Sovereignty.

302. The early history of the District is obscure; but what little is known shows that the District forming part of the north-western tract of the Deccan was under various Hindu dynasties down to 1294 A.D. In that year the Musalmans first appeared in Berar and the result of the raid of Ala-ud-din Khilji was the assignment of the revenue of northern Berar, in which the Jalgaon and Malkapur taluks were probably included, to Delhi. In 1312 A.D. the District with the rest of Berar came directly under Muhammadan administration. For a brief period from 1316 to 1318 A.D. the District reverted to Hindu rule but from 1318 to 1595 A.D. it was in the hands of various Muhammadan dynasties. In 1596 Berar became an appanage of the crown of Delhi, and remained in this position till 1724 A.D. In that year the battle of Shakarkhelda in the Mehkar taluk gave the sovereignty to the Nizam of Hyderabad. But this sovereignty was subject to the limitation of the right of the Marathas to few an impost known as chauth, amounting to one-quarter of the land revenue, and a further contribution known as sardeshmukhi amounting to one-tenth of the revenue to cover the cost of collecting the chauth. This dual sovereignty lasted till 1803 A.D., when the Maratha power came to an end. From 1803 A.D to 1853 A.D. Berar remained under the direct control of the Nizam. In 1853 A.D Berar was assigned to the British and till 1903 A.D it remained for administrative purposes under the Resident at Hyderabad. In October 1003 it was amalgamated with the Central Provinces, and has since formed a division of that Administration.

Territorial divisions.

303. Berar was one of the four provinces or tarafs into which the Bahmani kingdom was divided about 1350 A.D., and was in charge of a governor or tarafdar. In 1480 this province was further divided into two divisions the Gawil on the north and the Mahur on the south the latter probably including the Chikhli and Mehkar taluks and the former the three taluks of Malkapur, Jalgaon and Khamgaon. According to the Ain-i-Akbari the present District of Buldana comprised a large part of Akbar's sarkars of Narnala and Baitalwadi and the greater part of the sarkar of Mehkar. In 1634 a redistribution of territory took place. Berar was divided into 2 subahs, each under the control of a subahdar. The northern subah known as the Payanghat included the Malkapur, Jalgaon and Khamgaon taluks; and the southern subah known as the Balaghat contained the taluks of Chikhli and Mehkar. This arrangement did not, however, last long, and in 1636 Berar as a separate subah formed one of the four divisions of the Deccan Berar was assigned to the East India Company in 1853, when the District consisted of the following parganas:— 1. Malkapur, 2. Jalgaon, 3. Badner Bholji, 4. Pimpalgaon Raja, 5. Jepur, and 6. Rajur. After the Assignment Berar was divided into two districts, South Berar (the Balaghat) with its headquarters at Hingoli, and North Berar with headquarters at Buldana. After the Mutiny the province was reconstituted into East Berar with headquarters at Amraoti, and West Berar with headquarters at Akola, the present Buldana District being included in the latter. In 1864 the taluks of Malkapur, Chikhli and Mehkar were separated from the West Berar district and formed into an independent charge styled the South-West Berar district. This designation was changed to the Mehkar district in 1865. In 1867 Buldana was selected as the headquarters of the District to which it thenceforth gave its name. On the reconstitution of the six districts of Berar in August 1905. Buldana received the Khamgaon and Jalgaon taluks from the Akola District. The District as it now stands is composed of five taluks, Chikhli, Mehkar, Malkapur, Jalgaon and Khamgaon.

Taluk boundaries.

304. From the time of the Muhammadan conquest the lowest administrative denomination was the pargana or mahal, both of which terms seem to have signified the parcel of land-known by separate entry and assessment in the revenue-rolls of the state. Akbar grouped the parganas into sarkars, of which thirteen formed in his reign the Berar subah. In 1853 the number of parganas that lay in the Narnala division, which nearly represented Western Berar in which was included the present Buldana District, was fifteen, and nearly half of these lie still in the District. The organization into sarkdrs and parganas survived in the records till 1853, but even before that date it had for practical revenue purposes become obsolete. It was superseded by the term taluk, which meant the parcel of villages made over to one talukdar, and after 1853 signified the sub-circle of revenue collections under a State Tahsildar. Of the five taluks constituting the District, only four were in existence in 1853. They were as follows:—

The fifth taluk of Khamgaon was formed in 1870 by transfer of 148 villages from the Balapur taluk.

At the original survey (1861-1870) the number of villages attached to each taluk was as follows:—

Since the original settlement several changes have been made in the taluk boundaries. Chikhli transferred between the first and second settlement 48 Government villages and one jagir village to the Malkapur taluk, six villages to the Mehkar taluk, five villages to His Highness the Nizam's territory, and received in return eight villages from the Mehkar taluk. one jagir village (Pimpalgaon) was resumed in 1889 three Government villages were made jagir; so that at the close of the revision settlement (in 1895 Chikhli had 305 Government and 8 jagir villages. Mehkar similarly transferred eight of its villages to chikhli and six to His Highness the Nizam's dominions and received from them respectively six and six villages, amongst the latter, however, there were four jagir villages. Two jagir villages—one Pahur and the other Bhisa—were resumed in 1881 and 1880 respectively. Thus the Mehkar taluk contained 344 Government and 14 jagir villages at the revision settlement, Malkapur gave seven of its villages as jagir to Raja Hari Har Rao Bahadur Nemiwant of Hyderabad in 1877 and resumed two of its jagir villages, one in 1881, and the other in 1884. Thus the Malkapur taluk consisted of 330 Government and nine jagir villages at the revision settlement. Jalgaon transferred eighteen villages, eight to Akot and ten to Malkapur, and received in exchange from Akot one village. The khels of the three large villages of Jalgaon, Jamod and Pathurda, which numbered twelve, five and four respectively, were each counted as a separate village. It received two Government villages and five jagir villages from the Melghat in 1891, and thus at the close of revision settlement it contained 217 Government and eight jagir villages.

Khamgaon shows no change. In August 1905 further alterations in the boundaries of the taluks of Mehkar, Jalgaon and Khamgaon were made with a view to making the boundaries of forest charges conterminous with those of the revenue District. Thirteen villages forming the Ambabarwa State forest in the Melghat taluk were transferred to the Jalgaon taluk. Similarly the village of Dhadham, forming part of the Ghatbori forest, was transferred from Khamgaon taluk to the Mehkar taluk. The latter again received the four villages of Mohona Buzruk, Mandwa Sawat Dongar, Lakhanwara Buzruk and Pimpri Dhangar from the Balapur taluk. Thus the total number of villages that each taluk now contain is as follows:—

Early revenue administration. Pre Muhammadan period.

305. The aboriginal unit was in Berar, as all over India, the village. Into the vexed question of the nature of the early village community it is not necessary to enter here, complicated as that question is by the difficulty of describing in terms of civilized thought the half-conscious reasonings or instincts of savages, and in India by the unreliable nature of the evidence. Of the differences between the primitive Dravidian and the primitive Aryan village, of the early growth of law and the subsequent growth of a quasi-feudal society in India, we really know absolutely nothing. The latter process seems to have been at least accelerated in Berar by the successive invasions, and their resulting overlordships. The Indian village has in a crystallized form survived them all, and into the successive types of rule its headman or patel has always been adopted as an integral part. As a leader of the party of settlers the headman had a special holding set apart for him, and the territorial chief was also supported by another lot of land in each village, the entire produce of which went to him. This latter plan, however, was gradually superseded by the chief taking a share in the grain 'produce of all lands, except the village headman's and certain other privileged settlers.' This share in the grain became the principal source of state revenue, and is the parent of our modern land revenue. The traditional share in the produce so taken was one-sixth, but there is evidence to show that this limit was freely raised when the necessity arose. With the introduction of the grain share came the appointment of a second official, the prototype of the patwari, and he also was remunerated by a hereditary holding of land. It is these ancient holdings that were afterwards called by the Muhammadan rulers watan. All the watan lands and the various privileges and dignities associated with them constituted a family property which was capable of descending to a number of heirs jointly. Further, in each village there grew up a staff of artizans, menials and servants, who became hereditary and served the village, not for payment by the job (such a thing was of course unknown but for a regular remuneration, paid in kind, chiefly by a fixed share in the harvest. This ancient village community is the prototype of the modern Berar ryotwari village.

Early Muhammadan period, 1294 AD.—1596 A.D.

