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THE
IMPERIAL GAZETTEER
OF INDIA
VOL. XII
EINME GWALIOR
to
NEW EDITION
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HIS MAJESTY’S
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1908
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVFRSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK. AND TORONTO
IN TR O D U C TO R Y NOTES
N otes on T ransliteration
Vowel-Sounds
a has the sound of a in 4 woman.’
a has the sound of a in ‘ father.’
e has the vowel-sound in ‘grey.’
i has the sound of i in ‘ pin.’
i has the sound of i in ‘ police.’
o has the sound of o in ‘ bone.’
u has the sound of u in ‘ bull.’
u has the sound of u in ‘ flute.’
ai has the vowel-sound in 4 mine.’
au has the vowel-sound in ‘ house.’
It should be stated that no attempt has been made to distinguish
between the long and short sounds of e and o in the Dravidian
languages, which possess the vowel-sounds in ‘bet’ and ‘hot’ in
addition to those given above. Nor has it been thought necessary
to mark vowels as long in cases where mistakes in pronunciation
were not likely to be made.
Consonants
Most Indian languages have different forms for a number of con­
sonants, such as d, t, r, &c., marked in scientific works by the use
of dots or italics. As the European ear distinguishes these with
difficulty in ordinary pronunciation, it has been considered undesir­
able to embarrass the reader with them; and only two notes are
required. In the first place, the Arabic k, a strong guttural, has
been represented by k instead of q, which is often used. Secondly,
it should be remarked that aspirated consonants are common ; and,
in particular, dh and th (except in Burma) never have the sound of
th in ‘ this ’ or ‘thin,’ but should be pronounced as in ‘ woodhouse '
and ‘ boathook.’
IV rxTh'onccroK) notes
Burmese words
Burmese and some of the languages on the frontier of China have
the following special sounds :—
aw has the vowel-sound in ‘ law.’
o and u [umlaut] arc pronounced as in German.
gy is pronounced almost like j in ‘ jewel.’
ky is pronounced almost like ch in ‘ church.’
th is pronounced in some cases as in ‘ this,’ in some cases as in
‘ thin.’
w after a consonant has the force of uw. Thus, ywa and pwe
are disyllables, pronounced as if written yuwa and puwe.
It should also be noted that, whereas in Indian words the accent
or stress is distributed almost equally on each syllable, in Burmese
there is a tendency to throw special stress on the last syllable.
General
The names of some places—e.g. Calcutta, Bombay, Lucknow,
Cawnpore—have obtained a popular fixity of spelling, while special
forms have been officially prescribed for others. Names of persons
are often spelt and pronounced differently in different parts of India;
but the variations have been made as few as possible by assimilating
forms almost alike, especially where a particular spelling has been
generally adopted in English books.
N otes on Money, Prices, W eights and M easures
As the currency of India is based upon the rupee, all statements
with regard to money throughout the Gazetteer have necessarily been
expressed in rupees, nor has it been found possible to add generally
a conversion into sterling. Down to about 1873 the gold value of
the rupee (containing 165 grains of pure silver) was approximately
equal to 2s., or one-tenth of a £ ; and for that period it is easy to
convert rupees into sterling by striking off the final cipher (Rs. 1,000
= £100). But after 1873, owing to the depreciation of silver as
compared with gold throughout the world, there came a serious and
progressive fall in the exchange, until at one time the gold value of
the rupee dropped as low as 15-. In order to provide a remedy for
the heavy loss caused to the Government of India in respect of its
gold payments to be made in England, and also to relieve foreign
trade and finance from the inconvenience due to constant and
unforeseen fluctuations in exchange, it was resolved in 1893 to close
the mints to the free coinage of silver, and thus force up the value of
the rupee by restricting the circulation. The intention was to raise
INTRODUCTORY NOTES v
the exchange value of the rupee to 1s. 4d., and then introduce a gold
standard (though not necessarily a gold currency) at the rate of Rs. 15
= £1. This policy has been completely successful. From 1899 on­
wards the value of the rupee has been maintained, with insignificant
fluctuations, at the proposed rate of 1s. 4d.; and consequently since
that date three rupees have been equivalent to two rupees before 1873.
