SIRMUR, or SARMOR (also called NAHAN, after the

See also:

• CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief

See also:

• TOWN

town)  , a native state of India, within the Punjab . It occupies the lower ranges of the Himalaya, between Simla and Mussoorie . Area 1198 sq. m . The state is bounded on the N. by the hill states of Balsan and Jubbal, on the E. by the British district of Dehra Dun, from which it is separated by the rivers Tons and Jumna, on the S.W. by Umballa district, and on the N.W. by the states of Patiala and Keonthal . Except a very small tract about Nahan, the chief town and residence of the raja, on the south-western extremity, where a few streams rise and flow south-westward to the Saraswati and Ghaggar rivers, the whole of Sirmur lies in the basin of the Jumna, which receives from this tract the Giri and its feeders the Jalal and the Palur . The Tons, the great western arm of the stream called lower down the Jumna, flows along the eastern boundary of Sirmur, and on the right side receives from it the two small streams Minus and Nairai . The surface generally declines in elevation from north to south; the chief elevations on the northern frontier (Chor peak and station) are about 12,000 ft. above the sea . The valley of the Khiarda Dun, which forms the southern part of the state, is bounded on the S. by the Siwalik range, the hills of which are of recent formation and abound in fossil remains of large vertebrate animals . Though the rocks of Sirmur consist of formations usually metalliferous, the yield of mineral wealth is small . The forests are very dense, so much so that the sportsman finds difficulty in making his way through them in search of deer and Sirsa was part of the territory conquered from the Mahrattas 1 from the leaves . The leaves are put into the machine at one side in 1803, when it was almost entirely uninhabited . It required reconquering from the Bhattis in 1818; but it did not come under British administration until 1837 .

During the

Mutiny of 1857 Sirsa was for a time wholly lost to British rule . On the restoration of order the district was administered by Punjab officials, and in the following year, with the remainder of the Delhi territory, it was formally annexed to that province . In 1884 it was sub-divided between the districts of Hissar and Ferozepur .