306. We possess no detailed information about the earliest method of Moslem revenue management, but the policy seems to have been to preserve the older village institutions. The hereditary offices of Deshmukh and Deshpandia are supposed by some writers to owe their origin to this period, but it is a very doubtful supposition. The Deshmukh was ahead patel of a circle of villages, and was responsible for apportioning and collecting the land revenue, while the Deshpandia was a head patwari or kanungo and kept the accounts. They were always Hindus, the Deshmukh gene rally a Kunbi and the Deshpandia a Brahman, and they may have been instituted by the Muhammadans to conciliate a conquered people. An interesting description of this period may be quoted from Sir A. Lyall: ' If we take the centuries between 1300 and 1600 A.D. as the period (roughly stated) of independent Muhammadan dominion in the Dakhan, and compare it with the same breadth of time in Western Europe, the Dakhani government will not lose much by comparison. We shall be struck by resemblances more than by constrasts in all that concerns civil policy and the use made of their arbitrary power by princes and lords of the land. Long wasting wars, bloody feuds, revolts, massacres, assassinations, cruel and barbarous punishments,'' sad stories of the death of kings"—all these things fill the chronicles of Plantagenets and Valois as plentifully as the annals of the Bahmanis. Yet, as has often been said, although these descriptions now startle us into horror and astonishment, it may be guessed that life in those times was more tolerable than it appears to modern readers. A majority of the people took no share at all in the constant lighting, or in the perilous intrigues which were continually exploding in violent catastrophes that shook or overturned the throne; while another section of the people enjoyed the stirring life and the chances of rebellion, and staked their lives on the sport quite as readily as men now risk their limbs against a tiger. For Berar, it seems to have been always an agricultural country, situated off the high road of foreign armies, and distant from the capitals of royalty. It suffered like other districts from inroads and internal disorders, but its battlefields are comparatively not numerous. Then the settled Muhammadan government always attempted, in the interests of revenue, to protect the tillers of the land, keeping the collections as much as possible in their own hands, except when jagirs were granted, and never formally abandoning the cultivator to the mercy of a feudal lord. We may conjecture that the peasantry as a class were much above the mediaeval serfs and villeins of Europe; and altogether that they were at least as well off under the Bahmani and Imad Shahi rulers as the commons of any outlying counties of "England during the great wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Probably the seventeenth of France were worse off up to the end of the seventeenth century. Certainly and subah of Berar was in a high state of cultivation, and yielded an ample revenue when Akbar annexed it and the land must have prospered still more under the wise administration of Malik Ambar, of whom more hereafter.

In those ages the whole Dakhan swarmed with adventurers from every nation in Asia, and from the African coast of the Indian Ocean. These men and their descendants settled in the towns, their chiefs occupied most of the high military and civil offices but, in Berar at least, the Muhammadans appear to have left the Hindus in undisturbed possession of the soil. And although the hereditary revenue authorities, the Deshmukhs and Deshpandias who were chief officers of districts with much influence and profit, are said to have been instituted by the early Muhammadan kings, yet in Berar these places and perquisites have from time immemorial been in the hands of Hindus.'

Mughal period 1596 A.D. to 1720 A.D.

307. Berar was ceded to the Emperor Akbar in 1569 A.D., and was one of the subahs which came under the famous land-revenue settlement made by him and his Hindu minister Todar Mal. The early Hindu system had been one without any survey or measurement and without any records to speak of. The Mughal rulers crystallized it into more business-like permanence by measuring and recording villages, parganas and sarkars with their revenue assessment. The first beginning of a change from the mere levy of a share of grain to a regularly assessed cash revenue may be traced to Akbar's settlement, and the cash rates were, when possible, fixed for a period of years instead of being liable to annual alteration. A more or less uniform system of revenue accounts was also established. The settlement was fixed by measuring the arable lands and making a careful estimate of their produce. The unit of land for purposes of assessment was taken to be a bigha, a term used to denote a piece of land measuring a little more than two-thirds of an acre. Each bigha was rated at the value of one-fourth the estimated produce, and the sum total of the demand on a village or group of villages thus calculated was termed its tankhwa or standard rentroll; from this rating were omitted lands which were barren or never brought under cultivation. The average rate of assessment per bigha of land was R. 1-4. Mr. Bullock, in his Report on North Berar for 1854-55, gives the following account of the land assessment of this province under the Mughals. It is probably taken from some old papers preserved among the kanungo records, but these are usually copies, several times repeated, of original documents.

I may as well mention that under the kings of Delhi, when the mode of assessment was under strict regulation. the valley of Berar was divided into three main descriptions of land, viz., ainkali, miankalas, and kalaspati. The ainkali was the deep black soil. The miankalas was the soil where the black began to mingle with a lighter description. The kalaspati was the light soil lying towards the hills. The black soil is towards the centre of the valley. Each of these divisions had its general rate fixed upon each bigha, but divided into various sorts with a rate on each, and these rates were only slightly modified by local circumstances.

The bigha of arable land was less than the bigha now in use in Khandesh or elsewhere, which is 3600 square yards, and the garden and inam bigha was larger, viz., the inam land was measured by the Ilahi gaz, equal to 7225 square yards per bigha. The garden land was measured by the gaz, Bard Sikandari. which gave 5500 69/100 square yards per bigha, and the arable land by the Chhota Sikandari gaz, which gave 2256 ²⁵/₁₀₀ square yards per bigha. The average rates on land were as follows: first sort, divided into two sorts—first sort R. 1-3-9, second sort As. 13-3 per bigha; second sort, subdivided into two sorts—first sort R. 1-1-3, second sort As. 12-3 per bigha; third sort, subdivided into two sorts—first sort As. 11-6, and second sort As. 11-3 per bigha. Garden land in two kinds—first sort Rs. 3-11-0, second sort Rs. 2-4-0. The whole was under khamwasul and the Annual Settlement paper was as nearly as possible that which I have now introduced, but with even more exact detail. We can form some idea of the prosperity of the valley at that time, as the total revenue in the year quoted during the reign of Alamgir was Rs. 27,44,750-11-0, because the land was fully cultivated, and the population abundant and vigorous, in- stead of being scanty, ill-fed, and weakly, as they are now.'

The present Buldana District comprised a large part of Akbar's sarkars of Narnala and Baitalwadi, and the greater part of the sarkar of Mehkar. The demand on account of land revenue amounted to more than sixteen lakhs of rupees. Another important settlement in Berar was made by Malik Ambar, a minister of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, which established an independent rule in the Deccan from 1605 A.D. to 1628 A.D.; although this settlement left a great mark on the province, if the traditions of the people are to be believed, the information about it is very meagre. It is probable that his assessments varied with the crop and were not fixed like the Mughal settlements; they were also lump assessments on the village in some cases. Grant Duff states that when the assessment was in kind it was two-thirds of the produce, and that where there was a cash assessment, it equalled in value one-third of the produce. Malik Ambar is also credited with having settled the land revenue upon a recognition of private property in the land, whereas Akbar had held that all land belonged to the State Writing in 1870 Sir A. Lyall estimates that the revenue raised in Berar in the seventeenth century was much larger than that paid under the original settlements made after the cession, and that the cultivated area was not less. His conclusion as to the view we ought to take of the history of this period is as follows: ' It is a common mistake to suppose that the normal state of India was that in which we English found the country when we conquered most of it; whereas each province usually fell into our hands, like a rotten pear, when it was at its worst, and because it was at its worst. The century that preceded our rule may be regarded as a catastrophe in the history of India's government—a dark age of misrule interposed between two periods of comparative, though unequal, light. We, who are now clearing away ruins, repairing an utterly dilapidated revenue, may sometimes fancy that we are raising a new and quite original edifice, when we are only reconstructing upon the old foundation up to the level of earlier architects.'

Period of double government (Do Amli) Maratha and Nizam, 1720 A.D.—1803 A.D.

308. The Maratha connection with Berar originated with the grant of chauth and sar-deshmukhi by the Delhi Emperor in 1717 A.D. The Marathas pretended to keep regular accounts with the Nizam's officers who were never openly ejected from their posts, as from a conquered country, though they were often entirely set aside for a time. The districts were called Do Amli, that is, jointly administered; and in all the revenue papers the collections are divided, the Maratha share being usually sixty per cent. Of this percentage ten per cent, was called sar-deshmukhi and the rest mokasa, which seems in Berar to have been the technical term that included in a lump sum all the Maratha dues except the ten per cent. above mentioned. The mokasa was thus made up; chauth, twenty-five per cent; faujdar's allowance for district administration, twenty-five per cent. This period has been described as one of barefaced plunder and fleecing without attempt at principle or stability. Whenever the Nizam appointed a collector, the Marathas appointed another, and both claimed the revenue, while foragers from each side exacted forced contributions, so that the harassed cultivator often threw up his land and helped to plunder his neighbour's.

Period of Nizam's sovereignty, 1803—1853 A.D.

