Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/69

 K H A K H A 57 weaving factory. Many Bombay mercantile houses have established agencies in the district ; and towards the east, in the rich Tapti valley, Jalgaou and Bhusawal are rising into important centres of trade. The trunk road from Bombay to Agra and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway intersect the district, and of late years roads have been made all along the chief lines of traffic. The total revenue in 1876-77 amounted to 422,291, of which 303,706 was made up of the land tax. The same year there- were 272 schools, with 16,249 pupils. The average annual rainfall for the five years ending 1875-76 was 25 inches. Fevers and cutaneous affections are the prevailing diseases. KHANDPARA, a petty state in Orissa, India, lying between 20 11 and 20 D 25 N. lat,, and 85 1 and 85 25 E. long., with an area of 244 square miles, and a popu lation in 1872 of 60,877, mostly Hindus. KhandpAra originally formed a part of the neighbouring state of Nayagarh, and was separated from it about two hundred years ago by a brother of the Nayagarh raja, who estab lished his independence. The present chief, a Rajput by caste, is the eighth in descent from the founder. The country forms a very valuable territory, and is one of the best cultivated of the Orissa states. Fine sal timber abounds in the hilly parts, and magnificent banian and mango trees stud the plain. It is intersected by the Kuaria and Dauka rivers, small tributaries of the MahanadL The estimated annual revenue of the chief is 2258; tribute to the British government, .421. KHANDWA, or CUNDWAH, the chief town and head quarters station of Nimar district, Central Provinces, India, 21 50 N. lat, 76 23 E. long. Population (1877), 14,119. Khandwa is perhaps the most rising, town in the Central Provinces. It is the station on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, where the whole traffic of Central India towards Bombay meets the line. It has entirely superseded Burhanpur, the ancient centre of trade between Malwa, the Nerbudda valley, and the Deccan. Extensive barracks have been built for the relays of troops which pass through in the cold season, and there is also a good travellers bungalow with a spacious mrdi or native rest- house. The Arabian geographer, A I Bin mi (circa 1000 A.D. ), mentions Khandwa ; and a century Inter, it was a great seat of Jain worship. The mound on which the town stands has supplied many finely carved pillars, cornices, and other remains of the old Jain buildings, which have been built into Brahmanical temples, the walls of the Marhatta fort, and other structures It also formed a quarry for the Sivaite temples surrounding the four kunds or water reservoirs, one of which is on each side of the town, that on the west side bearing the date 1132 A.D. KHARKOFF, a government of European Russia, sur rounded by those of Kursk, Poltava, EkaterinoslafF, and Voronezh, and belonging partly to the basin of the Don and partly to that of the Dnieper. The area is estimated at 21,035 square miles. In general terms the government may be described as a table-land with an elevation of from 300 to 4GO feet traversed by deep-cut river valleys. The soil is for the most part of high fertility, about 47 per cent, of the surface being arable land and 30 per cent, natural pasture ; and though the winter is rather severe the summer heat is sufficient for the ripening of grapes and melons in the open air. The bulk of the population is engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the breeding of sheep, cattle, and horses, though various manufacturing industries have also received a rapid development, more especially since the middle of the present century. The ordinary cereals, maize, buckwheat, millet, hemp, flax, tobacco, poppies, and beetroot are all grown, and bee keeping and silk-worm rearing are of considerable import ance. In 1879 the horses numbered 258,711, the cattle 475,217, the sheep 1,059,596, of which 376,777 were of fine-fleeced varieties. Beetroot sugar factories, cotton mills, woollen factories, iron-works, and tanneries are the leading industrial establishments ; their whole production in 1879 was estimated at 23,939,147 roubles (about 3,790,000). The mass of the people are Little Russians, but there are also Great Russians, Calmucks, Germans, Jews, and Gipsies. In 1867 the total population was 1,681,486, and in 1879 2,036,9494119 of these being Raskolniks (dissidents), 1960 Roman Catholics, 2732 Protestants, and 3079 Jews. The government is divided into eleven districts Kharkoff, Akhtuirka, Bogodukhoff, Izyum, Kupyansk, Lebedyin, Zmieff, Starobyelsk, Sumui, Valki, and Voltchansk. In 1879 there were eight towns with populations above 5000 KharkoiF, Izyum (15,741), Starobyelsk (12,581), Voltchansk (11,107), Slavansk (10,558), Tchugueff (9418), Valki (7001), Zolotcheff (5038). Ecclesiastically the government is a separate eparchy or diocese of the Greek Church. The Roman Catholics are subject to the bishop of Tiraspol in Kherson. KHABKOFF, the chief town of the above government, is situated in 56 37 N. lat, and 25 5 E. long., in the valley of the Donets, 462 miles from Moscow and 137 miles from Kursk. It has railway communication north ward by Kursk and southward to Mariupol on the Sea of Azoff and to Odessa by Poltava and Balta. The four annual fairs are among the busiest in Russia, more especi ally the Krestchenskaya or Epiphany fair, which is opened on the 6th (18th) January. The turn-over is estimated at from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. Thousands of horses are bought and sold. At the Trinity (Troitsa) fair in June an extensive business (800,000) is done in wool. A great variety of manufactured goods are produced in the town linen, felt, sugar (especially from beetroot), tobacco, brandy, soap, candles, cast-iron. Besides a flourishing university, instituted in 1805, and attended in 1879 by 720 male and 163 female students, Kharkoff possesses an observator}, a larga veterinary college, a botanical garden, a theological seminary, and several important institutions of beneficence. The university building was formerly a royal palace. The library contained in 1878 98,000 volumes; and the zoological collections are especially rich in the birds and fishes of southern Russia. Extensive barracks are maintained in the town. Public gardens occupy the site of the ancient military works ; and the Government has a model farm in the neighbourhood. Of the Orthodox churches one has the rank of cathedral. The population of Kharkoff was 59,968 in 1867, and 101,175 in 1879. The foundation of Kharkoff is assigned to the year 1650, and the name is at least popularly connected with that of Khariton, the Cossack originator of the settlement ; but there is archaeological evidence of a much earlier occupation of the district, if not of the site. The Cossacks of Kharkoff remained faithful to the czar dur ing the rebellions of the latter part of the 17th century ; in return they received a variety of privileges, and continued to be a strong advance guard of the Russian power, till the final subjugation of all the southern region. Along with other military settlements Kharkoff was placed on a new footing in 1765 ; and at the same time it became the administrative centre of the Tkraine. It has been the government town from the establishment of the government in 1780. For plan see Reel us, Geographic Univcrscllc, vol. v. p. 807. KHARPUT (officially MA MURAT-EL- AZIZ), a town of Armenia, the seat of a mutasarrif, is situated about 60 miles north of Diarbekir on the highway to Siwas, and occupies a peculiarly picturesque position on a rocky eminence rising above the great plain through which the waters of the eastern Euphrates describe a devious pas sage. Besides the imposing ruins of the castle on the height, it possesses an ancient Jacobite church and con vent, and is the seat of an important American missionary college and schools. The population may be estimated at 25,000 or rather more, as there are 5000 households in the town (70 Jacobite, 500 Armenian, and the rest Turkish). XIV. 8