Vizagapatam/Chapter 11

by Walter Francis

CHAPTER XI.

LAND REVENUE ADMINISTRATION.

Revenue History — Early systems— Practice under the Musalmans — The exactions of the zamindars — Beginnings of the Company's administration — The Permanent Settlement; the instructions issued — The action taken — The general results— The formation of the three Government taluks— The existing revenue settlement in these — Principles followed — Rates prescribed. INAMs. EXISTING DIVISIONAL CHARGES. APPENDIX, List of Chiefs in Council and Collectors.

NINE-TENTHS of Vizagapatam is zamindari land and the three Government taluks only came under direct administration in comparatively recent times. The history of the land revenue administration of the district is consequently simpler than usual.

Regarding the revenue systems followed by the ancient systems. Hindu rulers and their successors the Musalman kings of Golconda and the Subadars of the Deccan at Hyderabad with their subordinate Faujdars at Chicacole, only the very scantiest information survives.

The earliest authoritative account is the report of 1784^[1] of the Committee of Circuit on 'the Kasimkóta division of the Chicacole circar' as the country was then styled. This says: —

'The ancient and present mode of making the collections we understand to be Avidely different. The one formerly in use under the native princes, when troops and servants were paid in necessaries instead of coin and before there were large exports and returns of money, was an equal division of the produce between the Rája and the cultivator, the latter defraying all village and collection expenses. The quantity of the crop was determined by a valuation made by indifferent persons just before the harvest and in the presence of the public servants and the inhabitants. This estimate being registered by the karnam, the Circar servants, after the grain was trodden out, received the Government moiety.'

This agrees roughly with the practice which also anciently obtained (at least in theory) in the southern districts of the Presidency under Hindu rule; there the swatantrams, or fees to village officers, were usually first subtracted from the total crop, and the remainder was then equally divided between the government and the ryot. The actual collection of the revenue in Vizagapatam was apparently in the hands of a number of local chiefs (who were also expected to keep their charges free from disturbance) supervised by superior officers who kept accounts of their own as checks.

After the arrival of the Musalmans, these chiefs were allowed to retain their positions; but1^[2] they were not acknowledged by their masters as independent or tributary rulers, or even as having any property in the land. They were 'accountable managers and ollectors, and not lords and proprietors of the land.' They were allowed, in return for the due performance of their duties, rent-free lands, fees on the crops, the customs dues and a quit-rent on houses, which amounted together to about ten per cent, on their collections. It was not until a late period of the Musalman government that they received the name zamindars, which with its literal meaning of 'possessors of land' gave colour to the erroneous idea that they had an hereditary right to the soil. In accordance with eastern tendency, their offices gradually became hereditary, and in at least two cases (Bobbili and Vizianagram) their descendants still hold land originally allotted them.

The Committee of Circuit says that these zamindars eventually—

'Set aside the former usage and, after ascertaining by measurement the quantity of the arable land, imposed a fixed rate of Rs. 10 per garce called sist, the payment of which was to entitle the labourer to the unrestricted disposal of his whole crop, This alteration, favourable as at first sight it may appear to the inhabitant, was established solely for the convenience and profit of the zamindar, as it enabled him to take one kist of the collections in advance, and served as a foundation whereon to calculate any further assessments. Soon after, when the land was supposed to be improved, the malavali was added at the rate of 100 and 150 per cent, on the sist, and thence- forward considered as a fixed payment. The nazzor, which is taken in plenteous years, is an exaction not fixed, but generally at the rate of 50 per cent, on the sist. The bilmakta is an appraisement of poor ground producing only small grain, by which the same is rented for a specific sum and not liable to any other imposition excepting the sari, which, was originally the zamindar's allowance from the Mughal darbar of 10 per cent. on the collections in reward for preserving good order and encouraging cultivation. These assessments reduced the labourer's share to about one-third of the produce.' Even this small proportion was still further whittled down in the greater part of the district. The Committee says —

'The zamindars have introduced other changes which have curtailed the labourer's real share to barely one-fifth, of the harvest, We find that since the decline of the Musalman government the zamindars, experiencing a greater liberty than before, have indulged themselves in indolence, and, entrusting their parganas to renters, have delegated the full extent of their own authority to them. And, although they cannot but be sensible of the impositions to which they are exposed and of the hardships and sufferings of the labourers, they still allow them to continue their collections in specie without requiring the estimated accounts of produce which, if taken, would clearly ascertain all abuses and oppressions.'

