Administra tion. Assessment of revenue. Thus the cultivation and revenue of these estates were larger in 1707 than in 1869. The Básim records show much change in the number of ábád or inhabited villages.* A paper obtained for Argaon shows that this pargana contained in the year 1689 A.D. 97 villages under cultivation. It has now only 91 villages inhabited, but 99 estates cultivated, six of the old homesteads having disappeared. But in general the number of villages inhabited has altered very little in two centuries; for the deserted sites have been always repeopled, and the list of hamlets now existing probably contains the identical names on Akbar's register, with very few exceptions. It will be seen hereafter that the land revenue has increased and multiplied since 1853 with marvellous rapidity, under the combined stimuli of good government, railways, and the Manchester cotton famine. Not only has cultivation spread over the land like a flood-tide, but the new Settlement and Survey have raised and adjusted the rates. Yet I believe that the revenue raised from these districts in the 17th century was not only far above their yield when the districts were made over in 1853, but must have been much larger than that which they pay now under all the favourable circumstances above mentioned. I have explained why I think that the cultivated area was as great then as now, and that the total assessments counted in rupees were not less than under the Settlements now in force. But I conjecture also that the rupee in its exchange against food-grain (to say nothing of cotton) must have been at least five times more valuable in the 17th century than it has been since 1853. Up to 1853 I suppose that the value of money had not declined very seriously. Moreover, I estimate that the actual revenue rating has changed very little. I proceed to give some reasons for my opinions. First as to the revenue rate per bígha. It is not absolutely necessary to inquire into the dark question of the dimensions of Akbar's bígha in Berár, for, whatever it was, we may fairly assume it to have changed not materially up to 1853. Now the amount levied on each bígha of jawári by commutation of produce rent in Akbar's time was 50 dáms, or Rs. 1-4-0. In Bálápúr the revenue assessment for 1707 were examined by several papers for that year; and by comparing the demand with the number of bíghas cultivated, an average rate per bigha of something above Rs. 1-4-0 is obtained. In Major Hastings Fraser's work "Our Faithful Ally the Nizám," is an estimate of the cost of cultivating jawári (apparently in 1861) of which Major Fraser writes that its accuracy may be relied on. There the assessment on 3 bíghas is taken at Rs. 6; this is a much heavier rate on the best of 3 bighas than Rs. 1-4-0.* The present rate is much lower, being by the existing assessment not more than Rs. 1-5-0 per acre; but enough has been said to show that the large sums collected from Berár in Akbar's day were not raised by a high money rate on the area.† Next, as to value in exchange of this rate of Rs. 1-4-0. The Aín-i-Akbari gives the following statistics : Bazár price of jawári (Agra ?).. 10 dáms per maund. Thus the Málwa rent rate of 50 dáms would buy 5 maunds of jawári (the staple food-grain of Berár) in the Agra bazár. The price of jawári * But it will be seen hereafter that the average rate on dry cultivation had been run up to Rs. 3-12-0 in 1852. + Mr. Bullock, in his Report on North Berár for 1854-55, gives the following account of the land assessment of this province under the Moghals. It is probably taken from some old papers preserved among the Kanoongo records, but these are usually copies, several times repeated, of original documents. 46 66 "I may as well mention that under the kings of Delhi, when the mode of assessment was under strict regulation, the valley of Berár was divided into three 66 Ainkálí," main descriptions of land, viz., Míánkalás," and Kaláspati." The "Ainkálí" was the deep black soil. The "Mínkolás" was the soil where the black began to mingle with a lighter description. The "Kaláspati" was the light soil lying towards the hills. The black soil is towards the centre of the valley. Each of these divisions had its general rate fixed upon each bigha, but divided into various sorts with a rate on each, and these rates were only slightly modified by local circumstances. 5,500 69 100 100 48. "The bigha of arable land was less than the bigha now in use in Khandesh or elsewhere, which is 3,600 square yards, and the garden and Inám bígha was larger, viz., the Inám land was measured by the Iláhi gaz, equal to 7,225 square yards per bigha. The garden land was measured by the gaz Bara Sikandari," which gave square yards per bigha, and the arable land by the "Chota Sikandari" gaz, which gave 2,256 25 square yards per bígha. The average rates on land were as follows:-1st sort, divided into two sorts-1st sort 1-3-9, 2nd sort 0-13-3 per bígha; 2nd sort, subdivided into two sorts-1st sort 1-1-3, 2nd sort 0-12-3 per bigha; 3rd sort, subdivided into two sorts-1st sort 0-11-6, and 2nd sort 0-11-3 per bígha. Garden land in two kinds-1st sort Rs. 3-11-0, 2nd sort Rs. 2-4-0. The whole was under "Khám Wasúl," and the Annual Settlement paper was as nearly as possible that which I have now introduced, but with even more exact detail. We can form some idea of the prosperity of the valley at that time, as the total revenue in the year quoted during the reign of Alamgir was Rs. 27,44,750-11-0, because the land was fully cultivated, and the population abundant and vigorous, instead of being scanty, ill-fed, and weakly, as they are now." Administration. Assessment of revenue. Administra tion. Assessment of revenue. was pretty sure to be cheaper in Berár, especially at wholesale, but let us take 10 dáms for the maund. If the maund be taken at 55 lb., as a good authority recommends, then the price of jawári was 220 lb. for the rupee; if the maund meant 40 lb., as Prinsep conjectures, then the price was 160 lb. The kacha maund as a wholesale grain-measure is now, through a large part of Berár, 48 lb.