Trichinopoly is a large military station, and the European houses, therefore, are very numerous, and occupy a considerable space, as they are generally surrounded by large parks or compounds. A bridge over a small tributary of the Cauvery leads to the bazar and native town; and the view from the bridge is very pretty, with cocoanut-trees and bushes coming down to the water's edge, and houses embosomed in trees, whence flights of steps lead down into the water. Beyond the bridge there is a picturesque mosque of white stone, and the bazar, a long street leading to the principal part of the town, in the centre of which the famous rock of Trichinopoly rises up abruptly. Brahmins and other traders were sitting in their shops, before piles of earthenware and copper chatties, cotton cloths, and numerous kinds of grains and pulses in baskets. The rock is a mass of granite, 400 feet high, crowned by a small Hindu temple; the ascent is cut in steps out of the solid rock, and from the summit there is a most extensive view, including the city, the fine bridges over the Coleroon and Cauvery, the gopurams of the great pagoda of Seringam on an island in the river, and a vast expanse of rice cultivation and palm-groves, with Tanjore on the distant horizon. The native town contains several large handsome houses belonging to Mohammedans, and the ruins of the palace of the Nawabs of the Carnatic.
Through the kindness of Mr. McDonnell, the Collector, I was enabled to pass a very interesting day at the Upper Coleroon anicut. Passing the base of the rock of Trichinopoly, and following the main street of the native town, the banks of the river Cauvery are reached, where there are rows of stone temples and houses with open corridors, whence flights of steps lead down into the water. Near the river there is a tank filled with red and white lotus-flowers. A handsome stone bridge spans the Cauvery, and another of equal length crosses the Coleroon, about a mile further on. The two rivers form an island, and unite a few miles lower down; and the upper anicut is about fourteen miles up the river, where Mr. McDonnell had a comfortable bungalow on the banks, shaded by lofty trees.
The Upper Coleroon anicut or weir is constructed at the west end of the island of Seringam, which is formed by the separation of the Cauvery into two branches, namely the Coleroon on the north, and the Cauvery on the south. Formerly the bed of the Coleroon was continually deepening, while that of the Cauvery was rising, so that there was much difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of water for the irrigation of the rice-fields of Tanjore. The upper anicut, commenced by Colonel Cotton in 1836, and finished in 1850, completely answered the purpose of deepening the bed of the Cauvery, so much so that another weir was made across that river, sixty miles lower down; and by means of the second weir, made in 1845, and the under sluices in the upper one, the water is now effectually kept under command.[460] The upper anicut, which I visited, is broken into three parts by two small islands. The south part is 282 yards long, the centre 350, and the north 122, the whole length, including the islands, being 874, and without them 754 yards. The weir is a plain brick wall, plastered with chunam, six feet thick, and seven feet high, the top being lined with masonry. It is defended from the overfall by masses of rough stone; and there are twenty-four sluices, which prevent accumulations of sand from forming above the anicut. The sluices are connected by a narrow bridge of sixty-two arches, to secure access to them during floods, and it also serves as a means of communication between the banks for foot passengers. The cost of the work, and of repairs between 1836 and 1850, was two lacs of rupees, and it assists the irrigation of 600,000 acres, yielding a revenue of 400,000l., or equal to two-thirds of that of the whole island of Ceylon.
By means of these anicuts the fertile province of Tanjore is converted into one vast rice-field,[461] and the portion of Trichinopoly below the upper weir is equally rich. The country to the north of the road between the anicut and the town of Trichinopoly was a wide expanse of bright green rice cultivation, stretching to the horizon. In Southern India there are two annual crops of rice, called the caar and the soombah or peshanum crops. The former is reaped in October and is reckoned inferior, and the latter in February and March. Two crops in the year from the same land do not yield much more than a single crop, but, owing to the liability of the seasons to fail, the cultivators rear as much as possible for the first crop. This is reaped in the rainy season, when the straw cannot be preserved, so that the second crop must necessarily be sown, for fodder for cattle. Rice requires rain to ensure the full development of the grain, as well as irrigation. The seed is sown thick, and then transplanted to the fields about forty days afterwards; and the fields must be constantly supplied with water. The stalks when cut are stacked for a few days, and the grain is then thrashed out by manual labour or cattle, the husk being separated from the grain with a rice-stamper, generally beaten by women. In the interval of sowing, the natives often sow the land with pulse or sesame, the stubble of which is used as manure for the next rice-crop.
At intervals scattered over the plain, there are groves of cocoanut and palmyra-palms, like islands in the vast sea of rice-fields, with small villages built under their shade. As the betel-nut palm is the most graceful in India, so the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis) is undoubtedly the ugliest, with its black stem the same size all the way up, and coarse fan-shaped leaves. It is chiefly from this tree that the Shanars draw the toddy. The spadix or young flowering branch is cut off near the top, and an earthenware chatty is tied on the stump, into which the juice flows. Every morning it is emptied and replaced, the stump being cut afresh, and so on until the whole is exhausted. Sugar is also extracted by the same process, the inside of the chatty being powdered with lime to prevent fermentation, and the juice being boiled down and dried. The sugar thus obtained is called jaggery. The timber of the palmyra-palm is extensively used for building.
