Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/287

 SAD 279 are Bliars and Lunias, who occur in small colonies at the extreme verge of the cultivation, Until quite lately the greater part of the pargana was under a dense jungle, the home of predatory bands of Siyár Khawwas (jackal eaters), Qalandars, and Banjáras, and others of the singular nomadic tribes, whose ethnological position it is so difficult to determine, and most of the present tilth commerced with the pui chase of parcels of land in birt from the later Rájas of Utra ula. Some idea of the scantiness of the agricultural population at the commencement of the present century, when the practice of selling birt rights became for the first time common, may be gathered from the fact that in 1815 A.D., the government revenue was only Rs. 6,925. From that time the advance becomes rapid and steady. In 1819 the demand had risen to Rs. 13,312, and ten years later it reached Rs. 24,067. With a few trifling variations, it remained at this amount till Rája Darshan Singh in 1838 raised it to Rs. 35,107, a figure which was never again attained under the native government. Shortly before annexation it had fallen to little over Rs. 20,0 and when we took over the district, Sadullahnagar was assessed on the principle of half profits at Rs. 24,048. The progress of population and agriculture since that period has been incredibly rapid, and in 1872 A.D., at revised assessment, the govern- ment land revenue was raised to Rs. 56,075, with Rs. 1,522 on account of cesses. In consideration of the largeness of the enhancement, and in view of the fact that much of the recently broken land was held on long leases at progressive rents, the rise has been distributed over a period of ten years, and it is not proposed to take the full demand till 1983 A.1). Anything worth noting in the history of the pargana and its agricultural customs will be found under the article on Utraula, of which it was till annexation a tappa, or revenue subdivision, under the same Pathán rája. For more than a century the local chiefs have had but little power, and though they sold almost all the villages to birtias, they were hardly ever allowed by the Lucknow government to engage for the revenue, and had lost all direct proprietary rights except the precarious collection of a few unimportant transit dues, and the receipt of nazarána, or the feudal tribute of two or three rupees in each year from each of the village heads. In 1849 and 1850, the great revenue speculator Pánde Rám Datt Rám held the pargana in security for money advanced by him to the názim, and succeeded in purchasing a number of the hitherto independent villages, which after the mutiny were included in the sanad granted to his brother Rája Krishn Datt Rám. . But for this circumstance only three villages, the property of the Rája of Utraula, would have been held in taluqdari tenure. As it is, the proportion of zamindari holdings is larger than it is in most parts of the district, and 62 villages, with a revenue of Rs. 28,356, have been settled with independent proprietors, while the taluqdars have 50 villages with a revenue of Rs. 29,241. Beyond the mahua and timber of the fast disappearing forests, and an occasional quarry of kankar, there are no natural products of value, and no manufactures except the universal one of coarse cotton cloth for the apparel of the lower classes,