History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I1.] SIR SALAR JUNG. 129

Though they were defeated at every stage in their efforts to enforce their claim on the Nizam’s Government, it is but fair to that Government to state that its late minister, Sir Salar Jung, amply made up for the past acts of injustice by extending the liberality of his patronage to several members of the family, who were appointed to posts of trust and high emolument; and at the same time he made provision for the family out of the State exchequer in recognition of the very valuable services rendered by its founder to the Nizam in times past.

The government of the East India Company, too, on its part, had, so far back as 1829, acknowledged in a most substantial manner the great benefits which the enterprise and public spirit of Vikaji Merji had conferred on the trade of the Presidency by making him a gift of the village of Parnali, in the vicinity of which Vikaji Merji had at his own expense constructed one of the most extensive and useful public works in that part of the country. He raised a dam across the Banganga river and erected other similar works in order to shut out the salt-water tides from the river, the fresh water of which was thus rendered available for drinking and irrigation purposes. One of the collectors of the district, while paying an official visit, summarised to the Bombay Government the result of his survey in these words: “The works are of great public utility in a humane

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