42
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
MEMO. ON NIPAL (SHAHJAHANI) CHARAS.
The ganja shrub from which charas is made grows wild in certain villages of the hills one
hundred miles and more inwards. "Kala Des," "Gora Des," "Pentan" are mentioned as
some of the places.
Charas is a sticky exudation from the seed pods and minute leaves surrounding the seeds.
It is obtained by gently rubbing these pods and leaves between the hands. The "resin," for
want of a more correct term, adheres to and is peeled off the hands, and during this process
the originally colourless matter becomes black. The small leaves must not be confounded with
the ordinary leaves of the plant.
I give an illustration.*
Charas is made in April and May when the seeds are ripe and the big leaves fall off.
I am sending you two samples. The larger one, made into sticks a foot long and 1/2 inch
thick, is adulterated with the leaves and cuticle, and probably other foreign matter.
The
smaller sample is in the form of a cake and is the pure stuff. The first sells in Nipalganj at
Rs. 3, the second at Rs. 10 a seer. The quantity exported annually from Nipaljang is said to
be 50 maunds of 40 seers a maund, but this information must be received cum grano.
It
is true, however, that some years ago a very much larger quantity was imported into British
territory. I do not know the cause of the decline. There is very little consumption among
the Nipalese I hear. At Nipalganj an imperial export duty of Rs. 11-4 per maund and a
choongee-tax of the market value of 1/4 seer per maund are levied. The shrub is not culti-
vated. The resin is not produced by the shrub in the Tarai or plains. It is secreted only in
the villages among the mountains, but at what altitude I can't say. It is called charas in the
interior, but Saljehani (probably a corruption of Shahjehani) is the name given to the coarser
kind in Nipalganj. The fibre is not utilized. The shrub is an annual, dying in the rains and
springing up in October. Ganja is not cultivated or prepared in the Bahraich district.
Ganesh Murao, a contractor in Lucknow, imports charas from Nipalganj. There is a slight
exudation in the bud in the shrub found here. By bud I mean seed cuticle, flower, and adjacent
leaves, but is too slight to collect. Natives say the ganja shrub has no flower, and they
distinguish ganja from bhang by this difference, and the circumstance that the bhang shrub
is sterile, bearing a flower, but yielding no seed. The bhang tree is consequently not repro-
ductive, but comes from the ganja seed. Charas is known to be conveyed to Lucknow and
Cawnpur. It is taken probably to other places. It is carried in skin vessels and inside bundles
of bhang. The profit made by contractors should be considerable, as they sell it in British
territory at double the price paid for it in Nipal. A cloth, a strong canvas, used for bags, is
made from a cultivated plant in the hills called Bhangra, which natives confuse with bhang. It
grows in the form of hemp, "san," in the plains, and the raw material is extracted in the same
way, that is, by immersion in the water till it rots.
MEMO.—GANJA CULTIVATION IN GWALIOR STATE.
1. Gwalior Bigha = 1/2 an acre.—Ganja is sown in tahsíls Antri, Sipri, and Kalaras, and is
a kharif crop. Antri = 250 bighas cultivated last kharif. Kolaras = 253 bighas, Ditto
ditto. Sipri.—Return not received, but I think about 300 bighas.
The business is carried on chiefly by Kachis.
Method of cultivation and of preparation of
drug 1 will give after writing all other replies. Average outturn per bigha 7 maunds 20 seers.
Ganja is sown in July. No control is exercised by the State. Custom duty, Rs. 5 per maund,
is paid by the purchaser if he exports ganja to British or any other territory, and Rs. 2-8-0 if
he exports to any other place in the Gwalior State. It is farmed to a cultivator who gets
contract of all custom dues in the tahsíl. Usual price paid by the purchaser is Rs. 3 per
maund. Ganja is a product of cultivation. It cannot be procured from the wild plants. The
cultivation requires the careful extirpation of the male flowers, and the trees are very carefully
seen by the cultivator every week. Even a few of the male flowers may destroy a whole
field.
First of all, fields are highly manured, and in the month of July, after ploughing the
fields for at least three times, ganja is sown in them like other crops. In the months of
August and September dub and other grass found in it is taken away. In November and
December the fields are ploughed once more to soften the land, and the crop is irrigated four or
five times at least. In these months great care is taken that no male flowers appear in the
tree. If any male flower appears, the tree is at once cut down. When the ganja is ready, it is
cut down and bound in small bundles, say of about a seer each. Some cultivators also sow
wheat in ganja fields in the months of October and November.
Rent paid to zemindars for
ganja cultivation is usually Rs. 10 to Rs. 14 per bigha.
Ujjain and Khandwa seed is always sown in Antri—Antri seed does not answer the
purpose.
* Not reproduced.