Administration, 1902-1913.—The last eleven years have embraced the Lieutenant Governorship of Sir Charles Rivaz (1902-1907), the too brief administration of Sir Denzil Ibbetson (1907-1908), and that of Sir Louis Dane (1908-1913). Throughout the period plague has been a disturbing factor, preventing entirely the growth of population which the rapid development of the agricultural resources of the province would otherwise have secured. It was among the causes stimulating the unrest which came to a head in 1907. A terrible earthquake occurred in 1905. Its centre was in Kángra, where 20,000 persons perished under the ruins of their houses. The colonization of the Crown waste on the Lower Jhelam Canal was nearly finished during Sir Charles Rivaz's administration. Before he left the Triple Canal Project, now approaching completion, had been undertaken. Other measures of importance to the rural population were the passing of the Co-operative Credit Societies' Act in 1903, and the organization in 1905 of a provincial Agricultural Department. The seditious movement which troubled Bengal had its echo in some parts of the Panjáb in the end of 1906 and the spring of 1907. A bill dealing with the rights and obligations of the Crown tenants in the new Canal Colonies was at the time before the Local Legislature. Excitement fomented from outside spread among the prosperous colonists on the Lower Chenáb Canal. There was a disturbance in Lahore in connection with the trial of a newspaper editor, the ringleaders being students. When Sir Denzil Ibbetson took the reins into his strong hands in March, 1907, the position was somewhat critical. The disturbance at Lahore was followed by a riot at Ráwalpindí. The two leading agitators were deported, a measure which was amply justified by their reckless actions and which had an immediate effect. Lord Minto decided to withhold his assent from the Colony Bill, and it has recently been replaced by a measure which has met with general acceptance. When Sir Denzil Ibbetson took office he was already suffering from a mortal disease. In the following January he gave up the unequal struggle, and shortly afterwards died. Sir Louis Dane became Lieutenant Governor in May, 1908. A striking feature of his administration was the growth of co-operative credit societies or village banks. At the Coronation Darbár on 12th December, 1911, the King-Emperor announced the transfer of the capital of India to Delhi. As a necessary consequence the city and its suburbs were severed from the province, with which they had been connected for 55 years. In 1913 Sir Louis Dane was succeeded by Sir Michael O'Dwyer.

CHAPTER XXI

Hindu and Buddhist Remains.—The scholar who ended his study of Indian history with the close of the first millennium of the Christian era would expect to find a fruitful field for the study of ancient monuments of the Hindu faith in the plains of the Panjáb. He would look for a great temple of the Sun God at Multán, and at places like Lahore and Kángra, Thanesar and Pihowa, for shrines rich with graven work outside and with treasures of gold and precious stones within. But he would look in vain. The Muhammadan invaders of the five centuries which elapsed between Mahmúd of Ghazní and the Moghal Bábar were above all things idol-breakers, and their path was marked by the destruction and spoliation of temples. Even those invaders who remained as conquerors deemed it a pious work to build their mosques with the stones of ruined fanes. The transformation, as in the case of the great Kuwwat ul Islám mosque beside the Kutb Minár, did not always involve the complete obliteration of idolatrous emblems. Kángra was not too remote to be reached by invading armies, and the visitor to Nurpur on the road from Pathánkot to Dharmsála can realize how magnificent some of the old Hindu buildings were, and how utterly they were destroyed. The smaller buildings to be found in the remoter parts of the hills escaped, and there are characteristic groups of stone temples at Chamba and still older shrines dating from the eighth century at Barmaur and Chitrádí in the same state. The ruins of the great temple of the Sun, built by Lálitáditya in the same period, at Mártand[7] near Islámábád in the Kashmír State are very striking. The smaller, but far better preserved, temple at Payer is probably of much later date. Round the pool of Katás, one of Şiva's eyes, a great place of Hindu pilgrimage in the Salt Range, there is little or nothing of antiquarian value, but there are interesting remains at Malot in the same neighbourhood. It is possible that when the mounds that mark the sites of ancient villages come to be excavated valuable relics of the Hindu period will be brought to light. The forces of nature or the violence of man have wiped out all traces of the numerous Buddhist monasteries which the Chinese pilgrims found in the Panjáb. Inscriptions of Aşoka? graven on rocks survive at Sháhbázgarhí and Mansehra in the North-West Frontier Province. Two pillars with inscriptions of the Missionary Emperor stand at Delhi. They were brought from Topra near the Jamna in Ambála and from Meerut by Firoz Sháh. The traveller by train from Jhelam to Ráwalpindí can see to the west of the line at Mankiála a great stúpa raised to celebrate the self-sacrifice of the Bodhisattva who gave his life to feed a starving tigress. There is a ruined stúpa at Suí Vihár in the Baháwalpur State. The Chinese pilgrims described the largest of Indian stúpas built by Kanishka near Pesháwar to enshrine precious relics of Gautama Buddha and a great monastery beside it. Recent excavations have proved the truth of the conjecture that the two mounds at Sháhjí kí dherí covered the remains of these buildings, and the six-sided crystal reliquary containing three small fragments of bone has after long centuries been disinterred and is now in the great pagoda at Rangoon. In the Lahore museum there is a rich collection of the sculptures recovered from the Pesháwar Valley, the ancient Gandhára. They exhibit strong traces of Greek influence. The best age of Gandhára sculpture was probably over before the reign of Kanishka. The site of the famous town of Táxila is now a protected area, and excavation there may yield a rich reward.

