Roads. Murtizápur to Kárinja. Murtizapur to Karinja.-This road is passable in the rains, except when there are exceptional floods. Bridged and drained, with the exception of the Hadgaon and Umri nullas. These streams will most probably be bridged within the next two years. Heavy for carts during the rains, and may be classed as impassable then. Amráoti to Morsí. Amráoti to Morsi.-From junction with road to Badnera-Length 33 miles. The road has been bridged and drained, and surfaced with moorum and gravel, for a distance of 16 miles. In the remaining 17 miles a few culverts and drains have been built, but these are disconnected and of not much use. The road for 16 miles is a finished one, and for 17 miles no better than a country track. Nagpur old Post Line.-From near Kárinja to the Wardha river -Length 60 miles. The road on the Kárinja to the Wardha. opening of the railway was allowed to go to decay, but last year some repairs were made to it, to make it fairly passable, but still the road is very much in want of repairs; metalled, drained, and partially bridged. This was a bridged road, but from neglect several of the culverts and drains have fallen in, and the road must be classed as impassable in the rains. Amráoti to Chándúr Bazár.-Fair weather Amráoti to Chándúr Bazár. road-Length 28 miles. Impassable during Amráoti to Kúra. Dák Bungalows. the rains. Akola. Almost parallel with the Púrna river, at about 15 miles south, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Extension, Bhosáwal to Nágpúr, passes through the district, making a southerly divergence to Akola. It enters by a bridge over the river Vordi at mileage 330-05 from Bombay, and leaves it at the bridge over the Káta Púrna at mileage 378.70. The principal bridges are at Nágzari, over the Mun; at Akola, over the Murna; and north of Kurankher, over the Káta Púrna river. The Of eight main roads in this district three have been metalled. first of these is entirely within the district. It is a 28-mile length, connecting Akot, fast rising in trade and as a cotton emporium, with Akola. Its direction is north-north-east. It is metalled with river-sand, and all the watercourses are bridged; but two rivers-the Sháhnúr, a tributary, and the Púrna, the main stream-cross the line and are not bridged. The interposition of this unbridged portion impairs the use of this road during the rains, otherwise the road is said to be "open to the public, freely used, and capable of carrying ordinary traffic." The second road is that known as the Básim* road; it runs for 24 miles in this district. Akola and Pátúr (where a large fair is held annually) are connected by this direct line south, which touches no single village on the way-a serious defect in the opinion of native travellers. The road is said to be metalled and capable of carrying ordinary traffic during wet weather. The third road is 12 miles long, from Khámgaon to Nándúra railway station; it is metalled throughout, but the river close to Nándúra has no bridge. When this is crossed the rest of the road is good at all seasons. The other five roads are 18 11 miles Shegaon, railway station, to Khamgaon, cotton mart, south-west. 77 Total. These are neither bridged nor metalled, only marked out and levelled. The total existing sum of railway feeders for the Berárs when subdivided gives this district what seems the very moderate share of 36 * It is to be extended to Hingoli, Haidarábád Contingent station. Communications. Akola. Communica tions. Akola. Buldana. Básim. miles of perennial communication, 28 miles interrupted by rivers at flood, and 77 miles demarcated. The country is unfavourable for road-making, but very good bits connect the town and station of Akola. The level stoneless country renders the people comparatively independent of roads. The old cart-tracks exist, joining all the villages in one continuous network of communication annually smoothed down and repaired. The potters (Kumbhárs) carry their wares, and the Bhois (bearers) merchandise, on asses. These hardworking, patient, animals have to feed themselves, the owner only providing the feeding-time, and that sparingly. The Brinjáras, cloth and grocery merchants, and market gardeners, use oxen for carrying their goods. Otherwise the carts are the favourite mode of conveyance; the ordinary kinds are these: 1st-Bandi, a coarse cart the wheels of which are cut out in block. 3rd-Nagpur cart, has very small low wheels, shaped all out of one piece of tim- These carts have been execrated by Europeans, because they will not contain boxes, packages. or other civilized domestic commodities. But for the use of the agriculturists who keep them they are constructed on a defensible principle. By fixing stakes on the sides a very full load of field produce can be packed in them, and the low wheels, by preserving the centre of gravity at a low point, enables them to go safely over inequalities that have to be encountered off the level made-roads; while the sharp wheels, which ought to be kept off metalled roads, cut through the depths of pulverized earth which is soon accumulated on the village roads or tracks by vehicles heavy-laden. Bulda'na. The G. I. P. Railway North-East Extension runs through a portion. of this district in the Malkapúr taluk, and besides the numerous country roads, which during the cold and hot weather at least are in excellent