ON THE STATISTICS OF DUKHUN. 283 
became necessarily much divided, and the individual holders 
were called by the Hindoos Thulwaee or Thulkuree; and the 
light in which the Moosulmans looked upon such proprietors, 
when they took possession of the country, is sufficiently mani- 
fest by the term they applied to them, namely, Meerasdars, or 
patrimony-holders, from the Arabic word Meeras, “ patri- 
mony, ‘‘heritage,” and Dar, ‘a holder;” and this is the 
term by which such proprietors are distinguished at the 
present day. The Meerasdars were of two kinds; the de- 
scendants of the original proprietor, whose surnames and the 
name of the estate or thul were identical, and those who had 
obtained a share of the estate by purchase or otherwise, whose 
surnames were not the same as that of the estate. In no in- 
stance, that I am aware of, have the former class documentary 
proofs of their right; with the latter class documentary proofs 
are not uncommon. 
There is further proof of the Moosulmans having ac- 
knowledged hereditary rights in the term they applied to the 
Deshmooks, Desaees, Deshpandehs, and others, namely, 
Hukdar. Huk, in Arabic, meaning “right,” and Dar “a 
holder ;” these persons in virtue of their offices having lands 
in tenure and fees in money and kind in the districts in which 
these duties lay. The Meerasdars considered that they might 
be temporarily dispossessed of their freeholds in case of non- 
payment of the government assessments and dues, but they 
claimed to resume them whenever they had liquidated their 
debts; and they did not consider the question of these freeholds 
compromised by the government doing justice to itself, any more 
than the existence of freehold property would be questioned 
in England because the owner might be compelled to yield 
up his property in payment of arrears of land-tax, poor- 
rates, &c, 
Meerasdars.—Meerasdars set a very high value upon their 
lands, and they clung to them with that feeling of personal and 
family pride which are characteristics of freeholders in Eu- 
rope; even under the most grinding oppressions of their own 
government and its local officers, it was only when driven to 
despair that they abandoned them. The Meerasdar had to 
pay the government land-tax, all fees in kind to the district and 
village officers in common with the tenant at will or leaseholder; 
moreover, he had to pay a tax applicable to himself only, called 
Meerasputtee, a kind of smart-money for the distinction his 
freehold gave him ; this was levied every third year. Such was 
the Meeras tenure of land. His advantages were, first, the di- 
stinction; next, his being a constituent of the Pandreh, orvillage 
