OR CUTTACK. 207 



ofOrissa, excepting the Epic Poem called the Kan ji Kaviri Pothi which 

 celebrates the conquest of Conjeveram, one of the most distinguished 

 events in the modern history of the country. There is no deficiency how- 

 ever of translations of the more esteemed writings of the great Hindu au- 

 thors, both religious and scientific, and every temple of importance has its 

 legend or Sthan Puran, every almanack maker his Panji, and Bansa- 

 bali, composed in the local tongue. 



In estimating the amount of the Population of the Cuttack Province I Estimate of 

 shall begin with candidly confessing, that we have no means of forming tioru° PU 

 even a tolerable guess at the number of inhabitants in the hill countries. 

 Information on that subject could be procured only from the hill Rajas or 

 Zemindars, and such are their jealousy, contumacy, and untractablenesSj 

 that we might be sure, even if they condescended to furnish any returns 

 at all, they would be entirely false. The estimate given below for the 



Mogulbandi, and that portion of the Rajwara which lies between it and 

 the sea, though mostly conjectural, is founded upon data of a nature 

 which warrant some confidence in its accuracy. The total of villages has 

 been tolerably well ascertained from the returns made by the Police Offi- 

 cers at different periods. To be enabled to strike an average for the num- 

 ber of houses and inhabitants, I have obtained Khaneh Shumari ac- 

 counts, on which I can depend, for a few Pergunnahs,both at the northern 

 and southern extremity of the district, and in the central parts. The results 

 deducible are as follows : 



The eighteen Police Thanas* of the Mogulbandi including the Rajwa- 

 ra estates of Aul, Kanka, Kujang, Herispur, Marichpur, and Bishen- 

 pur, with the whole of the smaller Killajat, contain 11,915 villages (Mou- 

 zahs and Patnas) and 243,272 houses, exclusive of the towns of Cuttack, 

 Balasore, and Puri. This enumeration yields an average of about twen- 



* They are thus mimed ; Basta, Balasore, Soro, Chinaman, Badrak, Mattu or Talinal, Janji- 

 pur, Patamandii, Asserassar, Arackpur, Cuttack, Puharajptrr, Taran ; Hariharpur, Gope, Pipfy, 

 Puii or Pursottaui, KMrda, aud Banpur. 



