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North Bihar Plains

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North Bihar Plains
HistoricalCannabis last recorded here in 1923
⛶
Location

India

Coordinates 26.10, 86.01
Gene Pool South Asian Gene Pool
Country India
Provinces/States Bihar
Area 50,800 km²
Primary Rivers Kosi
Growing history
Grown 1877[2]–1923[1]
Earlier names North Behar; the Patna Division north of the Ganges; Purnea and North Bhagalpur
Conservation
Populations none documented yet

North Bihar Plains is a historical landrace cannabis growing region in India, on the plain of Bihar north of the Ganges. It is drawn on the 21 districts of the state that lie north of the river and on the six blocks of Bhagalpur on its north bank, less the strip along the Nepal border that belongs to the Eastern Terai. In the 1890s hemp grew wild over this plain and was cut for bhang. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission found the spontaneous growth "extremely common and plentiful" in the Patna Division north of the Ganges. The Bhagalpur Division to its east supplied the bhang that Calcutta used. The Commission called Purnea "the great bhang-producing district".[3]

Dealers collected the leaves for the market in three districts, Monghyr, Bhagalpur and Purnea, under permits from the Collector.[4] Witnesses from the tract told the Commission that hemp was not cultivated there.[5][6] South of the Ganges the Commission found the growth "evidently very scanty".[7] The collection went on into the 1920s, when a provincial contractor gathered bhang in Purnea and Bhagalpur for Bihar and Orissa, Bengal and Assam.[8]

Geography

In the 1890s the plain was divided between the Patna and Bhagalpur Divisions of the Bengal Presidency.[3] Its districts have since been divided. Darbhanga was part of Tirhut until 1875, when it became a district of its own; it belonged to the Patna Division until the Tirhut Division was formed in 1908.[9] Muzaffarpur was also formed out of Tirhut in 1875.[10] West Champaran was carved out of the old Champaran District in 1972.[11] Saharsa was made a district in 1954 out of land in the Bhagalpur Division. Madhepura and Supaul were carved out of it in 1981 and 1991.[12]

Purnia District is low-lying alluvial country, crossed by Himalayan rivers that include the Kosi and the Mahananda. Sand dropped by the shifting Kosi covers its western part.[13] The Ganges, the Kosi and the Mahananda all flow through Katihar.[14]

K. G. Gupta, the Commissioner of Excise for Bengal, said that hemp grew luxuriantly on the chur lands of the Ganges and other rivers that the rains submerge. In Monghyr and Bhagalpur he placed more of it on the north side of the river, where the land is lowest.[15] B. C. Basu, of the Department of Land Records and Agriculture, toured villages in Purnea and north Bhagalpur for the Commission and came to a different view. The plant never grew on land that stayed under water through the rains: it was "essentially a weed of high and dry land". Usually it grew on the raised land beside the houses, called dihisar, which took the cattle's droppings and the household refuse and was usually cropped with mustard and tobacco. Those fields were left untilled until May or June, by which time the hemp had shed its seed. It grew most thickly in the villages that the floods turned into islands each rainy season, where large herds of buffaloes and cows grazed and every bare patch of ground was covered with hemp once the cold weather set in.[16] Roy Brahma Dutt, an excise officer who had served in every district of the Patna Division, found the plant on high sandy land in Champaran, Saran, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.[6]

Cultivation history

Before the Commission

In the 1870s Monghyr District lay on both banks of the Ganges. Hemp was not cultivated there, but it was found wild in most places and smoked under the name of bhang.[2]

The bhang supply

To the excise department of Bengal, bhang meant the dried leaf of the wild plant. The bhang that entered the Bengal warehouses (golas) came chiefly from Bhagalpur, Monghyr and Purnea. Cutting began in April; Chaitra Sankranti was thought an auspicious day for it. The gathering went on into June and July. The plants were dried in the sun until the leaves could be beaten off; the leaves were then bagged and taken to the local gola.[17] Gupta said that the golas of Monghyr and Bhagalpur supplied the whole province and that the supply was "practically unlimited".[15] No licence was needed to gather the leaves, but possessing more than a quarter ser needed one, so any dealing of size needed a licence.[18]

Nobin Chandra Kar, the Excise Deputy Collector of Bhagalpur, said that the plants came up in the cold weather when the flood water dried off the land. When they were two or three feet high, the bhang goladars of the district went out to the producing tracts with a hukumnama, cut them and left them to dry in the fields. He put the district's yield at 200 to 300 maunds a year and said that only part of the bhang that grew was gathered.[19] In Monghyr, the Special Excise Deputy Collector put the yield at 300 maunds a year.[20] Two agents of Calcutta dealers told the Commission that they had exported 403 maunds that year from 25 or 30 villages and could have taken 5,000 maunds from the same villages. In their view the best bhang grew on the sandy banks of the Kosi in Purnea. They paid nothing for it; the villagers sometimes asked them to clear it away.[21] Standing in the field the plant had very little market value. The cultivator on whose land it grew was glad to have the weed removed.[4]

The Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94

Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga. Gupta found the plant abundant in Champaran, in the far north-west of Bihar.[15] The Collector of Saran, G. E. Manisty, found it scattered in his own district, where little bhang was made from it. In Darbhanga, Champaran, Monghyr and Bhagalpur, he said, it was abundant.[22] Dutt estimated that 200 maunds were gathered in Darbhanga District each year, half of it in Samastipur, where the plant grew more thickly than elsewhere, partly for people's own use and largely for their cattle.[6] The Collector of Darbhanga, H. C. Williams, was the one witness to doubt the abundance. He saw a great deal of wild hemp on the borders of Nepal but found it rare in his own part of the district. The wild hemp, he said, was gathered and sent off by rail.[23] The Commission held that the evidence as a whole did not justify leaving Darbhanga out.[3]

Bhagalpur, Monghyr and Purnea. The Collector of Bhagalpur, F. H. B. Skrine, said that bhang grew wild there "in profusion" and generally very dense. Hemp was not cultivated in the district.[5] In Purnea a government pleader, Bhuvan Mohun Sanyal, found the plant abundant, especially in the headquarters subdivision.[24] An indigo manager at Dumur said that it grew in places to over six feet.[25] Wooma Charan Bose, a deputy collector who had held the Araria subdivision of Purnea, thought that it grew in Bhagalpur, Monghyr and Purnea "but not in abundance".[26]

Cultivation and fostering

D. R. Lyall, a member of the Board of Revenue, said that most of the bhang used in Bengal came from the North-Western Provinces and that only a small amount was grown in Purnea, Monghyr and Bhagalpur.[27] He also thought that the quantity of bhang exported from the Bhagalpur Division meant that the "wild" plant must often be fostered and perhaps sown and tended. Basu found no evidence that hemp was actually cultivated anywhere in Purnea and Bhagalpur. He did find that a few selected plants, mostly female, were often left standing to grow bushy. He suspected that the people knew more about the plant than they would say. The Commission concluded that the plant was not systematically cultivated or fostered in Bhagalpur and Monghyr, but that the secret rearing of a few plants, probably for ganja, was not uncommon in the Bhagalpur and Patna Divisions.[28] The Collector of Muzaffarpur, L. Hare, said that excise officers often came across plants that looked cultivated, although the owners always denied it.[29]

Attempts at control, 1892–1893

In 1892 the High Court held, in several cases, that prosecuting people for possessing wild bhang was illegal. The Magistrate of Darbhanga then told the police to stop interfering with the plant.[6] In January 1893 the Excise Commissioner ordered that the spontaneous growth be destroyed, to bring bhang under excise control. The Government of Bengal cancelled the order in June, judging the attempt impracticable and likely to lead only to petty oppression.[18] In Muzaffarpur a zamindar, Raghunandan Prasad Sinha, told the Commission that the village police, on the orders of their superiors, had uprooted the wild plant wherever it grew that year.[30] Williams had been told that the police were rooting it up near Darbhanga.[23] Sanyal put a fall in the use of bhang in Purnea down to people's fear of prosecution for preparing it from wild plants.[24] Basu proposed making the occupiers of land responsible for weeding the plant out; he said that earlier attempts to clear it through the village watchmen had been half-hearted and had failed.[16]

Bihar and Orissa, 1920–1924

The bhang trade outlasted the Commission. In 1920–21 the contract for collecting, storing and supplying bhang for the whole province of Bihar and Orissa was held by Karam Chand Lall and Sons of Dinapore. They collected 214 maunds in Bhagalpur and 1,467 maunds in Purnea and stored it in the central gola at Bhagalpur, from which 877 maunds went to Bengal. Sales of licensed bhang fell that year in the Tirhut and Bhagalpur Divisions after the duty was raised; the fall was heaviest in Bhagalpur, "where bhang grows wild".[8] The contract was renewed with the same firm for three years from 1 April 1922. That year the duty on bhang went up from two rupees to three a seer everywhere except the Tirhut Division, Purnea and the parts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur north of the Ganges, where it stayed at two. The contractors collected 1,148 maunds in Purnea in 1922–23.[31] In 1923–24 they collected 1,012 maunds in Purnea for wholesale dealers in the province and in Bengal and Assam.[1]

Botanical characteristics

The plant came up after the rains. In Monghyr it germinated in October and was ready for use six months later, on ditches, earthen field boundaries and fallow land. Male and female plants were gathered alike.[20] Gupta called the growth ordinarily dense and said that cultivators and indigo planters did their best to keep it down.[15] Dutt called it bhang and phul bhang.[6] Besides bhang, the plant gave fuel in Purnea and north Bhagalpur; green plants were sometimes twisted into rope to tie sheaves of wheat and barley.[16]

Growing Areas

No growing areas documented yet.

