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Remarks on the Ethnography of Bellary. [No. 39, 



III. Remarks on the Ethnography of Bellary in the Ceded 

 Districts. By Assistant Surgeon Edward Balfour, Mad- 

 ras Army. 



Bellary lies in 15° 5* north latitude and 76.° 59' east longi- 

 tude in the Balaghat Ceded Districts, at an elevation of 1,182 feet 

 above the level of the sea, which is distant 220 miles, on the 

 Western Coast, and 240 on the Eastern, the ghats on either side 

 being about 180 miles distant. 



Since this portion of the Balaghat came into our possession on 

 the 12th October 1800, the districts, then ceded, have formed one 

 of the Military divisions of the Madras Presidency, but, for the 

 Civil Government, they have been divided into two Collectorates, 

 that of Cuddapah, in the east and of Bellary in the west. The 

 Zillah of Kurnool is now under the charge of a Commissioner, 

 but it only came under our care in 1839, after the battle of Zora- 

 poor was fought. 



The fortress of Bellary is built on a bare granite hill 450 feet 

 in height and a mile and a half in circumference ; the rock pre- 

 sents a smooth unbroken surface on the south-western side, but 

 on the north and east it is broken up into great masses of rock 

 which lie heaped and piled above each other to the summit. 



The inhabitants resided within the fort until 1816, but in that 

 year, they were removed to a new town called by the inhabitants 

 Nowa Pettah or Bruce Pettah. The European troops have con- 

 tinued, since then, to occupy the fortress, but even they are now 

 being withdrawn from it and in a short time it will be wholly aban- 

 doned like most of our other hill forts. 



Though the steps on the eastern side of the rock are steep and 

 rugged, the ascent to the ' summit well repays the trouble in the 

 birds-eye view obtained of the country. The military Canton- 

 ment with the Cowle Bazaar and Bruce Pettah are seen encircling 

 the rock from its north-western to its eastern side : about 4 miles 



