408 NOWGONG DISTRICT. It is impossible to fix with certainty the date when the Ahams first obtained possession of this region. Their capital was situated in the neighbouring District of Sibságar farther up the valley; but they had established themselves as low down as Gauhati in the beginning of the 17th century, when they successfully repelled the Muhammadans. When the British drove out the Burmese and annexed Assam, as an incident in the first Anglo-Burmese war, Nowgong was at first administered as an integral portion of Kámrúp District; all beyond was suffered to remain under various native rulers. The District of Nowgong was formed into an independent revenue unit in 1832. Since that date, several changes in jurisdiction have taken place. In 1843, the Sub-division of Golághát, on the farther bank of the Dhaneswari, was transferred to the neighbouring District of Sibságar; and in 1867 the area was still further diminished by the erection of the unsurveyed mountains towards the south-east into a new District, under the name of the Nágá Hills. People.--In Robinson's Descriptive Account of Assam, published in 1841, the population of Nowgong District is given at about 90,000 souls. An official estimate in 1853 returned the number at 241,000. The first real enumeration, based upon trustworthy data, was the general Census of 1871–72, which in this District was not effected simultaneously in a single night, as in Bengal, but was spread over the whole month of November 1871. The result disclosed a total population of 256,390 persons, residing in 1293 mauzás or villages and in 44,050 houses. The last enumeration was in 1881, when a synchronous Census was effected on the night of the 17th February. This enumeration disclosed a total population of 310,579 souls, showing an increase (partly, however, supposed to be due to errors in the Census of 1871) of 54,189, or 21'14 per cent. The results of the Census of 1881 may be summarized as follows :-Area of District, 3417 square miles, with 1494 towns and villages, and 52,871 houses. Total population, 310,579, namely, males 160,480, and females 150,099. Average density of population, goʻ9 persons per square mile ; villages per square mile, '44 ; persons per village, 208; houses per square mile, 15'56 ; persons per occupied house, 5'9. Classified according to age and sect, the population in 1881 consisted of—under 15 years of age, males 66,212, and females 62,502 ; total children, 128,714, or 41'4 per cent of the population : 15 years and upwards, males 94, 268, and females 87,597; total adults, 181,865, or 58:6 per cent. Religious and Ethnical Classification. --- The Hindus (as loosely grouped together for religious purposes) number 249,710, or 804 per cent. of the District population ; Muhammadans, 12,074, or 39 per cent. ; Christians, 254 ; Jains, 32; Brahmos, 31; and non-Hindu