In the Pathán period the royal builders drew their inspiration from Ghazní, but their work was also much affected by Hindu influences for two reasons. They used the materials of Hindu temples in constructing their mosques and they employed masons imbued with the traditions of Hindu art. The best specimens of this period are to be found in the group of buildings in Old Delhi or Kila' Rai Pithora, close to Mahraulí and eleven miles to the south of the present city. These buildings are the magnificent Kuwwat ul Islám (Might of Islam) Mosque (1191-1225), with its splendid tower, the Kutb Minár (1200-1220), from which the mu'azzin called the faithful to prayer, the tomb of the Emperor Altamsh (1238), and the great gateway built in 1310 by Alá ud dín Khaljí. In the second period, named after the house that occupied the imperial throne when it began, all traces of Hindu influence have vanished, and the buildings display the austere and massive grandeur suited to the faith of the desert prophet unalloyed by foreign elements. This style in its beginning is best seen in the cyclopean ruins of Tughlakábád and the tomb of the Emperor Tughlak Sháh, and in some mosques in and near Delhi. Its latest phase is represented by Sher Sháh's mosque in the Old Fort or Purána Kila'. To some the simple grandeur of this style will appeal more strongly than the splendid, but at times almost effeminate, beauty of the third period. Noted examples of Moghal architecture in the Panjáb are to be found in Sháhjahári's red fort palace and Jama' Masjid at New Delhi or Sháhjahánábád, Humáyun's tomb on the road from Delhi to Mahraulí, the fort palace, the Bádsháhí and Wazír Khán's mosques, at Lahore, and Jahángír's mausoleum at Sháhdara. A very late building in this style is the tomb of Nawáb Safdar Jang (1753) near Delhi. A further account of some of the most famous Muhammadan buildings will be found in the paragraphs devoted to the chief cities of the province. The architecture of the British period scarcely deserves notice.

