Bil-Hongal in the Sampgaum taluk a, saris are woven of great perfection. The towns of Margodi, Manoli, and Assundi, in Paras- gad, also have a large population of dyers and cloth printers. But for the manufacture of cloths the palm must be given to Deshnur, in the northern part of Sampgaum. The town of Nandi-gad, in Bidi, is the great mart for cotton fabrics of all kinds which are imported from the eastern districts, and thence find their way to the coast country below the Ghats.
Madras . — In the Godavari district in the Madras Presidency, most excellent cloths are made at Urpada, near Coconada, and in the villages about Utapalli and Nursapur ; and the fine turbands made at Uppada are still in great requisition. Tent cloth of superior quality is also manufactured in the villages near Rajamandri, and in the Central Jail. The weavers are, however, in a very impoverished condition, as their industry has languished and gradually declined ever since the abolition of the exclusive trade of the East India Company.
Formerly there was a large manufacture of blue salainpores at Nellore, which was quite broken up by the West Indian Eman- cipation Act, for the freed negroes refused, very naturally, to wear the garb of their slavery; and the heavy expenses of land car- riage, the absence of railways and canals, and the risks of sending- goods down to Madras by sea in native craft uninsured, while no insurance office will accept the risks of the road, all operate against the revival of the old trade, and the development of the immense natural resources of Nellore as a manufacturing centre.
At Vizagapatam a strong cloth is made called punjam , that is, “ 120 threads ” [literally 60], and the cloth is denominated io, 12, 14, up to 40 punjam , according to the number of times 120 is contained in the total number of threads in the warp. Dyed blue at Madras, it is exported to Brazil, the Mediterranean, and to London for the West Indies. Imitation Scotch checks and plaids are also made for the large population of poor native Christians in the Madras Presidency.
