BANDA. Doab
District with the
53
are probably sufficient to avert the extremity
of famine.
Commerce and Trade. has
river, is
— Banda,
The Jumna
trade.
little
is
though a poor agricultural its
main
The B^nda
a considerable port of entry.
well
known
The
other principal exports are
commerce
in
The Ken
and
artery,
by
to be called flax,
cotton
is
District,
on that
sufficiently
name. and other
prefix as a trade
its
gram,
Chilla,
millets, wheat,
and tobacco. The traffic owing to the shrinking of the river in the dry season. Manufactured articles are, for the most part, sold at the country fairs, none of which, however, are of any great importance. Coarse cotton cloth and copper utensils are made in the District for home use. Polished pebbles, found in the Ken, and cut into knife handles, brooches, seal-rings, and other ornamental articles, are exported in considerable quantities. There are several quarries in the southern hill country, which export durable sandstone for ornamental architecture, and other stone for metalling roads and for railway purposes. Iron is also found, and worked by companies of blackThe Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) branch of the East Indian Railsmiths.
grains.
on the
chief imports are rice, sugar,
is
small,
way has a
length of about 47 miles in the District, with three stations Bargarh, Manikpur, and Markundi. Manikpur is connected with
at
the town of
Banda by a road of 59|- miles long and as it is often impassable
but as only a small
goods during the by the well-metalled road to Chilla (24 miles) and thence across the Jumna to Fatehpur station on the East Indian main line. There are 586 miles of roads in the District. All of them, however, except that from Banda to Chilli, need No institutions of any importance exist, and there are improvement. no newspapers or printing-presses in the District. portion
is
metalled,
rainy season,
traffic
Administration
.
proceeds
— The
chiefly
District suffered
century from over-taxation.
for
Under
much
in the earlier part of the
the Maratha Government, the State
whole possible out-turn of each village. On whole District, in 1806, the land revenue amounted to .;;^i3o,305, and in 1814 to ^146,454. These In 1815, the land assessments were not considered exorbitant. revenue was raised to ;;^i92,i22, and again, in 1819, to ^^203, 650. This demand was met, but only by payments out of capital and the In 1825, the result was soon seen in a general decrease of prosperity. assessment was reduced to ^187,890; but the effects of the previous excessive demands, the spread of the kdns weed, and a series of bad
demand amounted
the
first
to the
British Settlement of the
harvests,
combined
to
impoverish Banda.
From
that period to the
Mutiny, the assessments, in spite of many fluctuations, were generally somewhat heavier than the District could bear. On the reoccupation after the
Mutiny,
it
was necessary to make a considerable reduction.
