Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ...

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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Chapter I

The latest annexed of the kingdoms of India forms the centre of that vast plain which has been for centuries the peculiar site of Hindu civilization, and is distinguished by the name of Hindustan proper from those other parts of the Indian continent where the colonization of the old Aryan conquerors has been less complete, and their religious and social system has less thoroughly eradicated or absorbed into itself the beliefs and languages of the aboriginal inhabitants. Stretching from the Ganges to the hills, and about equidistant from Delhi on the one side and the extreme east of Behar on the other, it divides this region into two nearly even parts ; and as the scene of the great national epic, the two greatest of the reforming movements which have agitated the national religion, and the earliest as well as the last of those Muhammadan governments, in its resistance to which the national spirit was most severely tried and gave the most convincing proofs of its wonderful vitality, it is second to no part of the continent in its command over the sympathies of the native, and the interest and difficulty of the problems which it presents to its European administrator or historian. Nowhere are the traditions of the past more ancient and more vividly felt, and nowhere is the civilization — rooted in a soil of unsurpassed fertility and grown up in a population of exceptional density — more fully developed and more homogeneous than in this the last case where Western statesmanship has been brought face to face with the requirements of an Eastern people.

With a total area of 23,930 square miles, Oudh lies between the extreme latitudes of 25°84' and 29°6' north, and longitudes of 79°45' and 83°11' east. Only where the Ganges marks its south-western frontier is one whole side separated by a natural boundary from neighbouring governments. Naipal marches with it all along the north, with a frontier for the first sixty miles to the east, running along the foot of the lowest range of the Himalayas, and from tJhat point advanced for some distance into the sub- Himalayan Tarai. To the east and the west it is enclosed by the older-acquired districts of the North- West Provinces — with Jaiinpur, Basti, and Azamgarh on one side, and Shahjahdnpur, Farukhabad, and Cawnpore on the other.

* By Mr. W. C. Benett, C S., Assistaut Commissioner,

" INTUODUCTIOif.

A narrow strip of Government forest runs along tHe north, and the whole of the rest of the province is a fertile plain, with less than 1,500 square miles,^ or only about 6 percent, of the area, unfit for cultivation. The surface here and there is varied with almost imperceptible undulations, but there is nowhere any striking feature to break that level horizon, or any obstacle but the rivers to the straight lines of communication. The country has a gentle slope from the north-west, where the highest point of 600 feet is reached on the Khairigarh plateau, to the south-eastern frontier, which in one place falls as low as only 230 feet above the sea level. This slope determines the course of the drainage, and is followed with more or less exactness by all the numerous streams. The principal of these — the Ganges, the Gumti, the Gogra, and the Rapti — have an aggregate dry-weather discharge of 18,800 cubic feet per second ; and it has been estimated that the entire river discharge, including the smaller streams, rather exceeds 20,000 cubic feet, or half the quantity in the five rivers of the Punjab. But this estimate is probably rather too low. All along the north the surface is being gradually raised by fl.uvial action. The mountain torrents which pour into the Chauka and the Rapti spread during the rains over the neighbouring plain, leaving a thick deposit of detritus' from the hills. These deposits are sometimes of pure sand, and at others of the richest clay ; but the general result everywhere is a slow elevation of the land over which the drainage' has to pass, which in places has caused the formation of large unhealthy swamps at the foot of the hills. All the main rivers, with the exception of the Gumti, and many of the smallerstreams, have beds hardly sunk below the level of the surrounding country : swollen by the rains and melting of the snows where they take their rise, they burst through the insufficient restraint of a few feet of mud or sand, and carving out, now at one point and now at another, new courses, carry destruction to the villages on their banks. It is impossible to forecast the course these inroads will take, but following a well known law, their general direction is the north-west. Besides the great rivers, there are many streams of secondary importance, and the whole face of the country is seamed with innumerable small, channels, which carry off the surplus water of the rains and dry up before the commencement of the hot season. . -

The drainage is ^further provided for by countless jhlls'or ponds, only two of which (Behti in Partabgarh and Sdndi' in Hardoi), with areas of fourteen and ten square miles, can- be dignified with the name of lakes. These jhils are usually merely

INTRODUCTION, HI

shallow depressions, caused, some of them, by the action of the rains on pre-existing inequalities of the soil, and some of them proved by their shape to be the remains of former river beds : and they are invaluable, not only as a preservative from floods; but still more so as reservoirs from which the neighbouring fields are irrigated for the spring harvest, and the cattle provided with water during the dry months.

