Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/270

UPPARA :(c) manufactures contraband salt in any other way than by excavating or collecting salt-earth; or


 * (d) purchases, obtains, possesses, sells or weighs contraband salt other than salt-earth, knowing or having reason to believe it to be contraband; or


 * (e) refines saltpetre without such license as is prescribed by the Act; or


 * (f) attempts to commit, or within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code abets the commission of any of the above acts,

shall on conviction be punishable for every such offence with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or with fine not exceeding five hundred rupees, or with both.

It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Bellary district, that "at the time when the Company came into possession of the district, the salt consumed in it was of two kinds, namely, the earth-salt manufactured from saline soils by men of the Uppara caste, and the marine salt made on the west coast. The latter was imported by the Lambādis and Korachas, who brought it up the ghats by means of large droves of pack-bullocks. The earth-salt was made in what were known as modas, which were peculiar to the Ceded Districts, and were especially common in Bellary. A heap of earth was piled up, and on the top of it were hollowed out one or more circular basins, some five feet in diameter and two feet deep. From the bottom of these basins, channels lined with chunam (lime) ran down to one or more reservoirs similarly lined. Salt-earth was collected in the places where it effloresced naturally in the dry months, and taken to the moda on pack-buffaloes. It was thrown into the basins, and then a quantity of water was poured upon it. The brine so obtained flowed through the