Karauli Town
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Karauli Town
Capital of the State of the same name in Rajputana, situated in 2 6° 30' N. and 77 degree2' E., equidistant (about 75 miles) from Muttra, Gwalior, Agra, Alwar, Jaipur, and Tonk. It is also the head-quarters of the Sadr tahsll. It was founded in 1348 by Raja Arjun Pal, and was originally called Kalyanpuri after the temple to Kalyanji built about the same time. It is connected with the Rajputana-Malwa Railway at Hindaun Road by a metalled road 52 miles long. The population in 1901 was 23,482, of whom 76 per cent, were Hindus and 22 per cent. Muhammadans.
Viewed from some points whence the palace is seen to advantage, the town has a striking appearance. It is surrounded by a wall of red sandstone, and is also protected on the north and east by a network of ravines. To the south and west the ground is comparatively level-; but advantage has been taken of a conveniently situated watercourse to form a moat to the town wall, while an outer wall and ditch, defended by bastions, has been carried along the other bank, thus forming a double line of defence. These fortifications, though too strong for the desultory attacks of the Marathas, would be far less formidable to regular troops than were the mud walls of Bharatpur. The town wall, in spite of its handsome appearance, is unsubstantially built, being composed of ill-cemented stones faced by thin slabs after the fashion which prevails throughout the State. The circumference of the town is somewhat less than 2\ miles, and there are six gates and eleven posterns. The streets are rather narrow and irregular, but since 1884 most of them have been flagged with the local stone, and they can easily be cleansed as the natural drainage is excellent. There are several costly houses and a few handsome temples ; of the latter the most beautiful is perhaps the Pratap Saroman temple, built by Maharaja Pratap Pal (1837-50) in the modern Muttra style. The palace is about 200 yards from the eastern wall of the town ; it was founded by Arjun Pal in the fourteenth century, but little or nothing of the original structure can now be traced. In its present state it was erected about the middle of the eighteenth century by Raja Gopal Singh, who adopted the Delhi style of architecture with which his residence in that city had made him familiar. The whole block of buildings is surrounded by a lofty bastioned wall in which there are two fine gates.
A municipality was constituted in 18S4, and the committee has
successfully looked after the paving and lighting of the streets and the general conservancy of the town. Indeed, Karauli is one of the cleanest towns in Rajputana. The income of the municipality varies from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 9,000, derived mainly from a small octroi duty on cereals ; and the expenditure is somewhat less. The jail has accommodation for 77 prisoners, who are employed on cotton cloth and carpet-weaving ; attached to the jail is a small printing press, in which some of the prisoners occasionally work.
Besides a few private schools in which only plain ciphering and letter-writing are taught, and a girls' school, the town possesses a high school teaching up to the matriculation standard of the Allahabad University, with an Oriental department affiliated to the Punjab University, and a patwari class. This institution costs the State about Rs. 3,000 a year and education is free ; the daily average attendance in 1904 was 227. Since the high school was established in 1889, 6 students have passed the matriculation at the Allahabad University and 39 have passed various Oriental examinations of the Punjab University. There are two hospitals, a general and a female. The latter, which was opened as a dispensary for out-patients in 1891, is maintained from municipal funds.
