ACQUISITION, 1818-1870.

THE lands of the district of Sholapur have been gained by conquest, cession, lapse, and exchange. On the overthrow of the Peshwa in 1818, 261 villages, ninety-two in Sholapur, 123 in Barsi, twenty-eight in Madha, eight in Karmala, and ten in Pandharpur came into the hands of the British Government. In 1822 His Highness the Nizam, by a treaty dated the 12th of December 1822, ceded 232 villages, thirty-eight in Sholapur, fifty-five in Madha, 113 in Karmala, and twenty-six in Pandharpur. In 1828, on the death of Daulatrav Sindia, two villages in Madha lapsed to Government. In 1839 on the death of the Nipani chief eleven villages in Sholapur lapsed to Government. In 1842 on the death of the chief of the fourth share of the Miraj state five villages, two in Madha, two in Karmala, and one in Pandharpur, lapsed to Government. In 1845 on the death of the Soni chief three villages, two in Madha and one in Pandharpur, lapsed to Government. In 1848, on the death of the Raja of Satara, 188 villages, forty-four in Pandharpur, seventy-five in Sangola, and sixty-nine in Malsiras lapsed to Government. In the same year (1848) on the death of the Tasgaon chief two villages in Pandharpur lapsed to Government. In 1868 His Highness Holkar, under Government Resolution 4470 dated the 28th of November 1868, in exchange for other lands, ceded one village in Pandharpur. In 1870, His Highness the Nizam, under Government Resolution 3519 dated the 22nd of July 1870,in exchange for other lands, ceded eleven villages in Sholapur.

STAFF, 1884.

District Officers.

The revenue administration of the district is entrusted to an officer styled Collector, on a yearly pay of £2790 (Rs. 27,900). This officer, who is also Political Agent, district magistrate, district registrar, and executive head of the district, is helped in his work of general supervision by a staff of four assistants of whom two are covenanted and two uncovenanted servants of Government. The sanctioned yearly salaries of the covenanted assistants range from £384 to £1080 (Rs. 3840 to Rs. 10,800) and those of the uncovenanted assistants from £360 to £720 (Rs. 3600 to Rs. 7200). For fiscal and other administrative purposes, the lands under the Collector's charge are distributed over seven sub-divisions. Four of these are generally entrusted to the covenanted assistant collectors and three to one of the uncovenanted assistants styled district deputy collector. As a rule no sub-division is kept by the Collector under his own direct supervision. The other uncovenanted assistant, styled the head-quarter or huzur deputy collector, is entrusted with the charge of the treasury. These officers are also magistrates and those who have revenue charge of portions of the district have, under the presidency of the Collector, the chief management of the different administrative bodies, local fund and municipal committees, within the limits of their revenue charges.

Sub-Divisional Officers.

Under the supervision of the Collector and his assistant and deputy collectors, the revenue charge of each fiscal sub-division is placed in the hands of an officer styled mamlatdar. These functionaries who are also entrusted with magisterial powers have yearly salaries varying from £180 to £300 (Rs. 1800 - 8000).

Village Officers.

In revenue and police matters the charge of the 663 Government villages is entrusted to 814 headmen or patils of whom three are stipendiary and 811 hereditary. Of the stipendiary headmen one only performs revenue duties and two police and revenue duties. Of the hereditary headmen 147 perform revenue, 143 police, and 521 both revenue and police duties. The headman's yearly endowments depend on the revenue of the village and consist partly of cash payments and partly of remission of land assessment. The cash emoluments vary from 12s. (Rs. 6) to £21 5s. (Rs. 212½) and average about £3 15s. 8d. (Rs. 37 as. 13 1/3), while the remissions from land assessment range from 1s. (8 as.) to £37 19s. (Rs. 379½) and average about 10s. 8¼d. (Rs. 5 as. 5½). Of £3515 (Rs. 35,150) the total yearly charge on account of village headmen, £3080 (Rs. 30,800) are paid in cash and £435 (Rs. 4350) are met by grants of land and by remissions of assessment on land.' To keep the village accounts, draw up statistics, and help the village headmen there is a body of 626 village accountants or kulkarnis. Of these nine are stipendiary and 617 are hereditary. Each has an average charge of one village containing about 930 people and yielding an average yearly revenue of about £163 (Rs. 1630). Their pay is not fixed once for all but is revised after thirty years. At present the yearly cash allowance amounts to £4672 (Rs. 46,720). The accountant's yearly pay varies from £1 13s. to £20 5s. (Rs. 16½-202½) and averages about £7 9s. 3d.(Rs. 74 ⅝).