For the intermediate period, between 1873 and 1899, it is manifestly
impossible to adopt any fixed sterling value for a constantly changing
rupee. But since 1899, if it is desired to convert rupees into sterling,
not only must the final cipher be struck off (as before 1873), but
also one-third must be subtracted from the result. Thus Rs. 1,000
= £100 — = (about) £67.
Another matter in connexion with the expression of money state­
ments in terms of rupees requires to be explained. The method of
numerical notation in India differs from that which prevails through­
out Europe. Large numbers are not punctuated in hundreds of thou­
sands and millions, but in lakhs and crores. A lakh is one hundred
thousand (written out as 1,00,000), and a crore is one hundred lakhs
or ten millions (written out as 1,00,00,000). Consequently, accord­
ing to the exchange value of the rupee, a lakh of rupees (Rs. 1,00,000)
may be read as the equivalent of £1 0,000 before 1873, and as the
equivalent of (about) £6,667 after 1899; while a crore of rupees
(Rs. 1,00,00,000) may similarly be read as the equivalent of
£1,000,000 before 1873, and as the equivalent of (about) £666,667
after i 899.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the rupee is divided into
16 annas, a fraction commonly used for many purposes by both
natives and Europeans. The anna was formerly reckoned as 1 1/2d. ;
it may now be considered as exactly corresponding to 1d. The
anna is again subdivided into 12 pies. ■
The various systems of weights used in India combine uniformity
of scale with immense variations in the weight of units. The scale
used generally throughout Northern India, and less commonly in
Madras and Bombay, may be thus expressed : one maund = 40 seers ;
one seer =16 chittaks or 80 tolas. The actual weight of a seer
varies greatly from District to District, and even from village to
village; but in the standard system the tola is 1S0 grains Troy
(the exact weight of the rupee), and the seer thus weighs 2-057 lb.,
and the maund 82-28 lb. This standard is used in official reports
and throughout the Gazetteer.
For calculating retail prices, the universal custom in India is to
express them in terms of seers to the rupee. Thus, when prices
change, what varies is not the amount of money to be paid for the
V] INTRODUCTORY NOTES
same quantity, but the quantity to be obtained for the same amount
of money. In other words, prices in India are quantity prices, not
money prices. When the figure of quantity goes up, this of course
means that the price has gone down, which is at first sight perplexing
to an English reader. It may, however, be mentioned that quantity
prices are not altogether unknown in England, especially at small
shops, where pennyworths of many groceries can be bought. Eggs,
likewise, arc commonly sold at a varying number for the shilling.
If it be desired to convert quantity prices from Indian into English
denominations without having recourse to money prices (which would
often be misleading), the following scale may be adopted—based
upon the assumptions that a seer is exactly 2 lb., and that the value
of the rupee remains constant at 1s. 4d. : 1 seer per rupee = (about)
5 lb. for 2s. : 2 seers per rupee = (about) 6 lb. for 2s.; and so on.
The name of the unit for square measurement in India generally
is the bigha, which varies greatly in different parts of the country.
But areas have always been expressed throughout the Gazetteer either
in square miles or in acres.
IMPERIAL GAZETTEER
OF INDIA
VOLUME XII
Einme (Thigwin).— North-west township of Myaungmya District,
Lower Burma, lying between 16° 34' and 160 55' N. and 940 52' and
950 18' E., with an area of 315 square miles. The population was
41,979 in 1891 and 59,367 in 1901, distributed in 122 villages. The
head-quarters are at Einme (population, 2,050), on a waterway con­
necting the Daga and Myaungmya rivers. The township is level, well
watered, and fertile throughout. More than one-third of the popula­
tion is Karen, and the proportion of Christians is large. In 1903-4 the
area under cultivation was 170 square miles, paying Rs. 2,51,000 land
revenue.
Eksambe.— Village in the Chikodi taluks of Belgaum District,
Bombay, situated in 160 32' N. and 740 40' E. Population (1901),
5,970. The village is purely agricultural, and contains one boys’
school with 90 pupils.