In the havili (literally, 'neighbouring') land (an area producing a revenue of 3¾ lakhs and consisting of the old demesne or household property of the sovereign, or tracts near towns specially appropriated by the Musalmans to the payment of their troops and establishments) the land revenue had always been under the immediate management of the local Fanjdars. There, says the Committee —

'It has been customary to receive Government's share of the produce in specie, but the proportions have always been ascertained by a yearly valuation of the crop, one-third being allowed the fixed inhabitants, two-fifths to strangers, and one-half to Telingis and those who cultivate dry grain. Previous, however, to dividing the shares, one rupee per garee upon the whole was collected by the Circar. The repair of tanks and water-courses fell to the share of Government.'

Besides the assessments on land, the government obtained a revenue from the sale of monopolies of such articles as salt, arrack and betel-leaf, from customs on imports and exports by sea and land (sayar), and by taxes on trades (moturpha). The land-customs became so excessive (Rs. 167 for every 100 bullock-loads between Kálahandi and the coast) that the Brinjáris ceased to visit the low country; and the taxes on trades had grown so high that, says the Committee —

'Numbers have adopted a new mode of life or been compelled to forsake their ancient habitations, on their property being seized to discharge those unusual taxes; and we can add from our own observation that the evident appearance of extreme indigence extending almost universally over the circar strongly indicates the long continuance of a series of hardships and exaction.'

Though the establishment of the British settlement at Vizagapatam dates from the seventeenth century, it was not, as has been seen (p. 34), until 1765 that the Company acquired the territory outside its limits. In 1769 this was placed under the existing Chief and Council at Vizagapatam. They found that the land of the district was then divided into the two classes already described; namely, that under the zamindars and the havíli land. The former, practically all of which had become tributary to, or was in the hands of, the Rája of Vizianagram, they assessed at a fixed sum, 'very inadequate to his receipts,' and the latter, in accordance with customary practice, they leased out to a renter, who for several years was Sítaráma Rázu, the brother and díwán of the Rája of Vizianagram.

The Chief and Council, it is clear, were corrupt and inefficient; and under their charge the country retrograded rather than improved. The administration of the havíli land was especially lax, and the Rája's under-renters were allowed to juggle with the commutation rates of produce in a way which absorbed much of the ryot's profits. In 1776 the Madras Government despatched a Committee of Circuit consisting of five of the Council (which then contained nineteen Members) to enquire into the state of the Northern Circars, and the revenue system there, including the suitability of the payments made by the zamindars. The Committee had made some progress when, in February 1778, Sir Thomas Rumbold (who is said to have begun life as a waiter at White's Club) became Governor of Madras. He ordered that the zamindars should be sent for to Madras, where the information required could be at once obtained and details of peshkash settled with them in person. A considerable number of them came to the Presidency accordingly and there, says Mill's history, 'in every case the Governor alone negotiated with the zamindars and regulated their payments; in no case did he lay the grounds of his treaty before the Council; in every case the Council, without enquiry, acquiesced in his decrees.' Sir Thomas Rambold was charged with having conducted these negotiations corruptly, and in 1781 he and two Members of his Council were dismissed while several others were degraded.

