Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s3.t1.155

v2.c28.s3.t1.155

Banjāras : Salt Trade.—This productive branch of industry still employs thousands of hands, and hundreds of thousands of oxen, and is almost entirely in the hands of that singular race of beings called Banjaras, some of whose tandas, or caravans, amount to 40,000 head of oxen. The salt is exported to every region of Hindustan, from the Indus to the Ganges, and is universally known and sold under the title of Sambhar Lun, or ‘ salt of Sambhar,’ notwithstanding the quality of the different lakes varies, that of Pachbhadra, beyond the Luni, being most esteemed.¹ It is produced by natural evaporation, expedited by dividing the surface into pans by means of mats of the Sarkanda grass,² which lessens the superficial agitation. It is then gathered and heaped up into immense masses, on whose summit they burn a variety of alkaline plants, such as the sajji,³ by which it becomes impervious to the weather.