[View larger image]
Fig. 88.

The district falls broadly into two divisions, the boundary between them being the southern limit of the floods of the Sarustí in years of heavy rainfall. The marked features of the northern division is the effect which the floods of torrents of intermittent flow, the Sarustí, Márkanda, Umla, and Ghagar have on agriculture. Some tracts are included like the Andarwár and the outlying villages of the Powádh[10] in Kaithal which are fortunately unaffected by inundation, and have good well irrigation. The country between the Umla and Márkanda in Thanesar gets rich silt deposits and is generally fertile. The Kaithal Nailí is the tract affected by the overflow of the Sarustí, Umla, and Ghagar. It is a wretched fever-stricken region where a short lived race of weakly people reap precarious harvests. The southern division is on the whole a much better country. It includes the whole of Karnál and Pánipat, the south of Kaithal, and a small tract in the extreme east of the Thanesar tahsíl. North of Karnál the Jamna valley or Khádir is unhealthy and has in many parts a poor soil. South of Karnál it is much better in every respect. Above the Khádir is the Bángar, a plain of good loam. North of Karnál its cultivation is protected by wells and the people are in fair circumstances. South of that town it is watered by the Western Jamna Canal. Another slight rise brings one to the Nardak of the Karnál and Kaithal tahsíls. Till the excavation of the Sirsa branch of the Western Jamna Canal and of the Nardak Distributary much of the Nardak was covered with dhák jangal, and the cultivation was of the most precarious nature, for in this part of the district the rainfall is both scanty and capricious, and well cultivation is only possible in the north. The introduction of canal irrigation has effected an enormous change. Wheat and gram are the great crops.

Historically Karnál is one of the most interesting districts. The Nardak is the scene of the great struggle celebrated in the Mahábhárata. The district contains the holy city of Thanesar, once the capital of a great Hindu kingdom. It has found climate a more potent instrument of ruin than the sword of Mahmúd of Ghazní, who sacked it in 1014. It still on the occasion of Eclipse fairs attracts enormous crowds of pilgrims. Pihowa is another very sacred place. Naráina, a few miles to the north-west of Karnál, was the scene of two famous fights[11], and three times, in 1526, 1556, and 1761, the fate of India was decided at Pánipat.

Area, 1851 sq. m. Cultd area, 1174 sq. m. Pop. 689,970. Land Rev. Rs. 11,47,688 = £76,513

Ambála is a submontane district of very irregular shape. It includes two small hill tracts, Morní and Kasaulí. There is little irrigation, for in most parts the rainfall is ample. Wheat is the chief crop. The population has been declining in the past 20 years.

[View larger image]
Fig. 89.

The only town of importance is Ambála. Jagádhrí is a busy little place now connected through private enterprise by a light railway with the N. W. Railway. The district consists of two parts almost severed from one another physically and wholly different as regards people, language, and agricultural prosperity. The Rúpar subdivision in the north-west beyond the Ghagar has a fertile soil, and, except in the Nálí, as the tract flooded by the Ghagar is called, a vigorous Ját peasantry, whose native tongue is Panjábí. The three south-eastern tahsíls, Ambála, Naráingarh, and Jagádhrí, are weaker in every respect. The loam is often quite good, but interspersed with it are tracts of stubborn clay largely put under precarious rice crops. The Játs are not nearly so good as those of Rúpar, and Rájputs, who are mostly Musulmáns, own a large number of estates.

Area, 101 sq. m. Cultd area, 15 sq. m. Pop. in Feb. 1911, 39,320. Land Rev. Rs. 17,484 = £1166.