223 



tidings of the ripening of dry crops was conveyed to him), 

 grain fees for the maintenance of an Enghsh writer in the 

 establishment of the Zemindar, &c. Venkatagiri and Kdlahasti 

 Zemindaries are instances of Zemindaries in which the exist- 

 ence of a kudivaram right in the ryot is denied : in the 

 Ramnad Zemindari, on the other hand, the right is fully 

 admitted and transfers of lands by sale or mortgage are 

 quite as common as in the Government ryotwar taluks. ^' 



83. The rights of the Zemindars to hold their estates 

 were, before the permanent settlement, 

 wfaTSda^tTsS' much more uncertain than those of the 

 ryots, and the object of the permanent 

 settlement was to place the rights of the former on a 

 secure basis by limiting the demands of the Government 

 on Zemindars on account of the revenue, in order that 

 the demands of the latter on the ryots might be equally 

 defined and limited. On the occasion of introducing the 

 permanent settlement in Bengal in 1792, the Court of 

 Directors remarked as regards the tenure of Zemindars as 

 follows : " On the fullest consideration, we are inclined to 

 think that whatever doubt may exist, with respect to their 



'' The nature of the ryot's right was everywhere the same, though its saleable value 

 varied in different places and in most was nothing. This is clear from the following 

 extract from Board's Proceedings, dated 5th January 1818, in which the Board stated 

 the results of their enquiries into the nature of the ryot's right in different parts of the 

 Presidency. " The universally distinguishing character as well as the chief privilege of 

 this class is their exclusive right to the hereditary possession and usufruct of the soil, 

 so long as they render a certain portion of the produce of the land, in kind or money, 

 as public revenue ; for whether rendered in service, in money, or in kind, and whether 

 paid to Rajahs, Jaghirdars, Zemindars, Poligars, Mootahdars, Shrotriemdars, Maniemdars 

 or to Government officers, such as Tahsildars, Amuldars, Ameens, or Thanadars, the 

 payments which have always been made are universally termed the dues of the 

 Government. 



" The hereditary right of the ryot above described, though everywhere the same or 

 at least of a similar nature, is in value different in different districts. After discharg- 

 ing the wages of his hired labourers, and defraying the subsistence of his slaves or other 

 immediate expenses of cultivation, if the public assessment payable by him is so 

 moderate as to leave him a considerable surplus, his interest in the soil is that of a land- 

 lord, and his land yields a clear land rent and is, of course, a saleable and transferable 

 property ; but where the revenue payable by him is so high as to absorb the whole of 

 the landlord's rent, and to leave him a bare and precarious subsistence only, his 

 interest in the land dwindles into mere occupancy, and from a landlord he is reduced 

 to a landholder still indeed clinging to the soil and subsisting by tilling it, but no 

 longer possessing any saleable interest. 



" The value of the ryot's right, therefore, varies with the weight of the public assesB- 

 ment on the land, which is generally found to be heavy in proportion to the length of 

 the time that the country may have been subjected to the Muhammadan Government. 

 On the West Coast of the Peninsula, where the Mussalman power was both of most 

 recent introduction and short duration, this right constitutes property of great value, 

 which is vested in each individual ryot. In the Tamil country, it is vested more 

 frequently in all the ryots of a village collectively than in each individually ; and is of 

 less value than in Canara and Malabar, and sometimes of little or no value as a saleabl© 

 property. In t^e Ceded Districts and Northern Circars, which were the longest 

 under Muhammadan rule, though the Coombees, Reddiea, Naidoos and other Kadeem 

 inhabitants assert their hereditary right to a priority and preference of occupancy, they 

 do not now appear t9 possess any saleable righ6 in the soil." 



