96 Report on the District of Azimgurh. [Feb. 



ed, and the inhabitants massacred ; since which time it has remained 

 without one inhabitant (Be-chiragh). In default of other claimants, 

 the Canoongoe of the Pergunnah engaged for it, and now holds it 

 in proprietary right as his Zemindarry. A Bunniah in Azimgurh, 

 who claims his descent from the old proprietors, attempted to establish 

 his right in the Special Commission Court, but failed. Ask any intelli- 

 gent resident in the neighbourhood, who is the rightful Zemindar? — he 

 he will answer, the Bunniah. Question him more strictly, and he will 

 admit the prior right of the Sukrawar Rajpoots. Tradition reaches 

 no higher. 



35th. Achar, and its dependant villages in Pergunnah Mhownat 

 Bhunjun, was held by a tribe of Kaut Rajpoots. The Dhoonwars of 

 the neighbouring estate of Khabseh were the more powerful : they at- 

 tacked, and massacred most of them. The little mud Ghurree is still 

 shown where the last who held their ground were put to death. This 

 took place only a few years before the cession. Some of the family 

 fled into the neighbouring district of Ghazeepore, then in our posses- 

 sion, and have in vain since attempted to recover their rights. 



36th. A family of Chundel Rajpoots emigrated from the Juanpore 

 district and settled in Pergunnah Nuthoopore, where they acquired 

 much land about the place where the Durgah of Kullooah Bund has 

 since flourished. A chur was subsequently thrown up between the 

 Kuttooby Talow and the river Goggra. Of this chur the Chundels 

 took possession. Their prosperity kept pace with the increase of the 

 chur, and the Chundels of Doobarree are now one of the most flourish- 

 ing clans. Their Talookah till lately was included in Pergunnah 

 Secunclerpore ; it has now been annexed to Nuthoopore. 



37th. In many cases the origin of the present Zemindarry right has 

 been the rent-free grant of waste land to the ancestors of the present 

 proprietors, such grant having been made by the actual sovereign, the 

 Emperor of Delhi, or his local representative. The grantee brought 

 the land into cultivation, and as the former proprietors had passed 

 away, on resumption of the grant by some succeeding ruler, was 

 acknowledged as proprietor. Some terms of this sort are said to have 

 had their origin in grants by the Sherki sovereigns of Juanpore. 



38th. The appropriation of waste lands was sometimes, however, 

 founded on mere acts of usurpation by powerful individuals or com- 

 munities, or has grown up by sufferance. Thus the powerful Pul- 

 wars of Kowreeah have encroached on the neighbouring forest land 

 in Pergunnah Nizamabad. Their occupation of Kadarampoor is 

 a case in point. The rise of some Aheer communities appears to 

 illustrate the latter mode of appropriation noted above. These people 