Eksar.— Alienated village of 701 acres in the Salsette taluka ofThana
District, Bombay, situated in 190 13' N. and 720 59' E., about a mile
north-west of Borivli station 011 the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India
Railway. Population (1901), 1,906. In a mango orchard, 011 the west
bank of a fine pond, is a row of six slabs of trap, four of them about
10 feet high by 3 broad, the fifth about 3 feet high by 3 broad, and the
sixth about 4 feet high by 1 broad. All, except one which is broken,
have their tops carved into funereal urns, with heavy ears and hang­
ing bows of ribbon, and floating figures above bringing chaplets and
wreaths. The faces of the slabs are richly cut in from two to eight
level belts of carving, the figures in bold relief chiselled with much skill.
They are Hindu paliyds or memorial stones, and seem to have been set
up in front of a temple which stood on the top of the pond bank, a site
afterwards occupied by a Portuguese granary. Each stone records the
prowess of some warrior either by land or sea.
[For a full description of these stones, which possess features of
unusual interest, see Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xiv, pp. 57-9.]
Elephanta (or Ghdriipuri).— Island included in the Panvel taluka
VOL. XII. B
ELEPHANTA
of Kolaha District, Bombay, situated in 18° 58' N. and 730 E., in
Bomhay harbour, about 6 miles from Bombay City and 4 from the
shore of the mainland. The island measures from 4 to 4^ miles in
circumference, and consists of two long hills separated by a narrow
valley ; the superficial area varies from 6 to 4 square miles according
as the tide is at ebb or flow. On the west side it furnishes building
stone of medium quality, which is at present being extensively quarried
by the contractors to the Bombay Port Trust for use in the new docks.
The island was named Elephanta by the Portuguese, from a large stone
elephant which stood near the old landing-place on the south side of
the island. This elephant was 13 feet 2 inches in length, and about
7 feet 4 inches high ; but its head and neck dropped off in 1814, and
subsequently the body sank down into a shapeless mass of stones,
which were removed in 1864 to the Victoria Gardens in Bombay.
Near the point where the two hills approach each other, and not far
to the south-east of the Great Cave, once stood the stone statue of
a horse, described by an early writer as being ‘ so lively, with such a
colour and carriage, and the shape finisht with that Exactness that
many have rather fancyed it, at a distance, a living Animal, than only
a bare Representation.’ This statue has disappeared. Except 011 the
north-east and east the hill-sides are covered with brushwood; in the
hollows under the hill are clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanja
trees. A broken line of palms stands out against the sky along the
crest of the hill. Below is a belt of rice land. The foreshore is of sand
and mud, bare and black, with a fringe of mangrove bushes. At one
period, from the third to perhaps the tenth century, the island is supposed
to have been the site of a city, and a place of religious resort. Some
archaeologists would place here the Maurya city of Puri. The caves are
the chief objects of interest; but in the rice-fields to the east of the
northern or Shet landing-place brick and stone foundations, broken
pillars, fallen statues of Siva, and other traces of an ancient city have
been found. The landing-place is now on the north-west of the island.
The famous rock-caves are the resort of many visitors. Of these
wonderful excavations, four are complete or nearly so ; a fifth is a large
cave now much filled up, with only rough masses of stone left to support
the roof; and a sixth is merely the beginning of the front of what seems
to have been intended for a very small excavation—possibly two or three
cells for recluses. The most important and most frequently visited of
these Brahmanic rock-temples is the Great Cave, which is situated in
the western or larger of the two hills of the island at an elevation of
about 250 feet above high-water level. The entrance is reached by a
winding path about three-quarters of a mile in length from the landing-
place. The cave faces the north, and is entirely hewn out of a hard
compact variety of trap rock. From the front entrance to the back it
ELEPIIANTA 3
measures about 130 feet, and its length from the east to the west
entrance is the same. It does not, however, occupy the entire square
of this area. What may be called the porticoes, or the three open
sides, are only about 54 feet long and 161/2 feet deep. Omitting these
and the back aisle, immediately in front of three of the principal
sculptured compartments, which is of about the same dimensions as
each portico, the body of the cave may be considered as a square of
about 91 feet each way, supported by six rows of columns, with six
columns in each row, except at the corners, where the uniformity is
broken 0n the west side to make room for the shrine, which occupies
a space equal to that enclosed by four of the columns. There were
originally 26 columns, with 16 half-columns; but 8 of the separate
pillars have been destroyed, and others are much injured. As neither
the floor nor the roof is perfectly horizontal, they vary in height from
15 to 17 feet. The most striking of the sculptures is the famous
colossal three-faced bust, or trimurti, at the back of the cave, facing the
entrance. This is a representation of Siva in his threefold character of
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer; and all the other sculptures relate
to the same god, the cave being, like every other Hindu rock-temple
of Western India, a Saiva one. The trimurti is 17 feet 1o inches in
height; and a line drawn round the three heads at the level of the eyes
measures 22 feet 9 inches in length. The length of the middle face
(Brahma’s) is 4 feet 4 inches; those of the others (Vishnu and Rudra)
4 feet 1 inch and about 5 feet. In 1865 this unique bust was mutilated
by some ‘ barbarian clothed in the garb of civilization,’ who broke off a
portion of the noses of two of the faces ; and since then some of the
other sculptures in the temple have been similarly treated, so that it has
been found necessary to place a sergeant and two native policemen to
protect the cave. The trimurti is guarded by two gigantic dwarapalas
or ‘doorkeepers’ of rock, respectively 12 feet 9 inches and 13 feet
6 inches high ; both figures are much defaced. The lingam chapel,
on the right-hand side of the temple on entering, contains several
dwarapalas and other figures; and two compartments on either side of
the trimurti are also ornamented with numerous sculptured groups.
