1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nagpur

NAGPUR, a city, district and division of British India, in the Central Provinces. The city is 1125 ft. above the sea; railway station, 520 m. E. of Bombay. Pop. (1901) 127,734. The town is well laid out, with several parks and artificial lakes, and has numerous Hindu temples. The prettily wooded suburb of Sitabaldi contains the chief government buildings, the houses of Europeans, the railway station and the cantonments, with fort and arsenal. In the centre stands Sitabaldi Hill, crowned with the fort. Beyond the station lies the broad sheet of water known as the Jama Talao, and farther east is the city, completely hidden in a mass of foliage. Handsome tanks and gardens, constructed by the Mahratta princes, lie outside the city. The palace, built of black basalt and profusely ornamented with wood carving, was burnt down in 1864, and only the great gateway remains. The garrison consists of detachments of European and native infantry from Kampti. Nagpur is the headquarters of two corps of rifle volunteers. It is the junction of two important railway systems—the Great Indian Peninsula to Bombay and the Bengal-Nagpur to Calcutta. The large weaving population maintain their reputation for producing fine fabrics. There are steam cotton mills and machinery for ginning and pressing cotton. The gaol contains an important printing establishment. Education is provided by two aided colleges—the Hislop and the Morris, called after a missionary and a former chief commissioner; four high schools; a law school; an agricultural school, with a class for the scientific training of teachers; a normal school; a zenana mission for the management of girls’ schools; an Anglican and two Catholic schools for Europeans. There are several libraries and reading rooms, and an active Anjuman or Mahommedan society.

The District of Nagpur has an area of 384 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 751,844. It lies immediately below the great tableland of the Satpura range. A second line of hills shuts in the district on the south-west, and a third runs from north to south, parting the country into two plains of unequal size. These hills are all offshoots of the Satpuras, and nowhere attain any great elevation. Their heights are rocky and sterile, but the valleys and lowlands yield rich crops of corn and garden produce. The western plain slopes down to the river Wardhā, is watered by the Jām and Madār, tributaries of the Wardhā, and contains the most highly-tilled land in the district, abounding in fruit trees and the richest garden cultivation. The eastern plain (six times the larger), stretching away to the confines of Bhandāra and Chānda, consists of a rich undulating country, luxuriant with mango groves and dotted towards the east with countless small tanks. It is watered by the Kanhān, with its tributaries, which flows into the Waingangā beyond the district. The principal crops are millets, wheat, oil-seeds and cotton. There are steam factories for ginning and pressing cotton at the military cantonment of Kampti, which was formerly the chief centre of trades. An important new industry is manganese mining. The district is traversed by the two lines of railway which meet at Nagpur city, and several branches are under construction.

The Division of Nagpur comprises the five districts of Nagpur, Bhandāra, Chānda, Wardhā and Balaghat. Area, 23,521 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 3,728,063, showing a decrease of 9% in the decade.

See Nagpur District Gazetteer (Bombay, 1908).