72 IIÂTHRAS TOWN
the works having been carefully modelled on the improvements made
in the fort at ALIGARH. After a short siege, terminated by a heavy
cannonade, a magazine within the fort blew up and destroyed half the
garrison. Daya Ram himself made his escape under cover of the night,
and the remainder of the garrison surrendered at discretion. During
the Mutiny the town was kept tranquil by Chaube Ghansham Das, a
blind pensioned tahsilddr, who was afterwards murdered by the rebels
at Kasganj. The town is essentially a trading centre, and the site is
crowded. A project for improved drainage is under consideration,
and it is also proposed to bring a water-supply from the Mat branch
canal. The chief public buildings are the municipal hall and male
and female dispensaries. The Church Missionary Society and Metho-
dist Episcopal Mission have branches here.
Hathras has been a municipality since 1865. The income and
expenditure during the ten years ending 1901 averaged Rs. 34,000.
In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 66,ooo, chiefly from octroi (Rs. 53,000) ;
and the expenditure was Rs. 54,ooo. The municipality had a closing
balance of Rs. a6,ooo and also Rs.31,000 invested.
Hathras was a place of some importance even before British rule,
and now it ranks second to Cawnpore among the trading centres of the
Doab. There is a large export trade in both coarse and refined sugar.
Grain of all sorts, oilseeds, cotton, and ghi form the other staples of
outward trade; while the return items comprise iron, metal vessels,
European and native cloth, drugs and spices, and miscellaneous wares.
The town is becoming a considerable centre for industrial enterprise.
It contains six cotton-gins and five cotton-presses, besides a spinning
mill. These factories employed 1,074 hands in 1903. There are two
schools with 300 pupils.
Hathwâ. Raj.-Estate in Bengal, situated for the most part in
a compact block in the north-west of Saran District, but also com-
prising property in Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Shahabad, Patna, and
Darjeeling, and in the Gorakhpur District of the United Provinces.
It has an area of 561 square miles, of which 491 square miles are
cultivated. The population in 1901 was 534,905. The rent roll
(including cesses) amounted in 1903-4 to 11•51 lakhs, and the land
revenue and cesses to 2-55 lakhs.
The Hathwa Raj family is regarded as one of the oldest of the
aristocratic houses in Bihar, and is said to have been settled in Saran
for more than a hundred generations. The family is of the caste of
Ga,utama Babhans or Bhuinhars, to which the Maharajas of Benares,
Bettiah, and Tekari also belong. The authentic history of Raj Huse-
pur or Hathwa commences with the time of Maharaja Fateh Sahi.
When the East India Company obtained the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar,
and Orissa in 1765, Fateh Sahi not only refused to pay revenue but
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