order, a portion of the old but now abandoned Nágpúr postal line goes through the district towards the south. Ba'sim. The district through its whole length is intersected from east to west by the old military Jálna and Nágpúr road. This is crossed at Malegaon by the Akola and Hingoli road, which runs through Básim town. There are no other metalled roads, but the line to Púsad is very practicable in fine weather. One of the best-used roads in the district is that which runs from Kárinja through Mangrúl to Básim. In the Púsad taluk there are a few tracks which can hardly be called roads, being barely passable for carts. This will account for there being only 678 carts in the Púsad taluk. Búsim has only 2,969 carts. Total carts in the district 3,647. Many of these carts, in the Púsad taluk specially, have stone wheels; of the remainder the greater part require four bullocks to pull them when empty. These carts are only used to bring in the crops from the field; pack-bullocks, buffaloes, and camels are the ordinary carriage used. At Malegaon, between Básim and Akola, is a small rest-house. There are staging bungalows at Chándúr and Kini, on the old Nágpúr road, and a bungalow is building (1870) at Básim itself. Wu'n. The want of made-roads is much felt in the rainy season, and for some time after the accumulation of mud in the bottom of brooks offers serious difficulties to traffic. During the rains cart-traffic is entirely suspended. The road already constructed consists of an unbridged line, with metal on top, to Talegaon, the road to the railway station of Chándúr, a distance of 32 miles, and another easterly line to Kalam, a distance of 14 miles. All these roads require much repair after the rainy season. The passes over the ranges which traverse this district were formerly great barriers to easy communication. Most of them have now been cleared of stones sufficiently to permit carts to go over them. Communications. Básim. Wún. CHAPTER XIV. ADMINISTRATION. Section I.-Before Assignment. The aboriginal unit of landed division was, in Berár, as all over India, the village, which with its lands may perhaps be likened to the English manor without a lord. But the lowest administrative denomination on the imperial registers has, since the Mahomedan conquest, been the pargana or mahal, for in Akbar's time, at any rate, these words seem both to have signified the parcel of lands known by separate entry and assessment in the revenue rolls of the State. Perhaps the pargana is the more ancient revenue term of the two (it has been traced to the 13th century*), while the mahal may have come into Berár with the Moghals; but the word in common use is still pargana. Akbar grouped the parganas into sarkárs, of which thirteen formed in his reign the Berár subah; and these divisions were observed in revenue records up to our own time, though the Marátha occupation in practice broke them up, and introduced a different territorial system. But the Marátha departments disappeared with the Bhonslas, and since their expulsion the province has been chiefly governed by distribution among talukdárs, a class which appears to derive its existence in the Dakhan from the farming system of modern times. In Berár a talukdár has never been anything more than the renter from the State of a taluk, or cluster of parganas, for a period of years; who undertook usually to be responsible for the police of this farm as well as for the payment of revenue. It is curious to note that while the Eastern talukdár of Bengal has elevated himself up to a superior lord of manors. * Elliot's Glossary. Administration. Administrative Divisions. Administration. Administra tive Divisions. with a strong proprietary title, the Western talukdár has under our rule degenerated from a great holder under contract into a mere official: for the word is now used in the Haidarábád country as synonymous with tahsildár, or sub-collector of revenue. The zamindár has fared a little better, though he has never got beyond hereditary office in the regularly administered districts. In Berár a zamindár now means only a deshmukh or deshpándia. But the term has had for centuries a very different meaning in the remote half-conquered regions to the east. There it still signifies, as in Akbar's day, a semi-independent chief of his own domain, who paid tribute to Moghal or Marátha, and now pays quit-rent to the British Government. The parganas are now, for all practical revenue purposes, obsolete; they have been superseded by the term taluk, which meant first the parcel of villages made over to one talukdár, and now signifies the sub-circle of revenue collections under a State tahsildár, or subcollector. The whole province has (1868) been marked out into six districts, which are apportioned to two Divisions, under the Commissioners of East and West Berár. Assessment of revenue. The Subah of Berár was one of those which came under Akbar's famous settlement of the land revenue. But as the province was his latest conquest, and far distant from the seat of imperial government, we may guess that the measurements and estimates of produce were somewhat roughly taken and at haphazard. The settlement was fixed all over the Moghal empire by measuring the arable lands and making a careful estimate of their produce. Each bigha was then rated at the value of one-fourth the estimated produce, and the sum |