274 



Statistical Report on the 



[No. 35, 



tion to set the Government authority at defiance. Under sach circum- 

 stances the sole mode of redress left to the ryot, is to abandon his vil- 

 lage and leave his fields unreaped, a proceeding by wliicli he punishes 

 nearly as much as he avenges himself, and which he will not have 

 recourse to, save under grievous oppression and exaction. 



When the Zemindar deems himself aggrieved, he either quits his 

 district, and leaves the Government to settle with the Putwarees, who 

 are usually in his interest, and whose study it is to perplex the talook- 

 dars with forged documents, or false returns, or he takes to his r/ur- 

 and openly resists; but at other times when he sees that he 

 cannot help himself, he makes a virtue of necessitj- ; quietly suffers 

 his villages to become " amanee,'' till his debts and arrears are paid 

 off; subsisting in the mean time on the allowances to which his he- 

 reditary office of Deshmook or Deshpundya entitles him. 



The Putwarees are the real heads of the villages, even when the 

 Patells exist, they are set aside by the Zemindar, and receive their 

 allowance rather as a matter of favor than right. The revenue is 

 classed under the heads of 1st, land ; 2d, moturpha, shop, dindhonsetax; 

 3d, hidlalee, spirit, and toddy ; and 4th, sevaee or sevoy. This last 

 tax in its original signification should yield a very small sum, being 

 made up of petty village taxes, fines, kc. Yet in some pergunnahs 

 it is found to yield as much as the land tax ! This arises from all 

 lands let for a money rent being included in the sevoy jumma ; it is 

 difficult to account for tlie origin of this perversion. Where there is 

 much dry grain cultivation the sevoy thus predominates. 



An assessment called the koolhamil exists — but no one can tell any 

 thing approaching to truth respecting its date, its author, or how it 

 "U'as drawn up. Regarding the two first there is in fact no account 

 whatever, and as to the third some say the whole circar was sur- 

 veyed and assessed by the beegah — others that a rough estimate was 

 taken of the surface— and the whole rock, jungle and cultivated land 

 assessed at a low and equal rate. 



It is in all probabiUty a rack rent drawn up by some of the first Ma- 

 hometan ministers— to please his fancy or that of his prince, — and it 

 is doubtful if ever it was put in practice — at all events it is quite in- 

 applicable now. The collection of the moturfa or house and shop tax 

 is mixed up with the land revenue — but there is a separate esta- 

 blishment for the land customs and transit duties under the Sahyer 

 naib. 



