ith spacious warehouses and several miles of railway
sidings.

BAHR, the Arabic for "sea," with the diminutive _bahira_. Bahr also
signifies a. river, especially one with a large body of water, _e.g._ the
Nile, and is sometimes used to designate the dry bed of a river.

BAHRAICH or BHARAICH, a town and district of British India, situated in the
Fyzabad division of the United Provinces. The town is on the river Sarju.
Since the opening of the railway the place has begun to flourish. It
contains the most popular place of pilgrimage in Oudh, the tomb of Masaud,
a champion of Islam, slain in battle by the confederate Rajputs in 1033,
which is resorted to by Mahommedans and Hindus alike. There is also a
Mussulman monastery, and the ruined palace of a nawab of Oudh. The American
Methodists have a mission here. Pop. (1901) 27,304.

The district of Bahraich contains an area of 2647 sq. m. It consists of
three tracts: (1) in the centre, an elevated triangular plateau, projecting
from the base of the Himalayas for about 50 m. in a south-easterly
direction--average breadth, 13 m., area, 670 sq. m.; (2) the great plain of
the Gogra, on the west, about 40 ft. below the level of the plateau; and
(3) on the east, another lesser area of depression, comprising the basin of
the Rapti. The _tarai_, or the forest and marshy tracts along the southern
slopes of the Himalayas, gradually merge within the district into drier
land, the beds of the streams become deeper and more marked, the marshes
disappear, and the country assumes the ordinary appearance of the plain of
the Ganges. The Gogra skirts the district for 114 m.; and the Rapti, with
its branch the Bhalka, drains the high grounds. In 1901 the population was
1,051,347, showing an increase of 5% in the decade. A considerable trade is
conducted with Nepal, chiefly in timber. A line of railway has been opened
through the district to Nepalganj on the frontier. As there are no canals
in the district, irrigation is obtained solely from wells, tanks and
rivers. The district is purely agricultural in character, and is one of
large estates, 78% being held by _taluqdars_, of whom the four chief are
the raja of Kapurthala, the maharaja of Balrampur, the raja of Nanpara and
the raja of Payagpur.

Little is known of the history of the district before the Mahommedan
invasion in A.D. 1033. Masaud was defeated and slain by the nobles of
Bahraich in 1033, and the Mahommedans did not establish their au