1821 — The Coffee Records Begin
An archival collection documenting coffee gardens, estate transactions, revenue administration and contested interests in the Baba Budan Hills during the nineteenth century.
Papers Relating to Coffee Estates on Bababudan Hills
Catalogued under L.R. File No. 106/1821, this collection brings together historical administrative papers relating to coffee cultivation and landholding in the Baba Budan region.
Its importance lies not in a single proclamation but in the surviving sequence of documents: references to coffee gardens, deeds and transactions, revenue questions, institutional interests and testimony recorded over time.
Historical archival reproduction · Multi-document file
Beyond the familiar coffee legend
The history of coffee in the Baba Budan Hills is often introduced through the tradition of Baba Budan and the arrival of coffee seeds. These nineteenth-century records allow a different kind of inquiry: how coffee gardens were described, administered, transferred and disputed in the documentary record.
The file provides a research pathway into the relationship between the hills’ coffee economy, local land administration and the institutions associated with the Baba Budan area. Each assertion about a particular holding or right must nevertheless be tested against the relevant document and its date.
Important sections of the 150-page copy
| Pages | Subject identified in the working index |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | File identification and introductory archival material |
| 31–38 | Property and transaction material, including an 1849-related record |
| 61–70 | Material concerning the Yemme Khan coffee garden |
| 101–150 | Depositions, testimony and related documentary material |
Page references follow the archive project’s working index of its 150-page copy; they are navigation aids, not substitute quotations or independently verified translations.
Why the date matters
1821 identifies the archival file series/reference. It must not be understood to mean that all 150 pages were written in 1821. The collected papers include later nineteenth-century material, including records associated with 1849.
Likewise, a reference to a coffee garden, Dargah, headman or land transaction does not, by itself, establish present-day ownership or the boundaries of a particular survey number. Those questions require the exact source page, supporting records and careful legal-historical analysis.
About this digital entry
Source: Karnataka State Archives, General & Revenue Secretariat historical records, Papers Relating to Coffee Estates on Bababudan Hills, L.R. File No. 106/1821; 150-page copy indexed for the Baba Budan Archives project.
Image: Existing photographic reproduction hosted in the Baba Budan Archives WordPress media library. The page does not claim that this single image represents the entire file.
Editorial method: This entry is an introduction and finding aid. Full transcriptions, translations and page-specific interpretations should be published only after checking them against the relevant reproduced folios.