Coins.—Among the most interesting of the archaeological remains are the coins which are found in great abundance on the frontier and all over the Panjáb. These take us back through the centuries to times before the invasion of India by Alexander, and for the obscure period intervening between the Greek occupation of the Frontier and the Muhammadan conquest, they are our main source of history. The most ancient of the Indian monetary issues are the so-called punch-marked coins, some of which were undoubtedly in existence before the Greek invasion. Alexander himself left no permanent traces of his progress through the Panjáb and Sindh, but about the year 200 B.C., Greeks from Bactria, an outlying province of the Seleukidan Empire, once more appeared on the Indian Frontier, which they effectively occupied for more than a century. They struck the well-known Graeco-Bactrian coins; the most famous of the Indo-Greek princes were Apollodotos and Menander. Towards the close of this dynasty, parts of Sindh and Afghánistán were conquered by Sáka Scythians from Central Asia. They struck what are termed the Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins bearing names in legible Greek legends—Manes, Azes, Azilises, Gondophares, Abdagases. Both Greeks and Sákas were overthrown by the Kusháns. The extensive gold and copper Kushán currency, with inscriptions in the Greek script, contains the names of Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka, and others. In addition to the coins of these foreign dynasties, there are the purely Indian currencies, e.g. the coins of Táxila, and those bearing the names of such tribes as the Odumbaras, Kunindas, and Yaudheyas. The White Huns overthrew the Kushán Empire in the fifth century. After their own fall in the sixth century, there are more and more debased types of coinage such as the ubiquitous Gadhiya paisa, a degraded Sassanian type. In the ninth century we again meet with coins bearing distinct names, the "bull and horseman" currency of the Hindu kings of Kábul. We have now reached the beginning of the Muhammadan rule in India. Muhammad bin Sám was the founder of the first Pathán dynasty of Delhi, and was succeeded by a long line of Sultáns. The Pathán and Moghal coins bear Arabic and Persian legends. There were mints at Lahore, Multán, Háfizábád, Kalanaur, Deraját, Pesháwar, Srínagar and Jammu. An issue of coins peculiar to the Panjáb is that of the Sikhs. Their coin legends, partly Persian, partly Panjábí, are written in the Persian and Gurmúkhí scripts. Amongst Sikh mints were Amritsar, Lahore, Multán, Dera, Anandgarh, Jhang, and Kashmír.

CHAPTER XXII

The Lieutenant Governor.—At the head of the whole administration is the Lieutenant Governor, who holds office for five years. He has a strong Secretariat to help in the dispatch of business. The experiment of governing the Panjáb by a Board was speedily given up, and for sixty years it has enjoyed the advantage of one man government, the Lieutenant Governor controlling all subordinate authorities and being himself only controlled by the Governor General in Council. The independence of the Courts in the exercise of judicial functions is of course safeguarded.

Official hierarchy.—The following is a list of the official hierarchy in the different branches of the administration:

The letters in brackets indicate the classes of functions which the official concerned usually exercises. Translated into a diagram we have the following:

Tahsíldárs and Assistant and Extra Assistant Commissioners.—Thus the chain of executive authority runs down to the tahsíldár's assistant or náib through the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner, the tahsíldár being directly responsible to the latter. The Assistant and Extra Assistant Commissioners are the Deputy Commissioner's Assistants at headquarters, and as such are invested with powers in all branches. The tahsíldár, a very important functionary, is in charge of a tahsíl. He is linked on to the village estates by a double chain, one official consisting of the kanungos and the patwáris or village accountants whom they supervise, the other non-official consisting of the village headmen and the zaildárs, each of whom is the intermediary between the revenue and police staffs and the villages.

Subdivisional Officers.—In some heavy districts one or more tahsíls are formed into a subdivision and put in charge of a resident Assistant or Extra Assistant Commissioner, exercising such independent authority as the Deputy Commissioner thinks fit to entrust to him.

The Deputy Commissioner and his Assistants.—As the officer responsible for the maintenance of order the Deputy Commissioner is District Magistrate and has large powers both for the prevention and punishment of crime. The District Superintendent is his Assistant in police matters. The Civil Surgeon is also under his control, and he has an Indian District Inspector of Schools to assist him in educational business. The Deputy Commissioner is subject to the control of the Divisional Commissioner.

Financial Commissioners.—In all matters connected with land, excise, and income tax administration the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are subject to the control of the Financial Commissioners, who are also the final appellate authority in revenue cases. As chief district revenue officer the Deputy Commissioner's proper title is "Collector," a term which indicates his responsibility for the realization of all Government revenues. In districts which are canal irrigated the amount is in some cases very large.

Settlement Officers, etc.—With the periodical revisions of the land revenue assessment the Deputy Commissioner has no direct concern. That very responsible duty is done by a special staff of Settlement Officers, selected chiefly from among the Assistant Commissioners and working under the Commissioners and Financial Commissioners. The Director of Land Records, the Registrar of Co-operative Credit Societies, and in some branches of his work the Director of Agriculture and Industries, are controlled by the Financial Commissioners.

The Chief Court.—It must be admitted that Panjábís are very litigious and that in some tracts they are extremely vindictive and reckless of human life. The volume of litigation is swollen by the fact that the country is one of small-holders subject as regards inheritance and other matters to an uncodified customary law, which may vary from tribe to tribe and tract to tract. A suit is to the Panjábí a rubber, the last game of which he will play in Lahore, if the law permits. It is not therefore extraordinary that the Chief Court constituted in 1865 with two judges has now five, and that even this number has in the past proved insufficient. In the same way the cadre of divisional and sessions judges had in 1909 to be raised from 12 to 16.

