7
after the villages to which the roads through them lead. On the north is the
Tuljipur gate, and on the east the Kumbhari and Dhari ves, each of which has
very lately been pulled down, as also has the Bijápur ves on the south, next to
which is the Pani gate, whilst on the south-west is the Killa ves.
4. The Municipality of Shoápur was first established in March 1853, but
was constituted a City municipality, under the District Municipal Act, on the 7th
November 1874. The City has not yet been surveyed, and no map exists which
shows the levels in the town. The Municipality has jurisdiction, not only over
the City, but also over the Sudder Bazaar and the hamlet of Modikhana, which
were formerly included in the adjacent military Cantonment, but were transferred
to the civil authorities in 1871, The area covered by the town has not been
determined, but it is roughly calculated that nearly 8 square miles are includ-
ed within municipal limits. The following Peits are situated inside the walls :—
Peith Kusba, which also includes Goldfinch Peit, Peit Mungulwar, and Peit
Shukurwar. The remaining Peits are suburban and rural.
5. The population of the City at the time of the census in 1872 amounted
to 53,403 persons, of whom 27,986, or 52.41 per cent. of the total, were males,
and 25,417, or 47.59 per cent., were females. It consisted of :—
Hindus
... 39,695 who formed 74.33per cent. of the entire population.
Mussulmans. 12,54
,,
23.49
,, ,, ,,
Buddhists ...
87 9
,,
1.65
,,
,,
13
Christians ...
23 9
,,
0.45
,,
77
73
Others
...
45
,,
0.08
,,
,, ,,
6. These persons are stated to have resided in 8,700 houses, so that there
were on the average 6.14 persons to a house ; 2,037 of these houses are of the
better sort, 3,333 of an inferior description, and 3,350 of the worst sort; but I am
unable to state the number of people living in each class of houses, or to remark
upon the density of the population with reference to each Peit, as information as
to these details is not, I regret to say, procurable. The houses in Sholápur have
for the most part been built with mud walls, and the roofs consist, generally speak-
ing, of flat mud terraces ; but no record of the number of tiled, thatched, or mud-
terraced roofs or of stone, brick or mud built walls, has been kept, and these mat-
ters appear either to have escaped attention at the time of taking the census, or the
details have been lost, as they are not now, I am informed, obtainable. The houses,
although forming a tolerably even line in the main streets, have beenbuilt with great
irregularity as to frontages off them, the consequence being that the lanes in
the town are very crooked and tortuous, and in some places quite like a labyrinth.
Generally speaking, the house presents a dead wall to the street, and is, if a large
one, entered by a central door which passes through into a court-yard surround-
ed by a broad verandah, into which the dwelling rooms lead. Among the poorer
classes, however, the house is simply a mud hovel consisting of one room, often
divided into two by a mud partition, the surface of the floor being too frequently
below the level of the road, and the only means of ventilation is through the door-
way, which is generally low and narrow ; and as hardly ever any exit has been
made for the escape of smoke, the atmosphere inside is stifling, and must at all times
be unhealthy. In fact, the great want of ventilation in houses is one of the great
points to which the Municipal Commissioners should turn their earnest attention,
and should insist on windows not less than 3' x 2' being left in the external
walls, and that proper ventilating openings should be made in the roofs. In some
of the better class of houses such are formed by the doorways leading on to the
balconies built on the tops of the roofs where the occupants sit to enjoy the breeze,
and the provision of such doorways should be made compulsory. They could
easily be fitted with bars to prevent the entrance of thieves.
7. There is no accurate record of the number of privies in Sholápur, but
it is roughly calculated that about 2,000 houses have privies inside their walls,