CENTRAL PROVINCES form an administra tive portion of British India, lying between lat. 17° 15' and 24° 27' N., and long. 76° and 85° 15' E. During Lord Canning's rule, the provinces of Nagpnr and of Saugor and Nerbadda were united under a Commissioner. They consist of perhaps the grandest plateau on the the globe, more than half of it covered by the densest jungle, where the wild beast finds its lair and the Gond savage a precarious subsistence. For revenue purposes it has been arranged into the four dis tricts of Nagpur, Jubbulpur, Nerbadda, and Chliattisgarli.
The Nagpur province and the Saugor and Nerhruida territories occupy almost all the old territorial division of Gondwana.
Saugor and Dumoh districts aro on the Vindliyan table-land.
Mandla, Jubbulpur, Narsinglipnr, Hoshimgabad and part of Newar are in the Nerbadda valley.
&noel, Chindwara, Scold, and Balagabat are on the Satpura table-land.
Nagpur, Waida, Bliandara, and Chanda are on the Nagpur plain, in the valleys of the Warda and 1Vaiiiganga.
Jaipur and Bilaspur are on the Ch'hattisgarh plain, and Sumbulpore is in the valley of the Upper Godavery is on the left bank of that river.
The plateau is in the very centre of the Penin sula. From it, as from a focus, radiate great rivers. To the north flow the Son into the Ganges, the Cane, the Betwa, the Sind, and the Chanibal into the Jumna. To the west are the Tapti and Nerbadda, and to the east the Wain gangs, Wards, and Peinganga, which join the Godavery. What the Kuen lain mountains are to the river system of Central _Asia, and the Himalaya to Northern India, that is the Mahadeo range to the Dekhan. To the east of Bhandara and parts of the Chanda districts is an irregular expanse of water, the largest portion at Nawagan being 17 miles in circumference, with a depth in places of 00 feet, and many Hindu temples have been erected at the scenic spots. On this wide table-land there is soil of surpassing fertility ; its woods are inexhaustible ; and it has coal, iron, precious stones, and gold. Here all the emigrants of Great Britain for the next decade might settle and grow rich. The area is 112,912 square miles,
of which 47,299 are unculturable, and in 1868 about half of the remainder was under cultivation. Between the Census of 1872 and 1881, the popula tion increased in the districts from 8,173,824 to 9,838,791, an increase of 1,664,967 ; and in the Feudatory States from 1,049,710 to 1,709,720, an increase of 660,010 ; or a total increase of just twenty-five per cent.
The Native States are Arca. Pop. Area. Pop.
Sq. miles. in 1872. Sq. miles. in 1872.
Baum, . . 1,988 53,613 Namlgaon, Bastar, . 13,062 78,856 Patna, . 2,899 98;836 Chntia Nagpur, Ilairagarh Bar15 mahals, garb, . . 1,48G 03,304 Kanker, . . 639 43,542 Balm Khol, . 832 12,600 Karond, . . 3,745 133,483 Sarangarh, . 540 37,091 Ka•arcia, . 837 75,462 Sonpur, . . 906 130,713 Khairagarh, . 910 122,264 Sakti, . . 115 8,394 Khondka, . 174 29,590 Makrai, . . 215 13,049 Total, . 29,834 1,040,710 In 1872 the non - Aryan tribes numbered 2,014,731, of whom 1,669,835 inhabited British territory. Most of the Gond chiefs have a Bajput ancestry mixed with aboriginal blood.
The Satpura plateau runs nearly east and west for 600 miles. It is the true barrier between Northern and Southern India, and .is the line on which the settlers from Hindustan met the emi grants from the Dekhan and Maharashtra, each of them pressing the prior races into the great natural fastnesses of the mountain range. The Satpura mountain range, extending from Rajpiplah to Asirgarh; is a belt of mountainous country 40 or 50 miles In breadth, with an average height of 2000 feet.
In Gondwana there are now only two millions of aborigines, out of a total population of nine millions. The remaining seven millions almost amount to a microcosm of the people in India, and justice is administered in the Central Provinces in five different languages, viz. Urdu, Hindi, Mahratti, Uriya, and Telugu. In round numbers, the seven millions may be thus classified :-13. millions speak Mahratti; lf do. speak Uriya ; 4 do. speak Hindi.