UDAIPUR STATE 83
area of r,052' square miles. Till 1905 it was included in the Chota
Nagpur States of Bengal. It is bounded on the north by Surgujā ;
on the east by Jashpur and Raigarh ; on the south by Raigarh ; and
on the west by the District of Bilaspur. On the north it is walled in
by the great plateau of Mainpāt in Surgujā, which rises to a height
of 3,781 feet above the sea. From the edge of this table-land, which
forms the watershed for streams running north and south, a steep
descent of 1,500 feet leads down to the fertile valley of the river Mānd,
and is continued in a succession of terraces to Raigarh on the southern
boundary of the State. The chief geological formation of Udaipur
is a coarse carboniferous sandstone, appearing on the west in a low
range of hills which divides the small river Koerga from the Mānd
Coal, gold, iron, mica, laterite, and limestone exist, but no regular
investigation has yet been made into the mineral resources of the State.
A coal-field situated 2 miles east of Dharmjaygarh is worked for brick
burning, and lime is extracted from a limestone quarry about 8 miles
north-east of the town. The only hill of any size is Lotta (2,098 feet).
The Mānd river, which rises in Surgujā and receives the drainage of
the southern face of the Mainpāt plateau, follows a winding course
towards the south-west and. joins the Mahanadi in Raigarh. Its
channel is deeply cut through the sandstone rocks in a series of
alternate rapids and pools, and the river is not navigable in any part
of its course within Udaipur. The scenery is wild ; and forests, which
are at present of no great marketable value owing to the want of good
means of communication, cover the greater portion of the State. The
principal trees are sāl (Shorea robusta), mahud (Bassia latifolia), kusum
(Schleichera tr~yuga), and tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon). The jungles
contain tigers, bears, leopards, wild hog, bison, and several kinds of
deer; wild elephants occasionally stray in from the south.
Udaipur, in common with the rest of the Surgujā group of States,
was ceded to the British Government by the provisional agreement
concluded with Mudhoji Bhonsla (Appa Sahib) in 1818. Ever since
the conquest of Surguja by the Raksel Rājputs, Udaipur formed an
apanage of a younger branch of the reigning family in that State ; and
at the time of its transfer to the British, Kalyan Singh, then chief of
Udaipur, paid tribute through Surgujā. In 1852 the chief and his
two brothers were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to im
prisonment, and Udaipur escheated to Government. At the time of
the Mutiny in 1857 the former chief and his brothers made their way
back to Udaipur and established a short-lived rule. In 1859 the
survivor of the two brothers was captured, convicted of murder and
rebellion, and transported for life to the Andaman Islands. Subse-
r This figure, which differs slightly from the area shown in the Census Repart of
1gor, was supplied by the Surveyor-General.
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