1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bagelkhand

BAGELKHAND, or Baghelkhand, a tract of country in central India, occupied by a collection of native states. The Bagelkhand agency is under the political superintendence of the governor-general’s agent for central India, and under the direct jurisdiction of a political agent who is also superintendent of the Rewa state, residing ordinarily at Sutna or Rewa. The agency consists of Rewa state and eleven minor states and estates, of which the more important are Maihar, Nagode and Sohawal. The total area is 14,323 sq. m., and the population in 1901 was 1,555,024, showing a decrease of 11% in the decade, due to the results of famine. The rainfall was very deficient in 1895–1897, causing famine in 1897; and in 1899–1900 there was drought in some sections. The agency was established in March 1871. Until that date Bagelkhand was under the Bundelkhand agency, with which it is geographically and historically connected; a general description of the country will be found under that heading. According to Wilson, in his Glossary of Indian Terms, the Baghelas, who give their name to this tract of country, are a branch of the Sisodhyia Rajputs who migrated eastward and once ruled in Gujarat.