Accessions

No accessions documented yet.

Recent news

No news items are recorded for this growing region yet.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Excise Department, Bihar and Orissa (1924). Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in the Province of Bihar and Orissa for the Year 1923–24 (Report). Patna: Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and Orissa. para. 41, p. 12 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hunter, W.W. (1877). A Statistical Account of Bengal, Volume XV: Districts of Monghyr and Purniah (PDF). London: Trübner & Co. p. 103 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", paras. 26–29, 45, pp. 19–20, 24 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in Bengal, by Mr. K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 6–7, pp. 3–4 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. F. H. B. Skrine, Magistrate and Collector of Bhagalpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 11, p. 31 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Roy Brahma Dutt, Kayasth, Excise Deputy Collector, Darbhanga". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 71, pp. 201–202, 207 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. III, "The existence, prevalence, and character of the spontaneous growth", para. 31, p. 20 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Excise Department, Bihar and Orissa (1921). Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in the Province of Bihar and Orissa for the Year 1920–21 (Report). Patna: Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and Orissa. paras. 47, 51, p. 15 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
  9. ↑ District Administration, Darbhanga. "About District". District Darbhanga, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  10. ↑ District Administration, Muzaffarpur. "About District". District Muzaffarpur, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  11. ↑ District Administration, West Champaran. "About District". District West Champaran, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  12. ↑ District Administration, Saharsa. "About District". District Saharsa, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  13. ↑ District Administration, Purnia. "About District". District Purnia, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  14. ↑ District Administration, Katihar. "About District". District Katihar, Government of Bihar. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. K. G. Gupta, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 17, pp. 44–48 – via Internet Archive.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Reports by Mr. B. C. Basu, Assistant to the Director of the Department of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal, on the spontaneous growth of the wild hemp plant in the districts of Bhagalpur and Purnea". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. pp. 233–235 – via Internet Archive.
  17. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VI, "Preparation of the raw drugs from the cultivated and wild plant", para. 226, p. 87 – via Internet Archive.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. XV, "Existing systems described", paras. 592–601, pp. 291–296 – via Internet Archive.
  19. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Nobin Chandra Kar, Excise Deputy Collector, Bhagalpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 66, p. 189 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Surendranath Mozoomdar, Brahmin, Special Excise Deputy Collector, Monghyr". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 60, pp. 141–142 – via Internet Archive.
  21. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babus Durga Das Chandra, Gumasta of Jadab Chandra Das of Calcutta, and Annada Prasad Rai, Gumasta of Prionth De of Calcutta". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 242, p. 514 – via Internet Archive.
  22. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. G. E. Manisty, Magistrate and Collector of Saran". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 19, pp. 52–53 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. C. Williams, Magistrate and Collector of Darbhanga". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 13, p. 36 – via Internet Archive.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Bhuvan Mohun Sanyal, Brahmin, Government Pleader, Purnea". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 225, pp. 480–481 – via Internet Archive.
  25. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. A. G. M. Wodschow, Assistant Manager, Indigo and Zamindari, Dumur Factory, Purnea". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 193, pp. 420–421 – via Internet Archive.
  26. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Wooma Charan Bose, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector; Manager, Raj Banaili, District Bhagalpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 74, pp. 210–211 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of the Hon'ble Mr. D. R. Lyall, C.S.I., Member, Board of Revenue, Calcutta". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 1, p. 3 – via Internet Archive.
  28. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 92–94, pp. 36–37 – via Internet Archive.
  29. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. L. Hare, Magistrate and Collector of Muzaffarpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 18, p. 49 – via Internet Archive.
  30. ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Babu Raghunandan Prasad Sinha, Brahman, Zamindar, District Muzaffarpur". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV: Evidence of Witnesses from Bengal and Assam. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 171, pp. 388–389 – via Internet Archive.
  31. ↑ Excise Department, Bihar and Orissa (1923). Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in the Province of Bihar and Orissa for the Year 1922–23 (Report). Patna: Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and Orissa. paras. 48–49, p. 12 – via Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
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