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 BENARES.

26o

pressed chiefly upon the western country

but Benares suffered someKaramnasa, and grain riots occurred in the city. In 1803, it became necessary to offer a bounty of 15 rupees (^i, los.) on every 100 maunds of grain (about 3J tons) imported from Bengal into Benares or AllahabM; yet the scarcity was not so severe as in Rohilkhand and the west. The great famine of 1837-38, which ravaged the whole North-Western Provinces, fell upon Benares with great severity, though less fiercely than in the Doab. The dearth of 1860-61, which proved so fatal in the Upper Doab and the Agra Division, did not reach Benares while the Bengal famine of 1874 hardly touched the confines of the District. Commerce and Trade, etc The commerce of the District centres what, like

all



the tract to the west of the



.

—

A considerable trade passes through from Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, and Basti. Two lines of railroad traverse the District throughout the greater portion of its length. The East Indian Railway runs through the pargajids south of the Ganges, with stations at Sakaldiha and Mughal Sarai ; and sends off a branch line, 6 miles in length, which ends on the river bank just opposite Benares. The Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway has its terminus at Benares, on the north bank of the Ganges, and runs north-west for 20 almost entirely in the city

{(J-V.).

miles in this District, with stations at Seopur, Babatpur, and Phulpur.

The Grand Trunk Road from

Calcutta to Delhi also traverses the

from end to end, with a length of 44 miles, crossing the Ganges at Benares by a bridge of boats. Other good roads connect District

the city with Jaunpur, Ahraura, Sakaldiha, and Ghazipur.

made

The

total

roads in the District in 1881 was 568^ miles. Administration Benares is the head-quarters of a Commissioner,

length of

.

—

and the seat of a civil and session judgeship, which does not include any other District. The Commissioner of Benares is also agent for the Viceroy in his official relations with the Maharaja of Benares, and ex The ordinary officio superintendent of the Benares Family Domains. administrative staff of the District includes a Collector-Magistrate,

Joint Magistrate,

i

Assistant,

and

2

i

Deputies, besides the usual medical,

and constabulary establishment. The whole amount of revenue, and local, raised in the District in 1880, amounted 1880-81 the imperial revenue was returned at to and in 72,950; regular police force had a total strength, in 1880, of 553 men, besides a municipal and cantonment police of 453, maintained at a cost of and ^3800 from local funds being at the rate of i policeman to every Benares square mile and to every 903 persons of the population. the central prison and the ])0ssesses two places of confinement District jail. The former contained in 1880 a daily average number of fiscal,
 * ,Ci39,3o 8, of which ^89,480 was derived from the land. The District
 * ,^'ii,2ii, of which ;^74ii was contributed from provincial

imperial, municipal,



—