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drink bhang in greater quantity, All the same in
my opinion the tax on charas is too light.
66. I have no knowledge of ganja.
67. A duty on charas and a license duty for sale,
these two together, are in my opinion the best
method of taxation.
68. As a rule, in Delhi the shops of the retail
vendors are small, and there is no room for
smokers, except in one case; but it is not forbidden.
There would not in this district be any objection
to its being fordidden, but also no gain.
69. This is answered by the Punjab rules. No
new shops have ever been opened in any district
where I have been Deputy Commissioner.
70. There is in my opinion a great deal of smug-
gling into Rajputana. The permission of the Darbar
to import is necessary, and it is so difficult to get
that no doubt the rule is evaded. Just as it is next
to impossible to prevent the smuggling of opium
from Rajputana into the Punjab, so it is about as
difficult to prevent charas going from the Punjab
into Native States. I have never heard of charas
being smuggled from Rajputana into the Punjab.
Memo. as to the restrictions on cultivation
of hemp for production of bhang and
charas.
Answers to questions in Financial Commissioner's
Circular No. 13 of 1880.
(a) In Kulu Proper, including Plach. the area
under hemp cultivation is reported to be 72 acres,
viz., 33 acres in Kulu, and 39 acres in Plach. I
have been unable to test in any way this estimate.
in Lahoul the extent of cultivation has been
roughly calculated at 1 acre. Almost every house
has a small patch near it, a long strip beside a hedge
or a small bed, a few square yards in area. Some
of the patches were such that no accurate idea
could he formed of the area; and as I have said
the estimate is very rough.
(5) The hemp plant grows spontaneously in all
three parts of this sub-division, and considerable
areas in Kulu and Plach ; but if it is difficult to
form an accurate estimate of the extent of culti-
vation, how much more difficult in case of spon-
taneous growth, when the plant is found on hill
sides in the jungle. The areas reported are : —
For Kulu tahsil
„ Plach Naib Tahsildari
„ Lahoul too small for mention
TOTAL .
Acres.
94
110
204
(c) The plant is cultivated only for its fibre,
principally to make twine; for instance in Lahoul,
the only use to which it is put is to make twine
for the snow or straw shoes so generally worn here.
Real charas cannot be made either from the
cultivated or from the spontaneous bhang plant,
such as it is in Kulu; but the leaves of both are
used for purposes of intoxication. The leaves of
the wild plant are principally used, scarcely ever
those of the cultivated plant.
One plan used to extract the narcotic principle
is to rub in the hands the green leaves, especially
such as are in their natural state, glutinous to the
touch. They are more or less glutinous in years of
little rainfall; rain is said to wash off the viscous
substance in which the drug mostly exists, hence
vol. v.
the large production of charas in Yarkand and
Ladakh, countries of minimum rainfall. The
leaves are rubbed for a long time in the hands,
which are allowed to dry, and then with a knife
whatever remains on the palms is scraped off, and
is used in the hukka as is charas. A man can
make in one day from Kulu bhang only enough
for two smokes. The effect of the charas made in
this way is not, it is said, quite equal to that of
Yarkand or Ladakh charas, but I have been also
told that it has much more effect, from its being
pure, which imported charas is not.
The bairagis of Sultanpur and fakirs from the
plains, who are almost the only consumers of
charas or bhang, collect the leaves from the wild
plant in the season, and keep them for their own
use. These dried leaves are used sometimes like
"Ghota" from 'ghotua' to vegetables, but they are
triturate or pound into a
pulp with water.
generally made into a
(Sd.) W. G. DAVIES. decoction called ghota,
The dried leaves are boiled, then pounded very
fine, put into water, and the whole is filtered
through cloth; the filtrate containing the drug is
mixed with sugar, almonds, etc., and drunk.
Indigenous bhang is not used in making the
sweetmeats known as kalti (flat) and majun (a ball).
Yarkand charas alone is used for these.
So far as I have been able to ascertain the only
part of the cultivated plant used in Kulu as a
drug is the seed called bhangolu. The seed is
parched and mixed with some kind of parched
grain, generally wheat, and the mixture is eaten
in a dry state. It is said that bhangolu produces
considerable warmth of body and even affects the
eyes as does charas. The seed of the wild plant
is much smaller than that of the cultivated plant
and is not used parched with grain. Bhangolu
seems to be eaten in considerable quantities by
zamindars and others, to ward off the effects of
extreme cold. It is found in largest quantity
in Rupi and Seoraj, and in Kulu principally in the
Kothis on the Sarvari, where also the hemp plant
grows wild. The Seorajis sell or exchange bhang-
olu for wool with the Lahoulis who eat it and also
sow it, as in Lahoul if the cold weather com-
mences very early, the plant does not seed.
(d) The monopoly of the sale of bhang is included
in the general contract given for the sale of intoxi-
cating drugs (opium, charas, etc.). The retail ven-
dors at the different shops, for which the contract
has been given to the general contractor, get per-
mission from the latter to. sell these drugs, and they
are supplied with the drugs by him. The general
contractor purchases from the Ladakh dealers who
annually come to Sultanpur. The above refers
only to charas, and describes the procedure that
would be followed in the case of bhang, were it
sold in Kulu. In reality it is not sold at all. It
can be got from the jungle in quantity sufficient
to supply the demand. There is, as I have already
stated, private consumption, that is, those accus-
tomed to use the drug collect the leaves from the
jungle where the plant grows wild, and use it as
described under (c). Any one may take the leaves ;
no price is charged. Zamindars who may not
themselves be drinkers or smokers of the drug
collect the leaves, and give them to fakirs who
come from the plains, or use them in some cases of
cattle disease. They do not sell the bhang leaves ;
in fact they are kept principally for fakirs who
may come to the village. The plant grows spon-
taneously over so large an area that there is no sale
or purchase; any one may help himself to as much
as he wants.
352