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Sardhana

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a town of British India, in Meerut district of the United Provinces, 12 m. by rail N.W. of Meerut. Pop. (1901), 12,467. Though now a decayed place, Sardhana is historically famous as the residence of the Begum Samru (d. 1836). This extraordinary woman was a Mussulman married to Reinhardt or Sombre (Samru), the perpetrator of the massacre of British prisoners at Patna in 1763. On his death in 1778 she succeeded to the command of his mercenary troops. Ultimately she was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and bequeathed an immense fortune to charitable and religious uses. She built in Sardhana a Roman Catholic cathedral, a college for training priests, and a handsome palace.