POONA, a town and military cantonment in the Dekhan, which gives its name to a revenue district, lying between lat. 17° 54' and 19° 23' N., and between long. 73° 24' and 75° 13' E., with 1111 area of 5348 square miles ; population in 1881 was 900,621. It is above the ghats, and about 119 miles south-east from Bombay. The provinces of Aurangabad and Bijapur are arranged into two divisions, termed the Poona and the Southern districts, the latter with its headquarters at Belgaum. From July to No vember, Poona city is the seat of the Govern ment of Bombay. It is in lat. 30' 23" N., long. 73° 55' 33" E., and is about 1840 feet above the sea. The annual fall of rain is 25 inches, the mean tenmerature is from to 96°, and the rock is greenstone and greenatono amygdaloid. One of time finest views of the city and the surrounding country is to be obtained from the fort of Parbattiah, once a Mahratta stronghold, now famed for its Hindu temple.
The approach leads through a shady avenue of tamarind, mango, and cocoanut tree., to a small lake with an island, clothed with fruit trees to the very margin of the calm and glassy water, in which are reflected the broad leaves of the plan tain and palm, festooned with a woodbine-like creeper. This place, until the year 1817, was the city in which the Peshwa rulers of the Mahrattas resided. A battle was fought there between the British and the I'eshwa on the 16th November 1817, and the city was taken on the 1001 Novem ber. The population of the city in 1872 was 90,437. The cultivators are chiefly Kunbi and Mali ; the Brahmans are numerous, the Mullein inadans in the district about 40,000, Parsees 1263, and Jews 281. The predatory tribes arc the Ramusi, Bhil, and Koli, and tho menials are the Dlier, Mhair, and Mhang.