Jhansi

Jhansi, the name of a division, a district, and city in the north-western provinces of British India. The division has an area of about 5,000 square miles, comprising the greater part of Bundelkhand, and including the three districts of Jalann, Lalitpur, and Jhansi. The latter, lying between the other two, extends over 1,567 square miles of sloping ground from the Vindhya range on the S. to the Jumna on the N. The upper portion is mountainous and rocky until the rich alluvial plain of Bundelkhand is reached. The Pahuj, Betwa, and Dhasan are the chief rivers. Much of the land is sterile, and much uncultivated; droughts and floods occur frequently; the population is poor and sickly; though the more fertile parts yield in good years plenty of cotton, pulse, cereals, and al root for dyeing. The district was not entirely annexed by the British until 1853, and the deposed rani proved a troublesome foe during the Mutiny of 1857. She was killed in battle, and under our rule the prosperity of the country has advanced. The city of Jhansi is in the neighbouring state of Gwalior, to which it was transferred with a strip of territory in 1861. It possesses a stone fort built on a lofty rock, and commanding the neighbourhood as well as the new settlement of Jhansi Naoabad, where the headquarters of the Jhansi district are now established.