RJNDER 211
1903-4 the income was Rs. 35,000, mainly derived -from a tax on
houses and lands and a conservancy rate; and the expenditure was
Rs. 32,ooo. The natural drainage of the town is excellent, and plenty
of good water can be obtained from wells. The town contains the
usual public buildings; the District jail has accommodation for 217
prisoners, who are employed on the manufacture of oil and of rope
from aloe fibre. The most important schools are the District school,
with 338 pupils on its rolls in i 902 ; the German Evangelistic Lutheran
Mission high school, intended chiefly for the education of Christian
converts, with 230 pupils; the first-grade school for vernacular teachers,
with 22 pupils; the Government industrial school, and the blind school.
In the industrial school the pupils, who in 1902 numbered 5o, receive
stipends varying from R. 1 to Rs. 3 per month, and are taught carpen-
tering and blacksmiths' work, &c., together with a certain amount of
reading, writing, free-hand drawing, elementary arithmetic, and practical
geometry. The course of instruction at the blind school, which had
20 pupils, includes reading by means of raised type representing letters,
cane-work, newar weaving, and mat-making. It is proposed to build
a large asylum for European and Eurasian lunatics from Northern
India at Ranch!.
Rander.-Town in the Chorasi tdluka of Surat District, Bombay,
situated in 21° 13' N. and 72° 48' E., on the right bank of the Tapti,
2 miles above Surat city. Population (r9oi), 10,478, including suburb.
Rander is supposed to be one of the oldest places in Southern Gujarat.
It is said to have been a place of importance about the beginning
of the Christian era, when Broach was the chief seat of commerce
in Western India. Albiruni (103x) gives Rander (Rahanjhour) and
Broach as dual capitals of South Gujarat. In the early part of the
thirteenth century a colony of Arab merchants and sailors is stated to
have attacked and expelled the Jains, at that time ruling at Rander,
and to have converted their temples into mosques. Under the name
of Nayatas, the Rander Arabs traded to distant countries. In 1514
the traveller Barbosa described Rander as a rich and agreeable place
of the Moors (Nayatas), possessing very large and fine ships, and
trading with Malacca, Bengal, Tawasery (Tennasserim), Pegu, Mar-
taban, and Sumatra, in all sorts of spices, drugs, silk, musk, benzoin,
and porcelain. In 1530 the Portuguese, after sacking Surat, took
Rander. With the growing importance of Surat, Rander declined in
prosperity, and, by the close of the sixteenth century, became a port
dependent on Surat. At present, Bohras of the Sunni sect carry on
trade westwards with Mauritius, and eastwards with Rangoon, Moul-
mein, Siam, and Singapore. By the opening of the Tapti bridge in
1877 Rander was closely connected with Surat city. The municipality,
established in 1868, had an average income of about RS. 2o,ooo during
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