Jorhat Town
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, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Jorhat Town
Head-quarters of the subdivision of the same name in Sibsagar District, Eastern Bengal and Assam, situated in 26 degree 45' N. and 94 degree 13' E., on the left bank of the Disai river. The town had a population in 1901 of 2,899, and is administered as a Union under (Bengal) Act V of 1876, the expenditure in 1903-4 amounting to nearly Rs. 8,000. Jorhat was the capital of the Ahom Rajas after Gaurinath Singh had been driven from Rangpur near Sibsagar at the end of the eighteenth century. It contains a fine tank of excellent water, on the banks of which the subdivisional officer's residence and office have been located, and the remains of considerable earthworks. There is a flourishing bazar, the largest shops in which are owned by Marwari merchants, who do a large business with the tea gardens in the neighbourhood. The principal articles of import are cotton piece- goods, grain, salt and oil, the chief exports being mustard seed, cane, and hides. Furniture and haberdashery are sold by Muhammadan traders from Bengal. A colony of Telis has been formed in the town, who express mustard oil in the ordinary bullock-mills of Upper India ; and Jorhat is the chief centre for the manufacture of Assamese jewellery, which usually consists of lac covered with gold and enamel and set with cheap stones. The public buildings include a small jail, a hospital with twenty-four beds, and two high schools which in 1903-4 had an average attendance of 452 boys. A daily market for the sale of native produce is numerously attended ; and, owing to the density of the population and the presence of a large number of prosperous gardens in the neighbourhood, Jorhat has become the most important centre of trade in the District. A light state railway passes through the town, connecting it with the Brahmaputra at Kakilamukh and with the Assam-Bengal Railway at Mariani and Titabar. The transfer of the head-quarters of the District from Sibsagar to Jorhat has recently been sanctioned.
