246 



Statistical Report 07i the 



[No. 35, 



The character of these functionaries in this circar does not 

 stand high, and with some exceptions thej are, especially the 

 Brahmins, the objects of much merited odium. To quarrel among 

 themselves, to squeeze as much out of the ryots as they can, and 

 to defraud Groyernment, are the great end and aim of their exis- 

 tence, which they pursue without much shame or remorse. Since 

 the time of Sir Charles Metcalfe they have been restrained by 

 European superintendence till within the last four years. On 

 their emancipation from which, that they have at least relapsed in- 

 to their old habits of lawlessness, the following incident will 

 show, while it will illustrate fully to what a crime an ignorant G-o- 

 vernment lilte the Nizam's may be unintentionally privy. A feud 

 of some standing existed between the Surdeshmookh Yenkah IST ar- 

 sinha, and the Deshmookh of Pakhall, Dhurm E.ao, a Yelwar. The 

 character of the latter was that of a bold fearless man, not certain- 

 ly tormented with a very tender conscience, who had been outlaw- 

 ed, proscribed, and driven to seek refuge at Bustar in the very 

 heart of Grondwanah, but rather for the crime of his father than 

 for any misdeeds of his own, his acts being retaliatory rather 

 than aggressive. He had however returned, made his peace with 

 the Grovernment, had been reinstated in his patrimonial rights, 

 and had for several years effaced, by correct conduct, all suspicions 

 of disloyalty. At the end of the hot season of 1844, not one year 

 after European control had ceased, the Surdeshmookh obtained a 

 warrant from the Hyderabad Grovernment to the'Naib at Hunnum- 

 condah, (procured, it is said and believed all over the country, by a 

 bribe of rupees 10,000 to a wretched parasite of the court, of the 

 name of Balmoocund,) setting forth that if Dhurm Eao appeared 

 in open rebellion he might be put to death. Armed with this he 

 prevailed on this officer, no very unwilling instrument, to aid him 

 in accomplishing the slaughter he meditated. To avert suspicion 

 a nautch was given at Hunnumcondah from which the parties 

 chiefly concerned withdrew at an early hour of the night — they 

 had 'already laid their plans, and before day had dawned the village- 

 of Dhurm Bao in the vicinity of the Pakhall lake was surrounded 

 by Grovernment troops under the Naib, and the poHce of the Sur- 

 deshmookh under Yenkat Narsinha himself Their victim, who 

 was sick at the time, and thinking of anything but treason or re- 

 bellion, attempted to escape, but in vain. He was run through 



