JHANSI  , a

city and district of British India, in the Allahabad division of the United Provinces . The city is the centre of the Indian Midland railway system, whence four lines diverge. to Agra, Cawnpore, Allahabad and Bhopal . Pop . (Igor), 55,724 . A stone fort crowns a neighbouring rock . Formerly the capital of a Mahratta principality, which lapsed to the British in 1853, it was during the Mutiny the scene of disaffection and massacre . It was then made over to Gwalior, but has been taken back in exchange for other territory . Even when the city was within Gwalior, the civil headquarters and the cantonment were at Jhansi Naoabad, under its walls . Jhansi is the principal centre for the agricultural trade of the district, but its manufactures are small . The DISTRICT OF JHANSI was enlarged in 18gr by the incorporation of the former district of Lalitpur, which extends farther into the hill country, almost entirely surrounded by native states . Combined area, 3628 sq. m . Pop .

(19o1), 616,759 showing a decrease of ro % in the

decade, due to the results of famine . The main line and branches of the Indian Midland rail-way serve the district, which forms a portion of the hill country of Bundelkhand, sloping down from the outliers of the Vindhyan range on the south to the tributaries of the Jumna on the north . The extreme south is composed of parallel rows of long and narrow-ridged hills . Through the intervening valleys the rivers flow down impetuously over ledges of granite or quartz . North of the hilly region, the rocky granite chains gradually lose them-selves in clusters of smaller hills . The northern portion consists of the level plain of Bundelkhand, distinguished for its deep black soil, known as mar, and admirably adapted for the cultivation of cotton . The district is intersected or bounded by three principal rivers—the Pahuj, Betwa and Dhasan . The district is much cut up, and portions of it are insulated by the surrounding native states . The principal crops are millets, cotton, oil-seeds, pulses, wheat, gram and barley . The destructive kans grass has proved as great a pest here as elsewhere in Bundelkhand . Jhansi is especially exposed to blights, droughts, floods, hailstorms, epidemics, and their natural consequence—famine . Nothing is known with certainty as to the history of this district before the period of Chandel rule, about the 11 th century of our era .

To this

epoch must be referred the artificial reservoirs and architectural remains of the hilly region . The Chandels were succeeded by their servants the Khangars, who built the fort of Karar, lying just outside the British border . About the 14th century the Bundelas poured down upon the plains, and gradually spread themselves over the whole region which now bears their name . The Mahommedan governors were constantly making irruptions into the Bundela country; and in 1732 Chhatar Sal, the Bundela chieftain, called in the aid of the Mahrattas . They came to his assistance with their accustomed promptitude, and were rewarded on the raja's death in 1734, by the bequest of one-third of his dominions . Their general founded the city of Jhansi, and peopled it with inhabitants from Orchha state . In 18o6 British protection was promised to the Mahratta chief, and in 1817 the peshwa ceded to the East India Company all his rights over Bundelkhand . In 1853 the raja died childless, and his territories lapsed to the British . The Jhansi state and the Jalaun and Chanderi districts were then formed into a superintendency . The widow of the raja considered herself aggrieved because she was not allowed to adopt an heir, and because the slaughter of cattle was permitted in the Jhansi territory . Reports were spread which excited the religious prejudices of the Hindus . The events of 1857 accordingly found Jhansi ripe for mutiny .

In

June a few men of the 12th native infantry seized the fort containing the treasure and magazine, and massacred the European officers of the garrison . Everywhere the usual anarchic quarrels rose among the rebels, and the country was plundered mercilessly . The rani put herself at the head of the rebels, and died bravely in battle . It was not till November 1858, after a series of sharp contests with various guerilla leaders, that the work of reorganization was fairly set on foot .