LECTURE VI. The Nizam's and Lord had to pay malikana to the zemindar. And the hereditary pergunnah officers have been held entitled, under British rule, to receive their fees, whether they perform any service or not, so long as they are still willing to perform the duties of their offices. The jageerdar had also to pay fees to the State, called nuzzurs or presents, on succession, partition and all transfers. This confirms the opinion that the jageer was not originally alienable as of right. 2 One district in Southern India was held as a jageer by Clive's jageers. the Nizam on condition of furnishing a certain number of troops. He held it in his capacity of aumildar.* Lord Clive also held the zemindary of the Twenty-four Pergunnahs as a jageer of the bila shurt (unconditional) and zatee (personal) kind; the East India Company holding a grant of the zemindary rights.5 Tunkas. The sunnud. A jageer was not generally created by a sunnud, when the jageerdar was not intended to be invested with jurisdiction, but a khut or order was addressed to the Government officers, ordering them to pay the revenue granted into the hands of the jageerdar. These orders were called tunkas.6 The regular jageer sunnud consisted of two parts: the munsub, which set forth the rank of the grantee, and specified a suitable number of horse as required to be kept up, both for the support of the dignity and for the 'Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 345, 417. Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 105. Moohummud Ismail Jemadar v. Raja Balungee Surrun, 3 Sel. Rep., 346. 2 Bama Shunkar v. Jamasjee Shaporjee, 2 Moore's I. A., 23. 3 Steele's Deccan Castes, 208. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 57, 58. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 154. 5 Ib., Vol. I, 486; Vol. II, 167. " Steele's Deccan Castes, 208. India, 868, 7. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 66. Galloway's Law and Constitution of VI. service of the State; and the zimn, or details of the LECTURE assignment, whether extending over a particular district, or allotting a specified amount of revenue in money. This sunnud was issued under the Emperor's seal. grants. Another class of the ikta grants was called seyurghal. Seyurghal These were grants of revenue to-first, learned men and their scholars; second, those who had withdrawn from worldly affairs; third, the needy in general; and fourth, the poor descendants of great families, who were too proud to follow any occupation.' Grants to the needy were also called aymas; and were often obtained by the wealthy under fictitious names. Grants for these purposes sometimes included the land, and were of the milk or muddudmash kind. When grants of the seyurghal class were made simply by way of assignments of revenue, they were of the nature of unconditional jageers, and only for life originally: and it is obvious that there would be less tendency to allow grants to the classes of persons above specified to become hereditary, although no doubt they often did become so. The mode of assignment was by tunkas, which never included more than three-fourths of the revenue of the district from which the assigned revenue was to be received. 3 One of the classes of grant included in the seyurghal was, Ayma grants. as I have mentioned, the ayma grants. Ayma (or aimma, the plural of imam, a leader of the devotions of a private assembly of Mahomedan worshippers,) grants were grants made to imams by the sovereign. When grants of 'Baillie's Land Tax, xlviii. Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 281, 383. 2 Colebrooke's Supplement, 238. LECTURE VI. Malgoozary aymas. Enams and mauniums. the revenue merely they come within the class called seyurghal. But as we have seen they were sometimes grants of land as well as revenue, or remissions of revenue on land already in the grantee's occupation, and then they came under the head of milk or muddud-mash. Again they were sometimes grants of land at a reduced revenue, or a remission of part of the revenue upon land in the possession of the grantee, and then they were called malgoozary aymas or revenue-paying aymas. As we have seen the lands included in grants of this kind were generally waste lands: and it is said that malgoozary aymas were sometimes granted in order to bring waste into cultivation. The lands thus cultivated would become the cultivator's property and descend as such: but the remission of revenue would not necessarily descend with them. Hence we find that these grants were not all hereditary but only some of them. The objects for which ayma grants were made were much more varied than is implied in the term ayma. They included grants to learned men, or for religious or charitable purposes, and some of these were in perpetuity. They were seldom of very great extent.3 In other parts of India similar grants were known under the name of enams. The name enam seems, like the word jageer, to be a general term including almost all assignments of revenue. In the more restricted sense of the word however it is used to designate the same kind of grant as the ayma, but including as well grants for service. 'Baillie's Land Tax, liii, liv. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 65. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 56. Evidence of Mr. Elphinstone before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 2295, 2297. 2 Land Tenure by a Civilian, 56. 3 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 14, 167, 168. Thus grants to revenue officers and village servants were called enams in the Northern Circars and the Deccan.1 They were also called mauniums; and were distinguished as turrabuddy enams or mauniums, when they consisted of land or the revenue of land supposed to be set apart at the original allotment of the village for the village officers, pagodas, &c.; and sunnud enams or mauniums, when granted afterwards as pay to servants, for mosques, &c. These latter required yearly renewal; and the holder in later times acquired by custom a right to such renewal. Enams were granted to mendicants and singers as well as for the other purposes already mentioned. They grew ultimately to be hereditary; reverting to Government only on failure of heirs.* The same hereditary character is alleged to belong to the malgoozary aymas; but they were inalienable. Ayma and enam grants conveyed no right to the land, except in the cases I have before mentioned.6 They were, like other grants of revenue, subject to payment of malikana or some other equivalent allowance to the zemindar. Many holders of ayma grants assigned over to the zemindar a portion of the grant, sufficient to meet this charge. LECTURE VI. Of a similar nature to the grants we have already con- Chakeran sidered, and included in the class of enam or jageer grants, grants. 'Steele's Deccan Castes, 206. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 14. Evidence of Mr. Elphinstone before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 2295, 2297. 3 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 307. 1 Ib. 14, 96, 167, 168. Steele's Deccan Castes, 206, 236. • Evidence of Mr. Elphinstone above cited, 2301, 2302. • Land Tenure by a Civilian, 90. 7 Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 296, 322, 345. LECTURE are grants of land or revenue for the support of servants of various kinds. These resemble the conditional jageer; the holder being bound to perform certain services as the condition of retaining the privileges granted. Holdings of this kind are frequently called service tenures, or chakeran tenures. We have seen that in Hindoo times the headman, and sometimes other officers of the State and of the village, were remunerated by remissions of revenue on the land held by them; sometimes holding altogether free of revenue, and sometimes at a reduced rate of revenue. They may, although of this we have no certain information, have had also allotments of land granted to them by the village, or of waste land granted by the State. We have seen that the zemindar enjoyed similar privileges under the title of nankar, and it appears that in Bengal this was the ordinary mode of providing for all the revenue servants. There were it is said 150,000 of these employed in the fiscal departments of the empire as zemindars, canoongoes, mokuddims, putwarries, pykes, molungies, and rahberdars. In other provinces they were paid in money, but in Bengal by allotments of land revenue free. Sometimes, as already remarked, their allotments were not entirely free of revenue, but only at a reduced revenue. Besides those above mentioned as thus remunerated, we find chowkeedars, who had also a claim to a share of the village produce when employed by the village, pausbans, gorayets, or pharidars (watchmen), foujdars, digwars (guards), balaghunti (grand round men, going rounds as watchmen), Fifth Report, Vol. I, 341; Vol. II, 12, 13, 89, 90, 95, 155. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 65, 235 (n). Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 34. Orissa, Vol. II, 216. |