Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/29

 BALLIA. and 20 years afterwards is

to

be on the north bank.

again distinguished according as

action of the Ganges or the

remarkable for

river being

19

is

it

Gogra

—the

its fertility

The

alluvial tract

created by, and subject to, the alluvial deposit of the

former

and productiveness, while

that of

Gogra is sandy and unfertile, and peculiarly unstable. Besides the Ganges and Gogra, the only river in the District is the Lesser Sarju, an affluent of the Gogra, which branches off in Azamgarh District, and joins the Ganges a little way above the town of Ballia. It forms approximately the boundary between this District and Ghdzipur. Ballia is well wooded, abounding in groves of mango trees. There is no jungle, and no waste lands except in the upland tract, the barren patches liable to efflorescence of reh, and in the lowland some stretches of grass jungle along the Gogra. There are some nilgai in the District, The grass jungle gives cover to wild but no deer or other large game. hogs. The density of the population, and the comparative absence of jungle, have long ago driven out all the larger carnivora, and there In other respects, is now no animal fiercer than the jackal and fox. the

the fauna of Ballia

is

similar to that of all other Districts of the North-

Western Provinces. History

.

—The

present District of Ballia corresponds to no ancient

territory of separate historical interest



and

its

is therefore comand Azamgarh. It

history

prised in that of the parent Districts of Ghdzipur

should be noted, however, that pargand Doaba formerly belonged to

Shahabdd

District in Bengal,

Provinces

in 1818.

Archaology

—There

.

either ancient or

is

modern.

Waina, huge mounds

and was

transferred to the North-Western

a singular absence of any buildings of note Here and there, notably at Pakka Kot and

exist,

which

in the case of

Pakka Kot are

partly

faced with brick, and are the remains of old fortifications attributed by

to

its

colonization

—

—

and Cherus the possessors of the country prior by the Rajput tribes from the north-west.

tradition to the Bhars

Ballia supports a population of 924,763 persons, Population. according to the Census of 1881, or an average of 808 to the square It is the most densely populated District of the Province, mile. is due entirely to the Only 69,321 Muhammadans

except Benares, where the greater average density inclusion of the large city of that name.

are returned, or 7^ per cent., which is a considerably smaller proportion than for the rest of the Province, and shows the slight extent to

Muhammadan conquest The Muhammadan community holds The Hindu population amounts which the

affected the general

population.

a very small portion of the

soil.

855,410, of whom Rajputs number 131,126, and form the great land-holding class. Even where the proprietary right has passed from them during the English rule

by auction

to

sale or private transfer, they retain their

hold on the

soil