309. This period was one of even worse maladministration than the former. The system was introduced of farming out the land revenue to contractors, who adhered to no rates, but squeezed what they could out of the ryot's crop and his goods and chattels. Whole taluks and parganas were let and sublet to speculators for sums far above the ancient standard assessment. During the ministry of Raja Chandu Lal (1820-1840) the land revenue of certain tracts was regularly put to auction at Hyderabad for the highest bid. It is related of that famous minister that he did not even respect these auction sales, as it was usual to do, but disposed of the same contracts simultaneously to several different buyers. Then came the opportunity of the pargana officers; he who secured them on his side kept the farm; or sometimes these officers solved the complication equitably by putting all purchasers on a kind of roster, whereby each got his turn at the collections. While this roster was known to be full, even Raja Chandu Lal could not persuade a fresh set of contractors to deal with him. There is a story told of one of these contractors that he rode out of Hyderabad after the auction with his face to the horse's tail. His followers approached him and asked, ' Why this undignified position?' 'I am on the look-out,' said he, ' for my successor to overtake me.' Some of the great farmers-general deserve mention. One Raja Bisan Chand who held the greater part of the Berar valley in farm about 1831 left a name at which the Kunbi still grows pale; to pronounce it of a morning early is unlucky. Another by name Puran Mal, a mighty moneylender of Hyderabad, at one time got most of Berar in farm. In 1839 he was turned out of his districts by the Nizam's minister, under pressure from the British resident. Puran Mal refused to quit hold of his security for advances made, and showed fight when his successors sent agents to take his place; however, in the end he had to give way; but he presented to the Hyderabad Government an account showing a balance due to him of two millions sterling, which the ministry altogether refused to pay, proving by a different system of bookkeeping, that Puran Mal was deeply in debt to the treasury. Puran Mal's successors were Messrs. Pestanji and Company, enterprising Parsi merchants, who in 1841 received large assignment of revenue in Berar for reimbursement of advances to the State. But in 1845 they were ordered to give up their Berar districts, and on their refusal their collecting agency was attacked and sixteen men killed. They were then forced to evacuate the assignments with a claim of forty lakhs of rupees against the Nizam. Messrs. Pestanji and Company had made large and liberal advances to tenants in Berar; they had thus restored cultivation over wide tracts, and rekindled the lamp in many deserted villages. Among Berar agriculturists they left a very good reputation. One result of the farming system and the disorder into which the country fell, was a great decrease in the revenue. The revenue collected about 1815-20 was not more than half the sum which the province was estimated to yield in 1803, and the land revenue of the present Buldana District mentioned in the treaty of 1853 was only a little more than three lakhs, a great fall from the 16 lakhs of Akbar's settlement. Under the farming system the Government had no means of checking false revenue returns, and the rough enquiries made by the British officials after the cession shewed cultivation to be concealed to an incredible extent. Thus in 1854 the Resident reported that whereas the cultivated area in North Berar was recorded at 425,000 bighas, the naked eye detected by rapid survey of each village more than 1,700,000 bighas. The Government simply looked to the revenue for which the contractor was answerable, and did not trouble about the extension or otherwise of cultivation. In spite of this concealment of cultivation the ryots in 1853 were found to be in a very depressed and impoverished state. This was due, not so much to the severity of the assessment for that was not found to be too heavy, but to its shameful inequality. Deshmukhs, Brahmans, Rajputs and Musalmans were paying an average of 7½ annas a bigha, while the Maratha Kunbi was paying as much as R. 1-14 a bigha. The mode of assessment was very arbitrary and seldom had any reference to the capabilities of the soil. Thus it was found that one man was paying Rs. 10 for land of the same extent and description as that for which another man was paying Rs. 100. When waste land was required by a cultivator it was apportioned out by the patwari by guess work so that the amount allotted to any individual depended partly on the ability of the patwari to judge area, and partly on his goodwill towards the cultivator.

Land tenure and the position of revenue officials Prior to 1853.

310. The ordinary tenure from time immemorial had been that which permitted a man to keep possession of his fields so long as he paid to Government the customary rent. Some such general principle of reciprocal convenience must have always prevailed, so long as land was more plentiful than cultivators. Malik Ambar (1612 A.D.) is stated to have recognised the ryot's private property in his land, but such rights, if ever they were conferred, cannot long have out-lasted the wear and tear of the disorders which followed his death. We may suppose that where the tenants managed to keep land for any long time in one family they acquired a sort of property adverse to all except the Government; that where the land changed often by the diverse accidents of an unsettled age, in such cases occupancy never hardened into proprietary right. Good land would have been carefully preserved, bad land would be often thrown up; failure of crops or the exactions of farmers would sever many holdings; and all rights ceased with continuity of possession. When misgovernment became chronic, and the country was incessantly exposed to be wasted by famine, war or fiscal extortion, the tenant's hold on any one piece of land would be more precarious and ephemeral. But perhaps it may be said that in theory the general basis and limit of property in the land was cultivating occupancy undisturbed, except by violence or injustice, so long as the traditional standing rates of assessment were paid upon the fields taken up. It is easy to see that various rights and prescriptions might, under favouring circumstances, arise out of this sort of holding. Several terms as mirasi, mundkari, etc., were formerly known to distinguish the class of occupants in Berar whose possession of their land was long established and by descent, but their precise privileges were never closely defined. The essence of these holdings seems to have been the privilege of paying a fixed sum without regard to cultivated area, and the right to trees. The property was also admitted usually to be heritable and transierable. Then certain advantageous tenures were created by expedients used to revive cultivation in deserted tracts; long leases were given at a rent mounting upwards very gradually year by year, or a whole ruined village was made over by what is called palampat, which fixes the rental of the entire estate without taking account of the spread of cultivation. Whatever rights in the land may have grown up previously, they all disappeared under the Maratha and Nizam's Government. Under this regime the mass of cultivators held their rields on a yearly lease which was made out for them by the patel at the beginning of each season: the land was acknowledged to belong to the State, and as a general rule no absolute right to hold any particular field, except by yearly permission of the officials, was urged or allowed. A man could not always give up or transfer his holding without official authorization. Cultivators were ejected from their holdings and others put in their places, as it suited the caprice or interest of the farmer of the revenue. Under such a System all value was wrung out of property in land.

The patels, Deshmukhs and Deshpandias who were employed to manage the collection of land revenue in villages and parganas never got beyond hereditary office nor transmuted themselves into proprietors of the land. The patel always remained the agent between the State and the village tenants for cultivation and collections. He was paid by rent-free land, money dues and dignities the whole being grouped under the term watan. The Deshmukhs and Deshpandias had risen to great local importance under the Muhammadan dynasties. They held by virtue of office the right to take certain dues from the revenue collected in their subdivisions, but some of the more powerful families received large grants of land in jagir and patents for the collection of additional subsidies, on condition of military or police service, and the maintenance of order. Towards the decline of the Mughal power in Berar they sometimes obtained their subdivisions in farm, and some of them were probably fast developing into the status of talukdars and zamindars of Upper India. But the Nizam and Marathas were too powerful to let any subjects stand between them and the full demand, and in 1853 it was decided that though these officials had frequently, beside their money dues, large quantities of inam or revenue-free land, and they themselves advanced the most extravagant pretensions, their real position was that of hereditary officers and not that of landed proprietors.

Early British administration.

