ULWAR or Alwar, capital of a Native State of the same name, in Rajputana, situated in lat. 27° 34' V' N., and long. 76° 38' 28" E., nearly in the centre of the State. The area is about 3000 square miles; population (1871), 778,596, of whom 180,225 were Musalmans, 38 Christians, and the rest Hindu& Of agricultural castes, the Moos are by far the most numerous. Its subdivisions or districts are Raht, the WM, with portions of Narukhand, of the Rajawat country, and of Mewat. Raht ia the country of the Chauhan Rajputa, the head of whom claitns to be the living representative of Prithi-raj. The 1Val is on the west border, and is occupied by Rajputs of the Shekhawat clan, which is so important iu Jeypore.
Uhvar , State is composed of petty chief ships, which, till the middle of the 18th century, owed allegiance to Jeypore and Bhurtpur: The southern portion was usurped during the minority of the maharaja of Jeypore by Partab Singh, of the clan of Murookha Rajputs, about 1780. Alaeherry was conquered from Bhurtpur. Partab Singh was Succeeded by ,his adopted son Buktawur Singh, with whom the first relations of the British Government were formed. Ahmad Bukhsh Khan, the Ulwar vakeel, joined Lord Lake at the com inencement of the war with the Mahrattas, and received the grant of Loharoo from Ulwar, and of Ferozpur from Lord Lake, as a reward for his services. As a reward for the assistance which Illwar rendered in the campaign, the districts which had been granted to Bhurtpur, and after wards resumed, were conferred on the maharao raja by a sunnud from 'Lord Lake. In 1805 an exchange of territories was effected with Ulwar for mutual convenience. The State pays no tribute or contribution to local corps or contingents ; it Maintains an army of 2000 infantry and 1500 cavalry. The chief has received the right of ildoption, and he is entitled to a salute of fifteen guns. It was decided in 1862 that Neemrana is a fief of Ulwar.—Treaties, iv. p. 141.
*, UMA, a Hindu goddess. In the Kena Upanish ad, she is first mentioned as a mediatrix between Brahma and the other Hindu gods. She is called Ulna Haimavati. It is supposed that she was the personification of divine knowledge, which came from Himavat, where scholars nsed to go and live to acquire this knowledge. Uma had several names. The Kumara Sambhava of Kalidasa gives an account of her birth and marriage. She was known as the Mountain Maid, and had taken a strong liking to Siva. She used to retire from the conapany of her parents, and, being sequestered in a bosky shade,' dedicated her soul to penance and prayer, in view to her union with Siva. On bear
ing of this, Siva sent a proposal to her father While she was seated with him. She blushingly consented to the proposal, and there were lotus petals in sweet maiden's guile.' She is known as a model wife.
Uma is the samewith the Maya, Sakti, Prakriti of the , Hindus, and with Io, Isis, Astarte, Ishtar, Myletta, Sara, Maia, Mary, Mariam, Juno, Venus, Diana, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hera, Rhea, Cybele, Ceres, Eve, Frea, Frigga of other nations, every where representing the female principle in creation, the universe, the mother of the gods, the spouse of god, the queen of heaven, and so forth, and the mother of god of the Mariolaters. One of the representations of Uma was as Kali, a nude female of a black complexion ; and for her counterparts we have Diana of the Ephesians, Isis, Hecate, Juno, Meles, Ceres, Cybele, and Venus Melainis, all of whom were represented black. In the cathedral at Moulins, at the chapel at Loretto, at the churches of the annunciation, St. Lazar's and St. Stephen's at Genoa ; at St. Francisco at Pisa, at l3risen in the Tyrol, and one in Padua ; in St. Theodore at Munich, in the cathedral and church at Augsburg, in tbe Borghese chapel of Alexia Maggiore, in the Pantheon, and in a small chapel of St. Peter's,—are to be seen (in Augsburg as large a..s hfe) a black virgin and a black child (Inman, fa. p. 26.3). There is a close analogy between the conception of lima, the mother of the universe, and that of the Egyptian and Grecian goddesses, as also that of the Gnostics, the Rosicrucians, Mariolaters, and other mystics, whose influence on Christianity is still manifest in the traces they have left on the, Roman Church.—.Calcutia Review, No. 109, p. 29 • Garrett.
UMAR, 'the second khalif after Mahomed, Ma homed's successors having, according to the sect of Sunni Muhammadans, been Abubakr,Umar,Usinan, and Ali. He conquered Syria, and in A.D. 637 he besieged and took Jerusalem, after a defence of several months. In 638 he led a powerful army into Egypt, the conquest of which country was completed by the taking of Alexandria, 640. He instituted the era of the Hijira, or flight of Ma homed, and Muhammadans now use it. It began A.D. lfith July 622. He was assassinated by a Persian slave, A.D. 644, at Jerusalem, where his tomb is still shown. His memory is held in the highest veneration by the Sunni sect, but the Shiahs regard him as a usurper. It is Umar of whom the statement is made that he ordered the Alexandrian library to be burned.