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number of the fields were uncultivated, and by far the greater part of the country fhowsno traces of its ever having been reclaimed, although it feems in very few places to betoo fteep or too barren for the plough.
From the ill to the 6th of Auguft, I remained at Sira, inveftigating the ftate ofthat neighbourhood, as being the principal place in the central divifion of the Raja’sdominions north from the Cavery.
Sira, for a fhort time, was the feat of a government which ruled a confiderableextent of country, and feems to have been at its greateft profperity under the govern-ment of Dilatour Khan, immediately before it was conquered by Hyder. It is faid,that it then contained 50,000 houfes, of which Muffulmans occupied a large propor-tion. By this change of mailers Sira buffered greatly ; not owing to any oppreffionfrom Hyder, but from its being deprived of the expenditure attending the courtof a Mogul Nabob. It was alfo much reduced by the Marattah invasions, whichhad nearly proved fatal to the riling power of its new mailer ; and its ruin wasaccompliflied by his fon Tippoo , who removed twelve thoufand families, to form nearhis capital the new town of Shahar Ganjam. About three hundred houfes remained,when the Marattah army, under Purferam Bhow and Hurry Punt, took up theirhead quarters in the fort, which is well built of Hone, and of a good fize. Thefeinvaders did no harm to the town, but deftroyed moll of the villages in the neighbour-hood, and many of thefe Hill continue in ruins. The town itfelf, although the featof an afoph, or Muffulman lord-lieutenant, continued to languilh till it came underthe Englilh protection. It is little more than a year fince the army under GeneralHarris encamped here on its route to Chatrakal; and fince that time two thoufandhoufes have been built; many of its former inhabitants, whom the Sultan had forcedto Seringapatam , have returned to their native abode ; and others are coming indaily from the country that has been ceded to the Nizam. The only building in theplace worth notice is the monument of a Muffulman officer, who commanded hereduring the Mogul government; but it is abundantly fupplied with tombs of menwho by the Mohammedans are reputed faints, and near which the people of thatfaith are anxious to be buried, as they confider the ground holy. The only confider-able temple was pulled down by Bahadur Khan, the laft afoph of the place; whowas building a monument for his wife with the materials, when the arrival of theBritifh army put a flop to fuch proceedings.
The Devangas here make two thick coarfe cloths ; the one called cadi is plain,and refembles what is made by the Whalliaru near Bangalore ; and the other hasred borders, like the cloth of the Togotarus. The whole of the cloth made here is ufedin the immediate neighbourhood.
The Bily-Mugga weavers confider this name as a term of reproach, and call them-felves Curivina Banijigaru. They are an original tribe of Karnata. Some of themare dealers in cloth or grain, and a few are farmers. They have no hereditary chiefs ;but infractions of the rules of caff are puniffied by their clergy or jangamas; whoare, however, bound to add by the advice of the elders of the tribe, fhould the faultbe of fuch magnitude as to require excommunication. An affembly of the heads offamilies fettles difputes. They pretend to be one of the tribes of pure Banijigas,and to be capable of being appointed to the priefthood. They fay, that there are fixtribes of proper Banijigas; the Badagulu, the Pancham, the Stalada, the Turcana,the Jainu, and the Curivina. All thefe can eat together ; but cannot intermarry,unlefs they have been appointed jangamas ; and the defcendants of thefe never marrywith the laity, although among themfelves they lofe all former difiinctions. Each ofvol. vin. 4 s thele