311. The period from 1853 to 1861, the first year of the survey settlement in the District, was spent by the British officials in clearing up the confusion into which the land-revenue administration had fallen, and in feeling their way towards some better system. The services of the Deshmukhs and Deshpandias were dispensed with, but the patel and patwari were retained. The native system was carried on temporarily with the difference that security and fixity of definite demand were given. The Government of India ordered measures to be taken for organizing a survey and suggested a settlement for five years with an annually increasing jama, where circumstances warranted it. Further instructions were issued in 1856 to the effect that a revenue survey should be instituted and a settlement formed which ' while it shall put an end to all unlicensed exemptions and privileges and shall secure a fair revenue to the State, shall by the recognition of proprietary right in those who can establish a hereditary or prescriptive title and by the protection of the interests of other cultivators of the soil, invest tenures of land with security and permanency under certain declared conditions and shall restrict the demand of the State within reasonable limits, which shall not be subject to variation for a fixed term of years.' The system of measurement by the local patwaris was approved; the ryotwari system of settlement was condemned, and the introduction of a village system of settlement with joint responsibility was recommended. Pending the introduction of some regular system of survey and settlement the land-revenue administration appears to have been carried on according to the discretion of each Deputy Commissioner tempered by occasional instructions from superior authority: an annual jamabandi was made by the Deputy Commissioner through the medium of the patel, and the account of each man's holding was taken from the patwari's papers. This system was fraught with the greatest inconvenience both to the Government and to the people, and was made a fruitful source of speculation and corrupt practices. Each officer charged with the carrying out of the jamabandi arrangements was necessarily virtually charged with discretionary powers to remit revenue to any extent, and was, from the extensive tract of country over which his supervision extended, entirely dependent upon his native revenue subordinates for the data on which the jamabandi was formed, and could not exercise any real and salutary control over the correctness of the return showing the fluctuations of cultivation and revenue derivable there from. In some cases a rough measurement of land under cultivation was made with a rod six cubits in length. The agency available was a very imperfect one, and the magnitude of the work prevented it being carried out with any great accuracy. There was an intention at the outset to rate the land according to its productive powers, as from three to five different rates were found at settlement to exist in some of the villages, but it proved a failure, as at settlement inferior soils were found assessed highly, and rich soils assessed lowly, as if there had been no method whatever in the distribution of rates. In some cases of the Mehkar taluk for the first three years the land was assessed by a lump sum being fixed for each village according to its size; the standard adopted at first being the same as that found under native rule. Subsequently the area of the holdings was arrived at by the native system of nazar andaz or simple guess work, the eye and imagination being the only ' instruments ' used, and finally a rough measurement was carried out as in the other taluks. Although these measurements were anything but reliable, neither the means at command nor the mode adopted being calculated to produce very accurate returns, they were nevertheless sufficient to form the basis for a more satisfactory and more equitable system of assessment than the existing one. In order to encourage cultivation and the taking up of waste land, the system of giving out land on kauls (leases at a low but gradually increasing assessment) was also adopted. In 1857 the Commissioner submitted a report on the progress made in the revenue survey. He reported that the khasra survey by patwaris had been a complete failure and practically no progress had been made. The Government of India then decided to send professional survey parties to carry out the survey on the system followed in the Punjab and Central Provinces, but for various reasons the operations were postponed. In the meantime in 1859 an experimental survey on the Bombay system of parts of two districts (since handed back to Hyderabad) was started by Captain W. C. Anderson. In 1860 it was proposed that Captain Anderson's operations should be extended to the rest of Berar, and after much demur the Government of India in 1861 consented to the introduction of the Bombay system which will be described later. In spite of the absence of a proper system of settlement this early period of British rule was one of great prosperity. Remissions of revenue were almost unknown. Writing of this period in 1870 Sir A. Lyall remarks that, ' the land revenue increased and multiplied with marvellous rapidity, under the combined stimuli of good government, railways and the Manchester cotton famine. Cultivation spread over the land like a flood tide '; and Sir R. Temple's remarks in 1867 are also deserving of quotation. ' The condition of Berar when the province was assigned to British management, though weakly, and needing restorative measures, was not beyond the hope of speedy recovery. And fortunately the means of restoration were at hand; for the soil was famed far and wide among the peasantry for its fertility; and its repute, always high, was further enhanced by the fact of so much of it having remained fallow of late years—a circumstance which was supposed to ensure a rich return to those who reclaimed the waste and raised the first crops on virgin culture. The neighbouring districts were full of families who had emigrated thither from Berar, and who, with the usual attachment of the people to their original patrimony, were anxious to return on any suitable opportunity. Thus hundreds of families and thousands of individuals immigrated back into Berar. Many villages in the Nagpur country lost many of their hands in this way, and were sometimes put to serious straits. Some apprehension was even caused to the Nagpur officials. But of course the natural course of things had its way, and Eastern Berar became replenished. This was only one mode out of several, which it would be tedious to detail, whereby the cultivation of Berar was restored and augmented.

Up to 1856 there was no regular system of collecting the Government revenue or keeping the accounts. Sometimes money was carried to the credit of Government as revenue, which was in fact borrowed by the Sar Naib (or Tahsildar) from a sahukkar, the Sar Naib realizing it subsequently as best he could. In some cases the taluk accounts dealt not with villages but with the subordinate charges under the kamdars, whose duty it was to make the collections from the villages and remit them to the taluk kacheris. The kamdars received receipts from the Sar Naibs or Tahsildars, and the village authorities from the kamdars. Elsewhere village collections were made very much in akras or orders on the moneylender of the village. In 1856 instructions were issued ordering all payments to Government to be made in cash. the patel, as the village representative of Government, was to collect dues, dealing directly with the landowner, to give receipts and to transmit the money direct to the Tahsildar. The kamdars interposed between the patels and the Tahsildar were abolished, and the Tahsildars were to give receipts to patels.

Berar survey and settlement system.

312. The basis or unit of assessment is the survey number or plot of land of a size adapted for cultivation by a peasant with a pair of bullocks. The arable land, whether cultivated or waste but available for cultivation, is split up into these numbers, the area of which is accurately ascertained by survey measurement. Each field is separately measured by means of the chain and cross staff, and in the field register there is a separate map of each field complete in itself. The area of the holding is obtained by simple arithmetic, and the calculations are recorded. This detailed field register obviates the necessity of having the village map on a larger scale than 8 inches to the mile. The area of each survey number does not exceed from 20 to 30 acres, and the minimum below which survey numbers cannot be divided is 5 acres in the case of dry crop land, 1 acre in the case of rice land, and ½ acre in the case of garden land. The fields are marked off from each other by a dhura or a narrow strip of land, 4½ feet in breadth, being left uncultivated between them; by mounds of earth (warli) 10 feet in length by 5 feet in breadth, and 3 feet in height and by stones (gota, patthar) between 2½ and 3 feet in length sunk in the ground at certain angles. Beside the culturable land the gaothan or village site is also surveyed and allotted, and land is reserved for free grazing and other purposes. The term parampok is used for numbers that are unculturable by reason of having tombs, sites of wells, etc., on them, and the Bombay plan of allowing parts of numbers to be deducted from the culturable area as bad bits (potkharab) is followed. The survey being done, the classification of the soil begins There are three classes of land, unirrigated or dry crop (jirayat) land, rice land and garden land which is called motasthal if irrigated by means of a well, and patasthal if irrigated by a channel. For classification purposes each field is divided temporarily into about twelve parts of some two acres each. Three tests to discover kind of soil, depth of soil, and freedom from defects are made in each part. For the first test soils are divided into three classes or orders, which are described briefly as black red, and white. The full description is. ' First order, of a fine uniform texture, varying in colour from deep black to deep brown. Second order, of uniform but coarser texture than the preceding, and lighter in colour, which is generally red. Third order, of coarse, gravelly, or loose friable texture, and colour varying from light brown to grey.' For the second test, that of depth, the soil is dug up and a crowbar driven in until it is obstructed by rock or some hard substratum or until it has gone in if cubits, that is, 31½ inches. For the third test a list of eight defects has been drawn up, the chief being the presence of fragments of limestone or of excessive sand, slope, liability to flooding, excess of moisture, and clayey soil. When a classification is being made, the classer draws an outline of each field, marks the parts into which it is temporarily divided, and enters in each part figures and symbols to show the results of each test. A soil to be of standard quality, a. sixteen-anna soil, must be black, of full depth, and free from all defects. Indeed, it may have some special advantage, such as a beneficial flooding in the rains, which raises it two or four annas more. For every detail or combination of details in which a plot falls short of standard quality so many annas are deducted according to a table which has been drawn up. Each field is finally valued as a field of so many annas according to the average value of the plots contained in it. In the case of garden land it is necessary in addition to examine the effect of the well or other means of irrigation on the soil. Rice land is classified on a scale of its own. The full details thus obtained about each field are entered in a prate or field book which is kept at the headquarters of the District.

These operations of measurement and classification have nothing whatever to do with the pitch or amount of the assessment. They are only the methods by which the assessment is distributed over the numerous individual holdings of a ryotwari system. The basis of the distribution of the assessment having been fixed, the next step is for the Settlement Officer to work out the rates of assessment. These rates are determined in the following manner. The area dealt with, which is the subdivision of a District known as the taluk, is divided into groups homogeneous as to physical characteristics and economic advantages, such as climate, rainfall, general fertility of soil, communications and the like. For each of these groups uniform maximum rates are fixed. These maximum rates are the sums which would be leviable upon a field, the soil valuation of which is sixteen annas. Thus if the maximum rate be Rs. 3 per acre of a sixteen-anna field, the assessment per acre upon a field the valuation of which was eight annas would be R. 1-8, and so on. By applying the maximum assessment rates to the soil valuation the rate per acre on each field is arrived at. In an original settlement the difficulty is to arrive at suitable maximum rates. This difficulty was solved for Berar by taking the rates found in the neighbouring District of Khandesh as a basis for the early settlements. Special rates are imposed on rice and irrigated land. The settlement is made for 30 years and at the end of that period is liable to revision. In a revision settlement the Settlement Officer before fixing the maximum rates considers what direction the revision should take. For this purpose he reviews fully every circumstance shown in the past revenue history, prices, markets, communications, rents, selling, letting and mortgage value of land, vicissitudes of seasons, and every other relevant fact indicating the incidence of the previous assessment and the economic condition of the tract, and upon this indication he bases his proposals for enhancement or reduction of assessment as the case may be. When he finds from the records of the previous settlement, that the assessment was designedly pitched low with the object of encouraging cultivation, or for other reasons deemed sufficient at the time, and if he further finds from the land records of the period of the lease under revision that cultivation has in consequence largely expanded, that prices have risen, that the assessment bears a low proportion to the sale, letting and mortgage value of the land, and that notwithstanding vicissitudes of season the assessment has been paid with conspicuous ease, he will probably propose an increase of assessment. If, however, he should find that the condition of the country has been stationary, that prices have not risen, and that the country has not been developed or any rise occurred in the value of land, he will not propose any enhancement. Again if the assessment at the original settlement was pitched high, and the cultivation has been contracted, or the revenue has proved difficult to collect, and the relation of the assessment to the value and rental of land is found to be high, the Settlement Officer will propose a reduction. The general result to be attained by the revision of assessment being decided on, the maximum rates are proposed which, when applied to each field by means of the classification, would bring about that result, higher rates being imposed on those groups which enjoy the greater advantages, and lower on the less favourably situated groups. In this way the total assessment, which it is reckoned that the subdivision will bear, is equitably distributed throughout each group, village and field.

