Rayadrug Taluk, 1908

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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, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Rayadrug Taluk

South-eastern taluk of Bellary District, Madras, lying between 14 28' and 15 4' N. and 76 47' and 77 21' E., with an area of 628 square miles The population m 1901 was 82,789, compared with 78,625 in 1891 The demand for land revenue and cesses m 1903-4 amounted to Rs. 1,86,000. It contains only one town, RAYADRUG (population, 10,488), the head-quarters, and 71 villages. The tahtk contains a far smaller propoition of black cotton soil than the other three eastern taluks of Adoni, Altir, and Bellaiy.

Twenty-seven per cent,, mainly consisting of land in the basin of the Hagari, is cotton soil 3 while about a fifth is red land, and more than one-half is covered with the light mixed soils. The Hagan and its tributary the Chmna Hagari dram practically the whole area. Raya- drug has the smallest population of any taluk in the District, and its people are the worst educated. More than half of them speak Telugu, and two-fifths Kanarese It contains a large numbei of wells, and the spring channels which are annually dug from the Hagan are only second in importance to those from the Tungabhadra They are cleared every year by the joint labour of the villagers who profit by them, and the provisions of section 6 of Act I of 1858, under which any person neglecting or refusing to contribute his share of the customary labour is liable to pay twice the value of that labour, are rigorously enforced.

Most of the land supplied by these channels is cultivated with rice, and the area under this crop is far higher than that in any other taluk. But much of the land is very infertile, the area under horse-gram (the characteristic crop of poor soils) is high, and one-fifth of the cultivable area is waste Korra is the staple food- crop, and not cholam as elsewhere in the District. A considerable quantity of cambu is also raised