Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/352

 344 LUC The number of bhayyachára villages is 501, the area is 329,855 acres, and the number of proprietors is 11,674. The area to each proprietor will then be no more than 28} acres; or, to put the difference still more forcibly, while there are in 603 zamindari maháls only 2,832 sharers, or a little more than four to a mahál, there are in the remaining 501 no less than 23 proprietors to each mahal. It is to these villages chiefly that the cultivating communities belong, and the tendency to divide seems to be greatly on the increase. Zamindari villages--that is, villages held in common--are rapidly be- coming divided. Though all were legally equal, practically, in the Nawabi, one man would be often found who would put himself by consent at the head of the community, in order that the whole might be better enabled to resist the oppression of an official or the greed of a neighhour. He be- came the head zamindar, and was summoned to the chakladar's court to accept the revenue engagement. The machinery of Government was not fitted in these days to cope with all the owners of an estate. The Govern- ment revenue was the great matter, and while one or two looked after that, the rest had their sír, for which they rated themselves at something less than cultivator's rents. Division of profits there was none, for all the collections were revenue, and a zainindar's real position in the village could only be surmised by his joint contribution to a matter that concern- ed the whole family, or common participation in any troubles that befel it. Moreover the pressure in the Nawabi was greater, and there was an out- let for many members of the family either in service with one of the powerful and turbulent nobles, or at the court and capital. This is now over: a head is no longer required, and the coparceners are all confined to their villages ; for, to use an expression of their own, their only trade is zamindari. Yet the proprietor in severalty is little richer than the ordinary cultivator, whilst he has generally the position and lia- bilities of the richer zamindar. If he belongs to a clan which has settled in the surrounding villages, a death in his own family will compel him to call all the brotherhood together, and together they will swell the expenses depending on a marriage; then comes a loan or mortgage, and the pattidar finds it difficult to escape from the toils of the money-lender. There is not much difference in the kind of property implied by a patti- dari and a bhayyachára village. In the latter, perhaps, the separation of sharers is the more complete. It derives its name from the unit of land on which the whole community has agreed to base the division, and which is known as the bhayyachára hígha or the bigha of the brotherhood. Taluqdars. The table which follows gives the names of the principal landowners, with the area and revenue of their respective estates - Name of owner. Name of estate. 20. of Area, Government jarga. Remarks, Mirza Jafar Ali Khan ... Rehta Raja Chandar Sekhar ... Sissaindi Lala Kanhaiya LAZ Jahyaula A. 8.877 35 34,610 23 16,941 Re, 2, a 108,420 0 0 0 97,003 0 O Estates in Unao and Rae Barell 1 30 13,77 0 ol Ditto in Unao.