Land tenure.

313. The ordinary tenure is the ryotwari tenure, and all land paying revenue to Government under that system is known as khalsa land. The State is recognized as the superior landlord, and the settlement is made directly with the cultivator himself and not through middlemen. The assessment is on the land, not on the person. Subject to certain restrictions, the occupant, who is termed khatedar, is absolute proprietor of his holding, may sell, let or mortgage it or any part of it, cultivate it or leave it waste, so long as he pays the assessment, which may be revised on general principles at the end of the fixed term. Being in arrears with the assessment at once renders the right of occupancy liable to forfeiture. No occupant is bound to hold his land more than one year if he does not like it; as long as he gives notice according to law, he is free to relinquish his holding. The occupant is free to make any improvement he likes, but he must not apply the land to any other purpose than agriculture without the permission of the Deputy Commissioner. Government retains a right to all minerals in the soil. Only one occupant is recorded as the khatedar, to whom the Government looks as responsible primarily for the revenue. Apart from this he is not necessarily a person with any rights in the soil whatever. Mutation of names is not compulsory, and hence it often happens that a khatedar from motives perhaps of sentiment, perhaps of sloth, prefers to keep his name on the Government registers long after he has parted with the land. This description requires to be qualified in the case of land given out for cultivation since 1st January 1905 From that date all unalienated assessed land is disposed of subject to the following additional condition, viz. ' neither the occupant, his heirs, executors, administrators, and approved assignees shall at any time lease, mortgage, sell, or otherwise encumber the said occupancy or any portion thereof without the previous sanction in writing of the Deputy Commissioner.'

Malkapur, Khamgaon and Jalgaon taluks. Original settlement.

314. The survey was first commenced in Berar at the end of March 1861, and the first taluk to come under settlement was that of Malkapur. Seventy-one villages of this taluk were dealt with by Colonel Anderson, the first Superintendent of the original survey in 1862, and these operations were the foundation of all subsequent Berar survey and settlement. It is interesting, therefore, to examine the basis of the rates fixed for these villages. Colonel Anderson was guided in fixing his rates by his experience of the rates of assessment which had been successfully introduced into different Districts of Bombay and especially in the adjacent District of Khandesh. It was found that the rates which had been applied in 1856-57 to certain villages of that District—20 miles distant from those of the Malkapur taluk that he was dealing with—were working most successfully. Colonel Anderson therefore took these rates as his guide. But in spite of the fact that at the time of the imposition of these rates prices were much lower than in 1861, it was thought expedient to adopt a somewhat lower rate of assessment. Malkapur was the first taluk of Berar to be settled, and with a people who had no intimate acquaintance with the new settlement methods, it was necessary to avoid the faintest approach to over-assessment. Colonel Anderson therefore reduced the Khandesh rates by 18 to 12 per cent., not because he believed them to be oppressive with reference to the prices ruling in 1861-62, but for the three reasons (1) that it was desirable to conciliate the people and make the survey acceptable, (2) that the people had recently been put to great expense in clearing and bringing new land under the plough, and (3) that even on his reduction the rise in revenue over what the people had been previously paying would amount to 33 per cent., and he thought that was sufficient. That this cautious attitude was justified is shewn by the reception given to the new settlement. In some instances the whole of the occupants of land in a village threw up their lands and it was not till May 1862 that the resignations of land almost entirely ceased. By that time the moderation of the assessment was recognised, and not only was the resigned land taken up again by those who had originally resigned it or by others, but nearly all the unoccupied assessed laud was also taken up. Colonel Anderson in his first proposals divided the villages into two groups with maximum rates of R. 1.10 and R. 1.8 per acre, proximity to bazars and to future railway stations being the principal factors in making the classifications. Subsequently in 1863-64 Colonel Anderson had to settle 132 more villages of the Malkapur taluk, and he considered that his first maximum rate of R. 1.10 was too low Since he had settled his first 71 villages in 1861-62, prices instead of receding, as he had expected, had risen with an indication of remaining high. Therefore, abandoning the reduction he had originally effected, he took about the full Khandesh maximum rate of 1856-57 of Rs. 2 for the first group, and on a lower group he placed the rate of R. 1.13, excepting a very few hill villages, on which was placed the rate of R. I Colonel Anderson had next in 1864 to deal with 180 villages of the Balapur taluk, a portion of, which has since gone into and forms part of the present Khamgaon taluk. By that time the Malkapur rates were working so satisfactorily that he resolved with one exception to apply them, and he did so, grouping the villages into three groups with rates of Rs. 2, R. 1-13, and R. 1-10; subsequently a few villages along the hills were rated at R. 1-6. The exception was the village of Shegaon to which for special reasons he applied the rate of Rs. 2-4. Captain Elphinstone, who succeeded Colonel Anderson as Superintendent, dealt with the Jalgaon taluk, and in fixing his rates he also referred to and guided himself by the rates applied in Malkapur, though for special reasons he placed certain of his Jalgaon villages in his highest group with a rate of Rs. 2.4, the second and third groups being rated at Rs. 2 and R. 1.8. It is not possible to give the exact results of the settlement for the three taluks as a whole, but a comparison may be made for various portions of the area dealt with. In the Balapur taluk, which included the Khamgaon taluk, the revenue of 180 villages was increased from Rs. 2,46,820 to Rs. 2,86,107 or by 16 per cent.; in 117 villages of the same taluk the revenue was increased from Rs. 1,08,085 to Rs. 1,26,697 or by 17 per cent.; for 214 villages of the Jalgaon taluk the revenue was increased from Rs. 2,92,231 to Rs. 3,10,916 or by 6 per cent.; in 66 villages of the Malkapur taluk there was an increase of revenue from Rs. 76,669 to Rs. 77,434 or one per cent.; in 61 villages of the same taluk the revenue was increased from Rs. 62,036 to Rs. 82,726 or 33 per cent. The average assessment per acre fell at 15 annas 3 pies in the Malkapur taluk, 15 annas 3 pies in the Khamgaon taluk, and R. 1-8-10 in the Jalgaon taluk. The settlement was made for 30 years, and this period was one of unbroken prosperity. The value of the new settlement was realized at once, and though in the year before the settlement there were 153,108 acres of land available for cultivation, only 10,859 acres were left available at the end of the first year of settlement, and at the expiry of the settlement only 7349 acres were available. The land revenue was collected with ease. Remissions of revenue were almost unknown, and in the three years before the expiry of the settlement the average number of notices yearly was 123, and only once in three years was distraint resorted to. The population increased by 232 per cent. in the Malkapur taluk, by 354 per cent. in the Khamgaon taluk, and by 22 per cent. in the Jalgaon taluk. The growing wealth of the people was shewn in the large increase in cattle, carts and wells. Land was valuable and could be sold at rates varying from 15 to 20 times the Government assessment and sublet for three times the existing rental. Prices of the staple crops, cotton and juari, had, as compared with the prices at the time the Khandesh rates of 1856-57 were fixed, risen in 1891-1892 by 68 and 87 per cent. respectively. Communications greatly improved during this period; new roads were made but the more important change was the opening of the railway which, when the first settlements were made in Malkapur, was only in course of construction. It was for a large period of the settlement running from west to east of the District with a double line throughout, and in addition there was the branch line from Jalamb to Khamgaon. The result was that the majority of the villages in all three taluks were brought within easy reach of a railway station, and only in the case of a few villages in the north-east corner of the Jalgaon taluk, and some in the south-west of Maikapur, did the distance extend to so much as 20 miles.

Revision settlement.

