248 ON ORISSA PROPER 



of those classes of functionaries in their offices, (though the sales in ques- 

 tion, termed Bye Sultani, in general bore little the character of voluntary 

 and unconstrained transfers,) but certainly cannot be held to establish any 

 title of property in the soil itself. In most cases, the thing sold is carefully 

 defined to be the whole or a share of the Talukdari and Chovvdrahi, of 

 the Talukdari and Wilaity Canungoship, or of the Mokaddami of a Taluk 

 or village. Occasionally there is some ambiguity, where a single village 

 only is disposed of, but I am persuaded that no person could rise from the 

 perusal of a number of such deeds of sale of the old times, without being 

 satisfied, that they transfer nothing more than a hereditary official tenure in 

 a village or villages, or portion of a Taluk, the profits attaching to which 

 are defined in the margin or endorsement, as well as the fixed revenue as- 

 sessed, called the Tank hah Raqmi and Jamma Kemal. I observe, that, in 

 the very first of the cases brought forward in the appendix to Sir J. Shore's 

 Minute, on the permanent settlement, as an instance of the sale of lands in 

 Bengal, the thing disposed of is distinctly stated to be, two-sixteenths of the 

 Chowdrahi* of Kismat Pergunnah Fattehjanjpur, sold by Kamal Chowdrito 

 Hari Sircar. 



In like manner, I apprehend that the sense of the words Malik and 

 Milkiat, which occur generally in the Cuttack deeds of sale, as in those 

 of a similar nature in Bengal and elsewhere, must, in any consistent and 

 intelligible view of the case, be held to apply only to the office and per- 

 quisites of the seller, implying that he enjoyed them hereditarily, by a 

 tenure independent of the will of any local superior, in contradistinction 

 to an office held by a mere Gomashteh, or ephemeral agent at the pleasure 

 cf another. Indeed, the Milkiat, or right of property asserted, is most com- 

 monly and distinctly stated to refer to the Cliowdrahi/f Canungoi, and 

 Mokaddammi. If such were not the ca&e, it would follow that the same 



* Situation of Chowdii, 



t Or Anglice -Chowclrisliip, 'Cnnungoslft'p, and officcof Mokaddaim 



