OR CUTTACKo 241 



the rank of Zemindar, the proper Zemindars mounted a step higher and 

 styled themselves Rajas. Before even the British accession, and certainly 

 ever since that period, every hill and jungle Zemindar of Orissa has been 

 pleased invariably to adopt the style and title of Raja. At the great Man 

 Sinh's settlement we find three Zemindars only acknowledged as such, viz. 

 the three Princes of the Royal family. All the other feudal Chiefs were 

 classed in the rank of Khandaits, Sirdars, and Zemindars. The fourth and 

 last mode of applying the title of Zemindar is as under the British govern- 

 ment, when every class and description of persons engaging in chief with 

 the Collector for payment of revenue, obtains, on all occasions, the dignity 

 and benefit resulting from that appellation. We may distinguish no less 

 than seven different grades of persons holding offices and tenures connected 

 with land, who appear in the Collector's accounts as Zemindars, and abso- 

 lute proprietors of the soil : 1st. The ancient Zemindars (now Rajas) of the 

 kiliah estates. 2nd. Zemindars of Mogul and Marhatta creation, holding 

 one or more Pergunnahs, as Ctirdes, LJr.ikan, Shahabad, &c. 3rd. The Chow- 

 dri and Canungo Talukdars. 4tli. The independent (Mazkuri) Mokaddams. 

 5th. Village accountants, called Serberakars, and Karjls who sometimes 

 managed their villages and paid the rents to the Marhatta government. 6th. 

 The head-men (Ptirsettis) of patnahs, or villages containing merely houses 

 with little or no arable land attached. 7th. The holders and proprietors of 

 petty alienated portions of land called Kheridah, resumed jagirs, service 

 lands (Mouajib), &c. &c. 



It is of some importance to my argument to consider how far the testi- 

 mony, either direct or incidental, of the best writers of the country, supports 

 the view which I have taken of the original essential difference between the 

 Mogul Zemindars, and the great Revenue Officers called Chowdris and 

 Canungos, or more generally Talukdars ; and of the confusion created 

 in latter times, by the Juaccurate and indiscriminate application of the for- 

 mer term. 