Administration of N. W. F. Province.—In the N. W. F. Province no Commissioner is interposed between the district officers and the Chief Commissioner, under whom the Revenue Commissioner and the Judicial Commissioner occupy pretty much the position of the Financial Commissioners and the Chief Court in the Panjáb.

Departments.—The principal departments are the Railway, Post Office, Telegraphs, and Accounts, under the Government of India, and Irrigation, Roads and Buildings, Forests, Police, Medical, and Education, under the Lieutenant Governor. In matters affecting the rural population, as a great part of the business of the Forest Department must do, the Conservator of Forests is subject to the control of the Financial Commissioners, whose relations with the Irrigation Department are also very intimate.

Legislative Council.—From 1897 to 1909 the Panjáb had a local Legislative Council of nine nominated members, which passed a number of useful Acts. Under 9 Edward VII, cap. 4, an enlarged council with increased powers has been constituted. It consists of 24 members of whom eight are elected, one by the University, one by the Chamber of Commerce, three by groups of Municipal and cantonment committees, and three by groups of district boards. The other sixteen members are nominated by the Lieutenant Governor, and at least six of them must be persons not in Government service. The right of interpellation has been given, and also some share in shaping the financial arrangements embodied in the annual budget.

CHAPTER XXIII

Municipalities.—It is matter for reflection that, while the effect of British administration has been to weaken self-government in villages, half a century of effort has failed to make it a living thing in towns and districts. The machinery exists, but outside a few towns the result is poor. The attempt was made on too large a scale, municipal institutions being bestowed on places which were no more than villages with a bazár. This has been partially corrected of late years. A new official entity, the "notified area," has been invented to suit the requirements of such places. While there were in 1904 139 municipalities and 48 notified areas, in 1911-12 the figures were 107 and 104 respectively. Even in the latter year 32 of the municipalities had incomes not exceeding £1000 (Rs. 15,000). The total income of the 104 towns was Rs. 71,41,000 (£476,000), of which Rs. 44,90,000 (£300,000) were derived from taxation. Nearly 90 p.c. of the taxation was drawn from octroi, a hardy plant which has survived much economic criticism. The expenditure was Rs. 69,09,000 (£461,000), of which Rs. 40,32,000 (£269,000) fall under the head of "Public Health and Convenience." The incidence of taxation was Rs. 2.6 or a little over three shillings a head.

District Boards.—The district boards can at present in practice only be treated as consultative bodies, and well handled can in that capacity play a useful rôle. Their income is mainly derived from the local rate, a surcharge of one-twelfth on the land revenue. In 1911-12 the income was Rs. 53,74,000 (£358,000) and the expenditure Rs. 54,44,500 (£363,000). The local rate contributed 51 p.c. and contributions from Government 23 p.c. of the former figure. Public works took up 41 and Education about 20 p.c. of the expenditure.

Elections.—Some of the seats in most of the municipalities and boards are filled by election when any one can be induced to vote. Public spirit is lacking and, as a rule, except when party or sectarian spirit is rampant, the franchise is regarded with indifference.

CHAPTER XXIV

Income and Expenditure.—Excluding income from railways, post offices, telegraphs, salt, and sales of excise opium, which are wholly imperial, the revenue of the Panjáb in 1911-12 was £5,057,000 (Rs. 758,56,000), of which the provincial share was £2,662,200 (Rs. 399,33,000), to which have to be added £251,800 (Rs. 37,77,000) on account of assignments made by the Government of India to the province. This brought up the total to £2,914,000 (Rs. 437,10,000). The expenditure was £2,691,933 (Rs. 403,79,000). This does not include £983,000 spent from loan funds on irrigation works, chiefly the great Triple Project. The large expenditure on railways is imperial. Of the gross income more than three-fourths is derived from the land (Land Revenue, 46 p.c., Irrigation, chiefly canal water rates, 29 p.c., and Forests, 1¾ p.c.). The balance consists of Excise 8½ p.c., Stamps, 7 p.c., Income Tax over 2 p.c., and other heads 5¾ p.c.

