The Imperial Gazetteer Of India Vol-I

Preface

‘ We are of opinion,’ wrote the Court of Directdft in Early

- GjfiforLs

1807 to their servants in Bengal, *that a Statistical under the Survey of the country would be attended with much utility; we therefore recommend proper steps to be 1855. taken for the execution of the same.' The despatch from which these words are quoted forms one of a long series of instructions in which the East India Company urged a systematic inquiry into its territories. The first formulated effort in Bengal dates from 1769, four years after that Province came into its hands ; the latest orders of the Court of Directors on the subject were issued in 1855, three years before the administration of India passed from the Company to the Crown. During the interval many able and earnest men had laboured at the work, manuscript materials of great value had been amused, and several important volumes had been pub¬ lished. But such attempts were isolated, directed by no central organization, and unsustained by any con¬ tinuous plan of execution.

The ten years which followed the transfer of the Eflforts government of India to the Crown in 1858, produced acrown, new set of efforts towards the elucidation of the country. Conspicuous among them was the work begun in 1866 under the direction of Sir Richard Temple, when Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces.^ The controlling power in England had now passed from a body of experts, the Court of Directors, to Parliament and the nation at large. Accurate and accessible infor¬ mation regarding India was become, under the new

I

^ Executed by Mr. Charles Grant, of the Bengal Civil Service, after¬ wards (1880) Member of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council.

VIU

PREFACE.

Their

failure,

Remon¬ strances by public bodies.

Renewed

efforts,

1869, system, an essential condition for the safe exercise of that control. Accordingly, in 1867, the Viceroy, acting on instructions from Her Majesty’s Secretary of State, ordered an account to be drawn up for each of the twelve great Provinces of India.^

The Provincial Governments struck out widely diver¬ gent schemes for conducting the work. It was as if a command had issued from some central power for a Statistical Survey of all Europe, and each nation set about its execution on a separate plan. It became apparent that vast sums of money would be expended^ while considerable uncertainty existed as to the results. One local Government started on a scale which, if gener¬ ally adopted, would have involved an outlay of ;£’ioo,ooo for the District materials alone. The head of another Province himself^ carried out the work, expeditiously and at scarcely any cost to the State ; but on a system which, although admirably suited to the territories under his care, could not be applied to the rest of India. Mean¬ while, the commercial community and various public bodies were pressing upon the Government the necessity of systematic organization, with a view to ensure^uniformity in the execution of the work. Without such uniformity, the Council of the Asiatic Society pointed out that, when the local compilations came to be finally digested into the General Account of India, there would be no basis for comparative statistics, and much *of the original work would have to be gone over again de novo'

The Viceroy arrived at the same conclusion; and in 1869, His Excellency directed me to visit the various Provincial Governments, with a view to ‘ submit a com-

^ These Provinces, or rather political divisions under separate adminu-i^ stration, were—(i) Bengal; (2) Bombay; (3) Madras; (4) The North-' Western Provinces and Oudh; (5) the Punjab; (6) Assam, in 1867' included in Bengal; (7) Central Provinces; (8) British Burma; {9) The Berars, under the Resident at Haidarabad; (10) Mysore and Coorg; (ii) Rajputana ; (12) Central India .—Orders of the Government of India, No, 1758, dated 19th October 1867.

^ * Mr. Alfred Lyall, C.B., of the Bengal Civil Service, then Commis¬ sioner of West Berar, now Foreign Secretary to the Government of India.

IX prehensive scheme for utilizing the information already collected ; for prescribing the principles ’ to be thenceforth adopted; ‘ and for the consolidation into one work of the whole of the materials that may be available.’

In carrying out these instructions, I found that the Causes of series of previous efforts had failed from two distinct railuier causes. In one class of cases, a central officer of rank and ability had been appointed; but he had not been supported by adequate machinery for collecting the local materials. In another class, the District Officers had been left to work each on his own plan, without the guidance of any single mind. The first class had failed from want of local organization; the second, from want of central control.^ The task set before me consisted, in fact, of two separate stages—First, a ‘local inquiry,’ Two stages conducted on a uniform scheme, throughout each of the woik.

