Area, 3881 sq. m. Pop. 93,203. Rev. Rs. 95,000 = £6233.
Bashahr.—The chain which forms the watershed of the Sutlej and Jamna rises from about 12,000 feet at Hattu in the west to nearly 20,000 feet on the Tibet border. Two peaks in the chain exceed 20,000 feet. Further north Raldang to the east of Chíní is 21,250 feet high, and in the north-east on the Tibet border there are two giants about 1000 feet higher. Generally speaking the Sutlej runs in a deep gorge but at Chíní and Saráhan the valley widens out. The main valley of the Pábar is not so narrow as that of the Sutlej, while the side valleys descend in easy slopes to the river beds. The Báspa has a course of 35 miles. In the last ten miles it falls 2000 feet and is hemmed in by steep mountains. Above this gorge the Báspa valley is four or five miles wide and consists of a succession of plateaux rising one above the other from the river's banks. Bashahr is divided into two parts, Bashahr proper and Kunáwar. The latter occupies the Sutlej valley in the north-east of the State. It covers an area of about 1730 square miles and is very sparsely peopled. In the north of Kunáwar the predominant racial type is Mongoloid and the religion is Buddhism. The capital of Bashahr, Rámpur, on the left bank of the Sutlej is at an elevation of 3300 feet. The Gurkhas never succeeded in conquering Kunáwar. They occupied Bashahr, but in 1815 the British Government restored the authority of the Rája. The present chief, Shamsher Singh, is an old man, who succeeded as long ago as 1850. He is incapable of managing the State and an English officer is at present in charge.
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Fig. 125. Bashahr.
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CHAPTER XXVII
THE NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE
1. Districts
The Province.—The N. W. F. Province consists of five British districts, Dera Ismail Khán, Bannu, Kohát, Pesháwar, and Hazára with a total area of 13,193 square miles, of which rather less than one-third is cultivated. Of the cultivated area 70 p.c. depends solely on the rainfall. In addition the Chief Commissioner as Agent to the Governor General controls beyond the administrative boundary territory occupied by independent tribes, which covers approximately an area of 25,500 square miles. In 1911 the population of British districts was 2,196,933 and that of tribal territory is estimated to exceed 1,600,000. In the districts 93 persons in every hundred profess the creed of Islam and over 38 p.c. are Patháns.