OR CUTT&CK. %27 



dait* stationed with the Bisoi ; the Bhoi kept the village accounts and fur- 

 nished information to the Bhoi Mul or chief accountant. All these func- 

 tionaries held their situations hereditarily, and were in the habits of 

 mortgaging or even selling the whole or shares of them, with the sanction 

 of the ruling power, just as we see the priests and officers in the temple of 

 Jugunnath at this day disposing constantly of their several shewas or services, 

 with the emoluments thereunto annexed. To infer from these circumstances 

 any right of property in the soil, would seem equally rash and absurd. It is a 

 nicer question whether under the old Hindu system the actual occupants of 

 the soil, that is the ryots, were considered to possess any subordinate title of 

 ownership in land. There are no obvious traces of such a right now remaining 

 InCuttack, as we read of in Canaraand Malabar. I have never yet been able 

 to discover any well authenticated instance of the sale or mortgage of land 

 by a Malguzari ryot of the province. The than! or fixed cultivators, however 

 undoubtedly possessed under the old Rajas the privilege of hereditary 

 occupancy ; their fixed assessment was light and easy ; and there was then 

 no one to dispute the matter with them, excepting the despotic uncontroled 

 sovereign of the country, who, whatever his claims in theory, of course 

 required nothing from the land but an adequate revenue. 



The changes consequent on the subjection of the province to the Mogul 

 government comenextto be considered. It is well known that after the defeat 

 of the Afghan usurpers who had gained temporary possession of Orissa, 

 by the armies of Acber under ths command of his General Khan Jehan 

 and others, the celebrated DewanTural Mall visited the province A. D. 

 1580 to superintend the introduction of his settlement of the crown lands, 

 founded on a measurement and valuation called the Taksim Jamma and 

 Taukha Raqmi, The arrangements for the annexation of the Suba of 

 Orissa to the empire, did not, however, receive their final completion until 

 the arrival of Raja Man Sinh the Imperial Lieutenant, who assumed charge 

 of the government in 999 Amli. 



£ That is, the Khandait of the cultivaiuy as contradistinguished from the Military caste, 



C c 3 