There are several other compartments in the Great Cave, all containing
interesting sculptures. Further details will be found in the exhaustive
account of Dr. Burgess (The Rock 7'emples of Elephanta or Ghdrdpuri,
Bombay, 1871), from which this article is chiefly condensed.
‘ The impression on the mind,’ writes Dr. Burgess, ‘ may be imagined
rather than described, when one enters the portico [of the Great Cave],
passing from the glare and heat of tropical sunshine to the dim light and
cool air of the temple, and realizes that he is under a vast roof of solid
rock, that seems to be supported only by the ranges of massive columns
that recede in the vistas on every side, some of which appear to have
b 2
ELEPHANTA
4
split or fallen under the tremendous superincumbent weight. And the
feeling of strange uncertain awe that creeps over the mind is only pro­
longed when in the obscure light we begin to contemplate the gigantic
stony figures ranged along the walls from which they seem to start,
and from the living rock of which they are hewn.’
De Couto describes the stone of the mountain where the temples have
been carved as of a grey colour. The same traveller, writing at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, continues
‘ But the whole body inside, the pillars, the figures, and everything
else, was formerly covered with a coat of lime mixed with bitumen and
other compositions, that made the temple bright and very beautiful, the
features and workmanship showing very distinct, so that neither in
silver nor in wax could such figures be engraved with greater nicety,
fineness, or perfection.’
At the present time there is no trace of this coating.
The Second Cave, which is situated a short distance to the south­
east of the Great Cave, faces east-north-east, and is 1091/2 feet in
length, including the chapel at the north end. The façade, which was
nearly So feet in length, is completely destroyed, and the cave is so
full of debris and so ruined by water that n0 proper estimate can now
be formed of the appearance it originally represented. It contains at
present only one sculptured group. At the south end of the portico
of this cave is a large block of rock not hewn away, above which is a
hole through a thin partition of rock into one of the cells of the Third
Cave. The proper entrance, however, is a little to the south. This
cave is in an even more dilapidated condition than the second.
The Fourth Cave, now known to the natives as ‘ Sïtâ Bai’s Devala,’
is situated on the other hill of the island, and about 100 feet above
the level of the Great Cave. It is in better preservation than those
last mentioned, and had formerly a beautiful gate with a marble porch
of exquisite workmanship ; but these have now disappeared.
Sufficient data do not exist to enable us to fix with precision the date
of the Elephanta caves. Tradition attributes them variously to the
Pândavas, to a king of Kanara named Bânàsur, and to Alexander the
Great ; and many not less unreasonable conjectures have been hazarded
regarding them. Mr. Fergusson concludes (for reasons for which the
reader is referred to his Rock-cut Temples of India) that the Great
Cave was excavated in the tenth century a.d. ; but Dr. Burgess, while
admitting that there are grounds for this conclusion, is inclined to
attribute them to the latter part of the eighth or to the ninth century.
No inscription is now to be found in the caves. It is hoped, however,
that the date and name of the excavator may yet be learned from a
stone, taken to Europe about 1540 by the Portuguese Viceroy D0111
Joâo de Castro, which may one day be rediscovered and deciphered.