The Committee of Circuit was revived in 1783 and continued its labours until 1788. Its report of 1784 on this district has already been referred to. This condemned the existing system in the strongest terms. Referring to the zamindari land, it spoke with indignation of the oppressions of Sítaráma Rázu, the díwan of Vizianagram, which had resulted in the ryots having to hand over to the Circar all their paddy and subsist on the coarser grains, to suffer constant ejectment from their holdings and to resort to borrowing from money-lenders to pay their kists, which fell due before the crop was ripe; and it wound up by saying 'not-withstanding the abundant advantages enjoyed by Government, we have discovered no traces in return of protection, assistance, or attention to the cultivation. The villages are composed of wretched hovels, the people meanly clothed, and meagre through the extremes of labour and hard fare, the soil in many parts overrun with shrubs and the tanks in the very worst repair.' The account of the administration of the havíli land was even more unfavourable, and Mr. Oram, one of the most active of the members of the Committee, was appointed in 1787 to superintend the administration of this independently of the Chief and Council.1^[3] A few months afterwards, he was succeeded by special European Collectors, who managed the havíli under the immediate orders of the new Board of Revenue which had been established the year before. They rented out some portions of it and managed the rest under amani, receiving the assessment in kind. The old abuses and irregularities consequently some-what decreased and the ryots advanced in prosperity. In 1792,however, these Collectors were partly subordinated to the Chiefs in Council, and the natural result was ' continual collisions of authority and of opinions between the Board of Revenue and the provincial establishments.'

In the same year Lord Cornwallis, then Governor-General, advocated with characteristic energy the total abolition of the Chiefs in Council in the Northern Circars and the substitution throughout that area of Collectors subordinate to the Board of Revenue. He said — 'It is now thirty years since the Company became possessed of the Circars; and at this moment their influence is very little, if at all, better established than it was the first day. The zamindars still keep the same troops and exercise the same authority, within their respective districts, The oppressions they commit are, we believe, in no way abated; and their engagements to the Company are as ill-performed as they have been at any period.'

In 1794, accordingly, the Chiefs and Councils were abolished by a proclamation (which, after the fashion of those times, improved the occasion by a lengthy homily on the reciprocal duties of Collectors and zamindars) and Vizagapatam was arranged into three 'divisions' each under a Collector.

Meanwhile, in 1793, the Vizianagram estate, which comprised almost all the present district except the havíli land, had been sequestrated for arrears (see p. 50), and in 1794 the Rája of Vizianagram had been killed at the battle of Padmanábham. In 1796 the zamindars who had been dispossessed by him were recalled and given temporary leases for their ancient estates during their good behaviour, the Anakápalle taluk and some adjacent tracts were transferred from the Vizianagram estate to the havíli land; and the rest of the late Rája's property was rented at an enhanced peshkash, also temporarily, to his son. The limits and designations of the three divisions into which the district had been arranged were revised in the same year and then stood as follows : (a)'the First division,' which included the Vizagapatam and Kasimkóta havíli land; {b)'the Second division,' comprising the Vizianagram estate and the restored zamindaris; and (c)'the Third division,' made up of the Chicacole and Tekkali havíli land and the Kimedi zamindari, the two latter of which now form part of Ganjám.

The zamindaris, with few exceptions, were subsequently leased for sums which varied every year and were seldom punctually paid. The havíli land was treated on no fixed principles and the settlements constantly varied. For the most part it was let out annually village by village to the headmen, the Government share of the produce being commuted into money at current or average prices; but this arrangement was based on no survey, and was therefore imperfect, and it did little to protect the cultivators from oppression by the headmen.

The evils arising from these fluctuating and temporary arrangements hurried on the introduction of the Permanent Settlement, which at this time was in high favour in Bengal and was being forced upon Madras by the Government of India.

The elaborate instructions of the Board of Revenue to Collectors in the Northern Circars regarding the methods of arranging this settlement were issued in October 1799. Briefly epitomized, these directed that the existing zamindars should be constituted proprietors of their estates upon a permanent peshkash, and that the havíli land should also be carved up into properties which should be similarly settled in perpetuity and sold by auction. In calculating the peshkash the statistics of gross revenue given by the Circuit Committee were to be taken as the general standard, and, after deducting from these the receipts from land-customs, abkári and salt (which were thenceforth to be taken under Government administration) and excluding all inams except those enjoyed by the village establishments and all allowances made for the upkeep of police, the demand was to be fixed at not less than two-thirds (taking all the estates together)of the remainder. Uncultivated arable and waste lands were to be given over to the zamindars free of additional assessment. In the case of the havíli land, the Circuit Committee's figures of revenue were also to be checked by a comparison with the actual collections of the preceding thirteen years, and in addition such factors as the quality of the irrigation in the new estates and their proximity to the markets at the ports and towns were to be taken into consideration.

