198 
G. N. Datt —History of the Hutwa Raj. 
[No. 2, 
and Babu. Bir Pratap Shabi, thereupon laid claim for the partition of the 
Raj on the plea that the estate was an ordinary zemindary. Their suit 
at first was tried by the District Court of Saran; but Babu Tilak Dhari 
Shahi withdrew his claim on a compromise, having got by it some vil¬ 
lages for his maintenance ( Khorish); but Babu Bir Pratap Shahi whose 
claim was dismissed by the District Court carried it on to the High 
Court of Calcutta and then to the Privy Council, which settled for 
good that the Hutwa Raj still, as it was before Maharaja Fateh Shahi’s 
defection, is an impartible Raj, descendible under Kulaca to the eldest 
son, to the exclusion of all younger brothers who were only to get a 
maintenance, and fixed Rs. 1,000 as monthly pension for Babu Bir 
Protap Shahi’s maintenance. (Vide the extracts of judgments enclosed.) 
Maharaja Rajendra Pratap Shahi died in 1871, leaving an only 
minor son of 15, the late Maharaja Sir Krishna Pratap Shahi Baha¬ 
dur, K.C.I.E., and the Court of Wards took up for the second time the 
administration of the Hutwa Raj. He attained majority in 1874, and 
was installed as Maharaja Bahadur in August of that year at Chupra 
at a grand Durbar by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir 
Richard Temple. He received a medal of distinction struck in comme¬ 
moration of the visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to India in 1874-75, 
and another in 1877 at the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi on the pro¬ 
clamation of Her Most Gracious Majesty the late Queen Victoria as 
Empress of India. In 1889 he was created, unsolicited, a Knight Com¬ 
mander of the Exalted Order of the Indian Empire. 
When the memorable cow-riot broke out at Basantpur in 1894, the 
Officiating Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Anthony Macdonald, wired to the 
Maharaja saying that he depended on him in restoring peace in the dis- 
trict. The Maharaja immediately despatched all his Sowars, Sepoys, and 
Carbineers to help the Commissioner, Mr. Forbes, stationed there in quell¬ 
ing the riot. In such high esteem was he held by that distinguished 
officer, Sir Anthony Macdonald, that in one of his letters he wrote to him in 
the following strain: “There is no nobleman in these provinces whose 
approbation I value more highly than yours, and very few so high, and 
there is no one from whom I should be so glad to receive, now and 
then, an expression of opinion on general topics.” 
He was allowed by the Government of India, on the recommenda¬ 
tion of the then Collector, Mr. Bourdillon (now Sir James Austin 
Bourdillon, late Officiating Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal), who had 
remarked that he could safely trust the Maharaja’s loyalty and fidelity, 
to indent sixty muskets with bayonets from England for his retainers 
in lieu of those old and worn out. 
He was a great patron of Sanskrit learning, himself being a very 