* We may get at some notion of the price by another way. Take the whole certified yield of 13 maunds, and let it stand for 715 lb. One-fourth of that quantity is 178 lb., which, with the stalks of the jawári, was valued at a money rent of 50 dáms. Deduct 15 dáms for the stalks (a fair proportion), and you have the grain at 203 lb. the rupee. So perhaps we may determine that the price of jawári ranged between 160 and 200 lb. for the rupee in Berár. To estimate the maund below 50 lb. would be to bring down the yield per bígha of 13 maunds to a weight improbably small. In 1853-54 the price of jawári is given at 116 lb. and 128 lb. in West Berár. Mr. Bullock gives it at 80 lb. for 1854. These are retail prices, and 1853 was a year of drought. Major Fraser's estimate (of wholesale prices) is 120 lb. for 1861. However, it seems certain that in 1853 the value of money had fallen since the 17th century, though not much. Since 1860 the purchasing power of money has, of course, declined enormously.§ As to the proportion of rent to produce, it is difficult to form an opinion; but the incidence of the rate seems to have been heavier than at present. Major Fraser's statistics may be here compared with those gleaned from the Aín-i-Akbarí. *Tavernier, a very good authority on weights, mentions (1650 A.D.) that the Surat maund weighs 34 lb., and the Agra maund 51 lb. But he also says in one place that the maund is generally [in Western India?] 69 lb. † I assume Major Fraser's kandi to be of 20 kacha maunds of 48 lb. The pure silver and actual weight of the old rupees of the Moghal emperors (notably of Akbar) were both greater than in the later rupees of Haidarábád and of the Marátha mints. Akbar's rupee was almost equal in value and weight to the British coin. (See Prinsep U. T.) § It does not follow that the incidence of rent on profits has fallen in any degree in the same proportion. Cultivation is now much more expensive than it was twenty years ago. This proportion seems too high, but for comparison it has been assumed to be the same with that given by Major Fraser. But it must be remembered that in 1853 the rent would have been Rs. 3 or 3-12-0, while I am not positive that I have rightly calculated the weight of the 2 kandis set down in Major Fraser's book for the gross produce. The number of maunds almost exactly coincides with the Aín-i-Akbari estimate (13 maunds per bígha) for best jawári land.* was We have seen, therefore, that the total assessment estimated by number of rupees on some of the taluks in Berár was very much larger in the 17th century than when Berár was assigned to the British, and even larger than the assessment just made by our officers. And we have found some reason for believing that the produce per acre not at any rate much greater; that revenue rates in money were about the same; also that the exchange value of money fell, slowly during the two centuries preceding the Assignment, and very rapidly after that date. We have also proof that in several tracts the cultivated area must have been larger in the 17th century than in the first half of the 19th century. So that we have now some signs and tokens which may guide us in estimating the actual relative condition of the country and its land revenue when we received charge of it. That is, we can measure its condition in 1853 not only against the prosperity which has followed under our rule, but against the prosperity which preceded a period of extraordinary depression. A few examples selected from Major Johnston's careful and instructive Report on South Berár for 1855 will illustrate the condition of that country when we received charge, and the wonderful rapidity of its recovery. The tract which is now mostly contained in the tahsil subdivisions of Mehkar and Chikli was called the Nine Parganas. 7,17,000 Of this tract the kamil or standard rent-roll was......Rs. Administra tion. Assessment of revenue. Major Johnston reports that since 1853, 590 families, with 3,500 head of cattle of kinds, had settled on, and begun to cultivate, this tract, whereby 21 villages had been re-established. It is mentioned, however, that these parganas had been under the drastic treatment of Mohkam Chand, the fiscal Sangrado of Berár. Chikni Pargana contained nominally 51 villages, of which in 1855 forty were scantily inhabited, and eight, quite desert, had been reduced to utter desolation by its talukdár just before the Assignment; the chief town, Chikni, was " without a lamp” (Bechirágh). * I see that Major Fraser takes the bígha at 2,256 square yards, while good authorities estimate Akbar's bigha at 3,025 square yards. But the dimensions of the bigha would not affect the proportion between rent and produce. Administration. Assessment of revenue. Fifty-four families, with 325 head of cattle, had returned to their houses since 1853. Had been ruined in 1848 by the depredations of the pretended Rája of Nágpúr and his bands. In the two years that followed the Assignment 580 families returned to take up the land. One hundred and ten families settled since the cession. It is a common mistake to suppose that the normal state of India was that in which we English found the country when we conquered most of it; whereas each province usually fell into our hands, like a rotten pear, when it was at its worst, and because it was at its worst. The century that preceded our rule may be regarded as a catastrophe in the history of India's government-a dark age of misrule interposed between two periods of comparative, though unequal, light. We, who are now clearing away ruins and repairing an utterly dilapidated revenue, may sometimes fancy that we are raising a new and quite original edifice, when we are only reconstructing upon the old foundation up to the level of earlier architects. Administra tion (British). Section II.-British Administration. When the talukdárs and other fiscal officers of the Haidarábád government got wind of the coming cession of these districts to the British, they had suddenly raised their revenue demand, in order to carry off as much as possible, so that for the year 1852-53 it was much higher than during the previous six years.* Besides this, many |