Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/869

K A N K A N 835 scendants from Hindu converts to Islam), there are two special classes of foreign Mahometans, the Navayatas or seamen, repre sentatives of early colonies of Arab merchants, and the Sidis or descendants of African slaves formerly owned by the Portuguese. The Christians are nearly all Roman Catholics, a few families of whom are of Portuguese extraction, though much mixed by inter marriage with the natives ; the remainder consist of local converts or their descendants. The area under cultivation is returned at 333,175 acres, or about 12 per cent, of the total area. Kice forms the staple crop, but rdgi, sugar-cane, and safflower are also grown to a considerable extent ; and cocoa-nuts, areca-nuts, cardamoms, and pepper are produced in gardens in large quantities for home consumption and for export. Cochineal is largely exported. Coffee is grown only to a small extent. Karwar, Kumpta, Ankola, Bhatkal, and Honawar are the most important seaports. The total value of the trade at these in 1876 was 1,841,173, viz., 1,199,077 exports and 642,096 im ports. Carving in sandal wood and ebony forms an important industrial art. Salt is largely manufactured under Government supervision. The total .revenue of the district in 1876-77 was 165,597, of which the land tax yielded 82,862, and forests 34,281. There were, in 1875-76, 83 schools, attended by 4425 pupils. Fever of a severe type is the prevalent disease, and occa sionally rages in an epidemic form. The average annual rainfall on the coast varies from 100 inches at Karwar to 163 at Kumpta ;, in the uplands it averages about 72 inches. KANARA, or CANARA, SOUTH, a district on the western coast of the Madras presidency, India, bounded on the north by North Kanara (Bombay), E. by Mysore and Coorg, S. by Malabar, and W. by the Indian Ocean, with an area of 3902 square miles. The chief town is Man- galore. The district is intersected with rivers, none of which exceed 100 miles in length. They all take their rise in the Western Ghats, and many of them are navig able for boat traffic during the fair weather for from 15 to 25 miles from the coast. The chief of these streams are theNetravati, Gurpur, and Chendragiri. The general scenery of the district is varied and picturesque. Abundant vegetation, extensive forests, and numerous groves of cocoa- nut palms extend along the coast, and green rice-fields are seen in every valley. The Western Ghats, rising to a height of from 3000 to 6000 feet, fringe the eastern boundary of the district. Forest land of great extent and value exists, but most of it is private property. Jungle products (besides timber) consist of bamboo, cardamoms, wild arrowroot, gall-nuts, gamboge, catechu, fibrous bark, cinnamon, gums, resin, dyes, honey, and beeswax. The forests formerly abounded in game, which, however, is now rapidly decreas ing under incessant shooting. The census of 1871 returned a population of 919,513 (235 to the square mile), of whom 787,183 were Hindus, 82,803 Mahometans, 49,517 Christians, and 10 " others." The only towns with a population exceeding 2000 are Mulki, Udipi, Karikal, Bantwal, and Mangalore. The staple crop is rice. Cocoa-nut gardens are numerous along the coast, and areca plantations in the interior. Gram, beans, hemp, rdgi, sugar-cane, tobacco, and cotton are also grown, but not to any great extent. The chief articles of import consist of piece goods, cotton twist, yarn, oils, and salt. The total value of imports in 1875-76 was 183,250, and the value of the exports 781,672, of which 400,000 represented coffee andl75,000 rice. The total revenue of the district in 1870-71 was 233,776, of which 116,189 was made up by land tax. Education was afforded in 1871 by 103 Government and inspected schools, attended by 4007 pupils. KANAUJ, an ancient city in Farrukhabad district, North-Western Provinces, India, 27 2 30" N. lat., 79 58 E. long., with a population in 1872 of 17,093, viz., 10,864 Hindus and 6229 Mahometans. Kanauj in early times formed the capital of a great Aryan kingdom, and the Gupta dynasty extended their sway over a large portion of Upper India. The prosperity of the city dates from a prehistoric period, and seems to have culminated about the 6th century. In 1018 it fell before Mahmud of Ghazni, and again in 1194 before Muhammad Ghori. The existing ruins extend over the lands of five villages, and occupy a semicircle fully 4 miles in diameter. Among the antiqui ties the shrine of Raja Jaipal ranks first in interest The great mosque, which bears the name of Sita s Kitchen, also dates back to Hindu times. Hinduism in Lower Bengal dates its legendary origin from a Brahman migration south wards from this city, about 800 or 900. To this day all Brahmans in the lower provinces trace their descent from one or other of the five Brahman emigrants from Kanauj. KANDAHAR, the largest city in Afghanistan, is situated in 31 37 N. lat. and 65 43 E. long., at a height of 3400 feet above the sea. It is 370 miles distant from Herat on the north-west, by Girishk and Farrah, Girishk being 75 miles, and Farrah 225 miles from Kandahar. From Cabul, on the north-east, it is distant 315 miles, by Khelat-i- Ghilzai and Ghazni, Khelat-i-Ghilzai being 85 miles, and Ghazni 225 miles from Kandahar. To the Pishin valley the distance is about 110 miles, and from Pishin to India the three principal routes measure approximately as fol lows : by the Zh6b valley to Dera Ismail Khan, 300 miles ; by the B6ri valley to Dera Ghazi Khan, 275 miles ; by Quetta and the Bolan to Dadur, 125 miles; and by Chappar and Nari (the proposed railway route) to Sibi, 120 miles. Sibit is connected by rail with the rest of India. Immediately round the city is a plain, highly cultivated and well populated to the south and west ; but on the north-west this plain is barren, and is bounded by a double line of rough and precipitous hills, rising to about 1000 feet above its general level, and breaking its dull monotony with irregular lines of scarped precipices, crowned with fantastic pinnacles and peaks. To the north-west these hills form the watershed between the valleys of the Argandab and the Tarnak, until they are lost in the moun tain masses of the Hazarajat, a wild region inhabited by tribes of Tartar origin, which effectually shuts off Kandahar from communication with the north. On the south-west they lose themselves in the sandy desert of Registan, which wraps itself round the plain of Kandahar, and forms another impassable barrier. But there is a break in these hills, a gate, as it were, to the great high road between Herat and India ; and it is this gate which the fortress of Kandahar so effectually guards, and to which it owes its strategic importance. Other routes there are, open to trade, between Herat and northern India, either following the banks of the Hari Rud, or, more circuitously, through the valley of the Helmand to Cabul ; or the line of hills between the Argandab and the Tarnak may be crossed close to Khelat- i-Ghil/ai ; but of the two former it may be said that they are not ways open to the passage of Afghan armies owing to the hereditary bitterness of hostility existing between the Eimak and Hazara tribes and the Afghans generally, while the latter is not beyond striking distance from Kandahar. The one great high road from Herat and the Persian frontier to India is that which passes by Farrah and crosses the Helmand at Girishk. Between Kandahar and India new and feasible means of communication are being discovered with every geographical search into the intermediate country. To the north-west, and parallel to the long ridges of the Tarnak watershed, stretches the great road to Cabul, the same which was traversed by Nott in 1842, and by Stewart and, more recently, by Roberts in 1880. Between this and the direct route to Pishin is a road, well known, though never yet traversed by a British force, which leads through Maruf to the Kundar river and the Guleri Pass into the plains of Hindustan at Dera Ismail Khan. This is the most direct route to northern India, but it involves the passage of some rough country, where lies the great watershed between the basins of the Helmand and the Indus. But the best known road from Kandahar to India is that which stretches, across the series of open stony plains interspersed here and there with rocky hills of irregular formation leading to the foot of the pass across