NAGPORE or Nagpur is the name of a town and a district in the Central Provinces. The Nagpur district is between lat. 20° 36' and 21° 43' N., and long. 78° 17' and 79° 42' E. and lies immediately below the great table-land of the Satpura range. The province lapsed to the British in 1853, through death of the raja, Raghoji 13honsla 111., without heirs. Its area is 3786 square miles, comprising the districts of Nagpur, Bhandara, Chanda, Wardha, Balaghat, and Upper Godavery. The aboriginal population were Gond, but many Hindu castes have settled in it for centuries, largely Mahratta Kunbi and their cognates, with the Mier, Chamar, and Mhang, and other semi-Ilinduized races. The first rulers are said to have been Gauli or Ahir chieftains, whose exploits yet live in the songs of the villagers. The historical knowledge, however, begins with the 16th century, when the district formed part of the Gond kingdom of Deogarh. The Bhonsla rajas of Nagpur com menced in 1734, when Raghoji Bhonsla was nominated Sena Sahib Subs, or general of the Mahratta confederacy. Raghoji Bhonsla was the son of Bimbaji, the third son of Bapuji, the brother of Parsoji. In 1739 and again in 1743 be was called in to aid the Gond family, and on the latter occasion he remained, advantage of the difficulties in which the Peshwa found himself placed ; in 1744 Raghoji obtained for him self a summud, conferring upon him the right of collecting all revenue and contributions from Lucknow, Patna, and Linver Bengal, including Behar, and vesting him with the sole authority to levy tribute from the whole territory from Behar to Cuttack. Bold and decisive in action, he was the perfect type of a Mahratta leader. He saw in the troubles of other states only an opening for his own ambition ; he did not wait even for a pretext for plunder and invasion. Though he was unscrupulous in his dealings with his neigh hours, yet he was liked and admired by his countrymen. With him occurred the great influx of Mabrattas, which resulted in the spread of the Kunbi and cognate Mahratta tribes over the entire district. And in this there was deep policy, as the Bhonslas would be seen holding the Nagpur territory from the Gonds, and not subject to the paramount power at Poona, and thus deriving a position superior to that of other military chiefs of the Mahratta empire, who owed their elevation to the Peshwa, and held their fiefs by his favour. Raghoji, as a leader of predatory expeditions, had, at the time of his death in 1755, established the Mahratta supremacy over the country between the Nerbadda and the Godavery, from the Adjunta Hills eastward to the sea. He was succeeded by his eldest son Janoji, who adopted as his heir his nephew Raghoji n., but was put aside by Madhoji, a brother of Janoji. Madhoji died 1788. Raghoji n. then resumed, and lived till 1816. During his reign he joined with Sindia ; their united armies were overthrown at Assaye and Argaum,'and Raghoji lost nearly a third of his dominions. Raghoji was succeeded by his only son, Pursoji. This prince being incapacitated for government by a complication of .diseases, a regency was formed under Madhoji Bhonsla, better known as Appa Sahib, Pursoji's cousin. In 1817 Pursoji died suddenly, having been murdered, as was afterwards discovered, by Appa Sahib. Soon after his succession, Appa Sahib had made common cause with the Peshwa, who was then inciting all the Mahrattas to unite against the British. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain his hold of Nagpur, he fled to Hindustan in February 1819, and he died at Jodhpur in 1840. On the deposition of Appa
Sahib, a grandson of Raghoji by his daughter was placed in power on 26th June 1818, and in 1826 he attained his majority, and was entrusted with the administration. A treaty was made with him, by which he ceded for ever territories to pay the cost of the subsidiary force, and assigned lands as a guarantee for the payment of the troops which he was bound to maintain, and which were thenceforth to be under British control. Raghoji retained the administration of affairs till his death, 11th December 1853. He died without a son, without any heir whatever, and without any adopted child, and it was determined to incor porate Nagpur State with the British territories. In 1855 the surviving widows of the late raja adopted as their son and heir Janoji Bhonsla, a collateral relation of the raja in the female line. In consideration of the loyalty of the family during the rebellion of 1857, the title of Raja Bahadur of Deor, and the lands of Deor in the district of Satara, were conferred in perpetuity on Janoji and his heirs, whether by blood or by adoption. The family received pensions. The zamindars with whom written engagements were contracted were those of Chatisgarh, Chanda, Deogarh or Chindwara. The Ch'hattisgarh zanundars, including the raja of Bustar, with whom a separate treaty had been concluded, and the rajas of Kharond and Kakair, were 27 in number, and paid an annual tribute of Rs. 1,28,032. In Chanda there were 18 petty Gond zamindars, paying altogether a tribute of only Rs. 420. The Gond zamindars of Deogarh were 14 in number, who usually paid only a trifling quit-rent. Besides these there were 32 zamindars in the Wainganga districts, who paid a total tribute of Rs. 1,41,594, but with whom no written engagements were formed.
The Nagpur territory and the Saugor and Nerbadda territory have since been formed into a separate administration under a Chief Commis sioner, to which have been added Sumbulpur and its dependencies. The territories under the juris diction of the Chief Commissioner are now known as the Central Provinces. The principal chiefs in the Central Provinces are the rajas of Bustar, Kharond, and Mukrai, to all of whom the right of adoption has been conceded. The raja of Bustar pays an annual tribute of Rs. 4000. The Kharond chief pays Rs. 4500. The revenues of Bustar and Kharond are respectively Rs. 25,870 and Rs. 29,878, and the population about 80,000 in each state.
Nagpur town is large and straggling, about 7 miles in circuit ; it is 85 miles to the north of Chanda. It is the headquarters of the Chief Commissioner. The British military cantonment 1 of Kamptee is in its neighbourhood. Nagpur is situated in an extensive plain, and is, strictly speaking, an open city. A rampart in the usual native style, with occasional round towers, had 1 on some former occasion been commenced, but had in no place been carried to a greater height than 8 feet, and is in general less. The extent of the city, as defined by this unfinished rampart, is scarcely 3 miles, but the suburbs, which run close up to the city wall, are not less than 7 miles in circumference, extending chiefly on the north and east sides, and not exceeding 400 yards in depth on the west and south. The language is a mixture of Hindi and Mahrati. The bulk of the popula tion worship Siva as Mahadeva. The agriculturists are chiefly the Kunbi, Mahratta, Pardesi, Teli, Lodhi, Mali, Barhai, and Pardhan, of whom the Kunbi is the best and the most numerous.