Land Revenue.—Certain items are included under the Land Revenue head which are no part of the assessment of the land. The real land revenue of the Panjáb is about £2,000,000 and falls roughly at the rate of eighteen pence per cultivated acre (Table II). It is not a land tax, but an extremely moderate quit rent. In India the ruler has always taken a share of the produce of the land from the persons in whom he recognised a permanent right to occupy it or arrange for its tillage. The title of the Rája to his share and the right of the occupier to hold the land he tilled and pass it on to his children both formed part of the customary law of the country. Under Indian rule the Rája's share was often collected in kind, and the proportion of the crop taken left the tiller of the soil little or nothing beyond what was needed for the bare support of himself and his family. What the British Government did was to commute the share in kind into a cash demand and gradually to limit its amount to a reasonable figure. The need of moderation was not learned without painful experience, but the Panjáb was fortunate in this that, except as regards the Delhi territory, the lesson had been learned and a reasonable system evolved in the United Provinces before the officers it sent to the Panjáb began the regular assessments of the districts of the new province. A land revenue settlement is usually made for a term of 20 or 30 years. Since 1860 the limit of the government demand has been fixed at one-half of the rental, but this figure is very rarely approached in practice. Between a quarter and a third would be nearer the mark. A large part of the land is tilled by the owners, and the rent of the whole has to be calculated from the data for the part, often not more than a third or two-fifths of the whole, cultivated by tenants at will. The calculation is complicated by the fact that kind rents consisting of a share of the crop are in most places commoner than cash rents and are increasing in favour. The determination of the cash value of the rent where the crop is shared is a very difficult task. There is a large margin for error, but there can be no doubt that the net result has almost always been undervaluation. It is probable that the share of the produce of the fields which the land revenue absorbs rarely exceeds one-seventh and is more often one-tenth or less. A clear proof of the general moderation of Panjáb assessments is furnished by the fact that in the three years ending 1910-11 the recorded prices in sales amounted to more than Rs. 125 per rupee of land revenue of the land sold, which may be taken as implying a belief on the part of purchasers that the landlord's rent is not double, but five or six times the land revenue assessment, for a man would hardly pay Rs. 125 unless he expected to get at least six or seven rupees annual profit.

Fluctuating Assessments.—The old native plan of taking a share of the crop, though it offered great opportunity for dishonesty on both sides, had at least the merit of roughly adjusting the demand to the character of the seasons. It was slowly realized that there were parts of the province where the harvests were so precarious that even a very moderate fixed cash assessment was unsuitable. Various systems of fluctuating cash assessment have therefore been introduced, and one-fourth of the total demand is now of this character, the proportion having been greatly increased by the adoption of the fluctuating principle in the new canal colonies.

Suspensions and Remissions.—Where fixity is retained the strain in bad seasons is lessened by a free use of suspensions, and, if the amounts of which the collection has been deferred accumulate owing to a succession of bad seasons, resort is had to remission.

Irrigation Income and Expenditure.—In a normal year in the Panjáb over one-fourth of the total crops is matured by the help of Government Canals, and this proportion will soon be largely increased. In 1911-12 the income from canals amounted to £1,474,000, and the working expenses to £984,000, leaving a surplus of £490,000. Nearly the whole of the income is derived from water rates, which represent the price paid by the cultivator for irrigation provided by State expenditure. The rates vary for different crops and on different canals. The average incidence may be roughly put at Rs. 4 or a little over five shillings per acre. In calculating the profit on canals allowance is made for land revenue dependent on irrigation, amounting to nearly £400,000.

CHAPTER XXV

Districts and Divisions.—The Panjáb now consists of 28 districts grouped in five divisions. In descriptions of districts and states boundaries, railways, and roads, which appear on the face of the inset maps, are omitted. Details regarding cultivation and crops will be found in Tables II, III and IV, and information as to places of note in Chapter XXX. The revenue figures of Panjáb districts in this chapter relate to the year 1911-12.

Delhi Enclave.—On the transfer of the capital of India to Delhi part of the area of the old district of that name comprising 337 estates was removed from the jurisdiction of the Panjáb Government and brought under the immediate authority of the Government of India (Act No. XIII of 1912). The remainder of the district was divided between Rohtak and Gurgáon, and the headquarters of the Delhi division were transferred to Ambála.

