The terai stretches all along the frontier of the province immediately below the forest, and is low and moist. It is more or less settled or cultivated, but the crops are poor, and the country is unhealthy at the first, and there are great difficulties in the way of bringing the soil under cultivation. Throughout this district there are large grassy plains, where numerous herds of cattle are kept, and it is interspersed with old water-courses, the former beds of the rivers, now forming jhils, and swarming with alligators. In the Baraich and Kheeree districts, where the terai changes into the drier land, are two tracts, known as Dhowrera and Nanpara, which have an excellent breed of draught cattle. In the centre of this tract there are a few especially in the lower part of Sitipur, in Lucknow, and Barabanki, where the soil is more clayey, and the crops more irrigated and finer.
Oudh takes its name from Ajodhya, a sacred city of the Hindus, close to the town of Fyzabad. It was the capital of the ancient Solar dynasty, one of whose rulers was the deified Rama, wor shipped throughout India. Also, a few miles north of the Gogra, at Colonelganj, the Hindus point out the burial-place of Agastya, one of the Solar race, a pioneer of civilisation, whom the Tamil people acknowledge as the founder of their literature. The earliest historical information points to Sravasti (Sahet Mahet) under a power ful ruler. In its capital Sakya Muni began his labours ; and the city long remained a seat of learning for the disciples of the Buddhist faith. Six centuries after the first promulgation of the Buddhist religion, Sravasti contributed two of the great schools of doctors who attended at the synod convened by the Scythian conqueror Kanishka in Kashmir.
The first Muhammadan invasion of this province took place in the 11th century of the Christian era, when Sayad Salar Masa'ud, a relative of the great Mahmud of Ghazni, fought his way into Oudh at the head of a large army. The history of his invasion, his first success, and his final defeat and death at Baraich, are told in the Mirat Masa'udi by Saadat Khan, the founder of its last Muhammadan dynasty, who (A.D. 1756) was ap pointed subandar of Oudh in the voluptuous reign of Muhammad Shah. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, Safdar Jung, who died in 1753, and was succeeded by his son, Shuja-ud-Dowla, who was created vizir by the emperor Shah Alam. He was defeated at Buxar in 1764, and retreated to his own dominions. He then sought aid from the Mahrattas, but was again defeated, and he then threw himself on the generosity of the British. Shuja-ud-Dowla died in 1775, and was succeeded by his son. During his reign, an interview took place with Warren Hastings, from which a treaty in 1781 resulted. Asof-ud-Dowla died in 1797, and his reputed son, Mirja Ali, succeeded, only to be displaced for Saadat Ali's eldest son, Shuja-ud-Dowla, with whom a treaty was made in 1812. He died llth July 1814, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Ghazi-ud-Din Haider. Hitherto the family were styled vizir, but in 1819 the ruler was raised to the dignity of padshah or king. His son, Nasir-ud-Diu Haider, succeeded him, but died in 1817, and was suc ceeded by his uncle, Muhammad Ali, who died in May 1842, and was succeeded by his son, Amjad Ali, who, on the 13th February 1847, was succeeded by Wajid Ali, whose misgovernment was such that, after repeated warnings, he was dethroned 6th May 1856. The British Govern
ment then assumed the sovereignty of Oudh, and the king was pensioned on 12 lakhs yearly. In the course of the connection of the British with this family, the family lent several large sums to the British.
Oudh has probably the densest population of any equal rural area in the world. The census of 1869 returned a total of 11,220,232 persons, spread over 23,992 square miles, yielding an average of 468 persons to the square mile. At the census of 1881, the N.1V. Provinces and Oudh were taken together, and showed a joint popu lation of 44,849,619, viz. Hindus, 38,555,121 ; Muhammadans, 6,162,900 ; Buddhists, 103; Chris tians, 47,673 ; Sikhs, 3644; ,rains, 79,957; Parsees, ; Jews, 101 ; and others, 6. Muliatinnadans most numerous and powerful in the central icts of Lucknow and Barabanki. Their settle ts there were mostly effected in the 13th, t, and 15th centuries, and they have generally inued to hold the lands they first acquired. the 55 talukdars of these two districts, 34 are harnmadans, 23 belong to Barabanki, and 11 Lucknow. The higher classes of Muliammadans are, Sapid, Shaikh, Milki, Malik, Kuraishi, Pathan, Khandan, Rohilla, Moghul• The Muhammadan converts from higher castes are, Bhale Sultan, Khanzada, Itajput, Mewati.
The higher castes of Hindus are thus given : Brahman, Bengali, Jat, Jain, Kshatriya, Kyath, Khatri, Kashmiri, Marwari, Panjabi, Sikh, Saraok, Vaishya.
Of lower Hindu castes the most numerous are, Aliir, Bhunya, Bhat, Barheire, Chamar, Dhobi, Kabar, Kori, Kurmi, Lohar, Lodha, Mali, Murao, Nao, Pasi, Teti.
Aborigines : Dorn, Nat, Kanjar, Bhar, Tharu, Paharia, and others.
There are thirty orders of religious mendicants, amongst whom are Gosain, Jogi, I3yragi, Sad'hu.
The Ahir are largely agricultural. The Kurmi and Murao are the best tenantry and most indus trious cultivators. They form the backbone of the wealth of the province, and have fought well under British officers. The Pasi furnish the greater part of the rural police. Others, like the Ilhar and Tharu, live in small isolated groups on the outskirts of the jungle or the hill country, and hold no communication with the outer world. The Nat and Kanjar wander like gipsies over the face of the country, with their small moveable villages or wigwams of matting and leaf-screens. The Kori and Chamar, weavers and leather cutters, have lean, black, and ill-formed figures, and their stupid faces and their filthy habits reflect the long degradation to which they have been hereditarily subjected.
In consequence of the prevalence of female infanticide amongst certain Rajput tribes in Oudh, this race was carefully enumerated in 1871, and 439 clans or subdivisions of clans were found in 13,066 distinct villages, containing a population of 559,699 souls, of whom were 250,849 males and 184,623 females above ten years of age, and 84,200 boys and 6027 girls under ten. In the five years 1875 to 1879, there were 77,540 births among the proclaimed castes, of whom 39,984 were boys, and 37,556 were girls. They seem to generate more male offspring than female.