m 

 The Baroche purgunna, which then belonged to the East India 

 company, contained one hundred and sixty-four villages ; and its 

 revenues amounted to six lacs of rupees, or something more than 

 seventy thousand pounds a year, which was six tenths of the 

 whole produce; the remainder belonged to the cultivators. In 

 the reign of Akbar, at the end of the fifteenth century, the circar 

 of Baroche, or Bheroatch, to which the Purgunnas of Occlaseer, 

 Hansoot, and some others, were then annexed, contained fourteen 

 mahls, three hundred and forty nine thousand seven hundred 

 beegahs of land, and yielded a noble revenue. 



Sir Thomas Herbert, who was here in 1626, says " in quondam 

 times the royalties of Baroche were spacious, sovereignizing over 

 many towns and provinces of note, a great way distant: each of 

 which now enjoys peculiar podestates; howbeit, the Mogul has 

 received hereout, as an annual tax or tribute, no less than one 

 million two hundred and threescore thousand mamooders, or shil- 

 lings, which revenue, from one province, shews what a vast exche- 

 quer all his empire yearly contributeth." 



The Baroche villages are rural and pleasant; each is embo- 

 somed in its own mango and tamarind grove, and the surrounding 

 country resembles a luxuriant garden; the rich crops of grain are 

 contrasted by extensive fields of capsicums, or chilies, glowing 

 with scarlet; large tracts of yellow cossumba, (carthamus) which 

 makes a valuable red dye, and acres of tobacco, crowned with 

 flowers of a pale rose-colour. Several villages cultivate the sugar- 

 cane, as also the turmeric, amomum curcuma, Lin.; fenugreek or 

 meti; meti trigonella, faenum-grcecum, Lin.: benda, hibiscus escu- 

 lentus, Lin. ; fulsi, ocymum, and many other useful plants and vege- 



