LALITPUII, or LULLITPOOR, a British district in the lieutenant-governorship of the North-Western Provinces, miles. It is bounded N. and W. by the river Betwa, S.W. by the Narayan, S. by the Vindhyachal Ghats and the Sagar (Saugor) district of the Central Provinces, S.E. and E. by Orchha state and the Masan. The district is an undulating plain about 1500 feet on an average above the sea-level, in the hill country of Bundelkhand, sloping gradually northwards from the Vindhya range to the Betwa is far from prosperous. A large proportion of the area is covered with jungle, and the poor-looking villages are few ' and far between. Only 366 square miles were under tillage of irrigation, the spring harvest is a very poor one ; and if the rainfall sinks much below its average of 40 inches the autumn harvest is also scanty.

In 1865 the population was 248,146in 1872 it was only 212,661, while the number of villages had fallen from 750 to 646. About 93 per cent. (207,788) of the inhabitants in 1872 were Hindus - the Brahmans numbering 20,657, Rajputs 20,985, Banias 11,356. The Rajput Buudelas are the most important socially, the Banias commercially. A few Gonds are found in the south, and about 10,000 Sahariyas, a degraded body of savages known to the police throughout India as professional thieves, are scattered throughout the jungle. The district is administered on the non-regulation system by a deputy-commissioner. The only municipality is Lalitpur town (population 8976 in 1872). The Gourds are the earliest known inhabitants of Lalitpur ; they have left traces of their ultimate high state of civilization in temples and reservoirs. They were succeeded by the Chandel princes of Mahoba, who in their turn gave place to a number of petty independent rulers. In the 14th century the Bundelas invaded the country, and Lalitpur finally became a part of the state of Chanderi, which continued for the most part practically independent till the beginning of the 19th century, when Sindlna, provoked by raids into Gwalior, sent Colonel Baptiste against Lalitpur, and took the government under his direct control. In 1829 two-thirds of his territory was restored to the Chanderi sovereign. The remainder of the country, which was retained by Sindhia, was in 1844 made over to the British Government. The Bundela chiefs of Lalitpur were among those who most eagerly joined the mutiny, and it was only after a severe struggle that the district was again pacified.