SIRGUJA, a mountainous tract rising 600 to 700 feet above the level of Chutia Nagpur. Chutia Nagpur is the country on the eastern part of the extensive plateau of Central India, on which the Koel, the Subunreka, the Damuda, and other rivers have their sources. It extends into Sirguja, and forms what is called the Upar-ghat or high land of Jashpur, and it is connected by a, con tinuous chain of hills with the Vindhyan and Kymor ranges, from which flow affluents of the Ganges, and with the highlands TA .Amarkantak, on which are the sources of the Nerbadda. The plateau averages 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea, with an area of about 7000 square miles. It is on all sides difficult of access. Itis a well-wooded, uudulatieg country, diversified by rangts of hills, and has a genial climate'. The opulution in 1866 was estimated at about a million, and iB formed of a number of non-Aryan tribes who had fallen back to that refuge from the plains, more than half of them being the race known to Europeans as Kol. There are 21 inalials which form the S.W. frontier, and which tnay be thus classified :— 2'he Sunibuipur Group. Stunbulpur pro- Sukti. Bamra.
per. Cangpoore. ltebra Cole.
Ilurgarb. Sartmghur. Sonepore.
Bunnie.
The Patna Group.
Patna proper. I Born Samar. Bindra Kowa Phuljhur. I Khuriar. garb.
The Sirguja Gronp Sirguja proper. I Udaipur. Chang Babas.
Jashpur. I Korea.
Singbhn The territories comprised in the Sumbulpur and Patna groups were ceded to the British Indian Government by the treaty of 1803 with Ragoji Illionsla. They were all, except Raigarb,
restored in 1806, but filially reverted to the British in 1826. The Sutubulpur and Patna groups are in the circle of the Cuttack Tributary MaltaIs. Singbhum was never Mahratta, and in 1837 its chief, the raja of Purahat, joined in the rebellion, many of the I.arka Kol following. !din. The territories forming the Sirguja group were ceded in 1817, and in 1818 the British Govern ment sent a superintendent to Sirguja to restore order in the country, which had become distracted by domestic feuds. In 1820 and 1825, engage ments were made with the chief of Sirguja. In 1819 engagements wtre also taken front the chiefs of dashpur and Korea, of which latter state Chang 13ahar was then a feudal dependency ; but in 1848 separate settlements were made with Korea and Chang Bahar. The Sirguja mountains are in length 90 miles, breadth 85 miles, and lie between lat. 22° 34' and 24° 54' N., and long. 82° 40' and 84° 6' E. Sirguja is rugged and mountainous, from 500 to GOO feet above the adjoining table land of Chutia Nagpur. Drained by the rivers Kunher and Rhern, with its feeder. — Major Dalton, A:mals of Indian Administration ; Aitche son's 'Freaks, etc. See Kol ; &tont ; Singbhuin.