0H CUTTACK. 237 



perquisites on fishery, orchards, produce of the jungles* &c. (the Phalkar, 

 Jalkar and Bankar ;) taxes on Trade (Muteharfa ;) the privilege of granting 

 leases to new settlers in villages where there were no Mokaddams; and 

 the less distinctly avowed, though not less profitable, perquisite of granting 

 free of rent and selling, small portions of the lands called "Banjar Kha- 

 rej Jarnma," or waste unoccupied and unassessed land, which had either 

 never been subject to rent, or had been deserted for years. The Mokad- 

 dams under them exercised privileges of a nearly corresponding nature and 

 degree. They were often separated with their villages entirely from the 

 control of the Talukdars, when their oppression had become intolerable, 

 or they could purchase the favour of the ruling power. We find these 

 persons constantly addressed jointly with the ryots and cultivators, in all 

 the perwannehs and firmans both of the local and Supreme Governments, 

 according to the well-known form, " Let the Chowdris and Canungos, 

 the Mokaddams, the ryots and cultivators of Pergunnah, so and so, sircar, 

 so and so, know." If other evidence were wanting, the names and desig- 

 nations of their offices would clearly explain the light in which they were 

 viewed by the Moguls. Chowdri or Mokaddam signify simply chief or head 

 — Vilaity Canungo, the local or provincial Officer of account. The Chow- 

 dri Talukdar has been always treated under the British Government as a 

 proprietor of land, and the ambiguity of the designation of Chief, prevents 

 the error of such a view of his condition being apparent at first sight. The 

 Canungo Talukdar has never been taken notice of in discussions regarding 

 the land tenures of India. His denomination is so clearly indicative of a 

 merely official tenure and occupation, that the most determined advocate 

 of Zemindari rights would hardly perhaps maintain his claim to be called a 

 Proprietor of the soil, though undoubtedly the title of botli descriptions of 

 Talukdars stands on precisely the same fooling. To control and superin- 

 tend these local Officers of the old regime, and to maintain the principles 

 of the new settlement inviolate, the offices of Sadder Canungo and Sadder 

 Chowdri were instituted by Akber, or rather his Dewan Tooral Mall. The 

 Sadder Chowdris, Canungos, and their establishments, should be carefully 



