210 ' Statistical Report on the Northern and [No. 38, 



as a Talooqdar, if they are accepted he is required to pay into the 

 Government Treasury a certain fixed sum, to be collected from the 

 districts assigned to him, with a deduction of two annas on each 

 rupee, for the payment of his subordinates, and the defrayal of all 

 expenses strictly civil. He then receives his sunnud, or authori- 

 ty for holding the districts allotted him under the seal of the mi- 

 nister, presents his nuzzur, often a good round sum, and makes 

 his salam, and here, in a great majority of cases the Talooqdar' s care 

 and superintendence of his districts are bounded by the one idea of 

 making them as profitable as he can, if his instalments are paid 

 into the Treasury with tolerable regularity, no more questions are 

 asked, and he is permitted to remain at Tlydrabad sunk in sloth 

 from which he is roused solely by sensuality and debauchery of the 

 grossest description, meanwhile however he has delegated his au- 

 thority to a Naib, who occasionally possesses some knowledge of 

 revenue matters, and who is bound to collect two or three lacs of 

 rupees annually, on a monthly stipend of two hundred. This func- 

 tionary again appoints ChotahJN"aibs, or Tahsildars as they are call- 

 ed in the Company's country, Peshcars and other subordinates, 

 the whole establishment of the former Talooqdar being swept 

 away, with his array he proceeds to his province with the power of 

 a satrap, and the pay of an ensign, the persons there with whom 

 in performance of his duty he comes in contact, are the Zemin- 

 dars, in some respects congenial spirits, and it often happens that 

 the face of a ryot is not seen in his durbar, nor the complaint of 

 a poor man heard during the whole period of his stay among 

 them. If the INaib is a man of intelligence and good sense he 

 courts the Zemindars, attends to their complaints, and these are 

 chiefly directed against the injustice and exactions whether true 

 or false of his predecessor, and redresses their grievances ; if a good 

 understanding exists between the Government Office and the Ze- 

 mindar, the remonstrances of the ryots never reach beyond the 

 boundaries of his village, and all is supposed to go on well at ITy- 

 drabad, but in another case the ears of Grovernment are assailed 

 by complaints which they are compelled to listen to. If the Naib 

 through ignorance or avarice break cowl as it is called with the Ze- 

 mindars and threaten them with imprisonment and irons in case of 

 refusal or resistance, threats, which in time he puts in execution, 

 the whole country is in an uproar, Zemindar after Zemindar quits 



