Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/538



526 PADRAUNA TAHSIL AND TOIVN. Pádra is connected with Baroda city by narrow sandy roads, impassable in the rains for wheeled traffic. The village contains a good market, and lies in the centre of a prosperous country. Customs' office, postoffice, dispensary, and three rest-houses. A municipality, and a Gujaráthí school. From its situation, Pádra was in former times the usual place of detention for suspected members of the Gaekwár's family. Padrauna (Paráuna). ---North-eastern tahsil of Gorakhpur District, North-Western Provinces ; consisting of a level plain, lying along the west bank of the river Gandak, and co-extensive with the pargans of Sidhua-Jobna. The tahsil is a long and straggling tract extending from the wild and marshy tardi in the north to the confines of the fertile Bengal District of Champáran on the south, and presenting a great variety of physical and agricultural features. The Great Gandak forms its eastern boundary in parts, and the almost yearly changes of bed effected by this river are a great obstacle to cultivation. In the neighbourhood of the Great Gandak, the agriculture is of an inferior description, and herdsmen and shepherds preponderate amongst the inhabitants. The other rivers are the Little Gandak, Jharkhi, Bánri, and Khanuá; while numerous shallow lagoons connected by watercourses, and natural and artificial ponds and tanks, are dotted over the tahsil. The villages are built wherever a little eminence is found, and are surrounded by mango groves and clumps of bamboos. The ordinary crops of the spring and winter harvests are produced; but within the last 45 years, sugar-cane has become the staple crop. Area of the tahsil, 934 square miles, of which 701 square miles are returned as under cultivation. Population (1868) 417,641; (1881) 559,838, namely, males 279,566, and females 280,272. Total increase of population in 13 years, 142,197, or 34'05 per cent. Classified according to religion, there were in 1881-Hindus, 477,806; Muhammadans, 82,003 ; and others,' 29. Of the 1220 villages comprising the tahsil, 908 contain less than five hundred inhabitants, while no place exceeds five thousand. Principal manufactures, sugar, which is carried on by at least 50 native factories; and the manufacture and refining of saltpctre. Coarse hemp matting and sacking are also extensively manufactured, and the luxuriant pasturage along the banks of the Gandak has induced a considerable export trade in hides to Patna and Calcutta. Land revenue (1883), £33,786; total revenue, including local rates and cesses levied on land, £37,867; rental paid by cultivators, £113,948. Padrauna tahsil contains 2 criminal courts, with 6 police stations (thánás); strength of regular police, 75 men, besides 352 village police (chaukidárs). Padrauna.-Town in Gorakhpur District, North-Western Provinces, and head-quarters of Padrauna tahsil. Lat. 26° 54' 20" N., long. 84° í 25" E. Distance from Gorakhpur town, 40 miles east. General