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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 17, p. 223.

JIA U TO IFN 223 population, 228 persons per square mile, is considerably above the District average. The tahsil is bounded on the east by the Dhas5in river, but towards the south and west is much intermixed with portions of Orchha State. The southern portion is generally wild and hilly, dotted with artificial lakes and fertile irrigated valleys, but displaying also great tracts of barren waste. In the centre the country is more open and there is little irrigation. Farther north again the soil is chiefly black soil, deteriorating near the wild nullahs which fringe the Dhasan ; this part has suffered much from the inroads of hiins (Saccha- rum spontaneum). In 1902-3 the area under cultivation was 1go square miles, of which 13 were irrigated, wells supplying more than three- fourths of the irrigated area. Mau Town (1).-British cantonment in Indore State, Central India. See MHOW. Mau Town (or Maunath Bhanjan) (2).-Town in the Muhammad- abad tahsil of Azamgarh District, United Provinces, situated in 25° 57/ N. and 83° 34' E., on the right bank of the Tons and on the Bengal and North-Western Railway, at the junction of the branch from Shahganj through Azamgarh town with the line from Gorakhpur to Benares. Population (1901), 17,696. The town is of some antiquity, though the date of its foundation has not been ascertained. It is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as the head-quarters of a mahdl or pargana; and during the reign of Shah Jahan that emperor bestowed the town upon his daughter, Jahānarā Begam, and it received in a special degree the royal favour. A sarai built by this lady still exists. At that period the town is said to have contained 84 muhallas, or wards, and 360 mosques. At the time of the cession to the British, Mau was held in jdgir by one of the Oudh Begams ; but the town had suffered severely from previous misrule, and has never regained its former prosperity. A commercial resident was appointed for Mau and Azamgarh in 1802; and in addition to the ordinary country traffic, investments in Mau cloths were made for some years on behalf of the Company. Private enterprise kept up the trade for a time after the abolition of the Company's monopoly; but the introduction of English-made yarn and cloth gave a great blow to it. Since the opening of the railway, how- ever, trade has revived to some extent, and fewer weavers leave the town to seek employment in the mills of Bombay and Calcutta. The population largely consists of fanatical Julahas (Muhammadan weavers), and religious friction is always present. In 1893 Mau was the scene of sanguinary riots, arising from the agitation against the slaughter of kine. There are no public buildings besides the dispensary, police station, and post office; but Mau is an important railway centre, and contains the head-quarters of an Engineer, a District Traffic Superintendent, and a Locomotive Superintendent. It is administered under Act XX