THE

BERA'R GAZETTEER.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

THE word Berár signifies now, politically and geographically, the districts which have been assigned by His Highness the Nizám to the British Government under the treaties of 1853 and 1861, though it has had different meanings at different periods, as the historical chapter will show. The actual position and boundaries of the existing province are marked on the map annexed to this Gazetteer. Berár forms the northernmost portion of the Haidarábád State, running up from the south with a breadth gradually narrowing until an extreme point touches the Tapti river, half-surrounded on the east, north, and northwest by the Central Provinces, and meeting the Khándesh district of the Bombay Presidency along a section of about forty miles of its western border. The Gáwilgarh hills-a range belonging to the Satpura mountains-form the geographical boundary of Berár on the north, with a deep indent made by the Melghát tract; on the east its frontier is marked accurately by the Wardha river down to its confluence with the Painganga, and on the south by the Painganga for about twothirds of the frontier's length. From the map it might be guessed that these convenient water-lines are natural and ancient provincial boundaries, yet they were both marked out by very recent treaties: thus illustrating rather remarkably the general rule that a frontier which follows river-courses is always political and comparatively modern. On the west the border of Berár is merely an artificial line cutting across a broad valley from the Sátpura mountains to the hills on which stands Ajanta, and proceeding southward over these hills until it turns eastward by a sharp angle near Jálna. This Ajanta range intersects the whole province from west to east, and its steep ridge divides the interior geography into two systems. Setting aside the Melghát mountain tract as abnormal, we have two distinct sections of Berár-the Payanghát or lowland country, bounded on the north by the Gáwilgarh hills, and on the south by the outer scarps of the Ajanta range; and the Bálághát or upland country above the Ajanta ridge, sloping down southward beyond the gháts or passes which lead up it. So that the Páyanghát is a wide valley running up eastward between this ridge

General

Description.

General Description.

and the Gáwilgarh hills like a long back-water or deep bay, varying in breadth from forty to fifty miles, and broader toward the end than at its mouth. The surface of this valley is not flat or even; it rises and descends by very long low waves with their troughs cutting mostly north and south, flowing up eastward to a point just beyond Amráoti; here this formation is broken up by a chain of low hills that run in a north-westerly direction across the plain. These hills mark a change in the country's watershed. Westward of them the main slope of the valley is toward the west, from the point where the Púrna river makes almost a right angle by its sudden turn; but eastward of Amráoti the streams take an opposite direction, and their course is to the Wardha or some of its affluents.

The Páyanghát valley contains all the best land in Berár; it is full of that deep rich black alluvial soil called regar, of almost inexhaustible fertility, and it undulates just enough to maintain a natural system of drainage, which is probably very favourable to the productive powers of the land. Here and there are barren tracts, where the hills spread out ample skirts far into the plain, covered with round stones and scrub jungles; or where a few outlying flat-topped hills, often with hummocks or humps looking like huge cairns on their crown, stand forward beyond the ranks to which they belong. But there is nothing picturesque about this broad strip of alluvial champaign country; it is very destitute of trees, except near the villages close under the hills; and beside the Púrna it has hardly a perennial stream. In the early autumn it is one sheet of cultivation, and looks fresh enough, but from the beginning of the hot season, when the crops have been gathered, its generally、 monotonous plain is relieved by neither verdure, shade, nor water, and the landscape is desolate and depressing.

However, the aspect of the country above the passes which lead to the Bálághát is quite different. Here is the extreme northern limit of the tableland of the Dakhan; the sides and summits of the outer hills are covered with low forest; from their crests the main slope of the lands is southward; wide basalt downs follow each other in successive expanses of open fields sloping down to shallow channels, which carry off the water like gutters between two pents of a low roof. The trees are finer, and the groves more frequent, than in the valley below; water is more plentiful and nearer to the surface. This is the character of much of the Bálághát highlands in the west of Berár, where they fall southward toward the Nizám's country by gradual decline, and by a series of ridges or steppes. But the whole face of the Bálághát has no uniform features; it stretches into downs and dales where it is most open; then it gets broken up into flat-topped hills and steep ravines; while in its eastern section the country is still more sharply accidented by a splitting-up of the main hill-range, which has caused that variety of low-lying plains, high plateaus, fertile bottoms, and rocky wastes which is sketched in the description of the Wún district.

