Lingsugur Districts, 1908
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.
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Lingsugur Districts
Physical aspects
Frontier District in the Gulbarga Division of the Hyderabad State, situated in the south-west corner adjoining the Bombay Districts of Bijapur and Dharwar, which bound it to the west ; Gulbarga and Raichur, which border it to the north and east ; and the Madras District of Bellary, from which it is separated by the Tunga- bhadra river to the east and south. It lies between 15° 3' and 16° 20' N. and 75° 48' and 77° 2' E., and has a total area of 4,879 square miles ; but the area of State and crown lands is only 2,968 square miles, the rest being comprised in the two jagirs of the Salar Jang family and other smaller ' and the two sa?nasthdns of Gurgunta and Anegundi. A range of hills 14 miles long, known as the Yamnigadh range, begins at the village of Daryapur Gangawati Taluk and ends in the same taluk at Bamsugur. In the Shahpur Taluk is a small range called the Muhammadapur hills, 5 miles long, and the town of Shahpur is built on part of this. A third range takes its name from Surapur and is 8 miles in length.
The most important river is the Kistna, which flows from west to east right through the District for a length of 94 miles. It enters the District in the Lingsugur Taluk, and receives the Bhima at a point 16 miles north of the town of Raichur near the boundary of Raichur District. The next important river is the Tungabhadra, which enters the south of the Gangawati Taluk and flows along the borders of that and the Sindhnur Taluk for a distance of 44 miles, when it enters Raichur. The Bhima enters Lingsugur near Raoza in the Shahpur Taluk in the north, and falls into the Kistna after a course of 42 miles in the District. The other rivers are the Maski and the Sindhnur
' In 1905 the District of Lingsugur was abolished, the Shahpur and Surapur taluks being transferred to Gulbarga and the other four to Raichur. nullahs, both tributaries of the Tungabhadra. The Devapur nullah flows through the Surapur taluk for 24 miles and falls into the Kistna.
The chief geological formations are the Archaean, including various forms of gneiss and groups of crystalline schists known as the Dharwar series ; the Kaladgi rocks, occupying a few spurs and outliers near the western frontiers, extensions of the main area situated in Dharwar and Belgaum ; and the Bhima series, north, west, and south-west of Sagar, forming a narrow strip between the gneiss and the Deccan trap which constitutes the frontier beyond them. Complete accounts have been published by R. B. Foote in Memoirs^ Geological Survey of India, vol. xii, part i, and in Records, vols, xv, part iv ; xix, part ii ; xxi, part ii ; xxii, part i. The Hatti gold-mine is situated in the auriferous Dharwar schists.
The flora of the District is scanty and is characteristic of the dry zone. The predominant trees are babied {^Acacia arabica), film, mango, and species of fig.
In the hills of Gangawati, Shahpur, and Surapur, leopards, hunting cheetahs, hyenas, and bears are found ; and black-faced monkeys are abundant in the Lingsugur and Gangawati taluks. Game-birds are represented by peafowl, partridges, and quails, while duck, teal, and water-fowl are met with in the vicinity of tanks and rivers.
From September to May and June the climate is dry and healthy, but during the monsoons the taluks of Gangawati and Surapur are very malarious. The Sindhnur, Kushtagi, and Shahpur taluks are the healthiest. Though the temperature in May rises to 112° in the day, .the nights are cool. In December it falls to 56°. The annual rain- fall averages about 21 inches.
History
The District formed part of the Vijayanagar kingdom in the four- teenth century. After the foundation of the Bahmani dynasty it became part of that kingdom, but was taken and retaken by the rulers of the two States, until it fell to the Adil Shahi rulers of Bijapur. Upon the conquest of Bijapur by Aurangzeb it was annexed to the empire of Delhi, but was separated from it when the Hyderabad State was founded by Asaf Jah, early in the eighteenth century. It was assigned to the British Government under the treaty of 1853, but was restored to the Nizam in i860.
The forts of Anegundi, Mudgal, Jaldrug, Koppal, and Shahpur are interesting from an historical as well as an archaeological point of view. Ittugi, 60 miles south-west of Lingsugur, contains a fine old temple, which dates from a.d, 1112-3. In the village of Giigi are a Jama Masjid and the tomb of a local saint, named Pir Chanda Husain. The villages of Kallur and Kukanur also contain ancient temples.
