Mahadeva
More actions
| Mahadeva | |
|---|---|
| Lodhaisur | |
| No longer grownSources say it is no longer grown here | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Uttar Pradesh |
| District | Barabanki District |
| Coordinates | 26.94, 81.33 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 3,800 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately Barabanki district; the sources name Lodhaisur in Fatehpur tahsil and a place called Mahadeva, without a boundary |
| Growing history | |
| Why it stopped | Banned |
| Earlier names | Mahadeva ganja; Lodhaisur (Loohaisar) |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Mahadeva is a former landrace cannabis growing area in Barabanki district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Before the 1890s ganja was cultivated in the district and a kind of ganja called Mahadeva took its name, in the view of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, from a place in Barabanki where it had been grown.[1] One witness before the Commission described ganja grown by the Kabariyas at Lodhaisur, in the Fatehpur tahsil of the district, until the district authorities learned of it and forbade the practice.[2] A Lucknow drug contractor told the Commission that the cultivation had been given up ten or twelve years before.[3]
The district
Barabanki district covers 3,891.5 km².[4] Its drug contractor at Nawabganj, Kundan Lall, said that only bhang grew wild there, in the Terai of the Ghaghra and that some people planted ganja secretly in their gardens.[5] The Commissioner of Excise of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, T. Stoker, found that the flowers of the wild female plant were collected in Barabanki and smoked under the name of ganja and that the specimens showed no special cultivation or preparation.[6]
Cultivation at Lodhaisur
Jaideo Sahay, officiating tahsildar of Nawabganj, had been in charge of excise work in the district for more than twelve years. He said that the Kabariyas had grown ganja at Lodhaisur and that its produce used to be about a thousand maunds. The seed was sown with wheat or other crops. When the plants had grown a little, the growers had to tell which would give ganja and which bhang and at Lodhaisur only the Kabariyas could make that distinction. He described how ganja plants were raised: a plant that proved to be a ganja plant was moved and planted out at a suitable spot and its watchers twisted the leaves as it grew, without which the ganja was not worth smoking.[2]
Mahadeva ganja
Several witnesses described the ganja of Barabanki by name. Kundan Lall said that in the district ganja used to be grown "in Mahadeva through cultivators" and that this cultivation had been stopped.[5] Radha Kishun, a former drug contractor of Lucknow with twenty-five years in the trade, said that ganja was also made in "Mahadeva, district Barabanki" and had been given up ten or twelve years before.[3] Hakim Muhammad Ali of Hardoi described Mahadeva as a kind of ganja once produced in Nawabganj and Sitapur, with leaves of a different shape, made up into bundles of one chitak each.[7] Thakur Parshad, a drug contractor of Hardoi, said that Mahadeva ganja, in large bundles, used to be made in Sitapur and Nawabganj but was not made any more.[8]
Stoker had been told that an inferior ganja called Mahadewa used to be imported from Nepal with official permission, but he could neither confirm it nor obtain a specimen.[9] The Commission concluded that the name came from the place in Barabanki where the ganja had been cultivated, which other witnesses confirmed and that Stoker was probably mistaken in thinking it came from Nepal.[1]
End of the cultivation
Jaideo Sahay said that the district authorities, on getting information of the cultivation at Lodhaisur, forbade it and that hemp was nowhere allowed to be cultivated in Oudh.[2] The Commission took this as evidence that ganja had been cultivated in some districts of Oudh until it was suppressed by authority. There was no prohibition against the cultivation of hemp in the province, but the Commission found a general impression that it was illegal.[1] Radha Kishun gave another account: ganja had been cultivated in Barabanki, Sitapur and Kheri "under the auspices of the Nepal Government" and the removal of those men from the province had perhaps ended it.[3] Stoker reported that the regular cultivation of ganja was not carried on openly anywhere in the provinces.[6]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing area yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 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. 103–108, pp. 40–42 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Jaideo Sahay, Agarwal, Officiating Tahsildar, Nawabganj, District Bara Banki". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 61, pp. 101–102 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Radha Kishun, late Drug Contractor, Lucknow". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 247, p. 333 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ District Administration, Barabanki. "About District". District Barabanki, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Kundan Lall, Agarwala, Drug Contractor, Nawabganj, Bara Banki". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 249, p. 339 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 15–17, pp. 26–27 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Hakim Muhammad Ali, Pathan, Yunani Doctor, Hardoi". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 175, pp. 242–243 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Thakur Parshad, Hemp Drug, etc., Contractor, Hardoi". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. V: Evidence of Witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. witness no. 251, p. 340 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. para. 26, p. 30 – via Internet Archive.