239 



lector of ^^^ Ganjam, shortly after the famine of 1866 wrote, 

 " The thirteen Oorya Zemindars of Ganjam are, with few 

 exceptions, the most grasping landholders and the least 

 enlightened proprietors in the world ; they take 50 per cent, 

 of the crops and lay out little or nothing in improving or in 

 maintaining irrigation works. They lease their villages to 

 middle-men, and the under-tenants are consequently deprived 

 of all chance of accumulating capital and are little better 

 than serfs of the soil ; the bulk of the ryots in Zemindari 

 estates would hail a change to Government management with 

 joy." We have more recent information as regards the con- 

 dition of the ryots in the Nuzvid Zemindari in the Kistna 

 delta. The estate was placed under the management of the 

 Court of Wards and the manager of the estate, Mr. Singarazu 

 Venkata Subbarayudu, a Vakil of the High Court, reported 

 in 1879 in the following terms of the manner in which the 

 rents of the ryots had been screwed up by the previous 

 Zemindars. " Once every 5 years it is usual to fix a certain 

 amount of sist upon every village, taking into account the 

 circumstances then existing, the nature of the soil and the 

 quality of the crops, and to take joint muchilikas with 6 dry 

 or 3 wet kistsfrom the pettanadars (Headmen) andkurnums, 

 &c., of every village with conditions following : — (1) the lands 

 shall not be relinquished before the prescribed term ; (2 ) for 

 losses arising from excess or failure of rains, they shall hold 

 themselves responsible and the prescribed rent shall be paid 

 whether the land be cultivated or not ; (3) payments made 

 after time shall be charged interest at 1 per cent, per men- 

 sem ; (4) no cultivation shall be carried on without obtaining 

 a puttah after the termination of the prescribed time ; (5) 

 individual muchilikas shall be presented apportioning the 

 total amount of the muchilikas on the different descriptions of 

 land, viz., best, middling, and inferior; (6) all shall jointly 



and severally be responsible for the whole rent 



The tarams are subject to alteration when the villages are 

 re-rented at the end of the cowle in the same manner as they 



are fixed at the beginning Some villages have the 



same rate for the best and worst sort of lands, while others 

 have the least rate for the best land and the highest rate for 

 inferior land. These rates are now in force. The best lands 

 are possessed by kurnums, pettanadars and rich inhabitants. 

 It is most irregular that there should be hundreds of rates 

 in every taluk, and that rates should be diff'erent for the 

 same kind of land according to the caste, loyalty and otherwise 



1"- Fide appendix VI.-B. (3). 



