundelkhand has, in the past three centuries, been fifteen times desolated by famine. The Bundela became dominant in the 14th cen tury. Towards the middle of the 18th century, the aid of the Mahrattas was called in against the Dehli forces. On the fall of the Peshwa in 1818, all his sovereign rights were ceded to the British. Under the Bundelkhand Agency are Sohawal, Jig?ee, Ajyegarh, Baonee, Beronda, Bijawar, Chirkary, Chutterpore, Duttia, Kotee, Myhere, Nagode, Orcha, I'unna, Rewa, and Sumpthur. Of the principal states, Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, Dhar, Dewas, Bhopal, and Jowra are under Mahomedan rulers, and the rest Mahratta. The petty states hold under the immediate guarantee of the British Government, but have feudal rela tions with one or other of the larger states, and occasionally with more than one.—Inrp. Gaz. ; Treaties, etc., iv. p. 195.