1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jubbulpore

JUBBULPORE, or Jabalpur, a city, district, and division of British India in the Central Provinces. The city is 616 m. N.E. of Bombay by rail, and 220 m. S.W. of Allahabad. Pop. (1901), 90,316. The numerous gorges in the neighbouring rocks have been taken advantage of to surround the city with a series of lakes, which, shaded by fine trees and bordered by fantastic crags, add much beauty to the suburbs. The city itself is modern, and is laid out in wide and regular streets. A streamlet separates the civil station and cantonment from the native quarter; but, though the climate is mild, a swampy hollow beneath renders the site unhealthy for Europeans. Formerly the capital of the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, Jubbulpore is now the headquarters of a brigade in the 5th division of the southern army. It is also one of the most important railway centres in India, being the junction of the Great Indian Peninsula and the East Indian systems. It has a steam cotton-mill. The government college educates for the science course of the Allahabad University, and also contains law and engineering classes; there are three aided high schools, a law class, an engineering class and normal schools for male and female teachers. A native association, established in 1869, supports an orphanage, with help from government. A zenana mission manages 13 schools for girls. Waterworks were constructed in 1882.

The District of Jubbulpore lies on the watershed between the Nerbudda and the Son, but mostly within the valley of the former river, which here runs through the famous gorge known as the Marble rocks, and falls 30 ft. over a rocky ledge (the Dhuan dhar, or “misty shoot”). Area, 3912 sq. m. It consists of a long narrow plain running north-east and south-west, and shut in on all sides by highlands. This plain, which forms an offshoot from the great valley of the Nerbudda, is covered in its western and southern portions by a rich alluvial deposit of black cotton-soil. At Jubbulpore city the soil is sandy, and water plentiful near the surface. The north and east belong to the Ganges and Jumna basins, the south and west to the Nerbudda basin. In 1901 the population was 680,585, showing a decrease of 9% since 1891, due to the results of famine. The principal crops are wheat, rice, pulse and oil-seeds. A good deal of iron-smelting with charcoal is carried on in the forests, manganese ore is found, and limestone is extensively quarried. The district is traversed by the main railway from Bombay to Calcutta, and by new branches of two other lines which meet at Katni junction. Jubbulpore suffered severely in the famine of 1896–1897, the distress being aggravated by immigration from the adjoining native states. Fortunately the famine of 1900 was less severely felt.

The early history of Jubbulpore is unknown; but inscriptions record the existence during the 11th and 12th centuries of a local line of princes of that Haihai race which is closely connected with the history of Gondwana. In the 16th century the Gond raja of Garha Mandla extended his power over fifty-two districts, including the present Jubbulpore. During the minority of his grandson, Asaf Khan, the viceroy of Kara Manikpur, conquered the Garha principality and held it at first as an independent chief. Eventually he submitted to the emperor Akbar. The Delhi power, however, enjoyed little more than a nominal supremacy; and the princes of Garha Mandla maintained a practical independence until their subjugation by the Mahratta governors of Saugor in 1781. In 1798 the peshwa granted the Nerbudda valley to the Bhonsla princes of Nagpur, who continued to hold the district until the British occupied it in 1818.

The Division of Jubbulpore lies mainly among the Vindhyan and Satpura hill systems. It comprises the five following districts: Jubbulpore, Saugor, Damoh, Seoni and Mandla. Area, 18,950 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 2,081,499.