514 Slaiistics of the drear of Dotclutabad. [No. 36, 



they are called. During the preceding four years, little rain had 

 fallen, producing in each succeeding year, a gradual rise in the price 

 of every article of produce : dry grains, as usual, advancing beyond 

 all others, doubling and trebling their original rates in that period. 

 In the Appendix will be found a detailed statement of the range of 

 prices of the principal products throughout the Circar for the last 

 seven years, inclusive of the present one. 



Tenure and Oc- elucidating the complicated question compre- 



cupation. hended under the head of tenures, so much matter 



of a conflicting and perplexing nature presents itself, that rather 

 than hazard crude notions involving doubt and uncertainty, it has 

 been deemed prudent to defer all remarks upon the subject, till more 

 extended observations may have tested the value of the information 

 obtained, and placed me in a position to give the results of my in- 

 quiries with that degree of confidence the accurate nature of the 

 duty requires. 



With respect to the cultivators, they are divided into two classes, 

 the Meerasdars or Wuttundars, and Ooprees. 



The Meerasdar holds lands in fee enjoying the usufruct of the 

 soil, conditionally, that he renders to Government a stated amount of 

 the produce of his labors, rated and fixed in conformity to the ex- 

 tent, and qualities of the soil. 



The Oopree is merely a tenant at will, occupying lands not hia 

 own, temporarily from year to year upon agreement. 



Enams, gifts of land to charitable and religious purposes : and 

 Jagheers, the gifts to military and civil officers of the state, have 

 their revenues permanently alienated. The system observed in the 

 management of these lands, is the same as that followed in the Cir- 

 cars, with this exception, that measures are seldom pushed to such 

 extremities by Enamdars or Jagheerdars, from their possessing a 

 permanent interest in the welfare of the people and improvement pf 

 the soil : the policy of such forbearance is visible in the superior 

 condition of the land, cattle, and implements as vt'ell as the meliorat- 

 ed state of the ryots themselves. 



^, , , , The rates of assessment at the present day have 



Modes and Kates ^ 



of Assessment, become mere arbitrary arrangements, giving rise to a 

 very irregular and unsatisfactory sj^stem, in which one party by en- 

 deavoring to exact all he can, and the other resorting to every expe- 