The Collectors of the three divisions of the district were directed to report upon the estates which should be constituted in their several charges and the peshkash which should be laid upon each; and their replies, available in print, are valuable papers. The Collector of the First division, Mr. Robert Alexander, divided his charge, which comprised the havíli land of Vizagapatam and Kasimkóta, into the seventeen proprietary estates noted in the margin. He stated that the land revenue was collected in three forms called sist, bilmakta and bhágam. The sist was a nominal sum entered in the patta; and when the crop was nearly ripe it was valued by the Circar servants and an enhancement, called malavati and calculated on the condition of the crop, was added to the sist. This was often most unjustly assessed, and sometimes actually exceeded the whole value of the crop. The bilmaktawas a fixed money rent, levied for the most part on high-level land and tracts long left uncultivated, and was not common. Most of the land was assessed on the bhágam, or sharing, system. The share taken by the Government varied with the nature of the ground and the condition and caste of the ryot, Rajputs, Velamas, and cultivators from other parts who took over land which the inhabitants of any village were unable to cultivate themselves, were allowed a half share of the crop; but the ordinary ryot only received a third. Mr. Alexander said this one-third was a most inadequate proportion, much less than inamdars gave to their tenants, and productive of discontent, restlessness and emigration. He considered that the new proprietors should be allowed not less than ten, nor more than twenty, per cent, of the calculated revenue of their estates.

Anakapálle	Panchadhárala
Dimila	Ráyavaram
Godicherla	Sarvasiddhi
Kasimkóta	Srirámpuram
Kondakarla	Uppáda
Kottakóta	Uratla
Mé1upáka	Vémulapúdi
Munagapáka	Waltair
Nakkapalli

The total permanent assessment on the seventeen estates was fixed at Rs. 3,18,710. They were sold by auction in 1802 and, except Waltair, were all bought by the Rája of Vizianagram, the price paid being Rs. 1,62,846. In the Second division of the district there were at this time the sixteen ancient zamindaris named in the margin. These were handed over to their existing owners at a total peshkash of Rs. 8,02,580 per annum. Little was then known of Jeypore and the other hill zamindaris, and their peshkash was fixed very low. Even in 1819, Mr. Thackeray, the well-known Member of the Board of Revenue, dismissed them from detailed consideration as heing ' a wide tract of hill and jungle, inhabited by uncivilized and indeed unconquered barbarians: their climate and their poverty have secured them from conquest. No great native Government ever seems to have thought this tract worth conquering. It has been left as a waste corner of the earth to wild beasts and Conds. Nobody seems even to know the boundary. This tract has never been explored : there is a blank left here in the maps.'

Ándra	Mérangi
Belgám	Páchipenta
Bobbili	Pálkonda
Chemudu	Sálúr
Golgonda	Sangamvalasa
Jeypore	Sarapalli-
Kásipuram	Bhimavaram
Kurupám	Vizianagram
Mádgole

In the Third division twenty estates were carved out of the Chicacole and Tekkali havíli land, of which the six in the margin are now included in this district. The peshkash on these was fixed at Rs. 67,931 and they were sold by auction for Rs. 84,589. The Rája of Vizianagram bought Kuppili, Honzarám and Siripuram.

Honzarám	Siripuram
Kintali	Ungaráda
Kuppili	Shérmuhammadpuram

Early in 1803, the Parlákimedi estate and the Tekkali havíli land were transferred to Ganjám, the southern boundary of which became the last part of the course of the Lángulya, and the Vizagapatam district, consisting of the sixteen zamindaris and twenty-three proprietary estates mentioned above, was put in charge of a single Collector. Its boundaries have not since undergone any noteworthy change except by the transfer to Gódávari of the Uppáda estate and of the Dutsarti and Guditéru muttas of Golgonda after the Rampa rebellion referred to on p. 250 below.

