DHÁRWÁR, a district of British India in the presidency of Bombay, situated between 14° 6' and 15’ 53' N. lat., and 74° 50' and 75° 58' E. long. It contains a total area of 4536 square miles, and a population of 988,037 inhabitants. The district is about 116 miles long, with an average width of 77 miles. It is bounded on the N. by the Belgaum and Kaládgi districts, on the E. by the Nizám’s territory and Bellári district, on the S. by Mysore, and on the W. by Belgaum and North Kanara districts. The western portions of the district, in the neighbourhood of the Sabyádri range, are rugged and hilly; but towards the east, the land falls away into plains of black soil in many parts very fertile and well suited to the growth of cotton, with occasionally a detached peak or group of hills. The chief rivers are the Malprabhá on the north and the Tungbhadrá on the south. The hills are principally composed of hornblende and chloritic schists, gneiss, and mica slate, large interstratified beds of silicious and ferruginous schists (as at and near Dhárwár) often forming their ridges. Seams and beds of a crystalline white marble occur, which, near their junction with the hornblende slate, are often coloured green. Gold is found sparingly in the Dumbal hills, and chick mulgund, and also iron pyrites. Iron ore is worked to a small extent at Tegur. where there was once a considerable trade in native iron. The most influential classes of the community are Brahmans and Lingáyats. The Lingáyats number 380,919, or 44 per cent, of the Hindu population; they worship the symbol of Siva, and males and females both carry this emblem about their person in a silver case. The manufactures of the district are not numerous; they consist of cotton and silk cloth, glass bracelets, and ...