The area of the new province is only 528 square miles, and the population including that of the City is estimated at 396,997. The cultivated area is 340 square miles, more than half of which is cultivated by the owners themselves. The principal agricultural tribe is the Hindu Játs, who are hard-working and thrifty peasant farmers. The land revenue is Rs. 4,00,203 (£26,680). The above figures only relate to the part of the enclave formerly included in the Panjáb[8]. The head of the administration has the title of Chief Commissioner.

The Ambála division—includes four of the five districts of the South-Eastern Plains, the submontane district of Ambála, and the hill district of Simla. It is with the exception of Lahore the smallest division, but it ranks first in cultivated area and third in population. It is twice the size of Wales and has twice its population. The Commissioner is in political charge of the hill state of Sirmúr and of five petty states in the plains.

Hissár District.—Hissár is the south-western district of the division and has a long common boundary with Bikaner. It is divided into five tahsíls, Hissár, Hánsi, Bhiwání, Fatehábád, and Sirsa. There are four natural divisions, Nálí, Bágar, Rohí, and Hariána. The overflow of the Ghagar, which runs through the north of the district, has transformed the lands on either bank into hard intractable clay, which yields nothing to the husbandman without copious floods. This is the Nálí. The Bágar is a region of rolling sand stretching along the Bikaner border from Sirsa to Bhiwání. In Sirsa to the east of the Bágar is a plain of very light reddish loam known as the Rohí, partly watered by the Sirhind Canal. South of the Ghagar the loam in the east of the district is firmer, and well adapted to irrigation, which much of it obtains from branches of the Western Jamna Canal. This tract is known as Hariána, and has given its name to a famous breed of cattle. The Government cattle farm at Hissár covers an area of 65 square miles. North of the Fatehábád tahsíl and surrounded by villages belonging to the Phulkian States is an island of British territory called Budhláda. It belongs to the Jangal Des, and has the characteristic drought-resisting sandy loam and sand of that tract. Much of Budhláda is watered by the Sirhind Canal. Of the total area of the district only about 9 p.c. is irrigated. The water level is so far from the surface that well irrigation is usually impossible, and the source of irrigation is canals.

Hissár suffered severely from the disorders which followed on the collapse of the Moghal Empire and its ruin was consummated by the terrible famine of 1783. The starving people died or fled and for years the country lay desolate. It passed into the hands of the British 20 years later, but for another 20 years our hold on this outlying territory was loose and ineffective. In 1857 the troops at Hánsi, Hissár, and Sirsa rose and killed all the Europeans who fell into their hands. The Muhammadan tribes followed their example, and for a time British authority ceased to exist. The district was part of the Delhi territory transferred to the Panjáb in 1858.

The rainfall is scanty, averaging 15 inches, and extremely capricious. No other district suffers so much from famine as Hissár. The crops are extraordinarily insecure, with a large surplus in a good season and practically nothing when the rains fail badly. They consist mainly of the cheap pulses and millets. With such fluctuating harvests it is impossible to collect the revenues with any regularity, and large sums have to be suspended in bad seasons.

Such industries as exist are mostly in Hánsi and Bhiwání, where there are mills for ginning and pressing cotton. Cotton cloths tastefully embroidered with silk, known as phulkárís, are a well-known local product.

Rohtak—became a British possession in 1803, but it was not till after the Mutiny that it was brought wholly under direct British administration. The old district consisted of the three tahsíls of Rohtak, Gohána, and Jhajar, but on the breaking up of the Delhi district the Sonepat tahsíl was added.

Rohtak is practically a purely agricultural tract with large villages, but no towns of any importance. By far the most important agricultural tribe is the Hindu Játs. They are strong-bodied sturdy farmers, who keep fine oxen and splendid buffaloes, and live in large and well organized village communities. 37 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by canal and well irrigation, the former being by far the more important. The district consists mainly of a plain of good loam soil. There have been great canal extensions in this plain, which under irrigation is very fertile, yielding excellent wheat, cotton, and cane. There is a rich belt of well irrigation in the Jamna valley, and in the south of the district there are parts where wells can be profitably worked. Belts of uneven sandy land are found especially in the west and south. The dry cultivation is most precarious, for the rainfall is extremely variable. In the old district it averages 20 inches. But averages in a tract like Rohtak mean very little. The chief crops are the two millets and gram.

