338
DHULIA TOWN
the Faruki kings, whose frontier fortress it subsequently became. To
the same Arab princes may be attributed the numerous stone embank-
ments for irrigation found throughout the country, of which those on
the Panjhra river, above and below Dhulia, are good examples. The
old fort at Dhulia is also assigned to this dynasty, but it was probably,
like the village walls, restored and improved by the Mughal governors.
The town appears to have passed successively through the hands of
the Arab kings, the Mughals, and the Nizam, and to have fallen into
the power of the Marathas about 1795. In 1803 it was completely
deserted by its inhabitants, on account of the ravages of Holkar and
the terrible famine of that year. In the following year Balaji Balwant,
a dependant of the Vinchurkar, to whom the parganas of Laling and
Songir had been granted by the Peshwa, repeopled the town and received
from the Vinchurkar, in return for his services, a grant of andyn land
and other privileges. He was subsequently entrusted with the entire
management of the territory of Songir and Laling, and fixed his head-
quarters at Dhulia, where he continued to exercise authority till the
occupation of the country by the British in 1818. Dhulia was imme-
diately chosen as the head-quarters of the newly-formed District of
Khandesh by Captain Briggs. In January, 1819, he obtained sanction
for building public offices for the transaction of revenue and judicial
business. Artificers were brought from distant places, and the buildings
were erected at a total cost of Rs. z7,ooo. Every encouragement was
offered to traders and others to settle in the, new town. Building sites
were granted rent free in perpetuity, and advances were made to both
the old inhabitants and strangers to enable them to erect substantial
houses. At this time Captain Briggs described Dhfilia as a small town
surrounded by garden cultivation, and shut in between an irrigation
channel and the river. From the date of its occupation by the British,
the progress of Dhulia appears to have been steady ; but it is only since
the development of the trade in cotton and linseed that the town has
become of any great importance as a trading centre. Coarse cotton and
woollen cloth and turbans are manufactured for local use, and a steam
cotton-press was opened in 1876 by a Bombay firm. There are now
nine ginning factories and six presses employing nearly z,ooo hands.
Since 187z a little colony of Musalmans from Allahabad, Benares, and
Lucknow have settled at Dhfilia, who say that they left their homes
on account of poverty. They are Mornins or Julahas by caste, and
declare themselves orthodox Muhammadans, but their co-religionists in
Dhulia take them to be Wahhabis. They support themselves by weaving
sdris of fine texture, which they sell at a lower rate than the local
merchants. In T873, on the withdrawal of the detachment of regular
Native infantry, the Bhil Corps for a time occupied the lines lying to the
south-west of the town, where also are the jail, the courthouse, and
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