240 Districts, or administrative units, of British India:

Second, the consolidation of the materials thus obtained into one book. The first stage could be effected only

^ The Governor-Geneial in Council thus summed up the previous effoits, in a Resolution dated the 8th September 1871. ‘Three distinct senes of operaj^ons have in time past --been undertaken or encouraged by the Government, with a view to obtaining trustworthy accounts of the country, such as might form a Gazetteer of India; the whole representing a veiy large outlay, commencing as far back as 1769, and one of the efforts costing ;^30,ooo for meiely collecting the matenals for pait of a single Province. From a vaiiety of causes, all moie or less proceeding from defective organization, this laige expenditure, while accumulating isolateji materials of great value, failed to yield any systematic and comprehensive result.* The Resolution then reviewed the fresh operations ordered by the Secretary of State in 1867. ‘ Various schemes were set on foot to give

effect to these orders, some of them so costly as to be altogether dispro¬ portionate to the results to be obtained. But His Excellency in Council observes that excessive costliness is not the only unfortunate effect of the want of organization, which left each local Government to invent a scheme of its own, irrespective of what was being done in other Provinces. There was, in fact, no unity of plan or central supervision, and the results did not contain the materials required for the comparative statistics of the Empire. . . . Widely different schemes have been propounded by the local administrations, some of them involving a very extravagant outlay, others of too meagre a character. Each local Government has given its own interpretation to the work; and the expenence of the last few yeais shows that, in the absence of a central organization, the cost of the enter¬ prise will swell to an enormous total, while the same heterogeneous incom¬ pleteness, which rendered all previous efforts infructuous, will again result

X by a Statistical Survey of India; the second is repre¬ sented by the Imperial Gazetteer. No basis existed at that time for either of these works. A Census had never been taken for British India; and in some Provinces the different departments of the same Govern¬ ment grounded their financial and administrative demands on widely diverse estimates of the population. Plan for a Accordingly, in 1869, I submitted to the Governor- Survey General in Council a Plan for a Statistical Survey and iinpenal Imperial Gazetteer of India.^ It endeavoured, First, to eliminate the causes of previous failures, by providing a uniform scheme, a local mechanism, and a central con- Its objects, trol. Second, to clearly define the objects of the present undertaking. These objects were partly of an admini¬ strative and partly of a general character; namely, ^ for the use of the Controlling Body in England, of admini¬ strators in India, and of the public.’ Third, to secure the co-operation of the Provincial Governments,—lukewarm heretofore in such matters,—^by respecting their indi-, viduality, and by modifying the uniform scheme to suit the circumstances of their several Provinces. Fourth, to collect the materials at once systematically^ and cheaply, by enlisting the unpaid agency of the District Officers throughout India under a central control. The Government was pleased to approve of this Plan, and to ^secure for the execution of the design the super¬ vision of the designer.’ ^

Extent ‘ The operations,’ wrote the Governor-General in of the

operations. Council, ^ will extend over ten separate Governments which, with their Feudatory States, administer a terri¬ tory of i|- million square miles and govern a popula¬ tion estimated at 200 million souls (since found to be 240 millions). The work represents, therefore, a series of local inquiries and comparative statistics, spread over an area but little less than that of all Europe, ex¬ cepting Russia,’ and a population then exceeding that

^ Printed at the Home Secretariat Press, 144 pp. folio. Calcutta, 1870.

* Proceedings of the Government of India^ dated 8th September 1871.

JPREFACE,

XI of all Europe, less Russia. With a view to securing Medianuniformity in the materials, I drew up six series ofstatisticd leading questions,^ illustrating the topographical, ethnical, agricultural, industrial, administrative, and medical aspects of an Indian District. These have served as a basis for the Survey throughout all India.

With a view to securing punctuality of execution, Provin¬ cial Compilers were appointed, each of whom was made responsible for getting in the returns from the District Officers within the territories assigned to him ; for sup¬ plementing those returns by information from heads of Departments and other local sources ; and for working up the results into the Statistical Account or Gazetteer of the Province. In this way, the unpaid co-operation of the administrative staff throughout the 240 Districts of India was enlisted, the best local knowledge was brought to bear, while in each Province a paid editor Its was answerable for the coirpletion of the Provincial Ivwkmgl Account on a uniform plan and within a reasonable time. The supervision of the whole rested with me, as Director-General of Statistics to the Government of India. During one-half of each year, I visited The various Provinces, especially Bengal, which I re¬ tained in my own hands as Provincial Editor in addi¬ tion to my duties as Director-General. The other half,

I devoted to testing and working up the results.