As has already been narrated in Chapter II above, the general results of the permanent settlement were disappointing. The new system took no account of the abrupt change it necessarily effected in the position of the zamindars, who were reduced at one stroke from the position of feudatory chiefs to that of farmers of the revenue, liable to ejectment from their properties if they failed to pay their peshkash, subject to petty indignities from a horde of insolent subordinates and obliged to conform to a series of new regulations and laws. For years the zamindars were in a chronic state of discontent and disaffection, and at last, in 1832, the disturbances in this district and in the Parlákimedi zamindari of Ganjám rose to such a height that, as has been recounted on p. 57, Government were compelled to appoint Mr. Russell as (Special Commissioner to repress them, arming him with extraordinary powers and a large military force. The action he took against the three most obstreperous of the malcontents — Vírabhadra Rázu of Kásipuram, Páyaka Rao of Páyakaraopéta and the zamindar of Pálkonda — is referred to in the account of those places in Chapter XV below.

In 1833 the Pálkonda zamindari was forfeited for rebellion and (with the Honzarám proprietary estate, which had been bought in by Government at a sale for arrears in 1811) was made into the existing Government taluk of Pálkonda.

The proprietary estates of Sarvasiddhi and Vémulapúdi and the Rájala subdivision of Panchadhárala (Chípurupalle) had already been bought in for arrears in 1831; in 1833 Kottakóta, and in 1837 Golgonda (see p. 249), suffered a like fate; while in 1844 Ráyavaram was transferred to Government by its owner and Kondakarla, Dimila and the Kottúr and Veluchúru-Kodúr subdivisions of Panchadhárala were also bought in for arrears. Golgonda Kottakóta and Vémulapúdi were formed into the existing Government taluk of Golgonda and the other estates made up the Sarvasiddhi taluk. Some account of the others of the sixteen ancient zamindaris and twenty-three proprietary estates included in the district at the permanent settlement which still survive as such, will be found in Chapter XV below and may be traced through the index. Of the fourteen ancient zamindaris which remained after Pálkonda was forfeited and Golgonda sold up, two (Belgám and Mérangi) were afterwards partitioned and one (Chemudu) passed by sale from the family of the holder at the permanent settlement. The other eleven have been declared by Act II of 1904 to be inalienable and impartible.They descend to the eldest son. The proprietary estates, which follow the ordinary Hindu rules of co-parcenary, have in some cases been bought and sold, amalgamated and divided, in a somewhat bewildering manner.

Since 1834 the district has twice been placed under a Special Commissioner owing to exceptional circumstances. In 1849, in consequence of the heavy arrears of peshkash which had accrued, Mr. (afterwards Sir Walter) Elliott was appointed under a special Act (X of 1849) as Commissioner with the powers of a Board Revenue, and the appointment continued until 1856. In February 1881 Mr. Carmchael, who was then a Member of Council, was made Special Commissioner to 'take the chief direction of affairs' throughout the tracts affected by the Rampa rebellion and in the Agencies of Ganjám and Vizagapatam, and was given special powers therein. His report was published in November of the same year.

As a result of Mr. Russell's mission, an Act (XXIV of 1839) was passed which (see p. 196) excluded the hilly portions of Golgonda and Pálkonda taluks (among other areas) from the operation of much of the ordinary law of the land, and the peculiar conditions existing in these tracts have always necessitated wide differences between the revenue methods introduced into them and into the rest of these two taluks.

When the Government took over these taluks and Sarvasiddhi, no immediate change was made in the settlements in force, the tenures in the hills remaining unaltered and the ryots in the plains being required to pay the same assessments as at the time of the forfeiture or. purchase, and new cultivation being charged the rates obtaining on adjoining land. In 1883, however, a beginning was made with the first scientific survey and settlement of Sarvasiddhi and the low country in Golgonda and Pálkonda, and orders on the settlement of all three tracts were passed in 1889.

This settlement was conducted on the usual principles. The soils were classified and grouped under the two main heads of black régada and red ferruginous, and were further subdivided into clays, loams and sands. The proportion in which each of these was found to occur in each of the three taluks has already been shown on p. 13 above.

