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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 14, p. 234.


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134 EASTERN JUMNA CANAL
much improved since it was opened, by providing falls (which also supply
power for flour mills) to lessen the slope, and by straightening the channel.
The capital cost at the end of 1831-1 amounted to little more than
4lakhs, which had increased to 46lakhs by the end of 19-3-,- The
canal-se rich tract in the Districts of Saharanpur, Muvaffarnago,,
and Meemt, lying between the Hindan and Jumna, and falls into the
latter river a little below Delhi. It commands an area of go6,eoo acres,
and in tgo3-4 irrigated 305,00- acres. The gross reeue has
exceeded working expenses in every year except during theMutiny ;
and the net profits are usually high, amounting to 9.9 lakhs or 1s per
cent. on the capital outlay in 1913-4, while the gross profits were
14-5 lakbs. Since 1837-8 the canal has not been used for navigation.
Jamaa Canal, Western.--An important perennial irrigation work
n the Punjab, taking off from the west bank of the Jumna, and
irrigating Ambala, Karnal, Hissar, Robtak, and' Delhi Districts, and
parts of the Native States of Patials and Jlnd. It is by far the oldest
of the great canals in the Pmvioce, and originated in 1356, when Fiona
Shah III utilized the torrent-bed now known as the Chautaag to conduct
water to the royal gardens at Hissar and Haansi. This as little more
than a monsoon supply-channel, and after about a hundred years water
eased to flow farther than the lands of Kaithat. In x568 the emperor
Akbar --led the work of Dow Shah, and brought a supply from
the Jum and the Somb into the Ch-tang, and so on to Hansi and
Hint,. This was undoubtedly a perennial canal, as is testified by the
ancient bridges at Kamal and Saldon, and the complete set of water-
s with which the ranal was provided, besides the original -ad or
working-plan of the canal which is still in existence and prom supply
of water all the year round. A yet more ambitious scheme was under-
taken in 16,6 by Ali Mardlin Khan, the engineer of the emperor Shah
Jahln. The nver supply in the western branch of the Jumna was dammed
up annually about 14 miles below the present head-works of the canal,
and the water led along the drainage line at the foot of the high land
through Panlpat and Sonepat to Delhi. Drainage, and escapes were
fairly well provided for; and the Pulchaddm aqueduct, which took the
anal arm. the Najafgarh Phil drain near Delhi, was, for the time,
a great engineering feat, and was retained, with slight modifications,
vrhrcn.'u'a`uaocc.vaa.•nslGCVS1.~m.a6axw- T4e.mwr~uefmm.rha._
m~a
wxehrtfe tiramcx was teo[ieneif in Lij: 1Xz n€t i€oEnu€ ttziNi fhe
anal was reckoned equal to the maintenance of 1s,ooo horse. With
the decay of the Delhi empire the upkeep of the canal was no longer
attended to : water ceased to reach Hansi and Hissar in 1717, the flow-
on now Shah's line at Saftdon stopped in 1711, and the Delhi branch
eased to flow in 1753-60. The Delhi branch was reopened in t8rg,
and the Hunt branch i r815. The alignment of the canal was,
howe r, by no means satisfactory; And as early as 1846 it was noticed
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