BANKURA.
79
the old fortifications, are several picturesque tanks, or
artificial lakes,
constructed by the ancient Rajas, who, taking advantage of natural
threw embankments
hollows,
them
across
to
confine
the
The mineral products of the District consist of and building stone. The lime produced is obtained from drainage.
or nodular limestone, which
is
found
the ground, or a few inches below
The
iron
is
the produce of the
ferruginous laterite with which the District abounds.
and
manufactured,
that only
the ghui'm
abundance on the surface of
in
it.
surface
lime, iron,
inhabiting the western frontier, for their
Very
and
by the Santals
own
wants.
little
of
aboriginal
it is
tribes
Building stone
and uplands, but the The difficulty and expense of carriage (juarries are not now worked. to market is the chief obstacle to the development of these quarries. .Although the rich coal-field of Raniganj is situated just beyond the northern border of the District, no coal has been found within Bankura, and it is asserted that the existence of coal south of the Damodar is a There are no revenue-yielding forests in the geological impossibility. District, but several sal tracts are kept as jungle, and cut in part either is
found
the
in unlimited quantities in
hills
yearly for sale as firewood, or at longer intervals for sale as saplings.
Large supplies of lac and tasar silk are obtained from the western the gathering of which affords occupation to many of the
jungles,
poorer classes, chiefly Santals and
Tigers,
Bauris.
leopards,
small
but fierce bears, hyaenas, wolves, deer, and wild hog frequent the jungle
along
tracts
the
western
occasionally invade the District Districts
of Chutia Nagpur on the west.
wild
elephants
also
Almost every variety of
found in Bankura, pythons being often met with in the The gokura (cobra), kardit, and other deadly serpents are also
Indian snake hills.
boundary
from the Santal Parganas and the
is
common. Bankura was formerly situated within the chakld of Bardwan, and was it ceded to the East India Company on the 27th September 1760. For some time after the English obtained the diwdm of the whole province of Bengal, the Bishnupur zam'mddrt, as Bankura was then called, formed a part of Bi'rbhum District, and remained so until 1793, when, by order of the Board of Revenue, it was transferred to Bardwan. By Regulation xviii. of 1805, Bishnupur was included in the newlyestablished Jungle Mahals, and continued to form part of that District
with
until
1833.
created
Numerous changes of boundary, and
a
separate
Collectorate.
the old-standing discrepancies
between the revenue, judicial, and police jurisdictions, long caused But in 1872, the transfer to Bardwan of pargands Sonaconfusion. mukhf, Indas, and Kotalpur in the east, and Shergarh and Senpaharf in the north, and the addition of Chatna thdnd (from Manbhum) on .
the west, rendered the jurisdictions almost conterminous.
Since then,
