Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/185

LAND REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. The actual collection of the revenue in Vizagapatam was apparently in the hands of a number of local chiefs (who were also expected to keep their charges free from disturbance) supervised by superior officers who kept accounts of their own as checks. After the arrival of the Musalmans, these chiefs were allowed to retain their positions; but1 they were not acknowledged by their masters as independent or tributary rulers, or even as having any property in the land. They were 'accountable managers and ollectors, and not lords and proprietors of the land.' They were allowed, in return for the due performance of their duties, rent-free lands, fees on the crops, the customs dues and a quit-rent on houses, which amounted together to about ten per cent, on their collections. It was not until a late period of the Musalman government that they received the name zamindars, which with its literal meaning of 'possessors of land' gave colour to the erroneous idea that they had an hereditary right to the soil. In accordance with eastern tendency, their offices gradually became hereditary, and in at least two cases (Bobbili and Vizianagram) their descendants still hold land originally allotted them.

The Committee of Circuit says that these zamindars eventually—

'Set aside the former usage and, after ascertaining by measurement the quantity of the arable land, imposed a fixed rate of Rs. 10 per garce called sist, the payment of which was to entitle the labourer to the unrestricted disposal of his whole crop, This alteration, favourable as at first sight it may appear to the inhabitant, was established solely for the convenience and profit of the zamindar, as it enabled him to take one kist of the collections in advance, and served as a foundation whereon to calculate any further assessments. Soon after, when the land was supposed to be improved, the malavali was added at the rate of 100 and 150 per cent, on the sist, and thence- forward considered as a fixed payment. The nazzor, which is taken in plenteous years, is an exaction not fixed, but generally at the rate of 50 per cent, on the sist. The bilmakta is an appraisement of poor ground producing only small grain, by which the same is rented for a specific sum and not liable to any other imposition excepting the sari, which, was originally the zamindar's allowance from the Mughal darbar of 10 per cent. on the collections in reward for preserving good order and encouraging cultivation. These assessments reduced the labourer's share to about one-third of the produce.' 165