—
BASIM.
i86
They do not allow the hair on the face to be cut. If a male Hatkar die of wounds received in battle or the chase, his corpse is burned with his feet to the east, otherwise he is buried sitting crosslegged with a small piece of gold in the mouth. Women who die in childbirth are burned, others are buried. Widows can contract a pat marriage a man can only have one lagan, but several pat wives. Hatkars will not eat the flesh of the cow or the pig. Their god is The Naiks of this District are principally Hatkars. called Khandoba. Their power was broken by Brigadier Sutherland, under whose orders offenders failing to surrender themselves by a given date were hanged. families.
•,
The
principal
Agriculture.
—
towns
are
Piisad,
5047; and Mangriil
Umarkhed, 5959;
—The
Basim,
-
population
staple crops are cotton
neither of which requires
much
The
rain.
and earliest kind. Considerable grown on unirrigated land, which has
and jodr
cotton
to
are estimated to cover
the spring crops,
and
spring,
supplied the
banni, or the are
for the crop.
thorough ploughing more than once
land does not require a
autumn crops
11,576;
(great millet),
is all
be manured
In the Basim taluk
every seventh year, inferior land every third year. the
(i88i)
4900.
quantities of coarse rice
best
Good
Pir,
of the cultivated area
the estimate for the Piisad taluk
The country about
is,
for
autumn,
Mangriil Pir and Pusad formerly
Haidarabad Contingent with horses
but since Arab
horses have been substituted, the stock has not been kept up, and at present there are not 100 horses in the District
fit
The
for troopers.
on ordinary carts, pack-bullocks, buffaloes, and camels to the cotton emporiums on the railway. In 1880-81, 1,150,091 acres were under cultivation. The most important crops were jodr, 385,691 acres; bdjrd, 3084; linseed, of the District, chiefly cotton
traffic
and
grain,
is
carried
27,042; pulses, 6187; kurdi, 12,071; cotton, 235,383; 179,254; gram, 41,774; HI, 15.384; hemp or flax, 2295; rice, 10,141 ; tobacco, 2711 ; castor-oil plant, 1862; sugar-cane, 1491 The average produce and other products, 108,538. lac, 25,355 17,642;
tur,
wheat,
per acre in pounds jodr,
for cotton,
is,
478; tobacco, 198;
rice,
108 for wheat, 634 ; 488; and gram, 366.
oil-seeds,
The
169
uncer-
tainty of reaching water at all, or of its being fit for use if reached, There are renders the construction of wells hazardous and costly. about 4000 wells in the District, of which nearly half are out of repair.
Under Muhammadan all
rule, the
revenue was generally farmed out, and
proprietary rights were vested in the sovereign, though no doubt
minor prescriptive privileges were acknowledged. The Bombay system It of survey and settlement has now been introduced into Berar. revenue-payer, registered the rights on proprietary absolute confers on certain conditions and the assessment is only subject to enhancement after the expiry of the agreed term, and not then unless upon
