Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/89

 BANKURA.

79

the old fortifications, are several picturesque tanks, or

artificial lakes,

constructed by the ancient Rajas, who, taking advantage of natural

threw embankments

hollows,

them

across

to

confine

the

The mineral products of the District consist of and building stone. The lime produced is obtained from drainage.

or nodular limestone, which

is

found

the ground, or a few inches below

The

iron

is

the produce of the

ferruginous laterite with which the District abounds.

and

manufactured,

that only

the ghui'm

abundance on the surface of

in

it.

surface

lime, iron,

inhabiting the western frontier, for their

Very

and

by the Santals

own

wants.

little

of

aboriginal

it is

tribes

Building stone

and uplands, but the The difficulty and expense of carriage (juarries are not now worked. to market is the chief obstacle to the development of these quarries. .Although the rich coal-field of Raniganj is situated just beyond the northern border of the District, no coal has been found within Bankura, and it is asserted that the existence of coal south of the Damodar is a There are no revenue-yielding forests in the geological impossibility. District, but several sal tracts are kept as jungle, and cut in part either is

found

the

in unlimited quantities in

hills

yearly for sale as firewood, or at longer intervals for sale as saplings.

Large supplies of lac and tasar silk are obtained from the western the gathering of which affords occupation to many of the

jungles,

poorer classes, chiefly Santals and

Tigers,

Bauris.

leopards,

small

but fierce bears, hyaenas, wolves, deer, and wild hog frequent the jungle

along

tracts

the

western

occasionally invade the District Districts

of Chutia Nagpur on the west.



wild

elephants

also

Almost every variety of

found in Bankura, pythons being often met with in the The gokura (cobra), kardit, and other deadly serpents are also

Indian snake hills.

boundary

from the Santal Parganas and the

is

common. Bankura was formerly situated within the chakld of Bardwan, and was it ceded to the East India Company on the 27th September 1760. For some time after the English obtained the diwdm of the whole province of Bengal, the Bishnupur zam'mddrt, as Bankura was then called, formed a part of Bi'rbhum District, and remained so until 1793, when, by order of the Board of Revenue, it was transferred to Bardwan. By Regulation xviii. of 1805, Bishnupur was included in the newlyestablished Jungle Mahals, and continued to form part of that District

with

until

1833.

created

Numerous changes of boundary, and

a

separate

Collectorate.

the old-standing discrepancies

between the revenue, judicial, and police jurisdictions, long caused But in 1872, the transfer to Bardwan of pargands Sonaconfusion. mukhf, Indas, and Kotalpur in the east, and Shergarh and Senpaharf in the north, and the addition of Chatna thdnd (from Manbhum) on.

the west, rendered the jurisdictions almost conterminous.

Since then,