315. The three taluks were the first of the Berar taluks to come under revision. The revised settlement was earned out by Mr. F. W. Francis in 1892. At the time of the original settlement the Malkapur taluk consisted of 335 Government and four jagir villages; the Khamgaon taluk was included in the old Balapur taluk, and the Jalgaon taluk consisted of 214 Government and three jagir villages. The Malkapur taluk now consisted of 330 Government and nine inam villages; the Khamgaon taluk had been formed in 1870 out of the old Balapur taluk by the separation of 144 khalsa and four jagir villages and now consisted of 143 Government and five inam villages; the Jalgaon taluk consisted of 217 Government and eight inam villages. In all 690 Government and 22 inam villages were dealt with at the revised settlement. In commencing survey operations the first step was necessarily to test the accuracy of the old work, and with this object the entire remeasurement of ten villages of the Malkapur taluk was ordered. The result disclosed only three mistakes in the 617 survey numbers remeasured, equivalent to ½ per cent. of error. It was therefore agreed that no further test of the old work was necessary, and survey operations were therefore continued on the partial remeasurement system. Under this system the following were the only operations required: (1) Measurement of all numbers on the banks of rivers and large nullahs. (2) Measurement of all numbers that for any reason show any alteration of boundary. (3) Measurement of numbers that had been newly made since the previous survey. (4) The measurement of all garden lands, both motasthal and patasthal, and of rice lands. (5) A thorough inspection of all the boundary marks. The old classification was also found to be accurate and was accepted. The old assessments fixed as they were on an ascending scale and spread over a period of several years, were very uneven, and a principal object of the new settlement was to produce equality of incidence on land held on similar conditions, and to substitute as far as possible uniformity of assessment for the existing unevenness. The proposals for revision started from the proposition that there was no reason why Malkapur and Khamgaon, as a whole, should be assessed more lightly than Jalgaon, and that the first step to be taken was to apply the same maximum rate to all three taluks by raising the maximum rate in the two taluks of Malkapur and Khamgaon up to the Jalgaon rate. A good deal of discussion with regard to the method of grouping took place, but finally the villages were divided into three groups with maximum rates of Rs. 2.10, Rs. 2.4 and R. 1.14, respectively. In grouping the villages the following facts were taken into consideration: (1) That the quality of the soil in the three taluks is best along a belt in the centre running from east to west, which belt overlaps the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the river Purna running through it; that the soil deteriorates as we recede from this belt north towards the Satpura range and south towards the Ajanta hills, and that along the base and outlying spurs of these hills the soil is at its poorest. (2) That the railway freight for carriage of grain to Bombay was practically the same throughout the tract, though the freight of cotton was slightly higher from the stations farthest from Bombay. (3) That cart hire increased by about an anna per maund for every five miles north or south of the rail. A belt of the best soil was taken for the first group, a narrower belt in the vicinity of the hills for the third group, leaving the belt between for the second group. The lines of demarcation were roughly parallel to the railway. In Malkapur and Khamgaon the southern limit of the first group was eight miles from the railway. North of the rail in Malkapur and Khamgaon the richest belt extended to the river Purna, and some way across it into the Jalgaon taluk north of Malkapur, constituting the first group there. The Government of India ordered that the Bombay rule limiting the increase of revenue to 33 per cent. should be observed. The new rates were accordingly imposed in. accordance with a system of progressive enhancements; under this system the payment of an increase in revenue is confined to an increase of 25 per cent. on the original revenue for every two years up to six, when the full amount of the new assessment must be paid. In the Malkapur taluk the full enhancement ensuing from the revised rates was ordered to take effect only from the beginning of the sixteenth year. Lands irrigated by wells constructed during the currency of the settlement were assessed at the ordinary dry crop rate without any addition whatever on account of new wells, and lands irrigated by wells dug before the original settlement at the highest dry rate assigned to the group in which they were situated.' The following statement shows the results of the new assessment:—

continued..

Name of taluk.	Number of villages.	Total.		Percentage of increase.	Difference on occupied land.
		Acres.	Assessment.
Malkapur	330	425,948	6,24,188	52.5	214,122
Khamgaon	143	243,465	3,27,611	41.5	95,869
Jalgaon.1	215	204,598	3,95,421	25.4	79,585

¹ Of the 217 Government villages in the Jalgoon taluk two villages have been received by transfer from Melghat, and have not been settled.

Chikhli taluk.

316. The original settlement of the main portion of the Chikhli taluk was made by Captain Elphinstone in 1860, 236 villages being then dealt with by him. Seventy-six villages, which were transferred from Mehkar to the Chikhli taluk, were settled by R. R. Beynon in 1867. The rates of assessment were adopted by a comparison with the maximum rates of the first class villages in the Malkapur and Balapur taluks, which was Rs. 2; for the Chikhli taluk, it was decided that taking into consideration its distance from the railway and the difficulties of communication, a higher maximum rate per acre than R 1.12 for the first class villages was not justifiable. Villages were therefore grouped into four classes as shown below: —

Group 1 embraced all the largest market towns of the upper tableland and the villages immediately adjoining them. From this group, however, the market towns of the Dhar plateau, from which the railway is still more inaccessible than the upper plateau owing to the intervening ghats, was excluded. The bazar towns of this plateau were placed in group II, having a maximum rate of R. 1.8. All villages within a circle of six miles from the large bazars, as well as the small bazar towns themselves, were entered likewise in group II. Group III contained all the remaining villages which were distant from bazars, and otherwise inconveniently situated for purposes of traffic; a few villages, however, almost entirely deserted and lying in unhealthy localities within the spurs of the hills, were excluded from this class, and placed in a fourth group. For garden land watered by wells, the rates adopted were Rs. 4 for the first class villages, and Rs. 3 for the inferior classes. To land irrigated by drains or bandharas the maximum rate of Rs. 5.8 was applied. For rice land a six-rupees maximum rate was fixed. The results of the application of the new rates are given in the following table: —

The revenue was thus increased by 23 per cent., and the average incidence of the revised revenue per acre was annas 10 and pies 3.

Revision settlement.

317. After the original settlement many changes in the taluk took place owing to the transfer of villages and other causes, and the revision settlement dealt with 305 villages only, and six of these were subsequently absorbed in State forest class A. The revision settlement was carried out by Mr. F. W. Francis in 1896. The taluk was divided into three groups:—

I. The first consisted of 180 villages, almost without exception, situated within six miles of one or other of the made roads or large markets.

II. The second group contained 88 villages, and consisted of two clusters, one situated in the west and the other in the south of the taluk. The 35 villages on the west are those of the Dhar pargana, which are separated From the main portion of the taluk by a ghat some 300 feet in height. The remaining 53 villages lie to the south of Chikhli in the narrow portion of the taluk extending to Deulgaon Raja, and although they are served by the main road beginning from Chikhli to Jalna, on account of their excessive distance from the railway they were considered entitled to some concession. To reach the line of rail at Malkapur, goods from these villages must be transported distances varying from 60 to 70 miles.

III. The third group consists of 37 villages situated in the broken country to the north-east of the taluk, and contained the villages rated at R. 1 by Captain Flphin stone. They were still in a much more backward state than the majority of the villages of the taluk, many of them being unpopulated.

The maximum rate sanctioned for each group was respectively Rs. 2, R. 1-12 and R. 1-4. The rates in the 53 southern villages of group II were subject to the provision that, after the expiry of five years from the date of the opening of the new railway to Jalna, they should be raised to those of group 1 as the new railway would render them as well situated in respect of communications as the villages to the north. Lands under irrigation from wells sunk previous to the original settlement were assessed at the highest dry crop maximum rate of the group to which they belonged. Lands irrigated from wells sunk during the currency of the lease were treated in every respect as dry crop lands, and received no extra assessment on account of water. For lands irrigated by channel from streams of tanks (patasthal bagait) the maximum soil and water rate of Rs. 8 was adopted. For rice lands the old rate of Rs. 6 was continued.

The main justification for the enhancement was the very great improvement in communications which had taken place within the previous thirty years. At the time of the original settlement this Chikhli taluk was in a very backward condition owing to its position above the ghats or hills and the want of good communications. The railway up to Malkapur was complete but there was no good road to it, and there were no metalled roads in the District connecting the various markets. There was now an excellent road made by the Public Works Department right through the District from Deulgaon Raja on the southern, to Buldana on the northern limit of the taluk, which brought it in connection with the railway at Malkapur. There were also other good public works and forest roads from Chikhli to Khamgaon, where there was a railway station, Buldana to Khamgaon Chikhli to Mehkar, and Chikhli to Amrapur, so that all the largest markets were connected with each other and the railway. Other grounds for enhancement were the indications of progress shewn by the following facts: Land was being sold for 18 to 24 times the survey assessment and sublet for three times the survey assessment. Population had increased by 29½ per cent., plough cattle by 61 per cent., milch cattle by 28 per cent., carts by 24 per cent., and wells by 48 per cent. The revenue had always been fully realized without remission in each year without any outstanding balance and without any difficulty. The Bombay limits of enhancement were strictly applied, except in the case of one village Pokhri, which for some inexplicable reason was formerly rated at R. 1 and now fell in the Rs. 2 group, the increase being cent. per cent. But the increased rate was ordered to be imposed and levied in accordance with the system of progressive enhancement applied to the Malkapur taluk, provided that the full enhancement should commence only from the beginning of the sixteenth year. Two reasons were given for not working up to the limit of 43 per cent. increase: (1) the distances of the Chikhli taluk from the railway, (2) its separation from the Malkapur taluk by the Santmalla range of hills averaging a height of 800 feet in the neighbourhood of Buldana. The following statement shews the change of the revenue caused by the new rates:—

The increase amounted to Rs. 73,185, being 24.8 per cent. in excess of the previous demand. The new rates produced the following increases: 29.0 per cent. in the first group, 16.4 per cent. in the second, 32.2 per cent. in the third, and 24.8 per cent. in the whole taluk. The comparatively small increase in the second was due to its containing 6341 acres of well lands that were formerly very highly rated; the application of the maximum dry crop rate of R. 1.12 resulting in a loss of Rs. 10,000 on these lands.

