Bah

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Bah

South-eastern tahsil of Agra District, United Provinces, con- terminous with thepargafia of the same name, lying between 26 45" and 26 59' N. and 78 rV and 78 51' E., with an area of 341 square miles. The tahsil is sometimes called Pinahat. Population decreased from 125,848 in 1891 to 123,591 in 1901. There are 204 villages and one town, Bah (population, 3,867), the tahsil head-quarters. The demand for land revenue in 1903-4 was Rs. 2,09,000, and for cesses Rs. 28,000. The density of population, 362 persons per square mile, is the lowest in the District. The tahsil is almost an island, being cut off from the rest of the District by the Utangan and Jumna on the north, and from the Gwalior State by the Chambal on the south. While the average breadth between these rivers is 8 or 9 miles, the wild maze of deep ravines which fringes them reduces the comparatively level central tract to a width of 4 or 5 miles.

The villages in this area are perched on almost inaccessible positions — a memorial of the time when security was required against the revenue collector and foreign invaders. While the actual ravines are totally barren, and do not produce even trees, the low-lying land, here called kachhdr, is exceptionally fertile. This is especially the case near the Chambal, where black soil, called mar as in Bundelkhand, is common. The Utangan kachhar, though of different composition, is equally fertile, while the Jumna lowlands are poorer. In 1903-4 the area under cultivation was 190 square miles, of which only 12 were irrigated, almost entirely from wells. The great depth of spring-level and the cost of irrigation make this tract peculiarly liable to distress in dry seasons, and it was the only tahsil in the District which lost in population between 1891 and 1 90 1.