The Law Relating to the Land Tenures of Lower Bengal

of robbery or murder shall occur. If however (which God forbid) the property of any person shall be plundered or stolen, I will produce the thieves or robbers, together with the property; and delivering the latter to the owner, I will consign the former to punishment; or, in the event of my failing to produce them, I will myself be responsible for the property so stolen or plundered. I will exert my endeavours that no person be guilty of drunkenness or irregularities of any kind within the boundaries of my zemindary. I will discharge year by year at the stated times and periods the due rents of Government, after receiving credit for the muzcoorat agreeable to usage; and lastly I will transmit to the dufterkhanah of Government the official papers required conformably to custom under my own signature and that of the canoongoes of the Soobah. I have therefore written these few lines in the nature of a muchulka cabooleut that recourse may be had thereto when occasion shall require. Dated the 22nd of Rumzan-ul Mubaruk in the 17th year of His Majesty's Reign."

II.-TWO ROYAL FIRMANS FOR A KHANKAH, A SORT OF MAHOMEDAN MONASTERY.1

"The villages in question were granted by two Royal Firmans, the first by Mahomed Feroksir, 14th March 1717, the second by Shah Alum, 13th October 1762.

The first of these instruments states, that a Firman has been issued; that one lac of dams from Pergunnah Havilly Sahseeram, in Soobah Bahar, which yields the sum of about 1,179 rupees to the Royal Treasury, are endowed and bestowed for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the Khankah of Sheikh Kubeer Dervish, as an altamgha grant, and it shall be established according to the specification made therein. The children of the Sovereign, the Amir, and those who transact the affairs of State, and the jagheerdars and their successors, are enjoined to relinquish the said dams to the aforenamed individual for him to manage and control, and to descend to his heirs in succession from remove to remove, and they are required to consider the grant in every respect exempt from all contingencies, and not to demand from the said person a fresh sunnud annually. Upon this instrument a memorandum is endorsed that one lac of dams has been granted by His Majesty as an altamgha for the use and expenses of the Khankah of Sheikh Kubeer Dervish.

In 1744, on the petition of Sheikh Gholam Shurf-ood-deen, the grandson of Sheikh Kubeer, who had succeeded him as the Sijjada-nashin, a perwannah was granted by Mahomed Shah enjoining the chowdries, cultivators, &c., to consider the said one lac of dams as an altamgha-inam, by virtue of the perwannah of His Majesty, for the purpose of being appropriated to the charges of the travellers to and from the Khankah of the said Sheikh Kubeer, as it stood before, to descend to the offspring in succession, and to refrain from taking from the said Gholam Shurf-ood-deen as was the rule before, the true and fair revenue payable to the State and the Dewanny taxes, and enjoining them not to deviate from what may be for the benefit of the person in question. The terms expressing the grant to have been made for the purpose of meeting the charges of the Khankah, and the travellers who frequent the Sheikh Kubeer Dervish, are repeated several times in the endorsement. A similar perwannah was granted on the petition of Sheikh Kiam-ood-deen, after the death of his father, and it is declared that

1 Jewun Doss Shahoo v. Shah Kubeer-ood-deen, 2 Moore's I. A., 390, at pp. 408 to 410; see another deseription of these firmans in Mussamut Qadira v. Shah Kubeer Oodeen Ahmed, 3 Sel. Rep., 408, 409.

Sheikh Kiam-ood-deen is established in the Sijjada-nashin in the same manner as his father and grandfather were.

The second instrument of the third year of Shah Alum, about the 18th of October 1762, is a grant nearly similar in form, of two lacs and eighty one thousand dams, the produce of which is Rs. 3,000, to be fixed as an altamgha-inam to the sanctified Sheikh Kiam-ood-deen for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the frequenters to and from him, exempting the lands from the present assessment and from all that may be realized thereout by his good management; and the children and vizeers, &c., of the Sovereign are enjoined always to maintain and uphold the said order, and to relinquish the aforesaid dams to them, to descend to the offspring in succession to be enjoyed by them, and deeming this grant free from the contingency of alteration or change, the public officers are not to demand anything from them upon the score of revenues or charges, and to consider the grant free of all Dewanny taxes, or for any writings whatever made on account of the State. Deeming this a full and positive injunction, they are not to demand a fresh sunnud annually, nor deviate from these royal and munificent orders.

Upon this instrument a memorandum was endorsed that 2,81,000 dams have been granted by His Majesty in Pergunnah Sahseeram, &c., as an altamgha-inam to Sheikh Kiam-ood-deen for the charges of the Fakirs."

III.-AN ALTAMGHA SUNNUD.1

"From the autumn crop, viz. from the month of Tingo Zail (last month of the Fasli year) as an altamgha grant to her from generation to generation, to her children, and those related to her. This grant is to be considered as safe from the strokes of change or alteration. No peshcush or the fees of Soobahdari, faujdari revenue, or other kinds of cess, such as tax or exaction, &c., is to be demanded from this estate; all increase in the revenue or proceeds of the estate proceeding from a good cultivation to go to the grantee. This sunnud or grant is all sufficient, fresh confirmation is not to be required year by year, nothing ought to be done contrary to this grant.

Dated 9th of Zillah of the 30th year of the Reign (11th September 1788),"

A Perwannah in pursuance of the same Grant.2

"Be it known to the chowdhries, canoongoes, zemindars and cultivators of the Pergunnah Badshapore and Jharsa, that whereas the aforementioned mehal was formerly granted as an altamgha jageer (jagiri altamghai) to the kind friend, the Begum Zeboolnissa, by a royal sunnud, so it is to be considered on the same footing as before, and all are required as heretofore to present themselves and pay the revenue to her without fail. This is very strictly enjoined, so let them be very careful to obey it."

1 Forester v. The Secretary of State, 12 B. R., 142.

2 lb.