Population
The number of towns and villages in the District, including large and small jagirs, is 1,273. The population at the last three enumera- tions was: (1881) 480,715, (1891) 620,014, and (1901) 675,813. It is divided into six taluks as shown below, and also contains the two large jdgirs of Koppal and Yelbarga, and the two samasthans of Anegundi and Gurgunta. The towns are Koppal, Surapur, Mudgal, Gangawati, Sagar, Sindhnur, and Lingsugur. About 90 per cent, of the population are Hindus ; while 87 per cent, speak Kanarese and 7 per cent. Urdu. The following table gives the chief statistics of population in 1901 : —
The most numerous caste in the District is that of the Kapus, an agricultural caste, numbering 181,100, two-thirds of whom are Lingayats. Kommaras or potters number 104,100; Bedars, 72,000; Salas or weavers, 30,500; and Upparas, 30,100, of whom 17,700 are extractors of salt from saline earth. The Dhers number 18,200, and the Chamars or workers in leather, 14,600. The number of persons engaged in, and supported by, agriculture is about 66 per cent, of the total.
At Mudgal there is a Roman Catholic mission, which was established about 1557, during the reign of the Adil Shahis of Bijapur, who granted lands to the mission and exempted them from taxes. The mission is one of the oldest in India, and is said to have been established by priests dispatched from Goa by St. Francis Xavier, The native Christian population of the District in 1901 was 524, of whom 481 were Roman Catholics.
Agriculture
The larger portion of the District is composed of masab, a mixture of reddish and white sandy soils, interspersed with regar or black soil and kharab. In contrast to the Sindhnur taluk, in which regar predominates and rabi crops are exten- sively grown, the soils of the remaining five taluks are chiefly masab, and are used for Khrirf/ crops. White jowar, gram, wheat, cotton, and linseed are the chief rabi crops, being raised on the regar ; while red Jowar, bajra, tuar and other pulses, and sesamum are sown in the masab as khar'if crops. The kharab soils are utilized for garden produce, and require heavy manuring. The alluvial soils in the valleys of the rivers also produce rabi crops, and are very fertile.
The tenure of land is mainly ryotwari. In 1901, out of a total area of 2,968 square miles comprised in the khaha and crown lands, 2,205 were cultivated, 22 being irrigated, while 124 were occupied by culti- vable waste and fallows, 130 by forests, and 509 were not available for cultivation. The staple food of the people consists of Jotudr, btyra, and kafigni, produced from 42, 10, and 8 per cent, respectively of the net area cropped. Cotton was grown on 303 and wheat on 39 square miles. Sugar-cane is raised in small quantities with ^well- irrigation in all the taluks, and in the Gangawati taluk it is irrigated from the Tungabhadra channel.
In 1888, when the District was settled, there were 331 square miles of unoccupied land, but in 1901 only 124 square miles remained unoccupied. The ryots have done nothing to improve the cultivation by the introduction of new varieties of seed or better agricultural implements.
No special breed of cattle is characteristic of the District. Those in use are strong and well suited for ordinary agricultural work, but not for deep ploughing, for which cattle have to be imported. Up to 1887 Arab stallions were maintained for breeding purposes, but owing to the hot climate breeding operations were not successful. Ponies, sheep, and goats of the ordinary kind are kept.
In the Gangawati taluk there is some wet cultivation supplied by an old channel 9 miles long, taking off from the Tungabhadra. The total irrigated area in the District is only 22 square miles, supplied by this channel and by wells, of which there are 1,404. Tanks number 89, large and small, but they are used for drinking purposes only. There is great scope for extensive irrigation in the District, and surveys and estimates have been completed for the two Kistna channels and the Bennur project, which would cost more than 20 lakhs and irrigate 107 square miles, yielding a revenue of about iiA- lakhs. The repair of the large tank at Kachkanur will cost 2^ lakhs, and it is estimated that it will irrigate 27,170 acres, yielding a revenue of nearly 2^ lakhs.
The District has 130 square miles of unprotected forests in the Shahpur and Surapur taluks, and on the Yamnigadh hills in the Gangawati taluk.
The most important mineral is gold, obtained from auriferous quartz. The mines in the Raichtir Doab were leased in 1894 to the Hyderabad Deccan Company, but are not being worked now. Laminated lime- stone like the Shahabad stone is found and worked in the Shahpur, Surapur, and Kushtagi taluks.
Trade and Communication
There is no important industry in the District. Coarse cotton cloth Dhotis and saris are woven in decreasing quantities, as mill-made cloth is imported at cheaper rates. Blankets are manufactured by the shepherds from the wool of their sheep, and sold piece. Wooden toys are made at Kanakgiri in the Gangawati taluk.
The chief exports are jowar, pulse, and other cereals, cotton, oil- seeds, chillies, jaggery, tobacco, tarvar, bark, hides, bones, and horns. The principal imports consist of salt, salted fish, opium, spices, gold and silver, copper and brass vessels, refined sugar, iron, kerosene oil, yarn, raw silk, and silk, cotton, and woollen stuffs.
