Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/140

 ;

£AJ?D IVAJV.

130

Of

tion.

the 3667 villages and towns,

1280, from 200 to 500;

inhabitants;

1554 contain

less

than 200

622, from 500 to 1000;

182,

from 1000 to 2000 ; 19, from 2000 to 3000 ; 5, from 3000 to 5000 ; 2, from 5000 to 10,000; 2, from 10,000 to 15,000; and i, from 20,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. Bardwan is the principal town and civil station of the District, and was formerly the head-quarters of the Commissioner of the Division ; it contains the palace and fine gardens of the Maharaja

the Sivalaya, a two circles ; and the shrine of Pi'rbaharam. The municipality of Bardw'an is composed of 93 little villages lying close to each other and surrounding the towm proper. collection of 108 temples arranged in

Kalna (Culna), the port and principal seat of trade of the District, is on the Bhagfrathf ; in Muhammadan times it must have been a place of importance, as the ruins of a large fort are still to be seen the Maharaja of Bardwan has a palace here. Raniganj, on the Damodar,

is

principally interesting as being the centre of the coal industry of the

District,

Katwa rivers,

times

an account of which

(Cutw'a)

is

be found in another section

(infra).

and Ajai

and is one of the chief centres of trade in the District ; in former was defended by a fort of which scarcely a vestige remains, and

it

was regarded as the key later

w’ill

situated at the confluence of the Bhagirathi

Muhammadan

himself the ascetic

Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal under the It was here that Chaitanya took upon and the place is consequently considered sacred to

governors.

life,

by the Vaishnavs. Agriculture.

reaped crop

is

Aman

—The

principal crop in Bardwan, as in other Districts

or autumn crop is sowm in May and August or September and the dman or hainiantik (winter) sown in June or July and reaped in November or December. rice requires much water, and is always sown on sdli or low-

of Bengal,

is

The dus

rice.

in



more or less moisture all the time the crop is ground; it is always transplanted. Atts rice, on the other hand, grown on send land, which is higher and therefore drier than sdli.

lying land, w’hich retains in the is

The Eden

Canal, constructed for irrigation purposes, runs for a distance

of about 20 miles from Bardwan town to Selimabad, in the south of the

A

District.

scheme

for clearing out the silted-up

channels over extensive tracts of country,

Among

sideration.

the

hemp, cotton,

spring

indigo

beds of old drainage

now' (1883) under con-

the other crops raised in the District, are wheat,

barley, gram, peas, mustard,

potatoes,

is

gives

til,

the

mulberry, pdn, There are two indigo crops

castor-oil, sugar-cane,

and indigo. best

out-turn,

but

the

yield

is

very

depending almost entirely on a regular alternation of sunny and showery weather during the time the plant is on the precarious,

ground.

Scientific irrigation

common custom

to

dam up

is

unknown

in the

District,

but

it

is

a

the lesser streams with a view to the irriga-