The agricultural products of the district are cotton, indigo, wheat, rice, sugar-cane, flax, betel, plantain, turmeric, chillies, onions, hemp, coriander, tobacco, areca-nut, cocoa-nut, oil-seeds, &c. The following is a rough estimate of acreage under different crops: Food grains, 2,687,000 acres; oil-seeds, 103,000 acres; green and garden crops, 36,000 acres; orchards, 18,000 acres; cotton, indigo, and sugar-cane, 37,000 acres; fallow, 541,000 acres; total, 3,922,000 acres. The manufactures of the district consist of cotton goods, tape, carpets, rope, blankets, felts, dyes, oil, sugar and molasses, paper, leather, glass bangles or bracelets, and iron and earthen pots. Cotton, blankets, raw hides, iron, &c., form the articles of export. The chief mineral products are iron, copper, lead, antimony, manganese, alum, and gun-flints. Among precious stones diamonds are found, the chief diamond mines being at Munimadagu and Wájrakarúr. The diamonds are collected in the sandstone breccia and conglomerate. The mines no longer yield sufficient profit to be regularly worked, though every now and then diamonds of small value are met with. The revenue of the Ballárí district from all sources amounted in 1845 to ₤257,199; in 1855 to ₤248,284; and in 1868 to ₤322,543. The land tax forms the principal source of revenue. In 1868 it yielded ₤242,684. More than one-fourth of the lands are held as Inám, i.e., under grants formerly made for services or for religious purposes. These were very lightly taxed by the native Governments, but the present state of their assessment is not less than that of ordinary lands. The police force numbered 1122 in 1871, maintained at a cost of ₤16,012. In 1870-71 the district contained 153 schools, attended by 4274 pupils. It has only seven towns with a population of more than 7000 souls—(1), Ballárí, population, including troops in the cantonment, 51,145; (2), Hospettá, 9845; (3), Tádipatri, 8182; (4), Harpanhallí, 7895; (5), Ráidrug, 7734; (6), Emmiganur, 7326; and (7), Yadikí, 7202. Only four municipal towns exist in the district:—1. Ballárí—population, 51,145; municipal income in 1871, ₤7651; expenditure, ₤7495; rate of taxation, 2s. ¾d. per head. 2. Gutti—population, 6033; municipal income, ₤992; expenditure, ₤930; rate of taxation, 3s. 3¼d. per head. 3. Anantpur—population, 4971; municipal income, ₤794; expenditure, ₤784; rate of taxation, 3s. 2¼d. per head. 4. Adoni—municipal income, £2147; expenditure, £1905. Fifty-nine roads, of a total length of 1465 miles, connect the different towns and villages in the Ballárí district; and the Madras Railway, with a branch to Ballárí, passes through it. The climate of Ballárí is characterised by extreme dryness, in consequence of the air passing over a great extent of heated plains, and it has a smaller rainfall than any other district in South India. The average daily range of the thermometer is from 67° to 83°; average rain-fall for the five years ending 1869, 17 inches. The prevailing diseases are cholera, fever, small-pox, ophthalmia, dysentery, and skin diseases among the lower classes. Ballárí is subject to disastrous storms and hurricanes, and to famines arising from a series of bad seasons. The storms of 1804 and 1851, and the famines of 1751, 1792, 1793, 1803, 1833, 1854, and 1866 still live in the popular memory.
