Talk:Pathar (cannabis)

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Page scope

Pathar (cannabis) covers pathar as a trade name: its spellings, what the name was attached to, where the ganja sold under it came from, how it looked and was valued against Bengal baluchar, its place in the market of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in the 1890s, passing off and adulteration, and the import duty proposed in 1893–95. The growing and curing of the crop are on Khandwa; the Gwalior State's cultivation is on Antri; the Bengal grades are on Ganja.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Sources and how they were read

Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, vol. I (1894). Read on the page images of the printed report: ch. VI, paras. 247–248 (p. 96); ch. VII, paras. 290–292 (pp. 110–111); ch. VIII, paras. 356 and 358 (p. 136); ch. XVI, para. 657 (p. 321).
Vol. III (1894). T. Stoker's memorandum on the North-Western Provinces and Oudh: paras. 21–22 (p. 28), 23–24 (p. 29), the price table of para. 46 (pp. 39–40) and the proposals of paras. 48–49 (p. 41). R. H. Gunion's memorandum on Central India, p. 159, for the Indore minister's reply to Atkinson. All read on the page images.
Vol. V (1894). The evidence of witnesses 4 (Cockburn), 12 (Brownrigg), 52 (Chatterji), 53 (Kampta Pershad), 61 (Jaideo Sahay), 77 (Holmes), 120 (Roy), 160 (Buland Ali Khan), 233 (Wall), 253 (Mahomed Hassein) and 254 (Sheo Pershad). Each passage used was found through a search of the full text of the volume and read on the page image, with the witness heading.
Vol. VI (1894). The evidence of H. V. Drake-Brockman (Central Provinces witness 9, pp. 12 and 14) and V. B. Khare (witness 22, p. 43), read on the page images.
Government of India, Resolution No. 1369 Ex. (21 March 1895), para. 58, p. 19, read on the page image.

Title and spellings

The title is the Commission's spelling. Pathar is also an ordinary word and an element of place names (Dirak Pathar, Kumung Pathar), so the title carries the disambiguator and the bare word is not redirected.
Pathiyara (the Commission's form) and Patiyara (Brownrigg's) redirect here, with Pathar ganja, Khandwa ganja and Gwalior ganja; the last points to the section on it.
Other spellings in the sources: pattiyara and pattiyala (Stoker), pathiyala (the Commission), patiara (Brownrigg), pattar (Drake-Brockman, and a Hoshangabad witness in vol. VI), patter (the Indore minister), patharia (Banda witnesses in vol. V). These have no redirects.
Cockburn's other name for the product, Dukunee, is reported as he wrote it. No source glosses it, and the article gives no meaning for it.
No source gives a meaning for pathar that rests on more than a guess. Stoker's suggestion (the leafy character of the drug) and Mahomed Hassein's (the buds flattened in the heap) are attributed; Drake-Brockman could not find an etymology. The infobox gives no meaning.
The first year in the infobox, 1894, is the year of the Commission's report. Stoker's memorandum in it was written in 1893. E. T. Atkinson's Himalayan Districts used pattar earlier, as quoted by the Indore minister; that book was not read for this page, and its year is not used.

Kind of page

A product name: in the sources pathar names a kind of ganja in the trade of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, defined by where it came from and by its price against Bengal ganja. No source uses it for a population of plants.

Where the sources differ

Which form the name covers. Brownrigg (Sultanpur) calls broken ganja pathar and flat ganja baluchar; Chatterji (Mainpuri) calls round ganja pathar; Holmes (Lucknow) and Jaideo Sahay (Bara Banki) call flat ganja pathar; a Banda witness equates patharia with chur. Stoker and the Commission use the name for the ganja of the Central Provinces and Gwalior, whatever its form, and Khare and Drake-Brockman say only flat ganja was made in the Central Provinces. The article reports each witness.
Strength. Cockburn and Brownrigg have pathar weaker than baluchar; Kampta Pershad and Sheo Pershad have it stronger. The article gives both.
Retail price. Stoker (para. 21) has pathar at "one anna and half an anna" a tola and his price table at half an anna to one anna. The Commission's summary (vol. I, para. 291) prints "1½ annas". The article follows Stoker.
Where pathar was made. Cockburn says pathar ganja was produced in the Haidargarh tahsil of Bara Banki and in Faizabad and Pratapgarh. Stoker and the Commission name only the Central Provinces, Gwalior and the Bundelkhand states as sources of supply. The article reports Cockburn's statement as his.
Indore. Atkinson had pattar coming chiefly from Indore territory; the Indore minister said that none was then produced in the State. A Hoshangabad witness in vol. VI (no. 69) also speaks of pattar coming, or being smuggled, from Holkar's territories. The article gives Atkinson and the minister.

Not used, and why

Vol. V, witness 120 (Roy), in a further paper (p. 177), says that pathar was "collected from wild uncultivated as well as cultivated plants" and that charas was said to be extracted from it. No other witness read for this page says either; not used.
Seed-bank and accession listings. No accession carries the name in its descriptive name or synonyms; the infobox finds none.

Wikipedia

A search of the English Wikipedia found no article that uses pathar as a name for ganja.