For purposes of dry assessment, the villages were arranged into two groups, the first of which included 99 of the 127 villages in Pálkonda and the whole of Sarvasiddhi taluk, and the second the whole of Golgonda and tho remaining 28 villages of Pálkonda, which were in remote situations under the hills, inaccessible to ports and markets, unhealthy, and exposed to damage from wild animals.

For purposes of wet assessment four classes of irrigation sources were distinguished; namely, (1) All irrigation under the Nágávali channels; under tanks directly fed by them and rain-fed tanks of eight months' supply and upwards; under the Suvarnamukhi; and under the Godári anicut on the Sárada and the Kondakarla áva supplied there from (see p. 105);

(2) Irrigation under the other Sárada channels, the Varáha channels, tanks indirectly fed by the Nágávali channels, rain-fed tanks of five to eight months' capacity, the hill streams Vottigedda, Jamparakótagedda, Malligedda, Potulagedda, Onigedda and Boddéru, and the Komaravólu áva;

(3) Irrigation under rain-fed tanks of from three to five months' capacity and ordinary hill streams; and

(4) Irrigation under tanks of less than three months capacity and drainage sources.

The crops taken as standards for estimating out turns were paddy for all wet land, and, for dry land, ragi in Pálkonda and cambu and ragi in conjunction (in the proportion of two to one)for Golgonda and Sarvasiddhi. The commonest dry crop in Pálkonda was indigo, which was grown in such large quantities for the supply of Messrs. Arbuthnot and Co.'s factories that it occupied nearly half of all the dry land, but it was considered unsuitable as a standard crop. The out turn'of paddy was estimated (on the basis of experiments made in other districts) to range, according to the nature of the soil and irrigation, from 400 to 1,000 Madras measures per acre; of cambu, from 130 such measures to 400; and of ragi from 140 to 375 measures. These out turns were commuted into money at a rate based upon the average of the prices prevailing during the 20 non-famine years immediately preceding the year of settlement, and the result was reduced by 15 per cent, to allow for cartage to markets and merchants' profits. The commutation rates thus arrived at worked out to Rs. 105 for paddy, Rs. 114 for cambu, and Rs. 126 for ragi, per Madras garce of 3,200 Madras measures. From the value of the crop so obtained, the expenses of cultivation (which were calculated to be one-third more than those of Ganjám in the case of wet land and one-fifth more in that of dry) were deducted, and in addition a further reduction of one-fifth was made on both wet and dry land to allow for vicissitudes of season and the inclusion within the survey fields of unprofitable areas, such as paths, banks, and small channels. The remainder was assumed to be the net yield per acre, and half of this was taken as the Government share. The! acreage rates so arrived at are given in the margin. Only four percent, of the wet land in the three taluks was assessed at the highest wet rate and only two per cent, of the dry land at the two highest dry rates. The percentages of the assessed area in each taluk assessed at each of the rates has been given in detail already on p. 100 and further figures will he found in the separate Appendix to this volume. The table tub joined shows at a glance the general effect of the survey and settlement on wet and dry land respectively in each of the three taluks ; namely, the difference in the cultivated area disclosed by the survey and the enhancement or reduction of the assessment brought about by the settlement : —

The increase in wet assessment here shown includes the charge for second crops. Double-crop land is charged a consolidated rate covering any number of crops which may be grown This consists of an addition to the single-crop assessment of one- third in the case of land under sources of irrigation placed in the first of the four groups mentioned above, one-fourth for that under second-class sources, one-fifth for third class and one-sixth for fourth class.

It had long been held that the dry land in Palkonda was over- assessed (nearly one half of the arable dry area was unoccupied at the time of the settlement) and that the wet land (only 660 acres of which was waste) bad been too leniently treated. In Sarvasiddhi, the former rates on both wet and dry land, which had been fixed during the time the taluk was zamindari land, were in many cases excessive.

Inams were lavishly granted in the district during the lax administration of the Musalmans, especially in the havili land. The Circuit Committee says that the Rája of Vizianagram resumed numbers of these when he rented that tract and even seized 'the whole of the free gift, lands to the Bráhmans and others excepting those of village servants.' But hardly any of the inams were properly authorized grants; 'very few bear the seal of the Hyderabad darbar, which we consider absolutely necessary to authenticate such deeds, and most appear to have been granted to mullahs, servants and dependents of the Nawábs, who, however absolute upon the spot from their military command and the distance of their court, being in fact nothing more than renters, could not be legally empowered to make any alienations of the Sirkar lands.'

