Tijara
Tijara, 1908
Head- quarters of a tahsil of the same name in the State of Alwar, Rajputana, situated in 27 degree 56' N. and 76° 51' E., about 30 miles north-east of Alwar city and 16 miles north-east of Khairtal station on the Rajputana-Malwa Railway. Population (1901), 7,784. The princi- pal industries are weaving and paper-making. The town possesses a post office, an Anglo-vernacular school, and a hospital with accom- modation for 6 in-patients. A municipal committee looks after the lighting and sanitation, the average income, derived mainly from octroi, being about Rs. 3,000 a year, and the expenditure somewhat less. According to tradition, the town was founded by a Jadon Rajput named Tej Pal, and was formerly called Trigartag. It was one of the chief towns of the Khanzadas of Mew at, and was for a long time their capital. To the south of the town is a great Pathan tomb called Bhartari, because the land on which it stands formerly belonged to a Hindu of that name. It is one of the largest tombs in Northern India, and is said to have been built by Ala-ud-din Alam Khan, the brother of Sikandar Lodi, who was for a long time governor here. At a short distance to the south-west is a pretty stone mosque, in front of which is a neatly built tomb, said to be the resting-place of Khanzada Hasan Khan, the opponent of Babar, who fell on the fatal field of Khanua.
The Tijara tahsil is situated in the north-east of the State, and comprises the head-quarters town and 189 villages, with a population of 66,826 persons, of whom over one-third are Meos. Under the Mughals Tijara was a sarkdr or district in the province of Agra ; but down to the reign of Akbar the local Khanzada or Mewati chiefs main- tained their independence in their mountain fortresses, and often exercised a controlling influence on the Delhi court. On the decline of the empire the tract fell an easy prey to the Jats, who overran it first about 1720, and held it till the death of their great leader, Suraj Mai, in 1763. It was then plundered by Sikh freebooters from the Punjab, and the Jats were ousted about 1765 in the successful effort made by Najaf Khan to restore imperial rule. Ismail Beg, the last distinguished Musalman who held the tahsll, was dispossessed by the Marathas, who assigned it with other Mewat parganas to the adventurer, George Thomas, for the maintenance of his mercenaries ; but the Jats of Bharatpur recaptured it in 1796, and it remained in their possession till 1805, when, in consequence of the Bharatpur chief having broken his engagement with the British, it was resumed by the latter and granted to Alwar. In 1826 the Tijara tahsil was conferred by Maharao Raja Banni Singh on Balwant Singh, an illegitimate son of the previous chief (Bakhtawar Singh). Balwant Singh constructed several handsome buildings and a fine masonry dam, and on his death in 1845 without male issue the tahsll reverted to the State of Alwar.
[Archaeological Survey of Northern. India, vol. xx, pp. 114-8.]
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.
