A LITTLE KNOWN PROVINCE OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE. 133 



shooting has been mostly with them. They may be dangerous, 

 especially solitary animals, who have probably been turned 

 out of the herd on account of their lighting propensities. 

 Alligators (both muggurs and garials) are plentiful. The 

 winged game consists of partridges, jungle fowl, pea fowl, quail, 

 snipe and wild ducks and geese. It is possible to get a good 

 deal of excellent shooting in Orissa if sufficient time can be 

 devoted to it, which with officials is rarely the case. One of 

 my difficulties was early rising : when I appeared between four 

 and five in the morning, my huntsman was wont to be very 

 indignant at my not coming in the early morning. 



We now come to the plains stretching from the foot of tlie 

 hills to the sea, which are under direct British control. It was 

 necessary to obtain from this part of the country a revenue 

 sufficient to defray the cost of its adminstration. In 1870, as 

 the result of elaborate inquiries, it was found that the family 

 of a well-to-do agriculturist consumed food to the value of 

 twelve shillings monthly, and that all their other expenses, 

 clothes included, would be covered by another three shillings. 

 The price of food in 1803 was from one-half to one-third of 

 what it was in 1870, so that it was from a people, whose average 

 expenditure was less than two shillings a head a month, that 

 the cost of governing and protecting the country had to be found. 



The main source of revenue was from the land of which 

 the State was the owner, subject to the right of the cultivator 

 to remain in possession on payment of a fair rent. In Akbar's 

 time the land had been regularly surveyed, and each cultivator's 

 rent fixed. This rent was collected by officials who were paid 

 by commission, and who under English rule became zemindars 

 (quasi landholders), w4th the right to collect the officially fixed 

 rent from the occupiers, and the further right to settle tenants 

 on unoccupied lands on their own terms. It was not until 

 1837 that a satisfactory settlement was made. The variation 

 in the price of silver, in terms of its gold value, renders it 

 necessary for me to give all figures regarding rents in lakhs of 

 rupees, so that comparison of the amounts levied at different 

 periods may be possible. Previous to 1865, a lakh of rupees 

 was worth £10,000 or more, at present it is equal to £6,600, 

 and the lesser value may be said to have been approximately 

 current since 1887. Since 1898 the rupee has had a fairly 

 steady artificial value of Is. 4:d., independently of the price of 

 silver. In 1837, the rents of the occupied lands were fixed for 

 thirty years at 21 lakhs of rupees, of which the Government 

 received 17 lakhs, and the zemindars four. Owing to the Orissa 



