or cuttack. tm 



land might have two different kinds of absolute proprietors, for Mokad- 

 dams, who had the right of selling their Mokaddarami, existed (in Cuttack 

 at least) on the Taluk of every Chowdri and Canungo, who might similarly 

 dispose of his Talukdari or a part of it. The difficulty vanishes when we 

 view them, as, what they unquestionably were, offices connected with the 

 land, of different degrees of authority and importance, each having its distinct 

 duties and perquisites. In the Southern Pergunnahs, formerly under the 

 Khiirda Rajas, where the heads of villages and accountants retain their old 

 Hindi appellation of Padhan and Bhoi', we find them constantly selling shares 

 of their Padhance and Bhoi Girt, or offices of chief and accountant, with a 

 proportionate allotment of the service lands and Rassum attached; and 

 these transfers, the real nature of which it is impossible to mistake, serve to 

 throw a strong light on the character of similar transactions in other parts, 

 where the use of terms of doubtful import, has invested the subject with a 

 degree of ambiguity which probably will never be altogether dispelled. 



Actual sales of land, or rather ground, were not however unknown un- 

 der the native administration of Cuttack, and wherever it was clearly in- 

 tended to sell such, so many bigas are plainly stated in the Qobalehs to be 

 the subject of transfer, without any periphrasis as to the Zemindari, Ta- 

 lukdari, or Mokaddammi right in them. Such sales however were confined 

 to a particular description of land called Arazi Bimjar Kharij Jamma, or 

 ground, waste, unoccupied, and imassessecl, in the disposal of which the 

 Talukdars and Mokaddams Avere allowed by prescription to exercise con- 

 siderable privileges. If only two or three bigas were sold for the building 

 of a house, patna, &c. or disposed of as rent free, the individual Talukdar 

 or Mokaddam executed the deed, with the sanction of the ruling power, 

 implied by the necessary attestation of the Sadder Canungo, or his agent : 

 if a larger quantity as a batti, or so, was to be assigned away, the deed of 

 transfer was executed jointly by the Chowdris, Canungos, and Mokaddam, 

 or Mokaddams. This mode of transfer gave rise to a curious tenure in the 



Ff 