Gurgáon contains six tahsíls, Rewárí, Gurgáon, Nuh, Firozpur, Palwal, and Ballabgarh. The southern part of the district projects into Rájputána, and in its physical and racial characteristics really belongs to that region.

Rewárí is the only town of any importance. It has a large trade with Rájputána. Apart from this the interests of the district are agricultural. In Gurgáon the Jamna valley is for the most part narrow and very poor. The plain above it in the Palwal tahsíl has a fertile loam soil and is irrigated by the Agra Canal. The Hindu Játs of this part of the district are good cultivators. The rest of Gurgáon consists mostly of sand and sandy loam and low bare hills. In Rewárí the skill and industry of the Hindu Ahírs have produced wonderful results considering that many of the wells are salt and much of the land very sandy. The lazy and thriftless Meos of the southern part of the district are a great contrast to the Ahírs. They are Muhammadans.

About a quarter of the area is protected by irrigation from wells, the Agra Canal, and embankments or "bands," which catch and hold up the hill drainages. Owing to the depth and saltness of many of the wells the cultivation dependent on them is far from secure, and the "band" irrigation is most precarious. The large dry area is subject to extensive and complete crop failures. The average rainfall over a series of years is 24 inches, but its irregularities from year to year are extreme. The district is a poor one, and for its resources bears the heaviest assessment in the Panjáb. It requires the most careful revenue management. There are brine wells at Sultánpur, but the demand for the salt extracted is now very small.

Karnál is midway in size between Rohtak and Hissár. One-third of the cultivation is now protected by irrigation, two-fifths of the irrigation being from wells and three-fifths from the Western Jamna Canal. There are four tahsíls, Thanesar, Karnál, Kaithal, and Pánipat. The peasantry consists mostly of hardworking Hindu Játs, but there are also many Hindu and Muhammadan Rájput villages. The chief towns are Pánipat, Karnál, and Kaithal.

The district falls broadly into two divisions, the boundary between them being the southern limit of the floods of the Sarustí in years of heavy rainfall. The marked features of the northern division is the effect which the floods of torrents of intermittent flow, the Sarustí, Márkanda, Umla, and Ghagar have on agriculture. Some tracts are included like the Andarwár and the outlying villages of the Powádh[10] in Kaithal which are fortunately unaffected by inundation, and have good well irrigation. The country between the Umla and Márkanda in Thanesar gets rich silt deposits and is generally fertile. The Kaithal Nailí is the tract affected by the overflow of the Sarustí, Umla, and Ghagar. It is a wretched fever-stricken region where a short lived race of weakly people reap precarious harvests. The southern division is on the whole a much better country. It includes the whole of Karnál and Pánipat, the south of Kaithal, and a small tract in the extreme east of the Thanesar tahsíl. North of Karnál the Jamna valley or Khádir is unhealthy and has in many parts a poor soil. South of Karnál it is much better in every respect. Above the Khádir is the Bángar, a plain of good loam. North of Karnál its cultivation is protected by wells and the people are in fair circumstances. South of that town it is watered by the Western Jamna Canal. Another slight rise brings one to the Nardak of the Karnál and Kaithal tahsíls. Till the excavation of the Sirsa branch of the Western Jamna Canal and of the Nardak Distributary much of the Nardak was covered with dhák jangal, and the cultivation was of the most precarious nature, for in this part of the district the rainfall is both scanty and capricious, and well cultivation is only possible in the north. The introduction of canal irrigation has effected an enormous change. Wheat and gram are the great crops.

Historically Karnál is one of the most interesting districts. The Nardak is the scene of the great struggle celebrated in the Mahábhárata. The district contains the holy city of Thanesar, once the capital of a great Hindu kingdom. It has found climate a more potent instrument of ruin than the sword of Mahmúd of Ghazní, who sacked it in 1014. It still on the occasion of Eclipse fairs attracts enormous crowds of pilgrims. Pihowa is another very sacred place. Naráina, a few miles to the north-west of Karnál, was the scene of two famous fights[11], and three times, in 1526, 1556, and 1761, the fate of India was decided at Pánipat.