As we drove towards Trichinopoly, with these rice-fields studded with palm-groves on our right, the tall towers of Seringam[462] appeared rising above the trees which border the waters of the Cauvery; and near the town there are large plantain-groves. In leaving Trichinopoly on the road to the Neilgherries it is necessary to cross a small affluent of the Cauvery in ferry-boats. Those for foot-passengers are of wicker covered with hides, and perfectly round, like those which are described by Herodotus, and are still used on the Tigris and Euphrates. After jolting all night through endless groves of banyan and peepul trees, I reached Caroor,[463] the ancient capital of the Chira Rajahs, the following morning. The Chira state, in the days of its prosperity, extended over Coimbatore, and part of Mysore and Malabar. Caroor is a town of some size, in the middle of a plain, through which flows the river Amaravati, a tributary of the Cauvery. Mr. Roberts, the Sub-Collector, was living in a curious upper story, on the top of a pagoda, the entrance to which leads under a tall brick gopuram, 86 feet high, 64 feet long at the base, and 52 feet broad, sculptured with images exactly on the pattern of those at Madura. The country between Caroor and the foot of the Neilgherries is flat and uninteresting, chiefly cultivated with cholum, cumboo, cotton, and a few pulses, with rice in some places. The road is execrable, and generally lined with banyan-trees, which, though affording pleasant shade, are ungainly and ugly, owing to the numerous bunches of dusty-looking roots, which hang in all directions from the branches. On arriving at Matepoliem I found a pony waiting, and, riding up the Coonoor ghaut, returned to Ootacamund. Half-way up the ghaut, at a place called Burlear, Mr. Thomas, the Collector of Coimbatore, has a small but interesting garden, containing all kinds of spices, cacao, coffee and tea plants, besides oranges, lemons, and citrons.
During my tour through the principal Tamil districts I was chiefly struck with the evidences, furnished by the pagodas of Madura and Seringam, and the works of Tirumalla Naik, of the great surplus revenue which was once derived from the land. By the execution of additional public works, the improvement of means of communication, and judicious reductions of the land-tax, which will induce the ryots to bring more waste land under cultivation, much has been effected, but much still remains to be done, before the country attains the same degree of prosperity which it appears to have enjoyed in the best days of the Pandyan and Naik dynasties. Tanjore has probably already reached the highest state of profitable rice cultivation, through the irrigation supplied by the Coleroon anicuts. But much may yet be done with regard to the encouragement of the growth of cotton in Coimbatore, Madura, and Tinnevelly; and hereafter the coffee and chinchona plantations of the Neilgherry hills, the Pulneys, and the Anamallays will supply another important source of wealth and prosperity.
To the north of the Cauvery, in the district of Salem, there is a range of isolated hills, called the Shervaroys, which rise, a few miles north-east of the town of Salem, into a mass of densely wooded flat-topped hills. The mean height of the table-land of the Shervaroys, on their summits, is 4600 feet, and the highest peak rises to 5260 feet. In the Salem district the south-west monsoon sets in early in June, and showers continue till September; and in the end of October the north-east monsoon brings a return of rain from the opposite quarter, which continues until December, when the rains cease, owing to the change of wind from north-east to due north. There are several coffee estates on the Shervaroy hills, but they are considered to be too dry, and, although the coffee produced is said to be of excellent quality, yet the yield is small, and I was told that the Shervaroy plantations were generally losing concerns. The land-tax on these estates is one rupee an acre. Between December and June it is exceedingly dry, and I, therefore, did not consider it advisable to try the experiment of chinchona cultivation on the Shervaroys during the first or second years. If the plants are hereafter found to be capable of enduring longer droughts than we at present expect, they may then be tried on the Shervaroys.
For the same reason I gave up all idea of the hills near Courtallum, in Tinnevelly. At Courtallum, notwithstanding the perennial humidity, the rainfall is only 40 inches, though on the surrounding hills it is probably greater.[464] The elevation of those hills, however, is not sufficient for the profitable cultivation of most species of chinchona-plants. Tinnevelly is sheltered from the south-west monsoon by the Travancore mountains, and from the north-east monsoon by the Serumullay hills, 3500 feet high, which rise from the Madura plains near Dindigul, and by the island of Ceylon to the east. This extreme south part of the peninsula, between latitude 8° and 10° north, therefore receives little moisture, and has a hot arid climate, resembling Egypt, and producing senna and Indian cotton of the best quality.[465] It is possible, however, that localities may hereafter be found, where the chinchona species suited to comparatively low elevations might flourish, such as C. succirubra and C. micrantha, on the mountains dividing Tinnevelly from Travancore.