istinguish their most important exploits by the number of persons
who were killed. Thus one murder in the Jubbulpore District was known
as the 'Sathrup,' or 'Sixty soul affair,' and another in Bilaspur
as the 'Chalisrup,' or 'Murder of forty.' At this time (1807) the
road between northern and southern India through the Nerbudda valley
had been rendered so unsafe by the incursions of the Pindaris that
travellers preferred to go through Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur to the
Ganges. This route, passing for long distances through dense forest,
offered great advantages to the Thugs, and was soon infested by
them. In 1806, owing to the success [687] of previous expeditions,
it was determined that all the Thugs of northern India should work on
this road; accordingly after the Dasahra festival six hundred of them,
under forty Jemadars or leaders of note, set out from their homes,
and having worshipped in the temple of Devi at Bindhyachal, met at
Ratanpur in Bilaspur. The gangs split up, and after several murders
sixty of them came to Lanji in Balaghat, and here in two days' time
fell in with a party of thirty-one men, seven women and two girls on
their way to the Ganges. The Jemadars soon became intimate with the
principal men of the party, pretended to be going to the same part of
India and won their confidence; and next day they all set out and in
four days reached Ratanpur, where they met 160 Thugs returning from
the murder of a wealthy widow and her escort. Shortly afterwards
another 200 men who had heard of the travellers near Nagpur also
came up, but all the different bodies pretended to be strangers to
each other. They detached sixty men to return to Nagpur, leaving 360
to deal with the forty travellers. From Ratanpur they all journeyed
to Chura (Chhuri?), and here scouts were sent on to select a proper
place for the murder. This was chosen in a long stretch of forest,
and two men were despatched to the village of Sutranja, farther on
the road, to see that no one was coming in the opposite direction,
while another picket remained behind to prevent interruption from
the rear. By the time they reached the appointed place, the Bhurtots
(stranglers) and Shamsias (holders) had all on some pretext or other
got close to the side of the persons whom they were appointed to kill;
and on reaching the spot the signal was given in several places at
the same time; and thirty-eight out of forty were immediately seized
and strangled. One of