197 
1904.] G. N. Dutt —*History of the Hutwa Baj, 
Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi was a great patron of Sanskrit learn¬ 
ing. He retained in his Durbar learned pandits from M.ithila and Benares, 
and other places amongst whom, before he became a Sanyasi, was the 
renowned Bam Niranjan Svami, the greatest Savant of India at that 
age, who survived even Maharaja Rajendra Pratap Shahi, successor of 
Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi. He had opened a Sanskrit school in 
charge of the said Savant, wherein nearly 1,000 students from all parts 
of India received education and were fed by the Raj. With such 
veneration was this Savant held by the Hutwa Maharajas, that the late 
Maharaja Sir Krishna Pratap Shahi Bahadur had specially indented 
from Prance a jewelled Sirpech (aigrette) containing an enamelled image 
of this Savant , and had named his son and heir, the present Maharaj 
Kumar, after his monastic nomenclature and had published a beautiful 
biography. 
Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi was an able and excellent administra¬ 
tor. He considerably enlarged his Raj and with it its income. The 
whole villages on the borders of the Gandak and Gogra now possessed 
by the Raj he got from the Babus of Pursa on their downfall. He died 
on the 16th March, 1858, leaving, it is said, behind him about 40 lakhs 
of Rupees in the treasury, the greater portion of which is said to have 
been squandered away 1 by his successor in the great Hutwa case, and the 
rest invested in the purchase of jewellery of the deposed king of Oudlv 
The fruit of his Mutiny services was enjoyed by his successor, Maha¬ 
raja Rajendra Pratap Shahi, who obtained a perpetual jagir in Shaha- 
bad district out of the confiscated estates of the rebel Kuar Singh, 
then yielding an annual rental of Rs. 20,000, having continued 
to tread in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Maharaja Chattra¬ 
dhari Shahi, in rendering valuable assistance to Government in the sup¬ 
pression of the Mutiny. (Vide Appendix). 
The two sons of the Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi having died before 
their father, it was the turn of Maharaj-Kumar Ugra Pratap Shahi, the 
father of Rajendra Pratap Shahi to succeed; but Maharaja Chattra¬ 
dhari Shahi having left a will and expressed his intention before his 
death that Rajendra Pratap, the son of Ugra Pratap, was to succeed him, 
Ugra Pratap Shahi waived his claim in favour of his son who was 
installed Maharaja in 1858. {Vide Appendix). The two sons of the 
second son of Maharaja Chattradhari Shahi, Babu Tilakdhari Shahi, 
1 So extravagant was his successoi*, Maharaja Rajendra Pratap Shahi, that in 
his shikar in theTerrai Jungles, where he stayed for six months, his camp equipages 
consisted of 60 elephants, several big Zemindars related to him, and also many 
dancing girls—nay even his own Bazar to supply rasads to retinues and camp- 
followers and equal number of advancing tents ( Pesh-khima) for the next stage. 
