River. The Mahdnadi is the principal river of the district, and governs the whole drainage and river system of the surrounding country. It takes its rise in a mountain ous region which is described as the wildest of all wild parts of the Central Provinces, crosses the Bildspur boundary Dear Seorindrdin, and after a course of 25 miles in the south-eastern extremity of the district enters Sambalpur district. Within Bilaspur the river is everywhere navigable for six months in the year. Minor rivers the Sakri, Hamp, Tesud, Agar, Maniari, Arpa, Kharod, Lildgar, Jonk, and Bareri. The most important affluents of the Mahdnadi are the Seonath and Hasdu. Besides the natural water supply afforded by the rivers, Bilaspur abounds in tanks, these numbering 7018, as shown in the settlement statistics. The census of 1872 disclosed a total population of 715,398, of whom 435,379, or 60 86 per cent., are Hindus ; 7024, or 98 per cent., Mahometans ; 6 Buddhists ; 37 Christians ; and 272,952, or 38-15 per cent., belong to aboriginal tribes, such as Gonds, Kan wars, Bhumias, Binjwars, Dhanwdrs, &c. Among the Hindus, the Chdindrs and Paukds deserve particular notice. The former, who form the shoemaker and leather-dealing caste of the Hindu community, had always been held in utter contempt by the other Hindu castes. But between 1820 and 1830 a religious movement, having for its object their freedom from the trammels of caste, was inaugurated by a member of the caste, named Ghdsi Das, who preached the unity of God and the equality of men. Ghasi Das gave himself out as a messenger of God ; he prohibited the adoration of idols, and enjoined the worship of the Supreme Being without any visible sign or representation. The followers of the new faith call themselves Satndmis, or the worshippers of Satndm or God. They do not keep the Hindu festivals, and they defy the contempt of the Brdhmans. Ghasi Das, the founder of the faith, was their first high priest. He died in 1850; his son succeeded him, but was assassinated (it was said by the Hindus), and the grandson is the present high priest. The Charnars in Bilaspur number 164,388, or 21 per cent, of the total population. The Paukds, who form about a sixth of the population, are all Kabirpanthls, or followers of Kabir, a religious reformer of the 15th century. There is no great difference between the Kabir Pankds and the Satndmls. They both abstain from meat and liquor, marry at the age of puberty, ordinarily celebrate their ceremonies through the agency of the elders of their own caste, and bury their dead. The Pankas worship the Supreme Being under the name of Kabir, and the Chdmars under the name of Satndm ; while each community has a high priest to whom reverence is paid. At present the majority of the Pankas are culti vators, though formerly all were weavers. The Gonds are the most numerous among the aboriginal tribes, the census of 1872 returning them at 107,359, or 15 per cent, of the total district population ; but so great an intermixture has taken place between them and the Hindu races that they have lost their language and most of their ethnical characteristics, such as the flat forehead, squat nose, pro minent nostril, dark skin, &c., and are scarcely distin guishable from the other classes of the Hindu labouring population. In addition to some of the Hindu deities which they worship, the Gonds have their own gods Bara Deva and Duld Deva. The Kdnwdrs are the next largest section of the aboriginal population, and number 28,419 souls. The upper class among them claim to be Rajputs, and are divided into numerous septs. Although an aboriginal tribe, the census returns them as a Hindu caste. All the northern landholders of Bildspur belong to this
tribe, which consequently occupies an influential position.