During the past twelve years, the Statistical Survey The has been carried throughout the whole of British India. The District forms the administrative unit in India, and the Statistical Survey furnishes an elabo¬ rate account of each of the 240 Districts. The Pro¬ vince is The administrative entity in India, and the Statistical Survey groups the whole of the District materials into fifteen Provincial Accounts or Gazetteers.

Such a work, if it is to furnish a basis for admini¬ strative action in India, and supply data to the Con-

^ Circulated to the Provincial Governments, under the title of ‘ Heads of Information required for the Impenal Gazetteer.^ xii trolling Body in England, must be at once compre- The 100 hensive and minute. The District and Provincial of Accounts form, therefore, about lOO printed volumes.

Survey ; aggregating 36,000 pages, of which 90 volumes,

making over 32,000 pages, have already been issued. The operations have now been completed throughout 12 Provinces and 210 Districts, representing a popu¬ lation of about 190 millions of souls. The small uow ^ unfinished section deals with a few Districts, for which completed, the materials have been, or are being, collected ; and the printed accounts of which will be issued for the most part, it is hoped, during the current year.

The following table summarizes the operations of the Statistical Survey in the Provinces of British India:—

The Statistical Survey of British India.

Province.

Area in

Population

Number

Number of Vols , and Pages printed.

Provincial

Compiler.

Square

Miles.

.

Distncts.

Pages.

I Bengal, . . .

196,942

62,815,370

8,246

53»85<5

4,132,019

WW Hunter, C.IE

3. North-Western Provinces, .

86,528

31,438,217

4,200’

< E T Atkmson, Esq -< A C Tupp, Esq.

4. Punjab,. . .

219,610

22,956,970

3,000

( H Conybeare, Esq E. J Cunningham, Esq.

(C M*Minn, Esq. (Dr. Selons

23,992

11,220,232

1,737

6. Central Pro¬ vinces, . . j

113,797

9,251,229

C Grant, Esq

7. Bombay,)

191,832

23,180,721

4,500?

f J M Campbell, Esq *(A. W Hughes. E«q.

9. Madras, . .

147,789

34,962,005

5,000?

The Distnct Officers

xo. Berar, .

II. Mysore, . .

17,631

2,226,496

A. C. Lyall, C.B

29,325

5,055,412

1,249

L. Rice, Esq

2,000

88,556

168,312

I;

L Rice, Esq

13 Bntish Burma,

2,747,148

^5

1,^28

Captam Spearman.

14. Ajmere and Mhairw5.ra, .

396,889

J.D La Touche, Esq

22,722

Capt, F. M. Hunter.

Total, . .

1,174,604

210,573,742

1 32,214

Note — The area and population include Native States under the administra¬ tion of the Provincial Governments. The number of Distncts is taken from the Parliamentary Abstract for 1877, except that Aden is added, and the number for Bengal is reckoned at 47, being the actual number of Districts dealt 'W'itli in the Statistical Accotmt of Bengal Slight alterations have since been made; but the figures will remain substantially the same, till the results of the new Census are known. Mysore was returned to Native Rule in 1881.

PREFACE. xiii

The Feudatory States and Chiefdoms, exceeding 300 Statistical in number, with 50 millions of people, were from the first m iSivT placed outside the scope of the Statistical Survey. In these territories it was unsuitable to attempt minute investigations, which the native princes would have been likely to misunderstand, and able to frustrate. Accord¬ ingly, my Plan of 1869 restricted the Survey to the British territories, but, at the same time, pointed out that the Native States must be included in the ultimate work for all India, that is, the Imperial Gazetteer. Steps were therefore taken to bring together the information already existing regarding them, and to modestly supple¬ ment it. In States temporarily under British manage- Excepment, this was quite practicable; and Major Powlett’s oppoiiunaccount of Ulwar supplies an admirable specimen what may be done under such circumstances.

