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to 50 lakhs, or, in other words, the rental is now more than 

 three times the peshcush, and the zemindars have conse- 

 quently enormously benefited. Between 1830 and 1850, 

 owing to the low prices of grain which prevailed, several 

 zemindars in the Kistna and Godavari districts were unable 

 to meet their engagements with Government and their 

 estates were consequently sequestered, sold by auction and 

 purchased by Government and incorporated with ryotwar 

 lands. But for this circumstance, nearly the whole of the 

 rich delta of the Godavari and Kistna would, at this day, have 

 consisted of zemindari lands. The estates, which escaped 

 this process, yield a very large revenue to their owners, who, 

 with some exceptions, squander it in litigation and dissipa- 

 tion, and the benefits, which, it was expected, would accrue 

 from the permanent settlement, have not so far been realized. 

 Education, however, has been forcing its way latterly even 

 among zemindars, and it may be hoped that they will, within 

 another generation, utilize their wealth and resources in 

 improving the condition of their tenantry and in aiding the 

 general progress of the country. 



The next class of landowners are the inamdars who 

 number 438,659 and hold between them 8*2 millions of acres 

 or 19 acres each on an average. Out of this area, a little 

 more than 3 millions of acres are comprised in entire inam 

 villages and the remainder consists of petty holdings origin- 

 ally held on service tenure in ryotwar villages and recently 

 enfranchised. The position of the latter does not differ 

 materially from that of the ryotwar puttadars. The holders 

 of whole inam villages, who generally belong to the sacerdotal 

 and non-cultivating classes, are in an impoverished condition, 

 their property having got sub-divided into minute portions. 

 The revenue paid by these estates amounts to 16 per cent, of 

 the rental. Originally inam properties were not transferable 

 by sale and were liable to be resumed by Government on 

 failure of direct heirs of the holders. All these properties, 

 with a few insignificant exceptions, have, as already observed, 

 been freed from these restrictions and declared heritable and 

 transferable property, subject to the payment of a light quit- 

 rent imposed by way of compensation to the State for the 

 reversionary right relinquished by it. 



The third-class of landowners are those numbering 550, 

 who have redeemed the land-tax by making a lump payment 

 to Government. These properties consist of parcels of land 

 forming house-sites or gardens attached to house-sites. 



The fourth-class consists of purchasers of waste lands in 

 hill tracts for the formation of plantations. The area held 