The average distance of water from the surface has been estimated in the reports on the Sarda Canal project at twenty-eight feet. But it varies greatly in different parts of the province. In the Tardi or sub-Himalayan tract it is rarely more than fifteen, and sometimes as little as four or five feet. South of the Gogra wells have to be sunk to a depth of from twenty-five to sixty feet before water is struck. The soil is naturally a rich alluvial deposit of light loam, stiffening in places into pure clay, and here and" there degenerating into barren sand. By far the greater part of the land returned as unculturable is made up of the wide lisar plains of the south and west, which are covered by a thick saline efflorescence known as reh, fatal to any growth except the hardiest grasses. So many contradictory theories have been advanced, and so little is known of the nature and causes of this agricultural curse, that the short preface to a Gazetteer is not the place for their consideration ; but it seems unquestionably to be a frequent result of over-cropping, and that a thicker population does more to increase than any known remedy to obviate it. Except minute particles of gold, which are washed down by the hill torrents in quantities too infinitesimal to repay their collection, valuable minerals are not known to exist. Salt was manufactured to a large extent during the native rule, and might be still, if it were not for the direct preventive action of Government. Nodules of carbonate of lime, known as " kankar," are found in considerable deposits all over the province just below the surface, and afford an excellent material for hardening roads and the production of lime for building.

The animals and birds of Oudh are those which are found all over the Gangetic plain, but several species formerly common have now disappeared before the advancing population. Not long ago wild elephants were caughiby the Rdjas of Tulsipur in the forests which skirt the north of Gonda, and Government officials allowed remissions of revenue for damage which they did in villages far advanced into the plain. Now it may be occasionally reported that a solitary tusker has lost his way to the foot of the hills ; but such instances are rarely well substantiated, and the animal is practically unknown. Herds of wild buffaloes formerly

IV INTRODUCTION.

roamed in tlie forests of Kheri, but it is now many years since the last pair of horns fell to a European sportsman. Menyet live who remember the time when tigers swarmed along the banks of the Rdpti, and the names of more than one village record the terror they inspired. Now they are very scarce indeed, even along the immediate foot of the hills, and only occur in any numbers in the jungles of Khairigarh. Leopards are more common, and are found in the eanebrakes and thickets along the banks of all the streams to as far south as the Gogra. They do little damage, except by occasionally killing small calves and pigs, and their extreme wariness and migratory habits make it very difficult for the sportsman to mark them down. Nilgde are found in herds all over the province, and' it is a frequent complaint that their numbers and the depredation* they commit on the crops have much increased since the villagers have been disarmed. Hindus generally, for there are some exceptions, class them with cows, and hold them sacred from harm; but the Muhammadans rejoiced in a slaughter which protected their fields, gave them a wholesome change in their usual grain diet, and was an offensive assertion of their distinctive creed. Black buck are still common everywhere, and may be seen ] in great numbers on the lisar plains of the Ganges and the Gumti. Spotted deer are more shy, and they are probably disappearing with the tiger and the wild buffalo. During the cold weather the surface of the jhils is studded with innumerable flocks of teal and wild duck, while their reedy marges are the favourite haunt of snipe, but it is probable that this bird is less frequent here than in the rice-fields of Bengal. Jungle fowl breed in the Tardi forests, and peacock abound in every district. It is perhaps hardly correct to class cattle among the wild animals of the province, as there is no evidence of their ever having been indigenous in that condition ; but the herds of villages depopulated during the native rule still wander among the jungles at the edge of the cultivated land and defy capture or domestication. The chief enemies to human life are wolves and snakes, of which large numbers are destroyed every year without apparently any sensible diminution in the mischief done by them.