Speaking roughly, it may be said that when you have crossed the line of 77° longitude, beyond which the Bálághát watershed falls decidedly eastward, the wide-spreading downs disappear entirely; you reach a tract in which the horizon is bounded on all sides by long sweeping hill

ridges, enclosing vales whose floor seems to the traveller to undulate like a chopping sea. From the Máhúr hill-fort, which crowns the point of a promontory of the Haidarábád territories jutting out into the south-eastern side of Berár, the landscape, as seen from an eminence of about one thousand feet, wears the look of a platform or table, upon which various forms of huge fantastic earthworks have been projected or upheaved, conical barrows, long flat-topped mounds like gigantic graves, huge sharp-backed banks running right across the open, and the higher distant hill-ranges enclosing the whole. There is much cultivation on the ground-floor among these elevations; but the blackish barren rock, and the great extent of scanty jungle forest, give a dreary countenance to the general out-look.

The total area of the province may be reckoned at 17,000 square miles, or a little more. So that Berár is in size about equal to the kingdom of Greece, which has 17,650 square miles without the Ionian Islands. But the population of Berár is just double that of Greece in

1861

The length of Berár from east to west is about 150 miles, and its breadth averages 144 miles. It is between longitudes 76° and 79° 13', and is traversed by 19° 30′ to 21° 46′ parallels of north latitude.

Position.

DISTRICT SELECTIONS.

Elichpu'r.

The district of Elichpúr is the most northerly one in the Haidarábád Assigned Districts. The shape is irregular, but it extends as far north as 21° 46′ and south to 20° 51′ latitude, and east and west to 76° 40′ and 78° 30′ east longitude.

The district is bounded on the north by the Tapti river, the

Boundaries.

Area.

Baitúl and Chindwára districts of the Central Provinces, on the west by the Nimár and Akola districts, on the east by the Wardha river, and on the south by the Amráoti district. It has not yet been surveyed, but by rough measurement the arca is about 3,160 square miles. It includes that portion of the Gáwilgarh hill-range called Gángra or Melghát,* and the land at the base of that range from the Wardha river on the east to the Sháhnúr stream on the west. All the hill country lies within the Melghat; the rest is flat, sloping gently to the south, drained by numerous small streams flowing into the Wardha and Púrna rivers. The country is well studded with mangotrees, and when the green crops cover it it has a very park-like

appearance.

The taluk of Melghát, or as it is sometimes called Gángra, lies between the degrees of 21° 11' and 21° 46′ north latitude, and 76° 40′ and

Melghát.

* From its principal northern pass or outlet (ghái).

General

Description.

General Description.

District Selections.

77° 40′ east longitude. Measured on the map, its extreme length, north and south, is thirty-eight miles; and its extreme breadth, east and west, sixty miles.

On the north it is bounded by a portion of the Baitúl district, Central Provinces, and the Tapti river, dividing it from Nimár; on the east by the Tapti river and a portion of the Nimár district, Central Provinces; on the south by the taluks of Jalgaon and Akot (Akola district) and the taluk of Elichpúr; and on the west by the Baitúl district of the Central Provinces.

As computed by the Survey the area of Melghát is 1,625 square miles.

This taluk, being merely a section of the Sátpura range, is extremely rugged, and broken into a succession of hills and valleys. The main ridge or watershed of the Sátpuras, rising at Bairát to 4,000 feet above the sea, runs through from east to west almost parallel to, and a few miles distant from, the plain of Berár on the south. The broadside of this main ridge terminates towards the south very abruptly in some places, by sheer scarps of trap-rock over a thousand feet deep, forming round the station of Chikalda those magnificent cliffs and chasms by which its scenery is so markedly accentuated; while the ranges branching out northwards go gradually down in a succession of plateaux and gentle slopes till lost in the valley of the Tapti.

Position.

Amra'oti District.

The district of Amráoti lies between 20° 23′ and 21° 7' north latitude, and between 77° 24′ and 78° 13′ east longitude. It is bounded on the north by the Elichpúr district; on the south by the Básim and Wún district; on the east by the river Wardha; and on the west by the Akola and Elichpúr districts.

The area is said to be 2,566 square miles, but this cannot be known for certain till the survey is completed. The population on the 7th of November 1867 being 407,256, this computation would give 157 persons to each square mile.

Akola District.

The Akola district derives its name from its chief station. It consists of a not inconsiderable portion of General description. the level champaign country described in ancient Indian archives as "Sirkár Narnála,* Subah Berárt Páyanghát," and now generally known as the rich valley of "Berár."

* Narmála, a hill-fort north of Akot, the sanitarium for this district. Berár. Several explanations, all more or less unsatisfactory as being connected with the mythology of the country, are given of the origin of this word. It means the country separated by the Wardha—“ Warár” Berár. It is disputed that Berár is not properly the country on both sides the Wardha. Admitting this, we have Warár within the Wardha retaining the name which has died out on the other bank.-[Note by Mr. J. H. BURNS.]