View source for Bellary District

==Population==

The District contains 10 towns and 929 villages. It is divided into 
8 taluks, the head-quarters of which are at the places from which each 
is named. Statistics of population according to the 
Census of 1901 are given ni the table on next page. 
The principal towns are the two municipalities of Bellary, the Dis- 
trict head-quarters, and Adoni ; and the eight Unions of Hospet, 
Yemmiganur, Rayadrug, Kampli, Harpanahalli, Kosigi, Kotturu, 
and Siruguppa. The population of the District in 1871 was 911,755 ; 
in 1881, 726,275 ; in 1891, 880,950; and in 1901, 947,214. Hindus 
form 89 per cent, of the total and Musalmans 10 per cent. The famine 
of 1876-8 was very severely felt, and it was not until over twenty years 
afterwards that the population recovered the loss it then suffered. The 
percentage of increase during the last decade was a little above the 
average for the Presidency, in spite of considerable emigration to Mysore. 
The apparent decline in the Hadagalli taluk is due to the total for 1891 
having been unduly inflated by the presence of numerous pilgrims at 
the great festival at Mailar. Bellary is the least sparsely peopled Dis- 
trict in the Deccan, the density being as much as 100 per square mile 
below the Presidency average. Kanarese is the prevailing language in 
the west and Telugu in the east. On the whole, 57 per cent, of the 
people speak the former and 30 per cent, the latter tongue. 
[[File: adoni.png||frame|500px]] 
The majority of the Hindus are Telugus or Kanarese. Of the 
Telugus, the Boyas (shikaris and cultivators, and formerly the material 
from which many of the troops of the poligars and of Haidar were 
raised) are the strongest community, numbering 121,000, or more than 
in any other District. Then come the Madiga leather-workers (77,000), 
followed by the Kapus, the great agriculturist class (48,000). Among 
Kanarese castes, the Kurubas (shepherds) are the most numerous 
(97,000). The Lingayats, a sect of Hindus who worship Siva and 
his symbol the lingam, and disregard the sacerdotal authority of 
Brahmans, number 96,000 (which is nearly two-thirds of the total 
of the sect within the Presidency). The castes which speak neither 
Telugu nor Kanarese are divided almost equally between Marathas, 
Tamils, and Lambadis, the last of whom, a wandering gipsy com- 
munity, are more numerous in Bellary than in any other District. 
The majority of the Musalmans are Shaikhs, but there are nearly 
10,000 of the mixed race of Dudekulas. By occupation, nearly three- 
fourths of the total population are agriculturists or shepherds. Weavers 
are, however, more than usually numerous. 

The number of Christians in the District is 5,066, or about five in 
every 1,000 of the population. About 3,700 of them are natives, and 
nearly three-quarters are Roman Catholics. The first priest to visit 
this part of the country was a Father Joachim D'Souza, who came 
to Bellary from Goa in 1775 and died in 1829. The natives called 
him Adikanada, and his memory is still held in veneration. The 
Bellary mission continued under the charge of the Goa priests until 
1837. In that year a chaplain was appointed by Government for the 
Roman Catholic troops at Bellary, and under the double jurisdiction 
which ensued many more churches and chapels were erected than the 
number of Catholics required. The Goa jurisdiction ceased with 
the establishment of the regular hierarchy by an apostolic letter of 
Pope Leo XIII in 1886. The mission is at present under the direc- 
tion of the Roman Catholic chaplain, assisted by four Fathers from 
the Missionary Society of St. Joseph, London. The only Protestant 
mission in the District is that of the London Missionary Society. 
It was established in 181 o and has a staff of five missionaries, one 
of whom is a lady. 

The soils of the District are classed as red, mixed, and black ; the 
two former preponderate in the hilly western id Inks, and the latter 
in the level tracts of Bellary, Alur, Adoni, and 
Rayadrug. The red ferruginous soils are derived 
from the decomposition of the granitic rocks, and are loams of a more 
or less sandy character. They are much less fertile than the black 
cotton soil of the eastern taluks. The average depth of this latter 
is about 4 feet, but a much greater thickness is found in certain 
localities. In Alur it is of particular richness, and the rates of 
assessment there are the highest in the District. A disadvantage, 
however, is that, owing perhaps to the underlying beds of soft 
calcareous limestone, trees will not flourish in it and the water in 
the wells is frequently brackish. 

The seasons of cultivation on the red and mixed soils differ alto- 
gether from those on the black. On the former, ' dry ' crops are 
sown at the beginning of the south-west monsoon in June ; but the 
latter is held to require the thorough soaking obtainable only from 
the later rains of that monsoon, and korra (Setaria italiai) and cotton 
are sown on it in August and other crops in November. On ' wet ' 
lands rice is sown in May and January and sugar-cane in March. 
Like the other Deccan Districts, Bellary possesses several ingenious 
agricultural implements which are almost unknown elsewhere, among 
them the bamboo seed-drill, the bullock-hoe, and the big iron plough 
used for eradicating deep-rooted grasses. 

