SECTION XVII.
The District of Rangpur.
Population.—This is one of those districts on which Dr. Buchanan reported, but that copy of his reports which has been retained in India is defective on this district. Only one volume remains on Rangpur out of three or four of which the report on this district originally consisted, and the missing volumes contained the chapter which, in conformity with the arrangement he adopted in his reports on other districts, he most probably devoted to education. Hamilton apparently had an opportunity of inspecting the original Buchanan reports at the India House which, it is believed, are complete.
In 1809 Dr. Buchanan estimated the population at 2,735,000 persons, of whom 1,536,000 were Mahomedans, 1,194,350 were Hindoos, and the remainder 4,650 are called infidels, by which term it is probably meant that, without embracing either the Hindoo or Mahomedan faith, they retain the aboriginal superstitions of the country. The principal sect among the Hindoos is that of the worshippers of the female deities. The whole number of Brahmans in 1809 was estimated at about 6,000 families, or one-forty-third of the whole Hindoo population. The proportion of the Mahomedan to the Hindoo population is about ten to nine, and the faith of the former is stated to be daily gaining ground; but the adherents of the two religions are on the most friendly terms.
The following are the divisions of the population with regard to occupation:—
| Persons who do not work | . . . | 343,000 |
| Artificers | . . . | 326,000 |
| Cultivators | . . . | 2,066,000 |
| Total | . . . | 2,735,000 |
The great farmers in Rangpur are mostly Brahmans, Kayasthas, and Mahomedans of some rank. Few especially of the older families ever visit each other, but live surrounded with dependents and flatterers, especially mendicant vagrants. Some families pretend to be of divine origin; others are descended from princes who have governed the country; but a great majority of those who possess the most valuable lands are new men who have purchased their estates at auction. Time in this district is measured by clepsydras or water-clocks. Domestic slavery exists especially along the Northern Frontier, and female prostitution is in a remarkable manner systematised. Education generally is in a very low state, on which account almost every person employed in any high department of the revenue or police is a stranger.
