128 



On tU Slafistti's of DukhuJJ, 



[Apnir. 



tinctioiis. ani^ to fix the riijhts of indiviiluals as simple money ducs^ 

 without relVienoe to Jagheer, Nuzziir, Kussur, .lice. 



The revomuM^t" Dnkluin, contrasted as a capitation tax, with that o^- 

 England, France, and Ameiii-a, would appear to be as follows. In Eng- 

 land, the gross revenue of 1828 was £50,700,000 : poor-rates, parish 

 rates, lighting, watching. £12,000,000; contributions of congregations 

 to their clergy, colleges, schools, &c. about £17,300,000: total 

 £SO,OOO.OOO.a The population being 20,000,000, the tax per head is 

 £4. In Franco, the taxation, including provision for the clergy, 

 schools, &c. is £10,000,000; the population 30,000,0( 0 ; equal there- 

 fore to £1. 6x. per bead. In America the population is between 

 10,000,000 and 11.000,000, and the taxation £5,000,000, or not quite 

 lO*. per head. The revenue of Dukhun, viewed as a capitation tax, is 

 §5. per head. 



Assessments and land measurements are so intimately connected, that 

 it would not answer any good purpose to treat of them in separate sec- 

 tions. With respect to the portions of land variously denominated for 

 the jiurpose of assessment, I am clearly of opinion that the prevailing 

 denominations amongst the Hindoos were not descriptive of superfici d 

 extent, and that tbe assessments were founded on the productive power 

 of the land without reference to its quantity, and were uniform only for 

 similar denominations of land in a village. 



The* Moosulmans, no doubt, endeavoured to be more systematic ; they 

 measured garden lands, and probably in some few villages, the field 

 lands, under the denominations of Knndhee, Mun, Tukeh, Piceh , Seer, 

 &:c. with a view to the general conversion of such terms into the uni- 

 form and appreciable term of Beegab ; but the Hindoo terms not ap- 

 plying to quantity, the beegahs of different villages could only be equal 

 when there existed an accidental identity in productive power in the 

 unmeasured Mun or Kundhee, &c. of land in one village with the mea- 

 sured Mun, Kundhee, &c. intended as common types. This will account 

 for the varying extent of the beegah infield cultivation in Dukhun. 

 How little successful the Moosulrnans were in their attempt to supersede 

 the old terms, is proved in the limited extent to which the assessments 

 by beegahs obtained when we took possession of the country. It may- 

 be well doubted whether we shall be more successful in our introducti- 



a Speoch of Colonel Davies in the House of Commons, May 8, 1829. 