There are no Zamindaris in the District, but more than a fifth of 
the total area is indm land. Of the total of 5,714 square miles, 
the village accounts give particulars for 5,697. Details by taluks for 
1903-4 are given in the table on the next page, areas being in square 
miles. 

The two principal food-grains are cholain (Sorghum vulgare) and 
the korra already mentioned. The area under the former in 1903-4 
amounted to nearly one-third of the total area cropped. Both are 
largely grown in all taluks, but arc especially favourite crops in Bellary, 
Alur, and Adoni in the east. Pulses are grown to a considerable 
extent; but, except in Rayadrug, they are usually mixed with the 
cereals on no fixed principles, and the exact area is not ascertainable. 
Irrigation being rare, the rice crop is small, occupying only 63 square 
miles in 1903-4. The chief industrial crop is cotton, grown mainly 
on the black cotton soil in the four eastern taluks and in Hadagalli. 
In the red soils of Kudligi, Harpanahalli, and Hadagalli, large 
quantities of castor and other oilseeds are raised. Sugar-cane is 
grown mainly in Hospet, where it occupies 5 per cent, of the culti- 
vated area. It has not yet developed the disease which has appeared 
in other Districts, and the area under it is steadily increasing. 
[[File: adoni2.png||frame|500px]] 
Except in Kudligi, the proportion of arable land to the total extent 
is high, but a considerable amount is still unoccupied, especially in the 
western taluks. The poorer soils there are frequently cultivated for 
a single year, and then abandoned and left to recuperate. The area 
occupied fluctuates considerably owing to the numerous bad seasons 
which have visited the District, but there has been a net increase during 
the last thirty years of rather more than 10 per cent. Except for the 
general introduction of iron ploughs during recent years, little has been 
done in the way of agricultural improvement. Attempts to introduce 
foreign varieties of cotton have been unsuccessful ; and wells, owing 
largely to the great expense of constructing them in both the loose 
cotton -soil and the rocky red land, are not popular. 

About 13/2 lakhs was advanced during the sixteen years following 1888 
under the Land Improvement Loans Act. The greater part of this has 
been spent upon the reclamation of land overrun with deep-rooted grass 
and prickly-pear (Opuntia). Considerable sums have also been borrowed 
under the Agriculturists' Loans Act for the relief of distress, purchase 
of seed, and similar purposes. 

The indigenous breed of cattle is small and weak. The best draught 
animals in use in the eastern taluks are brought from Nellore by 
travelling drovers. In the west, large numbers of cattle are imported 
from Mysore and sold at the two great annual fairs on the Tungabhadra 
at Mailar and Ruruvatti, A fine breed of pack-buffaloes, bred in the 
Nizam's Dominions, is used in Kampli and the neighbouring villages. 
Ponies are not raised in the District in any number. There are two 
varieties of sheep, the black or long-fieeced and the white and reddish- 
brown long-legged variety. The latter are kept chiefly for their manure 
and flesh ; but the former give a fair wool, which is largely used in 
Rayadrug, Kudligi, and Harpanahalli for the manufacture of the 
cheap black or black and white blankets which serve the ryot as bed, 
umbrella, portmanteau, or great-coat, as need may require. Goats are 
reared in large numbers for both milk and manure. 

Cattle for the plough and milch kine are fed mainly on cholam stalks 
and cotton-seed. Sheep and the younger cattle are grazed in forest 
Reserves and on waste lands. Goats, owing to their destructive habits, 
are confined to waste lands and roadsides. 

The area irrigated in 1903-4 was 90 square miles, or little more than 
2 per cent, of the total area under cultivation. This was watered in 
almost equal proportions from Government channels, from tanks, and 
from wells. Practically the whole of the irrigation from channels is that 
fed by the Tungabhadra canals. This river is perennial, and provides 
the only unfailing source of supply in the District. There are ten dams 
across it, all of which were originally constructed by the Vijayanagar 
kings, though English engineers have done much to improve and 
regulate the supply drawn from them. Near one of them is an in- 
scription recording its construction in a.d. 1521 by the famous king 
Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagar. The area irrigated by them 
collectively in 1933-4 was about 17,000 acres, of which 12,500 were in 
the Hospet tahik. The Tungabhadra runs in a deep bed and the 
ground slopes down towards it, so that it is impossible for them to 
command much land. Channels dug annually in the beds of the 
Hagari and Chinna Hagari irrigate small areas in the Rayadrug and 
Kudligi taluks. The great Tungabhadra irrigation project, designed 
to benefit not only Bellary but several other Districts also, is described 
in the separate account of that river. 

The tanks of the District are usually small, irrigating on an average 
less than 50 acres apiece. The two largest are the Kanekallu tank in 
Rayadrug and the Daroji tank in Hospet. The former, which is 
supplied by a channel from the Hagari, waters 2,300 acres. The 
Daroji tank, which is said to have been constructed by Tipu Sultan, 
has an embankment 5/2 miles in length and in some places 60 feet in 
height. It irrigates about 1,800 acres. Irrigation from wells is com- 
monest in Kudligi and Rayadrug. There is room for more of these 
sources in Harpanahalli and Hadagalli, l)Ut in the cotton-soil taluks 
irrigation is not popular.