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ORISSA. 433 Population. --The area of British Orissa, consisting of the three regularly settled Districts of Cuttack, Balasor, and Puri, together with the two escheated estates of Angúl and Banki, amounted in 1881 to 9053 square miles, with a population of 3,730,735, dwelling in 24,894 towns and villages, and occupying 631,504 louses. The Tributary States comprise an area of 15,187 square miles, with a total population of 1,469,142, dwelling in 11,212 villages and 259,653 houses. Total of British Orissa and Tributary States -- area, 24,240 square miles; population, 5,199,877; towns and villages, 36,106; houses, 891,157. The people live almost entirely by husbandry. No tendency towards town life, in the European sense of the word, can be detected in this rural Province. Nevertheless, they have cities after their own fashion. The principal of these is CUTTACK, with a population (1881) of +2,656, built on the neck of land formed by the first bifurcation of the Mahanadi, at the head of the delta. It is the head-quarters of the Provincial Administration, and forms the starting-point of the great system of canals which irrigates the Province. The next important town, from a commercial point of view, is BALASOR, with a population (1881) of 20,265, the official head-quarters of the District of the same name, and the earliest English factory on the seaboard of Bengal. Puri, the capital of the third District of Orissa, and the religious metropolis of the Province, has a population (1881) of 22,095 persons. KENDRAPARA, with 15,696 inhabitants, gives its name to the canal which connects Cuttack with tidal waters. JAJPUR, with a population of 11,233, is the only other town in the Province with a population exceeding five thousand. The following table exhibits all the towns of Orissa of over 5000 inhabitants in 1881, and their chief municipal statistics. MUNICIPAL STATISTICS OF Orissa, 1883-84. Towns of cooo Inhabitants and upwards. Hindus. Muhammadans. Christians and Others Total Popula. tion. Gross Municipal Rate of Municipal Taxation per head. Incoine. 7,687 1896 42,656 3554 I 4 Cuttack, Balasor, . . . . 33,073 16,848 3,068 349 918 0 10.) Purí, . . 191 1927 I 1 21,913 10,611 20,263 22,095 11,233 15,695 Jájpur, . . 616 6 313 10 61 494 o 63 Kendrápára, . . 14,033 1,658 96,478 13,210 2257 111,945 7206 10 VOL. X. 2 E