1849.] Slaiistics of the Circar of Dorvlutahad. 531 



The famines that have desolated the land duiins:^ 



Jt amines. 



the last fifty years amount to four, indeed we may say 

 five, jfor the scarcity prevailing in 1846, may fairly so be termed. 



j787. The first occurred in 1787. Grain selling for nine 



seers the rupee. The second and most dreadful of 



jgQ, all happened in 1802, fearfully aggravated by the hor- 



rors of war ; the marauding hordes of Holcar, under 

 Ameer Khan, having carried havoc and destruction through the 

 country the preceding year, destroyed the harvest, and grain was 

 sold at one rupee for a seer and a half ; thousands perished from 

 inanition, or fled ; and so dire was the scourge that to the present 

 day the revenue has never recovered the shock ; whole tracts of 

 valuable land then covered with towns and villages, are now lying 

 desolate, which forty years ago yielded rich returns to Govern- 

 ment. This is particularly the case between the Gowtala ghat 

 ana Byzapoor, but were I to particularize every locality thus im- 

 paired, I should have to name every town and village of any note, 



^g2- throughout the Circar. The third famine was in 1825 : 



grain sold at 9 seers the rupee. The fourth was in 



1831. 1834, and grain sold at 12 seers the rupee. The 



1816. fifth occurred in 1846, when grain was sold for 15 



seers the rupee, being just double the usual price. Much sickness 

 prevailed amongst the poor in those districts, where the dearth was 

 most felt ; cattle dying in great numbers, and in many places the 

 fowls have completely disappeared. 



The gross estimate of the population amounts to 1,54,767, exclu- 

 sive of the city of Aurungabad, of this 1,38,376 are Hindoos, and 

 16,391 Mahomedans ; or one Mahomedan to eight Hindoos, and 

 averaging 5 persons to a house. 



In the abstract of the census there is shown a preponderance of 

 males over females, a result in some degree corroborative of its truth- 

 fulness, as such is found to be the case in all countries where the 

 censuses have been accurately taken. In England the census of 1830, 

 gave males to females in the ratio of 19 of the former to 18 of the 

 latter ; the returns here show something in excess of 88 females to 

 100 males, the respective numbers being males 82,075, and females 

 72,692, and here a curious circumstance is perceived in the fact that 

 adult females bear a larger proportion to adult males, than girls do 

 to boys, and that it is owing to the excess found in male children, 



A-OL. XV. NO. SXXVI. U 1 



