Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/354

 346 LUC superior lord of the soil. Some few there are who for convenience, or self- protection, placed themselves under the sheltering wing of a taluqdar, and thus escaped too burdensome a revenue or the raid of an enemy. These merely paid their revenue through the taluqdar, and the tenure which was secured to the latter under the conditions of the settlement of bis estate with him, on the recovery of the province in A.D. 1858, bas been maintained. But the greater number of villages that have been decreed on sub-settlement are those which were merely held on farm by the taluqdar, to which he could pretend no title, and from which the owners had not been dispossessed. These are those that appear in the estates of Jabrauli, Kasmandi Khurd, Sissaindi, Bayárigáon, and Rámpur Bichauli. The remaining class are those in the estates of Rája Amír Hasan Khan, Rája Jagmohan Singh, and Bábu Pirthípál Singh, and are merely assign- ments of villages to near relations. Str land.-The sir of the ex-proprietor is the land that he held in his own cultivation whilst he was proprietor of the village, and which he has never lost, or which has been specially granted him as sír. It depends on the circumstances under which he has lost the village and the nature of bis subsequent positiou in it, as to whether the right in it that he has secured be transferable and heritable, or heritable only. There are 1,696 of such holders in the district who hold an area of 10,573 acres, or an extent of land averaging more than six acres each. They pay a rent not much higher than that at which the zamindar rates himself, and which is based on his payment in the Nawabi. This rate, viz., that of the zamindars, is usually said to be one-fifth less than that of the ordinary cultivator, Chak.--The holders of chaks are 2,733, and hold 5,724 acres, or an aver age of more than two acres each. These have been variously acquired. The greater number of these are round qasbas or towns. They were often sold by the original zamindars for groves or granted for endowments of mosques and Hindu religious bodies. They were near the residence of the Government official, and were rarely assessed ; and where assessed now, have been charged with their shares of the revenue laid on the whole village. This they pay through the lam bardar with a percentage, which the latter has for his responsibility and trouble in collecting. In case any such property should lapse without an heir, it would naturally revert to the proprietary body as lords of the manor, As a rule, it may be said that not many changes have been made on the summary settlement of villages of AD. 1858-59. Of the 1,416 vil- lages then settled subject to a future revision, save for the taluqdars, by the regular settlement, 1,218 have been maintained in the possession of the parties settled with. The number of decrees passed for the proprietary title is no test of change, for, by orders subsequently issued, even parties in possession were made to claim against Government to show their own good title. The taluqdars had 354 villages, of which 347 bave been main- tained. Some three or four of them were held on mortgage titles which have been redeemed. Some three or four were not held under their sanad as former part of their taluqa at all. Some forty villages they have received