The Inam Commission visited this district in 1862. It did not touch inams in Jeypore (these are shortly referred to in the account of that estate on p. 272 below) but dealt with those in the three Governnment taluks and in the other estates, more than half of which were included in the Vizianagram zamindari. The procedure followed is set out in detail in the Inam Commissioner's instructions printed in G.O. No. 647, Revenue, dated 24th March 1862, and is too elaborate to be embodied here in detail. By the terms of the permanent settlement, the reversionary right in inam tenures then in existence was reserved to Government, though the kattubadi on them was included in the assets of the estates and is payable to the zamindars, and proprietors. The Inam Commission's rules allowed most of the inamdars to enfranchise their grants from the risk of this reversion by the payment of a certain annual quit-rent which was fixed according to circumstances and did not vary thereafter. Inams granted for services no longer required were enfranchised compulsorily. This latter course was followed with the old grants for military police services (which still existed in large numbers), the enfranchisement being on a quit-rent equal to half the full assessment. The inams in the Vizianagram estate had been examined between 1835 and 1838 when the estate was under Government management, and the kattubadi in their case was usually fixed at the difference between the then quit-rent and the full assessment. Mokhásas, which were held on honorary and almost nominal service tenure, were enfranchised at a fourth of the assessment; village police inams in zamindaris at five-eighths; tank-digging grants at one-fourth, and so on. Certain 99 years' grants for house and garden land in Waltair, granted by the Chiefs about 1790, were enfranchised at one-fourth or one-half of their then value. Village service inams in the Government taluks were not enfranchised till 1891-92, Similar grants in proprietary estates are now being enfranchised at a quit-rent equal to the full assessment minus the existing jodi.

The manner in which Golgonda, Pálkonda and Sarvasiddhi became Government taluks has already been referred to. In 1859, in spite of the Collector's protests, the first and last of these were ordered to be amalgamated and made into one taluk called Narasapatam, with head-quarters at that place. But the plan was a failure, and in 1863 the old arrangement was restored.

In the same year the Jeypore estate was brought for the first time, in the circumstances set out later (p. 269), under direct administration.

In 1875 the divisional charges were as under:—

Collector	Principal Assistant Collector.	Senior Assistant Collector.	Special Assistant Agent.
(Vizagapatam.)	(Narasapatam.)	(Párvatípur.)	(Koraput.)
Vizagapatam	Galgonda	Párvatípur. Pálkonda	Koraput.
Bimlipatam.	Anakápalle.	Bobbili. Ráyagada.	Jeypore.
Chípurupalle.	Sarvasiddhi.	Gajapathinagaram. Sálúr.	Naurangpur.
Srungavarapukóta.	Víravilli.	Gunupur. Vizianagram.	Malkanagiri.

In 1882, in accordance with recommendations made by Mr. Carmichael when Special Commissioner in connection with the Rampa rebellion, three new deputy tahsildars' divisions were ordered to be constituted with head-quarters at Pádéru, Pottangi and Bissamkatak. The two first of these came into being in 1883 and the last in 1884. Pádéru was placed under the Principal Assistant for some time, but in 1893 the Pádwa taluk was constituted in its place and given to the Special Assistant.

In 1883 a new Deputy Collector was sanctioned for the district and after some discussion he was put in charge of Bimlipatam and Chípurupalle from the Collector's division and Gajapatinagaram, Pálkonda and Vizianagram from the Senior Assistant's. Nine years later a Covenanted Civilian was placed over the division so formed.

In 1888 another Deputy Collector was appointed to relieve the Collector of the direct care of the two taluks, Srungavarapukóta and Vizagapatam, which remained under him, and the divisional charges thus constituted (which have already been set out on p. 2 above) still exist. The head-quarters division is the only one which is in charge of a Deputy Collector. Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/198 Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/199

List of the Chiefs in Council and Collectors of Vizagapatan—cont.

