Lashkar
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.
Lashkar
(Camp'). — Modern capital of Gwalior State, Central India, situated in 26° 13' N. and 78° 10' E., 2 miles south of the fort and old town of Gwalior, and 763 miles by rail from Bombay. The original capital of Sindhia's dominions was Ujjain. Lashkar, now the largest and most important city in the Central India Agency, owes its foundation to Daulat Rao Sindhia, who, in 18 to, after wresting the district from his vassal, Ambaji Inglia, fixed on this spot for his standing camp. A year or so later a few buildings were erected, notably the old palace now called Maharajwara. Even in i8r8, however, the place was little more than a great encampment, as the following description by an eyewitness shows : —
It presents the appearance of an immense village, or rather collec- tion of villages, with about a dozen "chunamed" buildings, shapeless, coarse, without any air of ornament.And here and there many small trees and hedges of the milk-plant, all of quick growth and late planting, but yet giving the whole a fixed and settled aspect. ... At the second gaze, however, you see interspersed many tents and "palls," flags and pennons, in some parts hutted lines and piles of arms . . . in one range a large regular park of artillery, in all open spaces horses picketed, strings of camels, and a few stately elephants. On the skirts of this large mass a few smaller and more regular encampments belong- ing to particular chiefs with their followers, better armed and mounted. The sounds, too, of neighings of horses, drums and firearms, and occasionally the piercing trump of an elephant mingled in the confusion with the hum of a population loud, busy, and tumultuous, convincingly tell you that the trade here is war, the manufacture one of arms ^'
By 1829, however, the cit\' had assumed a more settled appearance, the main street having many large houses built of stone.
In 1858, during the Mutiny, the Rani of Jhansi and Tantia Topi joined forces, and on iNIax 30 appeared before Lashkar, and called on Sindhia for assistance. Sindhia not only refused, but attacked them. His army, however, mutinied and, except for his Maratha guard, went over en masse to the enemy. Sindhia was protected by his Marathas, and reached Agra fort in safety. He was reinstated at Lashkar on June 20 by Sir Hugh Rose and the Resident, Major iNlacpherson.
The city is picturesquely situated in a horseshoe-shaped valley opening eastwards. Just below the fort are the palaces, standing in a walled enclosure, known as the Phul Bagh, or flower garden. The modern residence of the chief, the Jai Bilas palace, and the older Moti Mahal, now used for departmental offices, a museum and other buildings, are all situated within this enclosure. Outside it, to the south, are the Elgin Club for the Sardars of the State, managed on the lines of a European club, the Victoria College, and the Jayaji Rao Hospital. The city proper lies beyond the palaces. It is bisected by the main road, leading from the Gwalior railway station, and is divided into numerous quarters. The Sarrafa or bankers' quarter is, however, the only street with any pretensions. This is a fine broad road, not unlike the Chandni Chauk at Delhi ; but the houses, on close inspec- tion, are seen to be in bad taste, Italian finials and balustrades being mingled with exquisite native stone-work, while the thin, poorly built walls are but inadequately concealed by a certain veneer of smartness.
The architecture of the city generally has little to recommend it, although Gwalior is still the centre of a stone-carving industry which has been famous for centuries, a fact only to be explained by the demoralizing effect which the Maratha inroads of the eighteenth centur) had on all the arts. The great Jai Bilas palace, built in 1874, is con- structed on the general plan of an Italian palazzo, but is unfortunately disfigured by an incongruous mingling of European and Indian styles. It contains a fine Darbar hall, 100 feet long by 50 wide and 40 high. The earlier Moti Mahal palace is a copy of the Peshwa's palace at Poona, and is an example of the debased style of the eighteenth century. The modern Jayaji Rao Hospital and Victoria College are, however, really handsome buildings. The Chhatrls or cenotaphs of
' Sketches of India by an Officer for Fireside Travellers, p. 25-1. the Sindhias, which are situated to the south of the city, are good examples of modern Hindu architecture, especially that of the late Maharaja.
The population has been : (1881) 88,066, (1891) 88,317, and (1901) 102,626. Hindus number 77,606, or 76 per cent., and Musalmans 22,512, or 22 per cent. These figures include the population of the cantonment or Lashkar Brigade, which amounted to 13,472 in 1901. The people are on the whole well-to-do, many of the merchants being men of great wealth. The principal sources of trade are banking and exchange, stone-carving, and the export of building stone and grain. There are many temples in the city, but none is of special interest. Lashkar is well supplied with metalled roads, and a branch of the Gwalior Light Railway runs from the Gwalior station to the Jai Bilas palace. The General Post Office belonging to the State postal system is in the Jayendraganj quarter, with branches in other quarters.
The city is administered by a municipal board, originally established in 1887. It now consists of 70 members, of whom 22 are officials, and the rest elected. They have control of the city proper, which is divided into eighteen wards. The management of the lighting, conservancy, roads, markets, drainage, and sanitation, and the acquirement of land for public purposes are in their hands. In 1903 the total income was Rs. 72,000, chiefly derived from taxes on lighting, bazars, hackney carriages, and the rent of certain lands ; and the expenditure was Rs. 50,600, including conservancy (Rs. 14,000) and public works (Rs. 9,900). Public institutions include the Jayaj! Rao Hospital with two branches, an asylum for the blind, the Victoria College with three connected schools, a free library in the old Maharajwara palace, a school for the sons of State nobles, besides a military school, a service school, and two girls' schools. State guesthouses are maintained near the palace and railway station for Europeans ; and there are two sarais for native visitors, of which the Dufferin sarai is a picturesque building close to the station.
At the south-east corner of the city lies the cantonment or Lashkar Brigade, known popularly by its earlier title of the Kampu. It is in charge of a special magistrate, who is responsible for the sanitation as well as the magisterial work. The land on which the Brigade stands was originally part of two villages, Gura-Guri and Rajpura. Daulat Rao Sindhia selected this site for the encampment of the troops under his immediate personal command. Three other plots were added for the regular battalions under his European generals, .
Alexander, Jean Baptiste Filose, and Jacob. By the seventh article of the treaty entered into with the British Government in 1844, these camps were broken up ; and the Alexander Kampu was added to the Maharaja's to form a cantonment for the State troops which he was permitted to maintain under that treaty. Houses and a few shops gradually sprang up round the lines. In 1859 a large building was erected, known as the Kampu Kothi, in which Jayaji Rao resided from 1866 to 1874. Subsequently it was used for the military offices, and since 1900 the military school has been located there. The chief officers of the militar)- department reside in Lashkar Brigade, including the com- mander-in-chief, adjutant-general, and the quartermaster-general of the State forces and their staffs. The State workshop is also here. Insti- tuted originally for military purposes, it has developed into a general workshop in which work of all kinds is carried out, including repairs for the Gwalior Light Railway. Some of the State troops are quartered at jMorar, 4 miles away.
