156
decidedly more harmful and stronger than the
Rajshahi drug. In fact, the difference between the
Rajshahi and the Gurjat ganja is the same as is
found between the cultivated and the wild variety
of the same plant.
Consumption.—It is, as a rule, consumed in the
Tributary States and in the British territory along
the frontier in Orissa. People living in other
parts of Orissa who have acquired the habit of
ganja-smoking, but can ill afford to pay the high
price of the Rajshahi drug generally smuggle
Gurjat ganja for their use. It is reported also
to have gradually found its way in Chota Nagpur
and Central Provinces, I have stated in my
replies that the Pandas (hereditary priests) of
Jaggannath at Puri, habitually consume a large
quantity of the Gurjat ganja as patti with the
addition of the usual bhang massalas.
NOTE 2.—Veteran smokers of ganja are almost
unanimous in saying that quick and successive
repetitions of the ganja within a rather short time
has no marked intoxicating effect in proportion to
the number of times it is smoked. The intoxi¬
cation seems to have a limit both as regards its
duration and its degree. It is all the same to
them if they smoke a dozen chillums or one or
two. The first chillum produces the effect which
does not increase in intensity during the succes¬
sive repetition of smoking, and I have observed
no appreciable difference either in their behaviour
or in their countenance bespeaking increased
intoxication. Of course these remarks are only
applicable to those smokers who have been long
accustomed to the drug.
NOTE 3.—I have seen a young Hindu sanyasi in
company of seven others to smoke ten or twelve
chillums of ganja in succession within an hour
and a half. He is about eighteen years old, and
he became a sanyasi (so he said) in his thirteenth
year. After his usual morning ablution he came
to me with steady gait and clear eyes. His
motions were free, and there was nothing to show
that he had taken any intoxicant that morning.
I gave him a quantity of ganja, and he smoked
before me. I observed that his eyes became
gradually dull, red, and watery. He seemed all
along very devout, but with the progress of ganja-
smoking he became more and more devout, as was
noticed by his constant repetition of the name of
Bhagwan (God). Gradually his limbs seemed to
lose the former freedom to some extent. But he
could walk back straight to his temporary abode
under a Banian tree, uttering the name of
Bhagwan. His companions, who were grown-up
men, did not show any signs of intoxication.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I have been in Government service
since January 1880, and in the Excise Depart¬
ment since 1891. I became Special Deputy Col-
lector on land acquisition work in 1884, and in
September 1891 Special Excise Deputy Collector.
I was ordered to make enquiry into the shops
existing in the Gurjat within three miles of the
frontier, and toured in the country for that
purpose. I found no cultivation of the ganja
plant in fields, but scattered cultivation of a few
plants in the enclosures attached to the houses.
The number of plants so cultivated sometimes
reached as many as fifty. Such cultivation would
be found in every second village. The average
number of plants was ten. Plantains, mango
trees, cotton plants and spices were found grow¬
ing in the same enclosures as the hemp plants. I
submitted a report of my enquiries, I think, in
1893. The report is still, I believe, under the con¬
sideration of Government. There was at the time
of my enquiries no prohibition to the cultivation
in the Gurjat. Nor was there any against shops
within the three miles belt. The object of my
enquiry was to ascertain how far the existence of
shops and cultivation within the belt injured the
Government revenue. Every man who cultivated
the plant was also a seller. He sold to people
passing through the village, chiefly to British
subjects, who came specially to buy the drug.
These persons generally bought for their own
consumption, and carried away only small parcels.
The cultivation appeared to be by sowing the
seed broadcast. Every cultivator was a vendor,
and there were no shops. There are no shops now.
The cultivators carried the ganja to the bazaar
and sold it there like any other vegetable. I saw
this is one instance myself, and heard other in¬
stances of it. The amount of this ganja, which
enters the Cuttack district in one year, I am
unable to estimate in maunds; but the practice
was general all along the frontier of the Cuttack
district. Besides those persons who import ganja
from the Gurjat for their own consumption, there
are others who bring in much larger quantities
and sell it for profit. The bulk of the ganja con¬
sumed within a distance of seven or eight miles of
the frontier is imported in one or other of these
ways. The instances given at the end of my answer
8 refer to these larger importations. In one case
as much as 1 maund and 7 seers of ganja and
patti together were discovered. I estimate the
whole of such smuggling for the last two years
at 8 maunds per annum. I arrive at this figure
by comparing the recorded consumption, 112
maunds (vide 25), with what I believe the true
consumption to be, viz., 120 maunds.
Question 5 —The plant does not grow wild in
British territory as far as I know. But it does
grow spontaneously throughout the Gurjat. I
saw it growing wild in the three-mile belt, and
I was told it grew wild beyond that limit. In
one instance, I saw it growing in the jungle at
one mile's distance from any house. There was
only one plant, and it was by the side of a jungle
path. I do not think it grows wild much within
the three miles limit. Formerly there was prohi¬
bition to cultivation on the three-mile belt, and
all the plants were uprooted. Still I was able
to find some wild plants within the belt after the
prohibition was withdrawn, and I infer that there
must be more wild growth where no prohibition
ever existed.
Question 8.—There is no licit consumption of
Gurjat ganja in the Cuttack district, because
when I wrote my reply the license vendors were
not allowed to import less than eight maunds
at a time, and they could not conveniently
collect that amount in the Tributary Mahals
(vide 59). The rule permitting import on pay¬
ment of duty was, therefore, a dead-letter.
Recently the eight maunds minimum has been
reduced to one maund; but there has not yet
been time to note the effect of this change.
Formerly, i.e., in the years 1878-79 and 1879-80,
there was a little licit importation; but since
then there has been none. I make this statement
on careful examination of the figures.
Question 19.—The Gurjat ganja is used prin¬
cipally for smoking in the Cuttack district and
in the Tributary Mahals, and for drinking in the
town of Puri. Patti or bhang is licitly imported
from the Gurjat. It consists of the leaves of the
plant only, male and female.