For domesticated animals, there is no lack of horses, cattle^ buffaloes, donkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and fowls, and if there is no strain which even approaches average excellence, the dwarfed and ugly breeds of the country are at least hardy and prolific. Innumerable herds of diminutive cattle graze along the edge of the northern forest, and are driven into the highler plateaus for the hot months. They are cheap, and though insignificant in

INTRODUCTION, V

appearance and slow in progression, will do harder work with the plough, and drag heavier weights for a longer time than the magnificent produce of Gujarat and Hansi. The, indigenous breeds of ponies, of which there are a few, are of about the size of an ordinary English donkey, hideous to look at, and usually vicious in disposition, but, like the cattle, they are hardy, and will go long marches under heavy packs. Goats are bred for their milk and flesh, and sheep for their wool, matton being almost unknown as an article of food.

The flora of the reserved Government forests is rich and varied, but nothing can be attempted here in the shape of an exhaustive description, and mention must be confined to those varieties of wood which are of principal utility or value. First among these is the sd.khu or sdl tree, whose timber is of the highest importance for every kind of building purpose. The finest logs are cut in the Khairigarh jungles, and, attached to boats in lots of six or eight together, floated down the Gogra to Bahramghat, where they are sawn by steam into planks or beams. The utmost attention of the forest ofiicers is engaged in preserving the hitherto inferior growths to the east of the line from the various causes which impair their excellence, — the reckless fires which are kindled in February or March to lay bare young shoots of grass for grazing, the incessant destruction of the smaller trees by cattle, and the deliberate thefts of the bordering villagers. Of inferior but still considerable value are the shisham with its fine hard wood ; the dhau, which is prized for the manufacture of cart-pins and shafts ; and the tikni and asna, both of which afford material for furniture or the roofing of sheds. The khair or catechu acacia grows in great quantities, and the residuum obtained by cutting its wood into chips and boiling them down affords a valuable article of commerce and the means of subsistence to a peculiar caste.

The most beautiful of the wild trees which are allowed to flourish among the villages and give Oudh scenery its special charm are the three great representatives of the fig tribe — the banian, the pipal, and the pdkar. Their massive trunks seamed with cauntless fissures, the wide spread of their branches, and a height often attaining 140 feet, give these magnificent domes a religious grandeur, and have gained for them the loving veneration of the people. Of the wild vegetable products by far the most important is the mahua. This grows in great quantities in the jungles all over the province, but it is only when the jungles are cleared that its full value is apparent. The flowers, which formerly dropped into a tangled brake of grass and

VI INTRODUCTION.

underwood, are then collected from the bare ground, and are either used in the manufacture of spirits or preserved as an article of food, unwholesome, it is true, and innutritious, but adequate to keep alive the' poorer classes during the bad months which precede the cutting of the autumn harvest. The fruit when it ripens affords a useful oil, and the wood is the staple timber for roofing the villagers' huts. So serviceable is this tree that in many parts of the province, and especially where the soil is at all poor, the people prefer to let it stand rather than break up the land under its barren shade, and when the spring crops are scanty, its stored flowers are simply invaluable as a supplement to the food-supply. The produce of the plough is similarly aided by the abundant but poor and nauseous berries of the wild plum and makuiya, as wellas by the waternut known as singhdra, the roots and seeds of the lotus, and the wild rice which abounds in every jhil.

