1840.] Memoir of Sylhet^ KachaVy ^ adjacent Districts, 825 



Rajahs led to the introduction among the Raj of titles borrowed from 

 the Musalmans, such as Chrowdries, &c., but the ancient grants were 

 directed only to the Bur Bhuyiah and Bhuyiah's, names which clearly 

 refer to the soil (^^) though they are not current beyond these coun- 

 tries. In every Raj were certain classifications of the proprietors, 

 made however without reference to the local positions of their estates, 

 but according as they were charged with the payment of revenue to the 

 prince direct, or to some one in whose favour he had made an assign- 

 ment. These were Called Khels, and the principal among them was 

 the Khilmah, which paid to the Rajah, while all the others, as the 

 Sang-jurai, Dekha-jurai, &c. after paying a fixed proportion only to 

 the prince, accounted for the balance to the Ranni, to the Jub Raj, or 

 other holder of the assignment. The local administration and execu- 

 tion of the prince's orders were anciently intrusted to the Raj, subject 

 only to an appeal to the Raja, and they had the power to settle land 

 on terms similar to those by which they themselves held, transacting 

 business in periodical meetings. 



I cannot detail the steps by which the power, consequence, and very 

 nature of these corporations were destroyed ; but content myself with 

 observing, that there is unquestionable evidence of the state of things I 

 have described still extant in the country, while it is certain that 

 the late Raja completed their subversion, and left to the Rajes nothing 

 valuable but the name, by assessing each landholder according to the 

 full extent of his cultivation, abolishing all local jurisdiction and autho- 

 rity, whether in judicial or fiscal matters, and reducing all the proprie- 

 tors to a footing of equality ; though he still most inconsistently held 

 them responsible collectively for the revenue of their Khels, making 

 over the estates of defaulters to their management after they had in 

 effect ceased to be a corporate body. 



Under every change the proprietors still retained their hereditary right 

 in the soil, and the locality of each holding was ascertained from time to 

 time by measurement, as the shares and boundaries of individuals 

 varied continually under the influence of the laws of inheritance, 

 though the boundaries of the Raj remained unchangfed, unless by a 

 special grant made by the authority of the prince to a new corporation 

 out of the unoccupied waste. Much of the cultivation, at least since the 

 decline of the kingdom from its former consequence, was performed on 