There are five commercial centres in the District — Rangampet in Surapur, Mudgal and Maski in Lingsugur, Sindhnur, and Gangawati — from which the whole of the imported articles are distributed to different parts. Besides these, 37 weekly bazars are held at various places. The trading castes are the Komatis and Marwaris, who do banking business also.
The south-west corner of the District is crossed by the Southern Mahratta Railway. The total length of gravelled roads is 219 miles, all under the Public Works department. The principal routes are : Lingsugur to Pamankalur (11 miles), to Surapur (30), to Jantgal (59), and Surapur to Nailkal (27).
In 1793 and 1803 the District was visited by two great famines known as the dogibard or ' skull ' famine and rdgibard or rdgi famine, .when people and cattle died by thousands. Toivdr
Famine
in 1793 sold at two seers per rupee and ragi in 1803 at the same price. The District suffered in 1814, 1819, 1831, and 1866 from famines more or less severe, but worse than all these was that of 1877-8, the effects of which were felt far and wide. Thousands of persons lost their lives, or emigrated to other regions, and many villages were deserted. The rainfall in 1876 was 10 inches, and in 1877 only 2-4 inches, and rabi and kharif crops in both years entirely failed. More than 100,000 persons died during this famine, and cholera and small-pox also carried away a large number. These figures refer only to the four Taluks of which the District was then composed. More than 75 per cent, of the cattle died for want of water and fodder. In 1892 there was scarcity, and in 1897 there was famine which cost the State 3 lakhs. The great famine of 1900 did not affect the District beyond causing scarcity.
Administration
The District is divided into three subdivisions : one consists of the two sarf-i-khds or crown Taluks of Shahpur and Surapur under the Second Talukdar ; the second consists of the Ling- sugur Taluk only, under the Third Talukdar; and the remaining three Taluks are under the First Talukdar. There is a tahsildar in each Taluk.
The Nazim-i-Diwani, or District Civil Judge, presides over the District civil court. There are five subordinate civil courts : those of the tahsildars of LingsugCir, Gangawati, Kushtagi, and Sindhnur, and that of a Munsif for the taluks of Shahpur and Surapur. The First Talukdar is the chief magistrate of the District, and the Ndzim-i- Dlwdni is also a joint-magistrate, exercising magisterial powers during the absence of the First Talukdar from head-quarters. The Second and Third Talukdars and the six tahsildars exercise second and third- class magisterial powers. There is little serious crime in ordinary years, but in adverse seasons dacoities and cattle and grain thefts increase in proportion to the severity of the season.
Nothing is known of the revenue history of the District beyond the fact that lands were formerly leased on contract. This system was abolished in 1866, and a light rate was fixed per blgha (| acre) according to the nature of the land. The revenue survey was completed in 1888, and assessments were fixed for fifteen years. The survey showed that the cultivated area had increased by 29^ per cent. The enhancement of revenue was Rs. 33,600, or nearly '^\ per cent., the demand having risen from 9-8 lakhs to 10-2. The average assessment on 'dry' land is 12 annas (maximum Rs. i-io, minimum one anna); and on 'wet' land Rs. 7-8 (maximum Rs. 15, minimum Rs. 1-8).
The land revenue and the total revenue of the District are shown below, in thousands of rupees : —
Since 1887 a cess of one anna in the rupee on the land revenue has been levied for local purposes, of which a quarter, or Rs. 17,000, is set apart for public works. The District board at Lingsugur is presided over by the First Talukdar, and there are taluk boards at the head-quarters of the six taluks.
The First Talukdar is the head of the District police, with a Super- intendent {Mohtamim) as his executive deputy. Under him are seven inspectors, 73 subordinate officers, 420 constables, and 25 mounted police. These are distributed among 26 thdnas and 27 outposts, and also guard the District treasury and the jail. The District jail is in the village of Karkal, near the head-quarters ; prisoners whose terms exceed six months are transferred to the Central jail at Gulbarga. There are lock-ups in the six taluk offices.
The proportion of persons in 1901 who were able to read and write was 2-5 per cent. (4 males and o-i females). The first State school in the District was opened in 1869, and board schools were opened in 1896. The total number of pupils under instruction in 1881, 1891, 1901, and 1903 was 775, 1,990, 3,012, and 3,070 respectively. In 1903 triere were 29 primary and 3 middle schools, with 130 girls under instruction. The total amount spent on education was Rs. 20,525, of which the State contributed Rs. 13,600. Of the total, 69 per cent, was spent on primary schools. The fee receipts in 1901 amounted to Rs. 1,076.
There are three dispensaries, with a total accommodation for 12 in-patients. The number of cases treated in 1901 was 18,669, including 43 in-patients, and the number of operations performed was 516. The total expenditure amounted to Rs. 7,226. The number of cases successfully vaccinated in 1901 was 2,583, or 3-87 per 1,000 of population.