The first place among cultivated trees is held by the mango, which is never found wild, and whose occasional presence in jungles is a certain proof that the neighbourhood was formerly under the plough. There is no village and hardly any respectable family which is without its plantation, and even members of the lower castes will think no effort thrown away to acquije a small patch of land on which to plant a few trees, which shall keep alive their memory or that of their dearest relations to^ whose names they dedicate them. A cultivator, who would quit his house and his fields with hardly a regret to commence life under better circumstances elsewhere, can hardly ever overcome the passionate affection which attaches him to his grove, and the landlord who gives up a small plot of barren land for this purpose to an industrious family is more than repaid in the hold which he thereby gains over his tenant. As much as a thousand' square miles is covered with these plantations, usually of one or two acres each, but sometimes, when the property of a wealthy zamindar, occupying a much larger area. The fruit, which in-the good seasons — that is, about every third year — is gathered in enormous quantities, is small, stringy, and to our taste too stronglyflavoured with turpentine, but it is very sweet and overflows with juice, and the people themselves prefer it to the large cultivatedvarieties which find favour in our eyes. The tamarind is planted near or in the collections of huts which form the village sites, andi its masses of feathery foliage lend a charm to the scene and a. dense shade for rustic conferences, while the fruit is highly prized as an article of food and is a valuable property to the zamindar. The neighbourhood of houses of the better classes is marked by

INTRODUCTION. Vll

graceful clumps of bamboo, wbose stems supply all the smaller wood for building, besides serving a thousand miscellaneous wants. Among the less important varieties of fruit are the be! (whose astringent but agreeable juice is a good preventive of dysentery), the plantain, the jack-fruit, the guava, and several kinds of limes and oranges.

The climate is less damp than that of Bengal and has greater varieties of temperature, while it avoids at once the parching drought and the opposite extremes of heat and cold which are found in, the Punjab. Its three seasons — the rains, the cold, and the hot — are well marked off, the first commencing with fair uniformity in the middle of June, while the second extends from early in October to the end of February, March only being a disputed month. The thermometer during the five years from 1868 to 1872 never rose above 118° in the shade and 168° in the sun, and never fell below 39°. Extreme cold is not to be expected in a country so near the tropics and so little raised above the sea- level, but neither is the heat excessive for long together nor often greater than what with the appliances of pankhas and grass tatties can be borne without great distress. It is most oppressive in the rainy season, when, even with the thermometer at a lower point, the air resists all means of artificial cooling, and the lungs have to inhale the damp suffocating atmosphere of a hothouse. As a rule, the heaviest downpours are in July and September, but they are exceedingly capricious, and the harvests have more to fear from badly-timed than from excessive or insufficient rains. Any deductions as to the food-supply from the total number of inches which fall within the year rest on irrelevant premises and are nearly certain to be mistaken. Water is most wanted at the commencement of the rainy season to assist the sowings and strengthen the growth of the young plants. A break during the end of July and beginning of August will do no great harm, and will actually benefit some crops, such as the Indian-corn, so long as it is followed in time by a fall sufficient to save the rice from drying up and swell the forming grain. A constant succession of heavy showers and sunshine at the beginning, of September doubles the weight of outturn, and when the crops are cut, at the end of September and for a few days in October, light rain is urgently wanted for the ploughing and sowing of the second harvest. It is the failure of these latter rains which is most common and most to be dreaded, and it was such a failure, succeeding an insufficiency in the earlier months, which resulted in the partial famine of 1874 With this proviso as to-their value the totals of rainfall

VIU

Introduction

for the following years are given

1874 showing an average of nearly 40 inches. The drying up of the rains, which a powerful sun accomplishes with great rapidity, is followed by three of the most delicious months that any country in the world can show. During November, December, and January the climate falls little, if at all, short of actual perfection. The nights and mornings are cold and bracing, and though away from the ground the freezing-point is never reached ; large quantities of ice are collected in the shallow pans which are exposed for that purpose. The middle of the day is of a bright and temperate heat, which allows the sportsman, protected by a pith hat, to pursue his game on foot all day without danger and without distress, and the keen air of the evening permits the enjoyment of a blazing camp fire. The continual fine weather is ordinarily broken by a light rainfall at the end of December or beginning of Januaiy, which is of incalculable benefit to the young spring crops, and if succeeded by another moderate shower just before they ripen, secures a plentiful harvest. In February the heat begins to increase, and violent winds blow from the west, carrying clouds of scorching dust. It is towards the end of this month, when the hopes of the agriculturist are close on fulfilment, and the mango trees are covered with flower, that hail occasionally falls, cutting off the stalks of wheat and barley close to the ground and destroying every germ of fruit. This curse, however, if terrible in its ravages, is usually confined in its sweep, and rarely ,■, does more than carve a well-defi.ned path for no very considerable distance.