Rice, wheat, pulses, oil-seeds, and cotton are the chief agricultural staples. The census of 1872 returns the total area of the district at 7798 square miles, of which 2089 square miles are under cultiva tion. The following is the approximate acreage under different crops : Rice, 882,218 acres ; wheat, 79,203 ; other food grains, 225,443; oil-seeds, 56,039; sugar-cane, 6888; cotton, 72,922; opium, 124; tobacco, 2317; and vegetables, 12,329; total, 1,337,483 acres, or 20S9 81 square miles. Of the population, 433,880 live by agriculture, while 276,518 are non-agriculturists. The chief wealth of the district consists in its agricultural produce, and it is not inaptly termed "the land of plenty " by the Banjdrds or traders, who find here an inexhaustible store of surplus produce for export. Scarcity of food is almost unknown. Coal and iron are the minerals of the district ; the former is not worked, and the latter but very slightly, the annual out-turn being reported at about 15 tons only. Sandstone, for building purposes, is quarried near Bilaspur and Seorinarain. The forests produce timber, edible and medicinal roots and plants, lac and tasar-silk cocoons. Imports in 1867-68 sugar, 5274 ; metals and hardware, 10,985 ; English piece-goods, 11,194; cattle, 9240 ; miscellaneous, 10,531 ; total, 47,224. Exports rice (as ascertained), 8659 ; wheat, 6803 ; other edible grains, 150; cotton, 16,407; molasses, 297; oil-seeds, 18; lac, 15,603 ; miscellaneous, 5609 ; total, 53,546. Among local industries the most important is the weaving trade. It is estimated that cotton and silk cloths to the value of 95,000 are every year manufactured. The traffic routes of the district are five in number, the three most important of which are rugged and inaccessible, un fit for wheeled carriages, admitting export or import only by means of pack-bullocks during six months of the year. The other two are simply tracks across the hills and through the jungle. The revenue divisions of the district correspond with its physical features ; the hilly area, covering about 5000 square miles, is almost entirely held by large landed proprietors called Zaml uddrs, who have always occupied a somewhat independent position. The open country, with an area of 3000 square miles, is known as the Khdlsd jurisdic tion, or the tract under direct revenue management through Govern ment officers. Pendra, Matin, Uprora, Kenda, Lapha, Chhuri, Korba, Champa, Sakti, Bhatgaon, Bilaigarh, Katangi, Pandaria, Kawarda, and Madanpur, are the 15 Zamlnddrls comprising the hilly area, of which Sakti and Kawardd have been acknowledged as feudatories. Bilaspur, Mungeli, and Seorinarain are the three par- gands in the KMlsd tract. In 1868-69, the revenues of the district were as follows : Land-tax, 27,195 ; excise, 892 ; stamps, 2234 ; forest, 434 ; assessed taxes, 1222 ; total, 31,977. For the pro tection of person and property, Government maintained in 1868-69 a regular police of 310 officers and men, at a total annual cost of 4363, besides the village watch or rural constabulary. The execu tive staff of the district consists of the deputy-commissioner, with two assistants and several sub-collectors. Bilaspur contained, in 1868-69, 33 Government and 58 private schools, attended by 3076 pupils. Besides Bilaspur, to be separately noticed below, there are only four towns of any importance in the district : Ratanpur, the seat of the ancient Rajas, situated at the base of the Kenda, off shoots of the Vindhyau range, highly attractive to antiquarians and archaeologists on account of its great antiquity; it is now in a dilapidated and deserted state. Population, 5111. JIungeli, a rising market-town, situated on th,e banks of the Eiver Agar. Pop ulation, 3542. Kawarda, population, 6590. Seormarain, on the Mahanadi, a favourite residence of the Ratanpur court in former days, contains a temple of the Hindu god Narayan, from which it derives its name. Population about 1500. The climate of the dis trict, though relaxing, is not oppressive. Cholera occasionally breaks out in the epidemic form, being generally disseminated by the Jagannath pilgrims from Central India, whose route to Orissa lies through the district. Fever and smallpox also prevail.
The early history of the district is very obscure. From remote ages it was governed by kings of the Haihai dynasty, known as the Chhattisgarh Rdjds, on account of thirty-six forts, of which they were the lords. A genealo gical list of kings of this dynasty has been carefully kept up to the fifty-fifth representative in the year 1740, when the country was seized without a struggle by the Marhattds of Ndgpur. From 1818 to 1830 Bildspur came under the management of the British Government^ the Marhattd chief of Ndgpur being then a minor. In 1854 the country finally lapsed to the British Government, the chief having died without issue. During the Sepoy mutiny a hill chief of the district gave some trouble, but he was speedily captured and executed.
name, is situated on the south bank of the Eiver Arpd. It is said to have been founded by a fiskerwoman, named Bildsa, three hundred years ago, and still retains her
name. The place, however, came to note only about one
