195 
1904.] G. X. Dutt —History of the Hutwa Raj. 
Shahi Bahadur, about two mouths after Babu Mahesh Dutfc’s demise 
On the 21sfc January, 1791, the Government of Lord Cornwallis on the 
recommendation of the local authorities conferred on Chattradhari 
Shahi, the minor son of Mahesh Dutt Shahi, the confiscated estate of 
Husainpur. But as the grantee was then only five years of age the 
estate passed under the protection of the Court of Wards, then recently 
formed, Dhujju Singh continuing to he the guardian of the minor. In 
1802 Chattradhari Shahi attained majority and came into actual posses¬ 
sion of his zemindaries. He now shifted from Bhurthuhee, where he 
and his late father lived so long under Dhujju Singh’s protection, and 
founded the present seat of Hutwa 1 where he built his palace and fort 
surrounded with moats, and granted to Babu Dhujju Singh as jagir 
the village Hutwa Boojrook (meaning the guardian of Hutwa), which 
was named after his own capital. But the title of “Maharaja Bahadur” 
was not conferred on him till 1837, that is, until Fateh Shahi, of whom 
it may be said— 
“ He left a name at which the world grew pale, 
To paint a moral or adorn a tale ” 
was no more heard of for several years; for it appears to have been 
thought that there could not be two Maharajas of Husainpur as long 
as Fateh Shahi was alive. It was on the 27th February, 1837, that the 
Government of Lord Auckland conferred on him the title of Maharaja 
Bahadur with the usual khelat , and the peshkas of Its. 50,000 paid by 
him on this occasion was placed at the disposal of the General Com¬ 
mittee of Public Instruction to be disposed of in the interest of educa¬ 
tion. (Vide Appendix). 
Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi rendered valuable assistance to the 
British Government daring the Santhal rebellion by placing his resources 
at the disposal of Government and promptly executing the order of the 
district authorities. But the most conspicuous services rendered by him 
to British Government were in the stormy days of the Indian Mutiny of 
1857-58. “ Throughout the crisis,” wrote the Collector and Magistrate 
of Saran, Mr. Bichardson, “the Baja proved himself a staunch ally of 
the British Government; his loyalty was never for a moment doubted, 
and from the very outset of the rebellion the whole of his resources 
1 Evidently Mr. W. Hoey is wrong in identifying Hutwa with Hastigrama (Jour¬ 
nal, A.S.B., Yol. LXIX, Part I, No. 1, Page 80, of 1900). From my personal know¬ 
ledge I am in a position to say that all that he had heard of the late Raja of Hut- 
wa’s enclosing the ground near Sewan Station is a pure myth. The spot was intend¬ 
ed for a tenting-ground near the station, as he had to make a drive of 14 miles from 
and to Sewan station and Hutwa. No Brahmin had ever spoken to him disparagingly 
of the spot, nor is his death attributed to his enclosing it. 
