---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 8, p. 124.

124 BHONGÎR TAL UK plantains, and betel-leaves are extensively grown, and irrigated from wells, tanks, and channels. Bhongir Town.-Head-quarters of the tdluh of the same name in Nalgonda District, Hyderabad State, situated in 17° 31' N. and 78° 53' E. Population (1901), 5,8o6. The town is situated at the foot of a fortified rock, 2,000 feet above sea-level. In 17o9 a freebooter, Pap Rai, raised a large body of followers and committed depredations in the Deccan by plundering Warangal and Bhongir, but was eventually captured and executed. Bhongir is an important centre of trade and is celebrated for its pottery. It contains the offices of the Second Talukdar, engineer, and tahsilddr, and also a post office, a dispensary, and a vernacular school. The fort is built on an isolated rock, the eastern and southern sides of which are quite unscalable ; from the bdldhisdr or citadel on the top a good view over the surrounding country may be obtained for long distances. Bhopal Agency.-A collection of Native States in charge of a Poli- tical Agent under the Agent to the Governor-General in Central India, lying between 22° 19' and 24° 21' N. and 76° 13' and 78° 51' E. It is bounded on the south and east by the Central Provinces; on the north by the Rajputana Agency and Gwalior State ; and on the west by the Kali Sind, which separates it from the Malwa Agency. The Bhopal Agency has an area of 11,653 square miles, and a population (19or) Of 1,157,697, giving a density of 99 persons per square mile. Hindus number 912,111, or 79 per cent. ; Musalmans, 124,425, or io per cent. ; Animists, Iro,o18, or 9 per cent. (chiefly Gonds); and Jains, 10,171. The principal towns are BHOPAL (population, 77,023), SEHORE, includ- ing military station (16,864), NARSINGHGARH (8,778), SARANGPUR (6,339), RAJGARH (5,399), KHILCHIPUR (5,121), and BERASIA (4,276). This charge was created in 1818, when a Political officer was accredited to the Bhopal Darbar with collateral charge over other States in the vicinity. He ranked as an Agent to the Governor-General till 1842, when the charge was made into a Political Agency. It now includes the treaty State of BHOPAL, and the mediatized States of RAJGARH, NARSINGHGARH, KORWAI, KHILCHIPUR, MAKSUDANGARH, MUHAMMADGARH, BASODA, and PATHARI, with sixteen petty holdings. The SIRONJ pargana of the Tonk State in Rajputana and portions of Gwalior, Indore, Dhar, and Dewas also fall within its limits. The Agra-Bombay high road and the Itarsi-Jhansi and Bhopal- Ujjain sections of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway traverse the charge. The Political Agent, who has his head-quarters at SEHORE, exercises general supervision over the affairs of the States, and, in the case of all but Bhopal, personally deals with criminal cases of a heinous character. He is a Sessions judge, and hears appeals ftom the Super- intendent of Sehore, and also exercises the powers of a District