Chikli taluk since settlement.

318. The revised assessment was introduced in 1897-98. In that year the amount uncollected was Rs. 1377-0-3, and in 1898-99 all but Rs. 6892-7-3 was collected. In 1900 a question was raised as to the over-assessment of part of the Chikhli taluk. Captain Plowden, Assistant Commissioner, was deputed to make an enquiry, and his conclusions were that the land had by no means been overassessed on its merits, and that had there been no famines the revised assessment would have come in as automatically as the old one. But the Government of India held that the levy of the new rates in a year of famine to some extent crippled the people, and the condition of the taluk was not altogether satisfactory. In 1896-97 the cropped area had fallen from 391,933 acres to 319,962 acres. It recovered again in 1897-98 and 1898-99, but in 1900-01 it again fell to 339,011 acres. The Government of India therefore suggested the desirability of making a temporary reduction of the assessment rates for a term of three years. The villages dealt with were 47 villages in the north-western and 52 villages in the southern portion of the taluk known as the Dhar and Deulgaon Raja tracts. In these villages the cropped area of 1901-02 was only 81.4 per cent. of that of 1895-96. Great difficulty was also experienced in the collection of the land revenue of these tracts and in many cases fields sold for arrears of land revenue had either realized nothing or barely the amount of arrears for one year. The population of the Chikhli taluk between 1891 and 1901 also decreased by 15 per cent. The old assessment for the 99 villages was Rs. 1,11,852, which was increased to Rs. 1,32,453 at the revision settlement, or 18 per cent. It was proposed to reduce the assessment in dry lands to the original amount, thus reducing the demand by Rs. 28,131 per annum for a period of three years commencing with 1902-03. As the tract had not properly recovered by the end of this period, the reduction was continued, up to and inclusive of 1907-08.

Mehkar taluk. Old Settlement.

319. The original settlement of the Mehkar taluk was made by Major Elphinstone in 1868. The settlement dealt with 348 Government villages and 12 jagir villages. In framing the assessment the Settlement Officer took the rates adopted in the Chikhli taluk as a basis, but deemed a lower assessment advisable for the following reasons: (1) Greater distance from the line of rail. (2) The surface of the country being more undulating and more intersected by deep ravines. (3) Greater sparseness of population. (4) The important fact that the extension of cultivation had been much slower in Mehkar, notwithstanding that the original assessment had been lower than was the case in Chikhli. The villages were accordingly divided into four groups. Group 1 contained all the bazar towns and villages immediately adjoining them; this group had a maximum rate of R. 1.8 per acre. Group 2 with a maximum rate of R. 1.4 per acre, comprised the smaller bazar towns, all villages within a circle of 3 and 4 miles from the large bazars, according to their importance, and the villages adjoining the principal high roads. In group 3, for which a maximum rate of R. 1.1 was fixed, all the more remote and inaccessible villages were placed. Group 4 comprised only those villages situated within the spurs of the hills and having a very bad climate; the group had the maximum rate of 14 annas. For the assessment of garden land the rate of Rs. 4 per acre for land irrigated by wells in first class villages, and Rs. 3 for the lower classes, was adopted; for patasthal land (irrigated by stream) Rs. 5.8 per acre, and for rice land Rs. 6, were adopted as maximum rate. The following statement shews the results of the introduction of the new rates:—

1 Of the 348 villages, two were settled in Chikhli and information for 25 villages is not available.

Revision settlement.

320. The revision settlement was carried out by Mr. F. W. Francis in 1898. The number of villages now dealt with was 344. In determining the grouping of villages the main facts taken into consideration were accessibility to the high road from Mehkar to the border of the taluk at Lawala, and proximity to the best markets. The taluk was accordingly divided into three groups. The first group consisted of 124 villages at a distance of about 6 miles from the high road. The second group consisted of all villages to the south of the first group extending westwards to Sindkhed, and contained 183 villages. The distinction between the villages, of the first and second groups, is not particularly marked, but there is a distinction in excessive distance from the line of rail. The third group of 37 villages consisted almost entirely of villages lying among the hills and having a bad climate. The basis of the new rates was the recently revised assessment of Chikhli where the three sanctioned groups were rated at Rs. 2, R. 1-12 and R. 1-4. Mehkar taluk is further from the line of rail than Chikhli, and had not participated to the same extent in improvements in communication. It was considered therefore that the best villages of the Mehkar taluk were about on a par with the villages of the second group of the Chikhli taluk. The rate of R. 1-12, the rate of the second group in Chikhli, was therefore applied to the first group of villages in Mehkar; the rate for the second group was fixed at R. 1-8, and for the third group at R. 1-2. With regard to 61 villages of the first group, which had at the original settlement been included in the third class, it was ordered by the Government of India that for the first fifteen years of the settlement a maximum rate of R. 1-8 should be applied, and at the end of that time the maximum rate of R. 1-12 should be applied, subject to a report by the District officers as to the condition of the villages and their capacity to bear the full assessment. It was also ordered that the maximum rate for the second group, which might be advantageously affected in the near future by the construction of the railway from Manmar to Hyderabad via Aurangabad and Jalna, would be liable to revision and enhancement five years after the opening of the railway. Lands irrigated from wells sunk before the original settlement were assessed at the maximum dry-crop rate of the group to which they belonged, and lands irrigated from wells sunk since the original settlement were treated as dry-crop lands and no extra assessment was imposed on account of water. Land irrigated by channel from streams or tanks (patasthal bagait) was assessed at a maximum combined soil and water rate of Rs. 8. Rice land was assessed at the rate of Rs. 6. The following statement shows the amount of revenue under the new rates:—

At the full rates there was an increase of 40.7 per cent. in the first group, which is slightly above the 33 per cent. increase allowed by the rules; of 21.4 per cent. in the second group, and of 15.5 percent. in the third group. The increase in the revenue demand for the whole taluk was Rs. 85,000 or 30 per cent. The justification for this enhancement were the facts: (a) That the first assessment had been collected with ease. From 1894 to 1896 there were practically no outstanding balances of revenues. For the years 1896-97 and 1897-98 there were some arrears, but the figures were exceptional and due to the drought in 1896. During the three years 1894-95, 1895-96, and 1896-97, an average number of 300 notices a year among 344 villages were issued, and there was an average of only one case of restraint. More than two thirds of the notices were issued in 1896-97, the year of scarcity, (b) That cultivation had extended during the settlement term so much that there was practically no culturable land left unoccupied. In 1869 when the original settlement was introduced into almost the whole taluk, the area of culturable and assessed land lying unoccupied was about 67,100 acres. In 1896-97 the unoccupied area was only 11 acres, (c) That there were other striking indications of material progress and prosperity such as the increase of wells and tanks. The population of the taluk had also increased by 59 per cent. (d) That the value of land was high, it being sold for twenty-four times the survey assessment and sublet for three times the assessment, (e) That communications had greatly improved. The main line of traffic for the Mehkar taluk is the metalled and bridged road which runs northwards from Lawalla in Chikhli for 34 miles to the railway at Khamgaon. At the original settlement the railway had not got beyond Malkapur and the metalled road had not been constructed.

Mehkar taluk since the revision settlement.

