CHHATISGARH, a division or commissionership of British India, under the jurisdiction of the chief-commissioner of the Central Provinces, comprising the districts of Ráipur. Biláspur, and Sambalpur, and seven small feudatory states, between 16° 50' and 23° 10' N. lat., and between 80° 30' and 83° 15' E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Sohágpur in the Rewah state and by the Sirgujá and Udáipur states of Chutiá Nágpur; on the E. by the Orissa tributary states and the northern districts of Madras; on the 8. by the Bastár state of the Central Provinces; and on the W. by the districts of Chándá, Bhándárá, Bálághát, Seoni, and Mandlá. The area is 39,647 square miles; the population in 1872 was 3,289,043, residing in 16,054 villages or townships, and in 726,190 houses. Classified according to religion there are 2,054,874 Hindus, or 62*48 per cent.; 26,046 Muhammadans; 243 Buddhists and Jains; 451 Christians; and of aboriginal tribes and persons of unspecified religion, 1,207,429, or 36 ’ 72 per cent. Two great rivers, the Nerbudda and Son, take their rise at the side of the Amarkantak hill in the north-west corner of the division, the former flowing nearly due west to the Bombay coast, the latter ultimately falling into the Ganges in Lower Bengal.