Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/103

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88
STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF 24 PARGANAS.

Government establishment. This village has attained to the importance of a provincial town, by having a navigable canal cut to the Ichhámatí River, as well as very fair roads leading from it to the nearest marts of traffic, thus establishing it an emporium for the sale and shipment of the produce of the surrounding country.’ The principal traffic of the town is in exports of sugar and rice. Lat. 22° 42' 35" N.; long. 89° 7' 55" E.

(14) Jainagar.—A police station in the Báruipur Subdivision situated near the old bed of the Ganges; area of town, 2086 acres, or 3.26 square miles; 1261 houses. Population according to the experimental Census of 1869, males, 2624; females, 2748—total, 5372. Population ascertained by the regular Census of 1872: Hindus, males, 3709; females, 3499—total, 7208. Muhammadans, males, 336; females, 228—total, 564. Total of all denominations, males, 4045; females,3727—grand total, 7772. Average number of inmates per house, 6.1; average number of persons per square mile, 2384. The increase in the population since 1869 is due to the town boundaries having been considerably extended since that date. The area given above, however, is as it existed at the time of the experimental Census. The municipal income in 1869 amounted to £206, 16s. 0d., and the expenditure to £143, 4s. 9d. Income in 1872, £230, 8s. 0d.; expenditure, £145, 0s. 0d. Rate of municipal taxation, d. per head of the population. The Municipal Police consists of 1 head constable and 13 men. The old bed of the river has been dammed across, and at Jainagar it forms a continuous line of tanks, at one of which are some Hindu temples, decorated with indecent sculptures. According to Major Smyth, in one of the temples is an idol about the size of a boy eight years old, carved in stone, connected with which the following tale is told:—‘Some seventy-five years ago, the idol was mistaken by a tiger for a living person, and carried off into the jungle, where he left it. The idol was missed after a time, and a great noise made. However, a person, who doubtless knew all about it, became at once a prophet, and informed the people that the idol had appeared to him in a dream, and told him whereabouts in the jungle it was to be found. The Bráhmans proceeded there in a body, and on finding the idol returned home with triumph. The impostor became of course much respected, and the idol much extolled, after his miraculous restoration. There is also a miraculous tree, which buds and blossoms during the night of the Pújá, and the flower of which is offered in the morning to the idol.’