353
KOLHAPUR AND SOUTHERN MARATHA COUNTRY,
Area
Population in 1891
Density of population
Rainfall
5,895 sq. miles.
1,552,401.
263 34 per sq. mile.
Average, 40 inches.
Boundaries.
Kolhápur is bounded on the north by the Várna river, which, for about sixty-six miles
from Prachitgad to its meeting with the Krishna two miles
south of Sángle, separates Kolhápur from Sátára ; on the east
by the rivers Krishna and Dudhganga, Miraj and Sángli ; on the south by Belgaum ; and on
the west by the Sahyádris. Sángli, the chief State of the Southern Marátha Country, consists
of detached tracts extending from the British Districts of Sátára and Sholápur in the
north to the river Tungbhadra in the south of the Bombay Presidency. The other States
comprising the Southern Marátha Country are Miraj Senior and Junior, Kurundvád Senior
and Junior, Jámkhandi, Mudhol, and Rámdurg.
Climate and natural features.
The seasons may be broadly divided into wet, cold, and hot. The rainy months are the
healthiest time in the year. The cold season, which lasts from
November to the end of February, is the most dry and unhealthy
part of the year. The climate of the Southern Marátha Country, though hot, is not unhealthy.
In the rainy season the climate is everywhere pleasant, except perhaps in Sháhápur, where the
rainfall is heavy and constant. In the cold season the air is dry and the nights cool. The
soil may be classed into black, red and white ; or again as good, middling, and poor.
Previous epidemics.
There is no authentic record of plague either in Kolhápur or the Southern Marátha
Country, cholera being the only great source of epidemic
disease there.*
Kolhápur and S. M. Country.
As this Agency consists of a number of States of varying size, which have suffered from
plague epidemics at different times, and as, since November
1897, no single week has passed without plague being reported
from the Agency, it will be convenient in this review to deal with each such State or portion
of the Agency separately.
The measures taken to combat and control the disease were very similar throughout the
Agency, the difference being mainly in the vigour and promptitude with which they were
enforced at various places. They are therefore enumerated here, and may be understood as
applying throughout the Agency at such places as were attacked. Concerning the protection
of villages from infection up to June 1898, Colonel J. W. Wray, the Political Agent, reports
as follows:—
" The inhabitants of every village have been urged to adopt a system of observation by
which no strangers can enter their precincts without detention outside for 10 days, and the
system has worked well and inexpensively, the Patels being held answerable for any careless-
ness that may cause the village to become infected.
" All approaches to the village are guarded by local arrangement, and even the postal runner
who has been accustomed to pass through with the mail-bag has, by the courtesy of the Post-
Master-General, been instructed to put down his bag on the border, and the bag is disinfected
and taken in charge by a State servant who is held responsible for the safe delivery of the
mail-bag.
* Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXIV,
89