321. The new assessment was collected for the year 1899-1900, but in view of the famine a remission of the difference between the old and new assessments was ordered for that year and the collection of the new and higher rates was postponed till the beginning of 1902. In the season of 1900-1901 although the kharif area was above the average, the area under rabi was only about half the average. The outturn of the kharif as a whole was 10 to 12 annas and of the rabi 6 annas. The culturable area left uncultivated was about twice as large as usual. The Commissioner thought that one moderate season was not enough to enable the taluk to recover from the drought and famine of the year before, and recommended a further postponement of the introduction of the new rates. The land revenue demand Of the famine year was collected without apparent difficulty, and the sanctioned suspensions and remissions amounted respectively to Rs. 2032 and Rs. 19,418. The-Government of India accordingly sanctioned the post ponement, until the spring of 1904, of the levy of the enhanced rates. In 1904 a further enquiry was made, and the Deputy Commissioner reported that though a large portion of the taluk had materially recovered from the effects of the famine, and the revised rates could safely be introduced there, yet the southern parts of the western portion of the taluk consisting of Sindkhed, Malkapur, Rangia, and Shirli parganas were still in an unsatisfactory condition. In 1901-02, though the rainfall was in excess, the crops were much damaged by locusts and rats. In 1902-03 heavy rain in November and December damaged the kharif crop. In 1903-04 the outturn of the crops was from 6 to 2 annas, and the Deputy Commissioner reported that the people of these tracts were very poor compared with other parts of the taluk, and that they had never reaped a single normal harvest since the famine. The following table shewed the occupied and cropped areas in these three parganas for the years 1895-96, 1902-02, 1903-04:—

The Deputy Commissioner accordingly recommended that the existing minimum rates be continued for a further period of three years till the spring of 1907 in 89 villages belonging to the three parganas. This was sanctioned by the Government of India.

Tenures: Ryotwari tenure.

322. The ryotwari tenure already described is the most common in the District. Out of 1400 villages 1327 are settled on this tenure. and are known as khalsa villages. The area of these villages in 1906-07 was returned as 2,245,288 acres; of this 41,918 acres were occupied by village sites, tanks, rivers and the like, 229,833 acres by forests, 86,618 acres were set apart for village purposes and for free grazing, and the balance of 1,886,919 acres was available for cultivation. Of the latter area 1,882,114 acres were under cultivation. The balance is mostly in the Chikhli taluk, and is land of inferior quality, for which there is little demand. The land revenue demand of the khalsa villages amounted to Rs. 18,52,667 in 1905-06, and to Rs. 18,67,433 in 1906-07, the increase being due to the introduction of revised rates in 89 villages of the Mehkar taluk. In both these years the demand was collected practically in full, and there were no remissions.

Jagir tenure.

323. Jagir now means any rent-free holding consisting of an integral village or villages. 'The jagir of Berar seems to have been originally always, like the earliest feuds, a mere assignment of revenue for military service, and the maintenance of order by armed control of certain districts. In later times the grant was occasionally made to civil officers for the maintenance of due state and dignity. The interest of the stipendiary did not ordinarily extend beyond his own life, and the jagir even determined at the pleasure of the sovereign, or it was transferred, 0n failure of service, to another person who undertook the conditions. But some of these grants when given to powerful families acquired an hereditary character. It would seem, nevertheless, that until recently these estates very seldom shook off the condition under which they were created. The assignments were with drawn when the service ceased; and they were considered a far inferior kind of property to that of hereditary office. Probably the double government of the Maratha and the Nizam kept this tenure weak and precarious. The Nizam would have insisted on service from his jagirdars during his incessant wars. The Maratha treated the Mughal jagirdars very roughly, taking from them sixty per cent. of all the revenue assigned, wherever such demand could be enforced. To plunder an enemy's jagir was much the same as to sack his militarv chest—it disordered the army estimates. When this province was made over in 1853 to the British, some villages were under assignment to jagirdars for the maintenance of troops, and these were given up by their holders. Up to that date, however, the system of tankhwa jagir or assignment for army payments by which whole parganas in Berar had been formally held had barely survived. The irregularities of the old practice were notorious. A few followers to enable the jagirdars to collect the revenue were sometimes the only armed force really maintained; no musters were held, and when troops were seriously called out the jagirdar made hasty levies or occasionally absconded altogether. There are still several personal jagirs without condition in Berar which have been confirmed to the holders as a heritable possession. But none of these were made hereditary by original grant, save only the estates given to pious or venerable persons—to saiyids, fakirs, pirzadas, and the like—and perhaps an estate which was first assigned as an appanage to members of the reigning family. Other jagirs have been obtained by court interest, acquired by local officers during their tenure of power, or allotted to them for maintenance of due state and dignity, and such holdings were often continued afterwards as a sort of pension which slided into inheritance. Almost every jagir title was given by the Delhi Emperor or the Nizam, one or two by the Peshwa but not one full grant derives from the Bhonsla dynasty, which never arrogated to itself that sovereign prerogative.

The number of villages held in jagir tenure in this District is 42. The following statement shows the persons holding more than one village on this tenure, with the area of the grant and its assessment [The whole assessment is enjoyed by the jagirdars.]:—

Alienation of jagirs by sale, mortgages, or otherwise, is prohibited. Personal jagirs are continued hereditarily subject to a legacy duty or succession fee graduated on a scale according to the degree of relationship of the heir. Jagirs for religious or charitable objects such as for the support of temples, mosques, colleges, or other public buildings or institutions, or for service therein, are continued, so long as the buildings or institutions are maintained in an efficient state, and the service continued to be performed according to the conditions of the grant. Grants of the latter kind cover an area of 7937 acres assessed at Rs. 5542; the whole of which has been assigned to the grantee. The following table shows the details of grants made for perpetuity or for one or mote lives:—

The relation between the jagirdar and his tenants is governed by Chapter VII of the Berar Land Revenue Code. Tenants are divided into two classes, ante-jagir and post-jagir tenants. The former are those who have held their land from a period prior to the alienation, and they are entitled to continue in possession subject to the payment of the survey assessment. Post-jagir tenants pay rent according to agreement with the jagirdar. The revenue courts have no cognizance over disputes between jagirdars and their tenants, these being all referred to the civil courts. The rights of tenants in jagir villages have been amply protected. When the court is called upon to determine what shall be considered a reasonable rent, the enhanced value of the property due to improvements effected by the tenant is not taken into consideration. In cases of ejectment also the court can order compensation to be paid for the unexhausted improvements made by the tenant. A notice of six months is necessary before a landlord can enhance the rent of a tenant, and an annual tenancy cannot be terminated by either party without three months' notice.

All the jagir villages were surveyed and settled at the original settlement, but only three jagirdars were willing to pay the cost of the revision settlement; and this was carried out therefore in seven villages only. For the remaining villages only fresh rent-rolls were prepared and deposited with the Deputy Commissioner, to enable the latter to recover the road and education cesses, and the quit-rent, if any. In 1906-07 the total area of the jagir villages was 86,916 acres, and of this 25,283 acres were returned as unculturable (parampok), 1696 acres were included in village sites, grazing areas and the like, and 59,937 acres were available for cultivation. Of the latter 57,840 acres, assessed at Rs. 57,153, were under cultivation, and 2097 acres, assessed at Rs. 562, remained unoccupied.

Cesses.

324. When Berar came under British management there was found in existence a village servant known as the havildar whose duty it was to assist the patel in collecting the rent and in other village matters, and who occasionally acted as a chaukidar also in going the round of the village at night. Under the native government it was not the duty of the watchman to report crime. This village servant was paid from the village expenses either in money or land, receiving also contributions of grain from the villagers. After the cession the havildar was commuted into a police chaukidar, but it was found that the patel required someone to assist him in collecting the rents and in settling other village matters, and that the village required a recognized servant to do watch and ward and other services, and it was decided that the various offices should be united in one man, where one man was capable of performing them. It was proposed that a cess of one anna in the rupee of the land revenue assessment paid by every khatedar should be levied, and this cess, which was sanctioned in 1866, was known as the jaglia cess, the newly appointed officials being termed jaglias. The practice grew up of spending the surplus of the jaglia cess on public improvements, and to mark this fact the designation of the cess in 1880 was changed to the ' Jaglia and Local Cess.' A school cess was imposed in 1867 at the rate of 1 per cent. on the land revenue, but the system of calculating this percentage was not uniform, and great confusion in the accounts resulted. In 1879 it was changed to 3 pies in the rupee, and in 1880 it was amalgamated with the Jaglia and Local Cess. The combined cesses are now being recovered in khaha or unalienated villages at 15 pies per rupee of the assessment of each survey number, and at 2 per cent. of the total of the assessment of all the survey numbers in jagir villages. The proprietors of jagir villages can make their own arrangements for the maintenance of jaglias, but if the Deputy Commissioner considers these inadequate, he may levy an additional cess at the rate of one anna in the rupee on the total of the assessments of all the survey numbers. The surplus of the Jaglia and Local Cess, after the expense of the jaglia force have been defrayed, is handed over to the District Board. The surplus so handed over in 1907-8 was Rs. 47,900, while Rs. 69,000 were spent on the jaglia force. The school cess produces about Rs. 30,000. A road cess was imposed in 1856 at the rate of 1 per cent. of the land revenue, but owing to a mistake of the Settlement Department effect was not given to the intentions of Government, and, instead of a cess being levied, this percentage of the land revenue was set aside in each District for the maintenance of roads. The road cess on jagir villages produces about Rs. 600.