CH. VI.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 95
on the feet if the operation consisted in treading the plants. The solitary piece of
definite information supplied about preparation in the plains is given by Mr. Kirthi
Singh (14): "Sometimes a cultivator may want a little charas for private use,
in which case he beats the flowering twigs over a piece of cloth laid on the ground,
and then collects the greyish white powder which falls. This requires only to be
dried a little in the sun, and it is ready for use."
Charas in "Punjab Products."
244. In the "Punjab Products" the manufacture of this sort of charas called
garda is described. The finest quality is when the
dust is of a reddish colour. This is called surkha.
When it is green, it is called bhangra.
The most inferior is that which adheres
to the cloth after shaking, and has to be scraped off or shaken off with more
violence. This is called khaki.
In each case the dust has to be kneaded with
a small quantity of water into a cake, and then forms charas. It is stated that
this drug is much in use. The specimens which formed the basis of the article
were none of them from the plain districts of the Punjab, except possibly one
from Dera Ghazi Khan. They came from Lahoul, Spiti, Bokhara, Yarkand,
Dera Ghazi Khan, and Kashmir.
Preparation of charas in Yarkand.
245. It will be of interest to quote other descriptions of foreign manufacture.
Witness (86) has been in the habit of visiting
Ladakh for purposes of trade, and has there learnt
the following details from Ladakh merchants: "In Yarkand bhang is cultivated
in the month of Baisakh in waste lands and round the fields of other crops for
the manufacture of charas. It remains standing for seven months, and is then
reaped in the month of Katik, when the blossom is ripe, and then stored on the
roofs of houses. It remains there for one month and gets dried in the mean-
time. The zamindars then thrash the plants after separating the larger leaves
by night within their houses. The smaller petals and flowers then fall on the
ground and are reduced to powder. It is then sifted thrice, put in bags, and sold
to the traders. The merchants go on storing it up until the month of Jeth
comes, when they place it in the sun, and a kind of oleaginous substance oozes
out of the powder. It is then kneaded like tobacco and put in bags made of
cloth. The following three or four kinds of charas are prepared from it-mu-
shak, bahara, pai, and kuppi. They are then closed up in leather." Mr. Dalgleish
is quoted by Dr. Watt as giving a description of the preparation similar to the above.
The Deputy Commissioner of Bannu says that honey is mixed in the powder
of the flowering tops, after which the stuff is packed in leather bags and kept for a
year in the sun. Hari Chand, Assistant to the Commissioner of Excise, report-
ed in 1890 of the Yarkand manufacture that "the leaves are ground in Decem-
ber. The flower is kept in bags of five sérs each till June. The bags are then
put in the sun, and the flower rubbed with hands and feet till it gives oil. It is
then put in leather bags and hammered till it becomes one block. The blocks
are of 54 sérs each." There is a certain similarity in all these methods, and
they probably give with fair accuracy the general outline of the important manu-
facture of Yarkand. Garda, as described in the "Punjab Products," would appear
to be the Kashmir preparation. The word seems to mean merely dust in its
common use.
Punjab States.
246. The memorandum on the province contains
all available information regarding the Punjab States.