222 A Canal Act of the Emperor Akbar, QNo. 171. 



birth of his son Muraid, in the first month of 978, went on a pilgrimage 

 to the shrine of Muyinuddin at Ajmir, thence by way of Nagor and 

 Ajodin on the Sutluj to Lahaur, which he quitted for Ajmir and Agra 

 in the second month of 979. So that he might well have been at 

 Firozpur on the date given. 



It is easy to conceive how the canals fell into decay. In the decline 

 of the imperial power, when the irrigated country was a seat of constant 

 war, and the lands along the banks were alienated among various chiefs, 

 any system of conservancy became impossible, and the works must ra- 

 pidly have been ruined. The Hansi canal was the first to suffer, as 

 early as 1707, we are told(w), the Sikhs taking advantage of the weakness 

 of government during the contentions of Aurang Zeb's sons for the 

 empire, converted the whole of the canal waters to their own use. 

 And this at once reducing the country around Hissar to its original ste- 

 rility, forced almost the whole of the inhabitants to seek a more favour- 

 able soil. A hundred years afterwards, in 1807 (as we are told by an 

 officer on Survey in the Sikh States at that time), there was not a single 

 inhabitant in the extensive city of Hissar(^). The Dehli canal, or 

 Ali Mardan Khan's branch, continued to flow to a much later period. 

 The officer just referred to learned, from aged zamindars, that the coun- 

 try had been deprived of the advantages of this canal since the accession 

 of Alamgir II. in 1753. The same authority informed him that for pur- 

 poses of canal police, and the ready repair of accidents, a Darogha was 

 stationed at every three or four koss, with peons and beldars under him. 

 The water rent appears to have been regulated by the time that the 

 outlets remained open. 1000 armed peons and 500 horse, as Mr. 

 Seton was informed by the son of one of the last native superinten- 

 dents,^) were maintained on the establishment. According to a pro- 

 verbial expression current at Dehli, the net revenue from the canals 

 was reckoned equal to the maintenance of 12,000 horse(r). 



As Colonel Colvin's paper on the history of the canals contains few 

 dates, it may be worth while to add the following : — 



(w) Letter dated May 1807, from Lieut. F. White, Surveyor to the Resident at 

 Dehli. In the Office of the G. G. A. N. W. F. 

 (x) Ditto ditto. 



(y) Letter from Mr. Seton to Govt. 11th September, 1807. 

 {s) Ditto ditto. 



