256 THE TALPOOR DYNASTY. 



gender never entering her place of residence, 

 but occupying a portion of the building apart. 

 One or two of the principal attendants only be- 

 ing allowed the entree when business required 

 it, on which occasions Her Highness was veiled. 

 Meer Ali Moorad took out with him numerous 

 musical boxes and stereoscopes for the ladies of 

 the Zunana, with whicli they were greatly de- 

 lighted at first, but soon tired of their play- 

 things and destroyed them. 



The Talpoor dynasty dates only from 1783. 

 On the expulsion of the Kulloras, the country 

 was divided among the leaders. Meer Futteh 

 Ali and his three brothers reigned jointly at 

 Hyderabad. Meer Sohrab, from whom the 

 Khyrpoor family sprung, got that place and its 

 dependencies, and Meer Tara, grandfather of 

 Shore Mahomed, got Meerpoor, to the eastward 

 of Hyderabad. Minor chiefs, who had been 

 engaged in the war, were quartered with their 

 followers in different parts of the country, 

 each having charge of the district about him, 

 which was called his '' Derdaree," after Dera, 

 his head-quarters. In India we apply this word 

 to a tent, but not so in Sindh, as it is invariably 

 applied to a permanent dwelling. 



