887 



A few Notes on the subject of the Kumaon and Rohilcund Turaee* 

 By J. H. Batten, Esq., Civil Service, 



Previous to the reign of the Emperor Akbar, that is> to the latter 

 Deficiency of records half of the 1 6th century, the history of Kumaon 

 in connection with its lowland possessions, and 

 also, of the Hill Raj of that name itself, is but imperfectly known. 



Even to a still later period, tradition, confirmed by documentary 

 evidence and the voice of general testimony in the neighbouring dis- 

 tricts, takes the place, within the province itself, of all authentic 

 written records on which reliance can be placed. The few Puthan 

 families of respectability now settled in the Turaee are, like their 

 whole race in Rohilcund, but a recently introduced colony. From 

 them, therefore, it would be vain to look for any details connecting 

 the series of events even in their own villages. The Bhoksa and 

 Tkaroo tribes, although permanent occupants in the whole jungle 

 tract lying along the base of the Sub-Himalayan mountains between 

 the Ganges and the Gunduck, are not, and never have been, permanent 

 residents at any one spot ; nor are they possessed of sufficient intel- 

 ligence to know the tale of their own chosen region, or be able to 

 recount the revolutions which have occurred on the scene of their 

 migrations. Of the other tribes inhabiting the present villages or 

 clearings in the Turaee, it is not probable that many families can trace 

 their settlement in that dismal wilderness, beyond the third, or utmost 

 fourth generation preceding them. Rajah Sheo Raj Sing, the princi- 

 pal personage of the Turaee pergunnahs, does not owe his present 

 position in that tract of talooqdar, or manager, or farmer, or zemin- 

 dar, (or whatever, under existing arrangements may be his proper 

 designation,) to any direct descent from the Kumaon Rajahs, or to any 

 long possession continued from their time to his own. Before his 

 grandfather Lall Sing, accompanied by Mahundra Chund the represen- 

 tative, at least by immediate birthright, of the royal race of Kumaon, 

 descended with their families to the plains, and became, by favour of 

 the Nuwab Wuzeer, connected to the latter history of the Turaee, 

 intestine disturbances had begun to destroy the semblance even of a 