But apart from exceptional cases, I found that the Five gieat 300 Native States of India had to be dealt with inftates!^^ five great groups. The first and most numerous class comprised the States and Chiefdoms which are in political dependence to the Provincial Governments. '

^These States have accepted a large measure of British supervision, and the Provincial Compilers were able to draw up fairly adequate accounts of them. The second group consisted of the Rdjputdna States; and two valuable volumes have been collected regarding them How dealt by Mr. Alfred Lyall, C.B., when Governor-General’s Agent.^ For the third group, including the Central India States, I did not find myself in a position to bring forward specific proposals; and in the case of several of them, this book will add but little to the sum of human knowledge. In the fourth group, or the Territories of the Nizdm, efforts were made at an early stage to obtain the necessary materials from His

^ TheRdjputdna Gazetteery 1879-80. I regpt that the period necessarily occupied lu collecting the matenals, rendered it impossible for the whole results to reach me in time for the Imperial Gazetteer.

XIV

Frontier

kingdoms.

Mechan¬ ism em¬ ployed for the Native States.

Its imper¬ fect results.

Highness’ Government. These efforts did not prove fruitful of results. The fifth group consisted of Frontier and Independent States, such as Afghanistan, Burma, and Nepal. Some account of such States would be expected in the Imperial Gazetteer of India. But any account of them, drawn up from official sources and issued under the authority of the British Government, might give rise to uneasiness among the princes who rule those territories, our neighbours and allies. After full consideration, it was decided that no special inquiry should be made with regard to Independent Kingdoms, and that no official documents should be used. The articles upon them in the Imperial Gazetteer are, accord¬ ingly, a mere reproduction of accounts already before the public, and for which no responsibility attaches to the Government.

Of the five groups of Native States, therefore, the first was satisfactorily dealt with by means of the Pro¬ vincial Compilers; the fifth can scarcely be said to have been dealt with at all. In the three intermediate groups, many isolated efforts were made, and a special Assistant was deputed to me in the Foreign Office, Calcutta with, a view to putting together the materials already exist¬ ing. His labours were afterwards supplemented in the Political Department of the India Office. But the con¬ fidential relationship between the Government of India and its Feudatory States, the dislike of the native Princes to inquiries of a social or economic character, and the scrupulous delicacy of the Foreign Office to avoid grounds of offence, have rendered a complete treatment of such territories impossible. I beg that those who use this book will believe that the occasional meagreness of the results, and several instances of quite inadequate treatment, are due not to want of anxious effort on my part, but to the conditions under which I worked. In some cases I have had to fall back on the old materials compiled, at the expense of the Court of

PREFACE.

XV

Directors, by Mr. Edward Thornton in the India House, and published by their authority, in four volumes, in 1854.^ As a whole, therefore, the articles on the Native States represent a much less exact method of inquiry than those on the British Provinces. They will be found, however, to mark a material advance in our information regarding Feudatory India. The basis for more system- NoStatistatic operations, a Census, does not exist; and a Statistical oTN^ive^ Survey of the Native States still remains unattempted.

The two primary objects of the operations were The three ^ for the use of Indian administrators,* and ‘ for the use the work: of the Controlling Body in England.* The hundred volumes of the Statistical Survey were expressly com¬ piled for these purposes ; and of the twelve years which have elapsed since its commencement, the first eight "were devoted to that part of the work. But admmithese hundred volumes, although by no means too ' elaborate for administrative requirements, are prac- the Omtically within the reach of but a small official class. Body” n The third object of the undertaking had been defined England ; in my original Plan, to be ' for the use of the public;* (3) For the ajtid th^ remaining four years of the twelve have been ^

chiefly occupied in reSucing the voluminous records of the Statistical Survey to a practicable size for general reference. The result is no^ presented in the nine volumes of the Imperial Gazetteer.

Previous Gazetteers had described, with industry and Initial sometimes with eloquence, the famous cities of India, comping its historical sites, and great Provinces. But in the imperial absence of systematic materials, they had to depend Gazetteer, on the chance topography of tourists, or on a place'

^ Under the title of A Gazetteer of the Territories under the East India Company and of the Native States on the Continent of India. (4 volumes.)

