A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of the District, Or Zila, of Dinajpur, in the Province, Or Soubah, of Bengal |
Common terms and phrases
annas Atreyi bambus banks belonged Bengal bigahs Birgunj boats boiled Botanists Brahmins brick building Calcutta called castes cattle chiefly clay cloth coarse colour common considerable considered contains cotton crop cubits cultivated Dhaka dhutis Dinajpúr district Ditto division dry season employed especially expense exported farmers feet fish free soil fruit Gaur Ghoraghat give grain Hindu Hindús houses India indigo inundated Khyar kind Korotoya labour Lalbazar land landholders Maldeh manner manufacture marts maunds miles Mohanonda month mosque Muhammedan natives occupied ornaments pergunnahs persons plant plough probably procure produce profit Punabhoba quantity rainy season Raja Rajshahi rank receives reckoned rent rice river ruins rupees seed seers Sekunderi cubits Shah sicca weight side silk sown square miles stone Sudros sugar sugar-cane Sultan Hoseyn Tanggon tanks Total town tree tribes turmeric usually weeds whole woods worship zemindars
Popular passages
Page 201 - June and the 14th of July, they are tied together in bundles of three or four, by wrapping them round with their own leaves. This is done partly to prevent them from being laid down by the wind, and partly to prevent them from being eaten by jackals. During the next month three or four of these bunches are tied together ; and about the end of September, when the canes grow rank, they are supported by bamboo stakes driven in the ground. They are cut between the middle of December and the end of March.
Page iv - You will investigate the kinds of trees which they contain, together with their comparative value, and you will point out such means, as occur to you, for increasing the number of the more valuable kinds, or for introducing new ones that may be still more useful. " 3rd. The mines and quarries are objects of particular concern. You will investigate their produce, the manner of working them, and the state of the people employed.
Page 249 - ... administered ;and, although they were often squeezed by the Mogul officers, and on all occasions were treated with the utmost contempt, they preferred suffering these evils to the mode that has been adopted of selling their lands when they fall in arrears, which is a practice that they cannot endure : besides, bribery went a great way on most occasions; and they allege, that, bribes included, they did not actually pay one-half of what they do now, although nothing can be more moderate than the.
Page 259 - The style of private edifices that is proper and peculiar to Bengal, consists of a hut with a pent roof constructed of two sloping sides, which meet in a ridge forming the segment of a circle ; so that it has a resemblance to a boat when overturned ; and is, probably, of the same shape with the Mapalia of the Numidians.
Page 42 - It is constructed chiefly of brick, but is the handsomest building in the place. It is a square of 80 feet front, with a small turret at each corner, and roofed by one dome. The walls, outwardly, have been ornamented with carved tiles, and the dome within has been neatly plastered, but the design of the whole is clumsy, as will appear from the drawings (Plate 3.) It is lighted by four small doors, one in each side, and within forms an octagon, having four miserable chambers in the sides between the...
Page 239 - ... it may seem wonderful, that the persons in Bengal, who cultivate on the same tenure, should be exceedingly poor. In these other countries the cultivators are at least as wealthy as the farmers of Bengal, and no one can pretend, that their soil is more productive, or requires less trouble and expense in the cultivation. Their wealth is to be accounted for in two ways. In the first place they have more prudence, industry, and skill, owing probably to advances being leas frequent ; but this difference...
Page v - ... 6th. Fences, the various kinds that are. used, or that might be introduced, with observations concerning the utility of this part of agriculture in the present state of the country. "7th. The state of farms; their usual size, the stock required, with the manner in which it is procured; the expense of management; the rent, whether paid in specie or in kind; the wages and condition of farming servants and labourers employed in husbandry; tenures by which farms are held, with their comparative advantages,...
Page 21 - Alalhuk, whose son, Azem Khan, was commander of the troops. The saint having taken disgust at some part of the king's conduct, retired to Sonargang, near Dhaka, where the Hindu princes probably still retained considerable authority, if not independence. The good man was, however, soon after induced to return...
Page 231 - ... which his stock enables him to clear. The village which he left is then for some years unoccupied, until the landlord can find a fugitive of the same kind, and in general must use a good deal of solicitation before he can induce the farmer with his dependents to settle. On this account, the landlords do not like this class of men; but it is evident that they are absolutely necessary, unless the landlords themselves would advance money to their necessitous tenantry...
Page 135 - SEASON. year, when the rivers are much swollen, fish is very scarce, for the animals have then such an extensive range, that they are not easily caught ; but as the inundations subside, and when the fish are confined within narrow bounds, they are easily secured by various simple means, which the natives employ; and a very large portion of those taken are secured, when they may be said to be almost left sticking in the mud ; or by means that in most countries would be quite ineffectual. The most...