In March the crops are cut, and with the baring of the ground the hot weather sets in. The prevailing wind south of the Gogra is then from the west. The atmosphere is lurid with heat and thickly laden with fine grains of dust swept up from the parched plain. The torrid desolation which reigns without enhances the contrast afforded by the comparative coolness which screens of scented grass filling every doorway and

INTRODUCTION. • IX

assiduously moistened secure for the interior of the house. Even in the evening, when the winds subside, the dust remains suspended in the air, and it is only in the early morning before the sun has risen that out-door exercise is moderately enjoyable. To the north of the Gogra during the same period the wind is from the east, the dust very much less trying, and the heat, both in the morning and the evening, far more moderate ; but a west wind is indispensable for the luxury of tatties, which is there almost unknown. For rather more than a month before the rains the whole country is exposed to occasional dust-storms. Huge columns of dust, discernible for miles, sweep across the land, and their density is often sufficient to create a darkness like night. When they have passed they are usually followed by light showers, and a temporary fall of temperature which aflfbrds intense relief after the burning heat.

In a climate where all violent extremes are avoided, and where a rainfall neither insufficient nor excessive assists the natural fertility of an alluvial soil, a considerable variety of artificial crops is naturally raised. There are three principal harvests — the kharif, which is sown at the commencement of the rains and cut in September ; the henwat or Aghani, cut in December ; and the rabi in March ; besides miscella,neous crops which come to perfection, the sugarcane in February, cotton in May, tobacco and mustard-seed in January, and sanwan in almost any month of the year. The principal kharif staples are rice, Indian-corn, and the millets, and the choice of crop is determined by the lay and character of the soil, nice grows best in low stiff land, where the water accumulates first and is most slowly absorbed, maize on a light soil raised slightly above the floods. The yield of the first is sometimes as much as twenty maunds per big ha or 2,600fts. per acre, but three-fifths of that is considered a fair outturn ; the latter will occasionally yield four cobs to the stalk, but it is seldom that more than three are fertile, and the agriculturist is contented with two good heads. The yield is heavier than that of rice, 3,300tt)S. per acre being an outside and 2,000ft)S. a fair average crop per acre. The smaller millets are less productive, grow on inferior soils, and exact less trouble in cultivation. Among the inferior crops wich are cut during the rains are mendwa, kdkun, and kodo, diminutive grains which form the principal diet of the very poor. The finer kinds of rice, which, instead of being sown and reaped on the same land, are transplanted in August from nurseries near the village site, do not ripen till the end of November, and form the most valuable item of the henwat crop

INTRODUCTION.