Name.	Date of appointment.	—Header text
Collectors of Vizagapatam District—cont.
John Snow Nathaniel Webb Michael Keating	20th Nov. 1794. ..	Collectors of the three divisions into which the district was now arranged.
William Brown	6th Feb. 1796	Collector of the new Second division of the district, afterwards called the First division. Was succeeded by Mr. Robert Alexander on 19th August 1800.

Nathaniel Webb 

March 1796 ... Collector of 'the First, afterwards called the Second division, which was amalga- mated with the First division and placed under Mr. Alexander in July 1802. Michael Keating March 1796 ... Collector of the Third division. Was re- lieved in July 1797 by Mr. Andrew Scott, who in his turn was succeeded by Mr. Peter Cherry on 30th August 1800. Hon. Leveston Granville Keith 13th May 1803 ... First Collector of the Murray. whole district. 1 Charles Henry Churchill 30th April 1805 ... Died at Vizagapatam on 16th April 1811. Charles Hyde ... 24th July 1811 ... Transferred to South Arcot, where his name is still remembered. See the Gazetteer of that district. John Smith 23rd Feb. 1813 ... Died on 20th June 1824 at Vizagapatam and y is buried under an imposing monument in the Regimental Lines Cemetery. Robert Bayard ... 29th June 1824. Henry Gardiner 25th Aug. 1826. William Mason ... 18th Deo. 1832 ... Died at Vizagapatam on 2nd July 1834 and lies buried in the Regimental Lines

Cemetery.

List of the Chiefs in Council and Collectors of Vizagapatam—cont.

Name. Date of appoint- ment. COLLECTOES OF VlZAGAPATAM District— co?)f. William Urquhart Arbuthnot. 3rd July 1834. Arthur Fi-eese . 20th Jan. 1835. William Urquhart Arbuthnot. 2yth March 1837 ... From 26th November 1839, the Collector became also Agent to the Governor for the territories brought under Act XXIV of that year. Patrick Boyle Smollett 6th Jan. 1842. William Urquhart Arbuthnot. 20th Dec. 1843 ... Resigfued the service in 1846 ; appointed to Secretary of State's new Council in 1858. Died 1874. Patrick Boyle Smollett 20th Feb. 1846. Andrew Robertson 14th Sept. 1850. Patrick Boyle Smollett 1st May 1855. Charles William Reade 2l3t July 1857. Edward George Robert Fane ... 7th Oct. 1859. David Freeman tie Carmichael. 11th March 1862 ... Afterwards Member of Council from 30th August 1876 to 9th December 1883. Ap- pointed Special Commissioner to en- quire into the Rampa rebellion of 1881. John Henry Master 20th April 1867. James Innes Minohin 21st April 1868. Robertson John Melville 2l8t Jan. 1870. John Read Daniell 24th April 1873. Alexander MoCallum Webster. 13th May 1874. Harry St. Aubyn Goodrich ... 19th Sept. 1874. R ober tson John M elv il le 3rd Nov. 1876. Harry St. Aubyn Goodrich ... 15th Feb. 1877. John Lee- Warner 16th April 1879. Octavius Butler Irvine 26th Sept. 1879 ... Died at Vizagapatam on the 14th March 1880 from wounds inflicted by a panther. John Henry Garstin ... 16th March 1880 ... Afterwards c.s.i. and Temporary Governor of Madras from Ist December 1890 to 22nd January 1891. Henry Gribble Turner 11th .Tune 1881 ... Most of his previous service had been spent in this district. Evans Charles Johnson 23rd April 188S. Henry Gribble Turner 28th April 1884. William Alexander Willock ... 7th April 1889. CHAP. XI. Appendix. Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/202

1. This is available in print, and contains a mass of statistical and other information of interest.
2. 1 Fifth Report on the affairs of the East India Co., 1812 (Madras, 1883), ii,6. A very elaborate account of the Musalman revenue system will be found in Mr. Grant's ' Political Survey of the Northern Gircars' appended to this.
3. 1 Fifth Report, ii, 19,