APPENDIX V.

NOTES ON THE REVENUE SYSTEM.

APPEND.

V.

(A) Traces of the lord of a thousand villages are found in different parts of the country, where particular families retain the name and part of the emoluments of their stations, but seldom or never exercise any of the powers.*

The next division is still universally recognised throughout India under the name of perganneh, although in many places the officers employed in it are only known by their enjoyment of hereditary lands or fees; or, at most, by their being the depositaries of all registers and records connected with land. These districts are no longer uniformly composed of one hundred villages, if they ever were so in practice; but, for the most part, are rather under that number, although in rare cases they depart from it very widely both in deficiency and excess.

The duties of a chief of a perganneh, even in pure Hindú times, were probably confined to the management of the police and revenue. He had under him an accountant or registrar, whose office, as well as his own, was hereditary, and who has retained his functions more extensively than his principal. +

* These are called sirdésmuks in the Deckan, in which and other southern parts of India the territorial division of Menu is most entire. Their districts are called sircárs or pránts, and these are constantly recognised, even when the office is quite extinct. Their hereditary registrar, also, is still to be found. under the name of sir déspándi.

+ The head perganneh officer was called désmuk or désai in the Deckan, and the registrar, déspandi. In the north of

India they are called choudri and cánongó.

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Next below the perganneh is a division now only sub- APPEND. sisting in name, and corresponding to Menu's lordship of ten or twenty towns*; and the chain ends in individual villages. +

(B) Called patél in the Deckan and in the west and centre of Hindostan ; mandel in Bengal; and mokaddam in many other places, especially where there are or have lately been hereditary village landholders.

(C) Patwári in Hindostan; culcarni and carnam in the Deckan and south of India; talláti in Guzerát.

(D) Pásbán, goráyet, peik, douráha, &c. in Hindostan ; mhár in the Deckan ; tillári in the south of India ; paggi in Guzerát.

(E) Village landholders are distinctly recognised throughout the whole of the Bengal presidency, except in Bengal proper, and perhaps Rohilcand.‡ They appear to subsist in part of Rájputána; and perhaps did so, at no remote period, over the whole of it.§ They are very numerous in Guzerát, include more than half the cultivators of the Maratta country, and a very large portion of those of the Támil country. There is good reason to think they were once general in those countries where they are now only partially in existence, and perhaps in others where they are not now to be found. They are almost extinct in the * Called náikwári, tarref, &c. &c.

+ For the accounts of these divisions and officers, see Malcolm's Malwa (vol. ii. p. 4.); Stirling's Orissa (Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 226.); Report from the Commissioner in the Deckan and its inclosures (Selections, vol. iv. p. 161.).

Sir E. Colebrooke's Minute (Selections, vol. iii. p. 165.). § Colonel Tod, vol. i. p. 495., and vol. ii. p. 540.

V.

APPEND. country south of the Nerbadda, except in the parts just mentioned. In all the Madras presidency north of Madras itself; in the Nizam's country, and most of that of Nágpúr; in great part of Candésh and the east of the Maratta country, there is no class resembling them. This tract comprehends the greater part of the old divisions of Telingána, Orissa, and Cánara; but does not so closely coincide with their boundaries, as to give much reason for ascribing the absence of village landholders to any peculiarity in the ancient system of those countries. In Málwa, though so close to countries where the village landholders are common, they do not seem now to be known. They are not mentioned in Sir John Malcolm's "Central India.”

(F) In Hindostan they are most commonly called village zemíndárs or biswadárs; in Behár, máliks; in Guzerát, patéls; and in the Deckan and south of India, mírássis or mírásdárs.

"The right of property in the land is unequivocally recognised in the present agricultural inhabitants by descent, purchase, or gift."

The right of the village landholders, to the extent stated in the text, is repeatedly alluded to in the published records of the Bengal government relating to the western provinces. Sir C. Metcalfe, though he contests the opinion that the right of property is full and absolute as in England, has no doubt about the persons in whom that right is vested. "The only proprietors, generally speaking, are the village zemíndárs or biswahdars. The pretensions of all others are primâ facie doubtful.”+ For portions of the territory under the Madras presidency see the Proceedings

* Fortescue, Selections, vol. viii. p. 403.

+ Minute of Sir C. Metcalfe, in the Report of the Select Committee of August, 1832, vol. iii. p. 335.

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of the Board of Revenue*, and Mr. Ellis.+ Sir T. Munro‡, APPEND. though he considers the advantages of mírásdárs to have been greatly exaggerated and their land to be of little value, admits it to be saleable. § For the Maratta country see Mr. Chaplin and the Reports of the Collectors. || Captain Robertson, one of the collectors, among other deeds of sale, gives one from some private villagers transferring their mírássi rights to the Péshwa himself. He also gives a grant from a village community conferring the lands of an extinct family on the same prince for a sum of money, and guaranteeing him against the claims of the former proprietors. A very complete account of all the different tenures in the Maratta country, as well as of the district and village officers, with illustrations from personal inquiries, is given by Lieutenant Colonel Sykes in the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society."¶

Care must be taken to distinguish mírás in the sense now adverted to from lands held on other tenures; for the word means hereditary property, and is, therefore, applied to rights of all descriptions which come under that denomination.

(G) Mr. Fortescue (Selections, vol. iii. pp. 403. 405. 408.); Captain Robertson (Ibid. vol. iv. p. 153.); Madras Board of Revenue (Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832, vol. iii. p. 393.); Governor of Bombay's Minute (Ibid. vol. iii. p. 637.).

(H) The following are the rights possessed in the intermediate stages between a fixed rent and an honorary * Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832, vol. iii. p. 392.

+ Ibid. p. 382.

Minute of Dec. 31. 1824.

f Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832, p. 457.

|| Selections, vol. iv. p. 474.

¶ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 205., and vol. iii. p. 350.

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APPEND. acknowledgment. The landholders are entitled to a deduction from the gross produce of the fields before dividing it with the government, and to fees on all the produce raised by persons not of their own class. This is called tunduwárum or swámibhogam (owner's share) in the Támil country; and málikána or zemíndári rasúm in Hindostan. In the latter country it usually forms part of a consolidated payment of 10 per cent. to the zemíndárs, which seems intended as a compensation for all general demands; but not interfering with the rent of a landholder's lands where any such could be obtained. In some places they have also fees from the non-agricultural inhabitants; and, as they are every where proprietors of the site of the village, they can levy rent in money or service from any person who lives within their bounds.

Where they have lost some of these rights by the encroachments of the government, they frequently have some consideration shown them in assessing their payment to the state, so as in some cases to admit of their getting rent for their land. In some places they are left their feest; and, where they are at the lowest, they have an exemption from certain taxes which are paid by all the rest of the inhabitants. The rights and immunities of the village landholders, as such, must not be confounded with those allowed to mokaddams and other officers for the performance of certain duties. Though the same persons may hold both, they are in their nature quite distinct; one being a proprietary right arising from an interest in the

*In Guzerát and in Hindostan. Also, see an account of the village of Burleh, by Mr. Cavendish (Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832, vol. iii. p. 246.).

In part of Támil, and in Hindostan, when not superseded by the allowance of 10 per cent. (See Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1832, vol. iii. p. 247.).