XXVI 



durbar Mirch, and by private contributions levied by the revenue 

 officers for their own use. — (Extract from the Fifth Report of the Parlia- 

 mentary Committee for the East India affairs, 1813.) 



Trichinopoly {acquired in 1792). — Under the Nabob's Government, 

 the revenue had been collected in the irrigated taluks by a division of 

 the produce with the ryots. As a general rule, the crops were equally 

 divided between the Government and the cultivators^ after a deduction 

 ' of 5 per cent, of the gross produce had been made for reaping expenses. 

 This was the ordinary rate of division {rdram), but in lands irrigated 

 from tanks and also in those which, from their position, were liable 

 to have the crops damaged by inundations, the ryots were allowed to 

 take 55 to 58 per cent, of the gross produce. In newly formed wet 

 lands the cultivator's share {kudivaram) was 60 per cent, and in those 

 irrigated by picottahs and other mechanical contrivances, it varied from 

 65 to 68f per cent. The allowances [sutantrams) paid to the village 

 artificers, karnams, watchers, cultivating slaves {Paliars), and others 

 varied from 23 to 28 per cent, of the gross produce, and were paid by 

 the inhabitants alone out of their share. 



In the dry portions of the country, the revenues were collected in 

 some villages according to the sorts of grains cultivated, while in others 

 the assessment varied according to the nature of the soil. The demands 

 were, however, made in a most arbitrary manner, and were invariably 

 increased if the outturn of the crops happened to be better than usual. 

 The collections in these villages were made in money, and not in kind, 

 as in the wet villages. 



The sale of grain was a strict monopoly, the price being fixed by 

 the manager. AH importation was forbidden, and it was an offence, 

 punishable by exorbitant fines, even to lend a neighbour such small 

 quantities of grain as he might require for his immediate support. 

 The grain was taken from the cultivators at the rate of 7 and 8 

 fanams ' per kalam ^, and sold back to them from Government granaries 

 kept up in different parts of the district at 9 and 10 fanams per kalam. 



In some remarks that he makes on the system of government pre- 

 vailing in Trichinopoly before the English got possession of the 

 country, Mr. Wallace remarks that, under the system then in force, 

 the people never knew when the demands on them would cease. The 

 so-called fixed assessments seemed to have been imposed merely with 

 the view of inducing the ryots to cultivate, in the hope that nothing 

 beyond the settled amount in money or grain would be exacted from 

 them. In this hope they were, however, invariably disappointed, and 

 he asserts that, if in any one year the revenues were actually collected 

 according to the fixed rates, this was done merely with the view of 

 inducing the ryots, by this apparent moderation, to increase the extent 

 of their cultivation in the succeeding year, and thus give the managers 

 or their sub-renters an opportunity of doubling their exactions. — 

 {Trichinopoly District Manual.) 



Tinnevelly {acquired in ld92 and 1801). — Colonel Fullerton in 1783 

 wrote : — *' The last, but not the least, considerable of your southern 



^ There were 30 fanams to the pagoda, so that one fanam equalled 1 anna 10^ pies of 

 our present currency. i 



' The kalam contained 39 measures of 100 cuhic inches. 