This work, excellent at its date, was compiled between the years 1844 and 1854; Mr. Thornton being paid a sum of money by the Court of Directors in addition to his salary, * it being distinctly understood that the cop3nright is to vest in the East India Company ’ {Resolution of the Court of Director's, l%tk February 1846).

xvi

List of places.

The first of t^kind for India.

System of

uniform

treatment.

Model

articles.

happening to find its way into the records of the India House. A petty hamlet in which some traveller halted for a night, or any locality that had formed the subject of a correspondence with the Court of Directors, stood out in bold relief; while great tracts and rivers, or the most important features of large Provinces, were passed over without a word. My first business, therefore, was to take care that every place which deserved mention should be enumerated ; my second, to see that it received neither less nor more space than its relative importance demanded. With a view to the first object, I sent circulars to the Provincial Editors and District Officers, calling for a return, upon clearly-stated principles, of every town, river, mountain, historical site, religious resort, commer¬ cial fair, harbour, or other place of importance in each District of British India. This list I checked from the Statistical Survey, and supplemented with many places which, although of no local significance, had obtained prominence in the literature of India. Eleven thousand names were thus arranged in alpha¬ betical order. No such list had ever before been com¬ piled for Her Majesty’s Indian Empire. Aftef bein'^ thinned out, it was printed in a folio volume, and for¬ warded to all the Local Governments in India, with a request that they would ascertain that the enumera¬ tion was correct as regards the territories under their care. I finally revised the list by the light of their sug¬ gestions, and selected about 8000 places for treatment in the Imperial Gazetteer.

During the interval which elapsed before their replies could be received, I drew up model articles, showing paragraph by paragraph the method of treat¬ ment; and I got together the missing materials for Provinces where the Statistical Survey had not suffi¬ ciently advanced to yield them. In this way, I placed in the hand of each contributor to the Imperial Gazetteer

PREFACE.

xvii the names of the places of which he was to treat, together with the complete materials for dealing with them, and with an exact mould into which those materials were to be squeezed.

The value of the work, as a guide to administration, Defects of . . . I , -I r ^ i work,

IS impaired by the fact that its figures cannot be as an

brought up to date. The basis of Indian statistics

is still the Census of 1872, taken a few months after Guide-

book.

my appointment as Director-General; and the Govern¬ ment has decided that the publication of the Gazetteer must not be delayed, with a view to obtaining the results of the new Census of i88i. Even the Census of 1872 does not supply a uniform basis for the whole of India; and in certain Provinces I have had to found on enumerations taken in 1867, 1868, and 1869. Much labour has been expended in bringing up the economical statistics to a more recent date, with the help of Administration Reports, and by special inquiries. But the length of time necessarily occupied by a Statistical Survey of a Continent, nearly equal JlS aU Europe less Russia, rendered it inevitable that -- the results should refer to different years during its pro¬ gress. My figures represent substantially the population Penod to statistics of India in 1872, with the administrative and statistics trade statistics from 1875 to 1879. some cases, even this degree of uniformity has not been found practi¬ cable ; in others, I have brought the facts down to 1880.

But the reduction of the statistics of India to a uniform basis must be deferred for a second edition, after the* results of the new Census are obtained.

In its other aspect, as a book for general reference, the Its defects Imperial Gazetteer is also less perfect than I could have oiltteen^ wished in several points. The Governor-General in Council found that the task of collecting the admini¬ strative materials and statistics would prove a burden

b xviii

Deficient in history.

The true history of India.

Wheie it IS to be found.

quite as heavy as he deemed expedient to lay upon the Local Governments. The historical aspects were expressly left to the voluntary research of the Provincial compilers. From the first, one of the Local Govern¬ ments objected even to this moderate scope being allowed for matters not directly of an official character. The emphasis which the Governor-General in Council laid in 1875 on the responsibilities of the Provincial Governments for the tone and contents of the work, seemed to several of them to render general disquisitions unsuitable. Even in the Provinces of Bengal and Assam, which I retained in my own hands as Provincial Editor, every sheet had to receive the sanction of the Local Government before it was printed off. Many topics of social or political interest were excluded, and a general introductory volume, after being in part printed, was not issued.

