1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kistna (district)
|←Kistna (river)||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 15
|See also Krishna District on Wikipedia; and our 191
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kistna (district)
|←Kistna (river)||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 15
|See also Krishna District on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.|
KISTNA or Krishna, a district of British India, in the N.E. of the Madras Presidency. Masulipatam is the district headquarters. Area, 8490 sq. m. The district is generally a flat country, but the interior is broken by a few low hills, the highest being 1857 ft. above sea-level. The principal rivers are the Kistna, which cuts the district into two portions, and the Munyeru, Paleru and Naguleru (tributaries of the Gundlakamma and the Kistna); the last only is navigable. The Kolar lake, which covers an area of 21 by 14 m., and the Romparu swamp are natural receptacles for the drainage on the north and south sides of the Kistna respectively.
In 1901 the population was 2,154,803, showing an increase of 16% in the decade. Subsequently the area of the district was reduced by the formation of the new district of Guntur (q.v.), though Kistna received an accretion of territory from Godavari district. The population in 1901 on the area as reconstituted (5899 sq. m.) was 1,744,138. The Kistna delta system of irrigation canals, which are available also for navigation, connect with the Godavari system. The principal crops are rice, millets, pulse, oil-seeds, cotton, indigo, tobacco and a little sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown on lankas or islands in the Kistna. The manufacture of chintzes at Masulipatam is a decaying industry, but cotton is woven everywhere for domestic use. Salt is evaporated, under government supervision, along the coast. Bezwada, at 