Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/216

 BASTAR.

2o6 the Marias

and

IMan's,

uncivilised

deepest recesses of the jungle.

A

and timid people inhabiting the them and of the other

description of

Gond

clans will be found under their respective alphabetical headings. Throughout the State, Danteswdrf or Mauli (who is identified with Bhawini or Kali), and Mata Devi, are objects of universal worship.

The

higher castes also adore

Pantheon.

the well-known deities

of the

Danteswari, however, must be regarded as

Hindu

the tutelary

divinity of the Rajas, and generally of the Bastar dependency. It was under her guardianship that the reigning family left Hindustan and dwelt at Warangul and when the Muhammadans drove them out of the kingdom of Telingan^, it was she who directed and accompanied their flight as far as Dantiwara, where she took up her abode. Her temple stands at the confluence of the Sankhani and Dankani rivers, and within the temple enclosure the hereditary Pujan', or priest, has

his residence.

Here

there

is

reason to believe that

human

sacrifices

and for many years after 1842, a guard was At placed over the temple, and the Rija held personally responsible. present most travellers offer a goat to the goddess when they pass her Some, too, consult her by placing flowers upon the head of her shrine. image. As the flowers fall to the right or the left, so her response is {jneriah)

were once practised

deemed favourable

j

or the reverse.

The idol

is

of black stone, generally

and wearing ordinary female ornaments. Jagdalpur, the capital, and residence of the Raja, is the only town containing upwards of 1000 inhabitants (population 4294), and but 17 other places have a population exceeding 500; 170 villages contain from 200 to 500 inhabitants, and 2016 have fewer than 200. Of the total area of 13,062 square miles, only 1000 are cultivated of North the portion lying waste, two-thirds are returned as cultivable. of the Indravati river, the soil is the property of the State and the land to the south of the river is nearly all composed of zamuiddjis or estates of petty chiefs, who hold their lands under a service tenure dressed in a white muslin

sari,





subject to a light tribute to the Raja, but liable to periodical enhance-

The largest of these zaminddris are Bhupalpatnam (1170 square Kutia (1072 square miles), and Biji (855 square miles). Rice constitutes the most important crop in Bastar ; but oil-seeds, dyes, ral, No cotton, and davwiar, kosa, lac, galls, and fibres are also produced. Sugar-cane, but a very small quantity of wheat and gram, are grown. of a superior quality, constitutes an important crop, and gur or crude sugar is exported to the sea-coast, and to Nagpur. One of the most ment.

miles),

important productions of Bastar consists of

its

horns and hides.

The

gur, wax, and honey must also be mentioned.

The

State

is

almost destitute of manufactures.

in

The weavers make

a

and a caste called Ghasias carry on a business Jagdalpur town, by working up brass pots out of the fragments of

coarse kind of cloth