Sonepur
More actions
| Sonepur | |
|---|---|
| Sonpur | |
| No longer grownSources say it is no longer grown here | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Gene Pool | South Asian Gene Pool |
| Growing Region | Garhjat |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Odisha |
| District | Subarnapur District |
| Coordinates | 20.93, 83.82 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 2,400 km² |
| Terrain | Approximately Subarnapur District |
| Growing history | |
| Grown | until 1889[1] |
| Why it stopped | Banned |
| Earlier names | Sonepur State; Sonpur |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Sonepur is a former landrace cannabis growing area in the Garhjat growing region of Odisha, India, mapped on Subarnapur District. Trimbak Rao Sathe, the Diwan of the Sonepur State, told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission that before 1889 the plant had been grown without any control in almost every village of the State to make round ganja. It had been stopped since 1889 under Government orders; since then the people had used ganja supplied by the Government.[1]: 21
Round ganja
Before 1889 the people of Sonepur grew their ganja in their own house-yards.[1]: 21 They made round ganja by tying the flower tops with string in leaves of the plantain or of the rengál,[1]: 21 which Sathe says is sal.[1]: 23–24 People in the State did not know the term bhang and made no distinction between ganja and patti, the leaf; from either they made a drink called kúsúmba.[1]: 21
Sathe described how ganja was grown in the villages he knew, mostly in the yards of cultivators' houses or in sugarcane fields. The seed was sown thickly at the start of the rains in a well-manured bed, like chilli, bhata or tobacco. The seedlings were planted out at five or six inches high in rows a cubit apart, on high ground where water would not stand at the roots. When the plants flowered at the end of the rains the male plants, known by their yellowish flowers, stems and leaves, were pulled out. The female plants were cut when ripe and dried. The leaves were stripped and the flower tops left out for a night in the dew before being wrapped in leaves and tied.[1]: 21 Planting out was the custom in Boad and Athmallik; Sathe said it had also been the custom in Sonepur until cultivation was stopped.[1]: 23–24
The ban
Sonpur was one of the feudatory States of the Central Provinces. From 1880 the province's chiefs were to prohibit cultivation and take their ganja from the wholesale vendor of a British district. An enquiry in 1887 found that all of them had done so except the chiefs of Sonpur, Rairakhol and Chhuikhadan, who were given a severe warning.[2]: 74 According to Sathe, cultivation in Sonepur stopped in 1889.[1]: 21 By 1893 the Chiefs of Bamra, Rairakhol and Sonpur had said they wished to lower the five tolas of ganja that anyone could lawfully hold.[2]: 74
In the neighbouring Boad State the plant was still grown. Sathe reported that the area under the plant in the Boad villages bordering Sonepur had increased considerably since 1889. He gave three reasons: growing was no longer allowed in Sonepur; Boad ganja was cheaper than the Government's; people preferred it, since it was like the ganja once grown in Sonepur, to the flat ganja, which they thought more injurious and said gave them headaches. Several seizures of ganja smuggled from Boad pointed the same way. The heavy smokers he questioned asked him to try to obtain permission to grow and supply the local ganja again.[1]: 21 Banjaras and other labourers carried ganja from Boad into Sonepur and into the British district of Sambalpur.[1]: 23–24 Sathe thought that cultivation in the Central Provinces should not be confined to the Khandwa area, since people liked ganja from different places and the people of Sambalpur did not like Khandwa ganja.[1]: 23–24 The Commission quoted his account of Boad in its report.[3]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing area yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Trimbak Rao Sathe, Extra Assistant Commissioner, and Diwan of the Sonepur State". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VI: Evidence of Witnesses from Central Provinces and Madras. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Central Provinces witness no. 13, pp. 20–24 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the Central Provinces, by Mr. H. V. Drake-Brockman, Officiating Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. paras. 3–66, pp. 57–74 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 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. 96–100, pp. 37–39 – via Internet Archive.