GANJAM, district, British India, in the extreme north-east of the Madras Presidency. It has an area of 8,383 sq.m., largely mountainous and rocky, but interspersed with open valleys and fertile plains, with groves of trees. The mountainous tract known as the Maliyas, or chain of the Eastern Ghats, has an average height of about 2,000 ft. The hilly region, formerly the agency of Ganjam, is now included with the agencies of Vizagapatam and Godavari in one administrative division. The chief rivers are the Rushikulya, the Vamsadhara and the Languliya. Sea and river fisheries occupy many people. The hilly region abounds in forests.
Ganjam formed part of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga. The inaccessible country long kept the rising Mohammedan power at bay; and it was only a century after the first invasion of Orissa that a Mohammedan governor was sent to govern the Chicacole Circars, including the present district of Ganjam. In 1753 Chicacole and the Northern Circars were made over to the French. In 1759 Masulipatam was taken by an English force sent from Bengal, and the French were compelled to abandon Ganjam and their other factories in the north. In 1765 the Northern Circars (including Ganjam) were granted to the Eng lish by imperial firman, and in August 1768 an English factory was founded at Ganjam, protected by a fort. The British found the district difficult to rule at first. In 1816 Ganjam was overrun by the Pindaris; and in 1836 occurred the Gumsur campaign, when the British first came into contact with the aboriginal Kondhs, and suppressed their practice of human sacrifice.
In 1931 the pop. of the district was 2,411,619. It suffered severely from famine in 1919, and also from cyclones on two occasions. The principal crops are rice, other food grains, pulse and oil seeds; 46% of the cultivated land is under irrigation and fish is caught and cured. Salt is evaporated, as a government monopoly, along the coast. Sugar is refined at Aska. A consider able trade is conducted at the ports of Gopalpur and Calinga patam, which are only open roadsteads. The district is traversed throughout by the East Coast railway (Bengal-Nagpur system). The headquarters station is Berhampur; the town of Ganjam occupied this position till 1815, when it was found unhealthy, and its importance declined.