1839.] Report on the District of Azimgurh. Ill 



or community of individuals own the whole of a plat of ground 

 lying within certain limits, and bearing a fixed name, as a Mouzah. 

 This may from time immemorial have borne a single name, and 

 be generally recognized as such, or it may contain within its area two 

 or more Mouzahs, Uslee or Dakhulee, or both, whose separate bounda- 

 ries have long been lost sight of, and which have become intermingled 

 so as to form one village, probably bearing the double name. 



80th. The estate however may comprise two or more such Mou- 

 zahs, and these may be situated together or at a distance from each 

 other. 



81st. The ancestors of many of the Rajpoot communities were 

 possessed of large tracts of land containing many villages. As 

 their descendants multiplied, this tract of land was subdivided, and 

 formed into separate Mehals. This subdivision sometimes was effect- 

 ed so as to assign whole Mouzahs to different branches of the family. 

 It was seldom, however, especially when the subdivision was amongst 

 many sharers, that the property could be so divided. In this case, 

 perhaps, some entire Mouzahs were given to each branch of the family, 

 and the inequalities thence arising were made good in the division of 

 some Mouzahs held jointly by all, or else each Mouzah was divided so 

 that every branch of the family should have a portion. The whole 

 Mouzahs, or portions of Mouzahs, belonging to each branch, were 

 collected together, and made into one Mehal, or estate. But in 

 the Mouzahs held jointly, the division probably was not in distinct 

 portions, but field by field, or as it is commonly called, Khet Bhut. 

 Now these fields sometimes became the subject of sale from one 

 person to another, and the purchaser might call the purchased field by 

 the name of his own Mouzah. It thus happens that many Mouzahs 

 in Tuppah Chowree, Pergunnah Deogaon, contain within them fields 

 known by the name of other Mouzahs, perhaps two or three miles dis- 

 tant, and have attached to them fields in other Mouzahs at an equally 

 great distance. In Tuppah Koobah, Pergunnah Deogaon, the case was 

 still more involved by the circumstance, that sets of fields in se- 

 veral Mouzahs, belonging to different branches of the family, bore 

 distinct names. This distinction existed sometimes in the Govern- 

 ment records, and not in common usage, sometimes in both. 



82nd. Now in all cases of this sort, the system of survey which has 

 been followed is the most convenient which could have been devised. 

 The professional survey gives the locality of the villages, or of the 

 plots of ground constituting the site and the bulk of the village, 

 whilst the native field maps give the several fields within the circuit 

 of each village. These fields can be distinguished by different colors 



