Sambhar Lake
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sambhar Lake
A famous salt lake in Rajputana, on the borders of the Jodhpur and Jaipur States, lying between 26 53' and 27 i' N. and 74 54' and 75 14' E., and distant, by railway, 53 miles north-east of Ajmer, and 230 miles south-west of Delhi. The lake is situated nearly 1,200 feet above sea-level, and when full is about 20 miles in length (from south-east to north-west), from 2 to 7 miles in breadth, and covers an area of about 90 square miles. In the hot months its bed is generally quite dry, but, after exceptionally heavy rains, it con- tains water throughout the year. It is dependent for its supply on three rivers which empty themselves into it ; of these, two come from the spurs of the Aravalli Hills to the west, and the third from the country to the north The annual rainfall at the town of Sambhar averages nearly 20 inches, and at Nawa about 17 inches. The surrounding country is sandy and sterile, but the view of the lake in the hot season is very striking. Standing on the low sandy ridges to the south, one sees what looks like a great sheet of glittering snow, with sometimes a pool of water here and there, and a network of narrow paths ; but what appears to be frozen snow is a white crisp efflorescence of salt. According to local tradition, the goddess Sakambari (the consort of Siva), in return for some service done her, converted a dense forest into a plain of silver, and subsequently, at the request of the inhabitants, who dreaded the cupidity and strife which such a possession would excite, transformed it into the present salt lake, which was named Sambhar (a corruption of Sakambar) after her. This is supposed to have happened in the sixth century. To determine the origin of the salt, a special investigation has recently been conducted by the Geological Survey of India. Borings made in the lake-bed at three places show that the thickness of the silt varies from 61 feet at the eastern end to 70 feet near the centre and 76 feet at the north-western end, and that the rocks below this silt are, in each case, schists of the kind cropping up around the edges of the lake, and forming the hills belonging to the Aravalli series in the neighbouihood. It is therefore considered that the salt resources of Sambhar are confined to this body of silt filling in a depression of the Aravalli schists and gneisses, and that the soluble compounds of sodium stored in the silt have accumulated by the evaporation of the water brought in every year by the rivers which are in flood after heavy rains. The concentration of common salt and of the other less abundant sodium- compounds associated with it has been effected in a manner common to areas of internal closed drainage in all arid regions. There is nothing to show a past inroad of the ocean, and no rock-salt beds exist in the geological formation of the area.
The Sambhar Lake is said to have been worked by the imperial administration of Akbar and his successors up to the time of Ahmad Shah (1748-54), when it came into the hands of its present owners, the chiefs of Jodhpur and Jaipur. The western half belongs entirely to
the former, and the eastern half, including the town of Sambhar, is owned by the two States jointly. The lake is said to have passed for a time into the possession of the Marathas and Amir Khan, while from about 1835 to 1843 the British Government, in order to repay itself a portion of the expenses incurred in restoring order in Shekhawati and the neighbouring districts, took the salt-making into its own hands.
Finally in 1870 the lake was leased to Government for an annual payment of 7 lakhs 4^ lakhs to Jodhpur and 2 J lakhs to Jaipur on the condition that, if the sales of salt exceeded 1,725,000 maunds (about 63,400 tons) in any year, 40 per cent, of the sale price of such excess would be paid to the States as royalty. Under arrangements made in 1884, Jodhpur receives five-eighths and Jaipur three-eighths of the total royalty payable. These States also receive a certain quantity (Jodhpur 14,000 maunds and Jaipur 7,000 maunds) of salt free of all charges yearly. Including about 74,000 tons taken over when the lease was executed, the quantity of salt manufactured to the end of March, 1904, exceeded 4,300,000 tons, or a yearly average of about 126,600 tons. The quantity disposed of during the same period, including that delivered free of cost under treaty arrangements, wastage, &c,, was about 4,240,000 tons. The receipts from sale of salt have been 326 lakhs, and the expenditure, including all treaty and royalty payments, 294 lakhs, leaving a credit balance on April i, 1904, of 32 lakhs, or a little over 212,000. The average cost of extraction and storage has been rather more than 7 pies (or one halfpenny) per maund, or about one rupee per ton. Duty was first levied at the lake on October i, 1878, when the customs line was abolished. Between April i, 1879, an d March 31, 1904, the gross receipts from all sources have been 2452 lakhs and the total ex- penditure 261 lakhs, leaving a surplus of 2191 lakhs (over 14-! million pounds sterling). The average yearly net receipts have thus been nearly 88 lakhs, or about 584,340.
Salt is obtained by three methods : namely, from permanent salt- works constructed in the bed of the lake, called kyars\ from shallow solar evaporation pans of a temporary nature constructed on the lake- shore ; and from enclosed sections of the bed on which salt forms, so to speak, spontaneously. In 1903-4 (when only about one-fourth of the usual quantity of salt was manufactured) 24,000 labourers of both sexes were employed on the extraction and storage of kyar salt and the storage of pan salt, and the average daily earnings were about 5^ annas per head. The castes employed are Balais, Barars, Gujars, Jats, Kasais (butchers), Khatiks, Kumhars, Malis, Mughals, Pathans, and Regars ; and nearly all permanently reside in the neighbourhood. There are three railway stations on the lake at Sambhar, Gudha, and Kuchawan Road or Nawa and the line runs into all the principal manufacturing works or walled enclosures. The salt is stored close to the line and loaded direct into the railway wagons ; it is largely consumed in Raj- putana, Central India, the United Provinces, and in the Punjab south of Karnal, and it also finds its way into the Central Provinces and Nepal. The lake has been observed to furnish diminished quantities of salt during the last few years ; but samples of mud, taken at depths of from 4 to 12 feet below the surface, have recently been found on analysis to contain 6 per cent, of salt, and from this fact it is esti- mated that, in the upper 12 feet of the lake-silt, the accumulated salt amounts to just one million tons per square mile. As the total quantity removed by artificial means since the commencement of the British lease in 1870 has been only about four million tons, the system of manufacture has resulted in but a small inroad into the total stocks.
[F. Ashton, 'Salt Industry of Rajputana' in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry ', vol. ix.]
