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Gr. N. Dutt —History of the Hutwa Raj . 
good Sanskrit scholar. Pandits from Bengal and Benares, nay even from 
the Bombay Presidency, have got munificent donations from him. Rare 
and important works in Sanskrit he got to be edited or translated by 
the Pandits at a great cost, simply for distribution. Among these is a 
monumental work on vedic rituals, Parasknra Grhya Sutra with several 
commentaries which issued from the press just when he was on his death¬ 
bed, and which he had prefaced witli a brief narration of his family his¬ 
tory in metrical Sanskrit. He was himself the author of a book of 
songs called Soka-Mudgara, composed on the death of his first son. His 
Sanskrit Library contains numerous rare and valuable MSS., all collect¬ 
ed during his life time, which were examined by the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal and were eulogised by its President, Sir Charles Elliot, in his 
Annual Address. Although a Maharaja, he had the heart of an ascetic. 
So fond was he of a retired life that he had declined several times the 
offered seats in the Government Legislative Councils. No sooner he 
ascended the Gaddi after the Court of Wards’ regime , he set out for a pil¬ 
grimage and travelled through almost the whole of Northern India. 
Later on he used to pass the greater part of the year in the associations 
of the Pandits and learned Sadhus at Benares, where he had built palatial 
buildings, temples, and chetras, endowing in perpetuity suitable sums for 
their maintenance. The Lion of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, had plated 
the dome of the Bisvanath’s temple at Benares with gold, and the late 
Maharaja of Hutwa had plated the reservoir of the image within with 
thick silver, costing nearly a lakh of Rupees. With a true maternal 
veneration he set apart a portion of his Raj in perpetuity, yielding an 
income of Rs. 20,000 for the maintenance of the beautiful temple of 
Gopalji constructed by his late mother. Finding the Brahmins in the 
Raj in a state of moral depravity he revived the Sanskrit School of 
Chattradhari Shahi which had dwindled away in his predecessor’s 
time. 
He was equally charitable in works of public utility. He ex¬ 
cavated numerous large tanks, built on them masonry ghats with 
slopes for cattle to drink water, opened many new roads, constructed 
thousands of wells and embankments for tenants, and set apart extensive 
mango-gardens for the public to enjoy their fruits. Each winter he 
used to distribute some thousands of blankets only to the old, decrepit, 
blind, and lame, and to such as were incapacitated for work. It was his 
express order that old horses and cattle must not be made to work, 
but be fed as superannuated human pensioners as long as they lived. 
Himself being very candid and upright, he always loved fair and 
square dealings in all transactions. It was his strict orders to pay salary 
of all his servants on the very first of every month, and he never liked to 
