Indore

Indore, the name of the state in Central India governed by a Maharajah having the title of Holkar; also of its capital. The total area is about 8,000 square miles, but the districts that go to make it up are scattered about the plateau of Malwa and the basin of the Nerbudda, the Vindhya range irregularly dividing the territory into two portions, of which the southern, watered by the Nerbudda, is the larger and more fertile, yielding wheat and other grains, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and great quantities of opium. Forests of wide extent are found on the Vindhya and Satpura hills. The population consists principally of Mahratta Hindus, and, in the less civilised, parts, of-primitive Bhils and Gonds.

A branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway extends to Indore, which is connected by another line with Nusirabad, Agra, and Delhi. The climate is hot and, after the rainy season, decidedly unhealthy. Education has made some progress, the Rajkumar College for sons of chiefs and nobles being an important institution. An agent of the Governor-General watches over the administration of this and the neighbouring states of Central India, having his headquarters at the capital, yvhich stands on the left bank of the Kuthi, and is rather a poor city of brick and mud houses, with a granite palace for the Maharajah and a fine British Residency. The Holkar dynasty, founded at the close of the 18th century by Mulhar Rao, has been since 1843 under the virtual protection of the British, who placed the reigning sovereign on the throne, and who maintain strong garrisons at Mhow and Mahidpur.