Little is known of the early history of the district. It appears to have been a portion of the ancient kingdom of Vijayanagaram, and on the overthrow of that state in 1564 A.D. by the Mahometans, the tract now forming the district of Ballárí was split up into a number of military holdings, held by chiefs called Poligárs. In 1635 the Carnatic was annexed to the Bijápur dominions, from which again it was wrested in 1680 by Sivají, the founder of the Marhattá power. It was then included in the dominions of Nizám-ul-mulk, the nominal viceroy of the Great Mughul in the Dakhín, from whom again it was subsequently conquered by Haidar Alí of Mysor. At the close of the war with Tipú Sultán in 1792, the territories which now form the Ballárí district fell to the share of the Nizám of Haidarábád, by whom it was ceded to the British in 1800, in return for a force of English troops to be stationed at his capital. In 1818 the district of Ballárí was constituted as it at present remains. Amidst all these political convulsions the little state of Sandúr, occupying a central position in the Ballárí district, and surrounded by a cordon of hills, preserved its integrity. Sandúr can only be entered by one of three principal natural passes, viz., the Bhimagundí pass on the N.E., the Rámanagundí pass on the N., and the Oblagundí pass on the W. Its chief is the representative of one of the most ancient Marhattá families, and derives a revenue of £4500 from his state. He now holds Sandúr as a Jágír or a military tenure from our Government, but pays no tribute.
Ballárí, the principal town of the above district, is the chief seat of the judicial and revenue establishments, and the headquarters of the military force in the ceded districts consisting of Ballárí and Kadapa. The fort rises from a huge mass of granitic rocks, which jut up abruptly to a height of 450 feet above the plain, with a circumference of nearly 2 miles. Its length from north-east to south-west is about 1150 feet. To the E. and S. of the Ballárí rock lies a heap of boulders irregularly piled one on the other, but to the W. is an unbroken surface of sheet-rock, while the N. is walled by bare rugged ridges. Ballárí rock is defended by two distinct lines of works, the upper and the lower fort. The upper fort is a quadrangular building on the summit of the rock, with only one way up to it, and deemed impregnable by the Mysore princes. But as it has no accommodation for a garrison, it is now unoccupied by our troops, with the exception of a small guard in charge of prisoners. The ex-Nawáb of Karnúl was confined in it for forty years for the murder of his wife. It contains several tanks or cisterns excavated in the rock. Outside the turreted rampart are a ditch and covered way. The lower fort lies at the eastern base of the rock, and measures about half a mile in diameter. It contains the barracks for our troops, the arsenal and commissariat stores, the Protestant church, orphanage, Masonic lodge, post-office, and numerous private dwellings. The fort of Ballárí was originally built by one Timmapa, in the 16th century. It was first dependent on the kingdom of Vijayanagaram, afterwards on Bijápur, and subsequently subject to the Nizám and Haidar Alí. The latter improved the fortifications with the assistance of French artisans, whom he afterwards hanged for not building the fort on a higher rock adjacent to it. The cantonment bázár of Ballárí enjoys the reputation of being the best military bázár in Southern India. To the W. of the rock are the regimental lines for two Native infantry regiments, one European regiment, and one regiment of cavalry. On the E. are the jail, the public courts, and the terminus of the branch line of the Madras Railway. Ballárí town, including the cantonment, contained in 1866 a population of 37,015 souls, of which 13,341 were Hindus, 4178 Mahometans, and 1042 Christians. Population ascertained by the census of 1871, 51,145. Elevation above the sea, 1600 feet. Distance from Bombay, S.E., 380 miles; from Madras, N.W., 270 miles. Lat, 15° 18′ N.; long. 76° 59′ E.
BALLATER, a village of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the River Dee, 42 miles W. from Aberdeen. In its vicinity are the medicinal wells of Pannanich, Balmoral Castle (a summer residence of Queen Victoria), and Ballatrich Farm, where Byron spent part of his boyhood. Ballatrich is a short distance from "Lachin-y-Gair" (Lochnagar), one of the loftiest of the Grampian range, and the subject of one of Byron's most beautiful poems.
BALLENSTEDT, a city in the duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg. It is situated on the Getel in the Harz Forest, in a most picturesque district, and consists of an old and a new town. A fine road, bordered with trees, leads to the castle of the dukes of Anhalt-Bernburg. The city contains about 4395 inhabitants, who are mostly engaged in linen manufactures, gardening, &c. Ballenstedt is the birthplace of Joh. Arndt.