But if the history of India is ever to be anything more than a record of conquest and crime, it must be sought for among the people themselves. Valuable historical materials had been collected for the Statistical Survey; and in 1877, the Secretary of State forJndia® decided that a wider scope should be allowed me for their use in the Imperial Gazetteer. I have done my best to give effect to that view; and it will be seen, for the first time in these volumes, that every Indian District has its own history. The true territorial unit of Indian history is, indeed, much smaller than the British District For example, he who would study the history of Oudh must search for it in the pargand or parish; in other parts of India, the zaminddH or estate is the historical unit; in others, the chiefship; while in a few, the rural districts were mere appendages to the great cities. Had it been permitted to subject the rural annals of India to sys¬ tematic inquiry, as I wished, a rich harvest would have been gathered in. The historical accumulations made

XIX by the wayside, in conducting the Statistical Survey, have proved of much value. But in attempting to Some incorporate them in the Imperial Gazetteer, I have had male.^^^ frequently to choose between using materials which, owing to the earlier instructions, I had been unable to test; or rejecting statements, in themselves novel and interesting, but which, in the later stages of the work, I could not personally verify.

The latitudes and longitudes have, with a few excep- Geotions,been tested by the Surveyor-General’s Department.^ detaik!^^ I have to thank General Sir H. Thuillier for many years of friendly help, and Colonel J. T. Walker for more recent assistance, in the geographical details.

Areas, distances, and similar details have been taken from the latest scientific measurements ; but the frequent changes in the jurisdiction of Indian Dis¬ tricts introduce an element of variation difficult to elimi¬ nate. In some cases, averages will not work out Elements correctly, as in the rates of local taxation per head, where the municipal area often differs from the town -«w^a^aken for the Census. In other instances, the items will not add up ; as in certain Districts where the religious classification of the people does not yield the exact total arrived at by the general enumeration. There are not very many discrepancies of this sort, and no labour has been spared to get rid of them. But in several cases I cannot go beyond the figures supplied to me by the local authorities; and although I may see that there is something wrong, I am unable to set it right. I beg

^ The longitudes require a constant correction of mintts 2^ minutes (—0® 2' 30") to reduce them from the adopted value of 80® 1/ 21'' for the longitude of the Madras Observatory, on which they have been based, to the value of So* 14' 51", which was determined electro-telegraphically in 1876-77. It is not improbable that some further minute correction may be hereafter made ; and the Surveyor-General has deemed it undesirable that the values of all the individual longitudes should be altered, until the final determination has been arrived at.

XX

PREFACE.

that those who may come after me will, in improving on my work, remember the conditions under which it has been done. When it was begun, no one knew exactly the population of a single Province of India, or of a single District of Bengal. In the latter Province alone, the Census of 1872 suddenly disclosed the presence of 22 millions of British subjects whose existence had never previously been suspected. The population of Bengal and Assam, up to that time reckoned at 40 millions, was ascertained to number 67! millions of souls.

Spelling of The Spelling of names of Indian places has long Proper formed a subject of controversy. Without a uniform

Names, system of rendering them, an alphabetical Gazetteer could not start; and one of my first duties was to lay down a system for transliterating Indian Proper Names. In existing Gazetteers of India, the same word appears under many forms. The best work of this class gives eleven different spellings of the same town, not one of which is exactly correct; and in order to be sure of finding a place, the inquirer has to look it up^ndfifc every possible disguise. The truth is, it requires a long study of the vernacular languages of India, and some knowledge of Sanskrit, which forms the key to them all, before one is able to spell names even in the native Inherent alphabets. It next requires a well-considered system of^rmis^ of transliteration in order to render the word in the hteration. English character. For it must be remembered that the Sanskrit alphabet has fifty letters or signs, while the English alphabet has only twenty-six. Thus, the Roman alphabet has but one letter for the consonant n; the Sanskrit has four letters for it, in its various modifications, as a dental, lingual, palatal, and guttural. On the other hand, the Indian alphabets attach a uniform sound to each vowel; while in English, the same

PREFACE.

XXI vowel may have several sounds, such as tc in but^ put, cure, rural Indian names can, therefore, be represented only in a loose and popular manner in our alphabet; unless, indeed, we manufacture a new Roman alphabet with additional letters, by means of accents over the vowels, dots under the consonants, italics, or similar devices of typography.