The average yield is at least 20 per cent, greater than that of th^e early autuinn varieties, and the grain is smalleir, better flavoured, and commands a rather higher price. The taste of the native differs diametrically frona that of the English m^arket, and the consideration in which the different kinds of rice are held varies inversely with their size, The only other hen wat crops which deniap,d notice are the Idhi, a rnustard, from whose seed oil is extraqtedwith a yield of about 700tt)S. per acre, and valuable on account, of the high price it commands, and two small species of pulse, the mling and mdsh, which are dried/ split, and eaten with rice. Sugar, which shares with rice, whep-t, and oilseeds the fi?rst' pl9.ce among Oudh products, occupies the land the whole year^ bejing laid dpwn in March, and not cut till the following February, It requires much labour and several waterings, but the profits in ordinary years ajmply repay the outlay^ and the produce of a single acre will often be sold or more than Es. 100. The- stalks- are chopped into short lengths, and the juice expressed in a rough wooden mill by a heavy pole turned ;by oxen. The sugar is then separated frojn the watery elements by evaporation, and the result is the, coarse . gur, which is formed into cakes like balls of clay, and in that shape taken to the market. The dry refuse of the stalks is stored to feed the cattle during the hot months. The spring crops, whose cutting commences in the middle of March, about a month after the sugar is off the ground, are sown in October, immediately after the conclusion of the heavy rains. A few inferior crops may be gathered in before, but it is not till thefires of the Hpli are out that the sickle is laid to the wheat. This is of two principal varieties, the bearded and the bald, and an average good crop will yield ten maunds to the bigha, or l;300H>s. to, the, acre,, while it occasionally and in exceptionally favouredloqalitieswill reaph an extreme limit of nearly twice that amount. In appraising these averages it should be borne in mind that they are for ordinary good crops on fair land without exceptional advantages, and without, on the other hand, any fatal drawbacks. For, estimating, the food-supply of the province from the total area under cultivation, or as a basis from which to deduce rents, they would be exceedingly misleading, and it is not too much to say that any estimate of the kind. is worse than useless. In a purely, agricultural province like Oudh, where the almostcomplete absence of raip, for eight months in the year allows^ no growth of natiiral grassps, _ very much land is brought under • the plough which in countries otherwise situated i would ; b©' reserved for pasture. The, methods ;of cultivation vary immeu'- sely .for, the same crop, and only lands where a harvest may b&^

INTRODUCTION. XI

expected with some certainty are prepared with the assiduous care which wheat cultivation demands. If the rains are unusually favourable large areas will be sown broiadfcast 6h nearly unprepared soil, with the anticipation of only a v6ry small outturn. Large areas, already exhausted by a rice crop, will be sown with a similar expectation, and though sOme "tolerably correct estimate can be made of the extent of land under the two crops, the inferior soils and the careless cultiviattidn adinit neither of being classified nor estimated with any approadh to accuracy, and for this reason it is quite hopeless to endeavour to guess the total produce of any one district or to deduce frdin it the average outturn per acre.

The variety of other spring crops is almost infinite. It is then that the principal oilseeds — the mustard, the flax, the til, and the castor-oil — are gathered in. The gram, whose young leaves are plucked iand prepared like spinach, while its seed afibrdB the best food for horses, and when split and parched the favourite refreshment to wayfarers who have no means of cooking a meal, is harvested soon after the wheat. Another small pulse, the masur, and pease ripen rather earlier, and with barley are the earliest crops to be garnered. When everything else but cotton is off the ground, arhar, a tall bush loaded with pods which contain a seed used as dal, is cut, and with it the agricultural year of labour is at an end for the majority of cultivators, who take a short rest before beginning the ploughings for next year's rice and wheat. This plant not only yields a very heavy crop of valuable seed, reaching iiot uncommonly on a well manured ^dil 3,500tt)S. per acre, but its stalks are of the greatest service in forming a framework for thatches. Large quantities are sown sparsely in fields whose main produce consists of crops which ripen and are cut at an earlier season, such as kodo, Indian-corn, and mdsh, and the outturn in such cases is of course but small. The great drawback to its cultivation is its excessive sensitiveness, and a very slight frost will wither every tree for miles.

Round most of the village sites there occXir patches of garden cultivation, where the "murdos" and the "kachhis," the most laborious and skilful of husbandmen, raise on a soil highly manured and highly irrigated small but valuable crops of opium, spices, vegetables, and tobacco. The principal spices are aniseed, coriander, cumin, and red pepper, while among the vegetables may be numbered potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, egg-plant, and ghuiydn. Cabbages and cauliflowers have recently been introduced ; they are very popular and occasionally cultivated with great success. In the hot months cucumbers and countless