Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/243

 — BELGAUM. by

are generally shaded

pear (Opuntia vulgaris). cation. tile;

233

trees,

and surrounded by a hedge, of prickly

They

are otherwise without defence or

fortifi-

In the west of the District, the houses have roofs of thatch or

but towards the east where the rainfall

is light,

the roof

is flat,

made

mud and

surrounded by a mud parapet. Each village has generally one chief street, in which the richest villagers have their dwellings, of

with smaller roads branching off at right angles.

Except

in the larger

towns, there are few houses

more than one

villages, the well to-do live in

houses with walls of brick and doors of

wood, of which, carved.

The

many

in

instances, the posts

In country

storey high.

and

lintels are elegantly

foundations of the houses are raised on a plinth generally

of hewn stone, 2 or 3 feet above the level of the street. classes live in dwellings with walls of mud and straw,

The middle

and doors of plaited or woven bamboos the poor in huts with roofs of thatch and walls of a few bamboos interlaced with millet stalks, sometimes daubed over with mud. Outside the village hedge, a group of carelesslymade hovels form the quarters of the Mahars and other depressed

classes.

Exclusive of the hamlets, there were, in 1881, 5 towns and 1072 inhabited villages, giving an average of ’22 villages to each square mile,

and 87 ‘82 inhabitants to each

village.

The number

of houses,

occupied and unoccupied, was 188,694, or 40‘5 per square mile. The chief towns of the District are (i) Belgaum, with a population of 32,697, inclusive of 9582 in the cantonment; (2) Gokak, population 10,307; (3) Athni, population 11,186; (4) Nipani, population 9777;

Saundatti, population 7133 (6) Yamkanmardi, population 4491. Trade associations or guilds scarcely exist in Belgaum, and the constitution of the village community is but imperfectly preserved. 1 he office of village head-man or paid still remains in many cases hereditary and more rarely stipendiary. By caste, most of the village head-men are Hindus of the Lingayat sect. The office of village clerk, hdkar?ti, is, (s)



with but few exceptions, hereditary in caste.

Mahar

Almost caste.

Hindu

families of the

villages

cash and in land.

The

other

members of the full staff of The shoemaker, the

servants are found in but few villages.

and the potter

still

almost completely Agriculture

.

Brahman

have watchmen and messengers of the The head-man, clerk, and watchman are paid both in all

village

barber,

remain, but only as ordinary' workmen, having

lost their public character.

— In 1880-81 the

total area of arable

land in the District

which 1,032,253 acres were in occupation; the remainder, 106,797 acres, lay waste. Wet cultivation is carried on to a very limited extent, being adopted only for rice fields and gardens. Irrigated lands in the most favourable situations receive their supply of water by canals from perennial rivulets, or from rivers that have dams was 1,139,050

acres, of