Village Servants.

Under the headmen and the accountants are the village servants with a total strength of 1173. These men are liable both for revenue and police duties. They are Musalmans or Hindus of the Koli, Mhar and Mang castes. The total yearly grant for the support of this establishment amounts to £1649 (Rs. 16,490) being £1 8s. 1 ⅜d. (Rs. 14 as. 11/12) to each man or a cost to each village of £2 9s. 9d. (Rs. 24⅞). Of this charge £294 (Rs. 2940) are paid in cash and £1355 (Rs. 13,550) are met by grants of land.

In alienated villages the village officers and servants are paid by the alienees and perform both revenue and police duties for Government.

The average yearly cost of village establishments may be thus summarised:

Sholapur Village Establishments, 1884.

This is equal to a charge of £14 16s. 8½d. (Rs. 148 as. 5²/3) a village or about ten per cent of the district land revenue

CHANGES, 1818-1875.

Before 1869, when the present (1884) district of Sholapur was formed, its subdivisions were frequently transferred from one district to another. Of the seven sub-divisions included in the present district, Pandharpur and Sangola were in Satara until 1864 and Malsiras until 1875. [Sangola and Malsiras were formed between 1862 and 1864 out of Pandharpur and Khatav in Satara.] Before 1838 the northern sub-division of Karmala was in Ahmadnagar and the central sub-division of Mohol [Afterwards Mohol and Madha, and now (1884) Madha.] was in Poona; and the eastern and southern sub-divisions of Barsi and Sholapur more than once passed from Ahmadnagar to Poona and from Poona to Ahmadnagar. In 1838 the sub-divisions of Sholapur, Barsi, Mohol, Madha, Karmala, Indi, Hippargi and Muddebihal, formed a collectorate styled Sholapur which was abolished in 1864. In 1869 the sub-divisions of Sholapur, Barsi, Mohol, Madha, and Karmala together with Pandharpur and Sangola were formed into the present (1884) Sholapur district which in 1875 received from Satara the addition of Malsiras. [The following are the available notices of these changes. In 1819 some sub-divisions were made over from Ahmadnagar to Poona (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 50 of 1822, 164; see East India Papers, III. 795). In 1819-20 Barsi was a sub-division of Ahmadnagar. (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 50 of 1822, 161). Between 1820 and 1822 Barsi was attached to the sub-collectorate of Sholapur and in return for those ceded to the Nizam, Ahmadnagar received the parganas of Karmala and Korti. (East India Papers, IV. 728). In 1822-23 that part of the Sholapur sub-collectorate which lay to the north of the river Bhima was transferred to Ahmadnagar. (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 50 of 1822, 501). In 1824-25 the Sholapur sub-collectorate consisting of Sholapur Mohol, Barsi, Karmala, and Korti was subordinate,to Ahmadnagar. (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 123 of 1825, 8, 17). About this time it was found that the districts were not well managed by sub-collectors and the proposal to make Sholapur a collectorate was sanctioned (18th February 1825), the sub-divisions being Barsi, Karmala, Korti, Sholapur, Mohol, Indi, and Muddebihal. (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 123 of 1825, 519, 535, 550). In November 1826 the collectorate was abolished, Indi, Muddebihal, Sholapur, and Mohol being transferred to Poona, and Barsi Karmala and Korti to Ahmadnagar. (Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 174 of 1827, 403; and Rec. 207 of 1828, 501, 503, 505). In October 1829 the Sholapur sub-division was transferred from Poona to Ahmadnagar and Indi and Muddebihal from Poona to Dharwar; and in March 1830 Ahmadnagar was made a principle collectorate with a sub-collector at Sholapur. (Rev. Rec. 352 of 1831, 2, 102). In January 1831 the sub-divisions of Barsi and Sholapur were transferred from Ahmadnagar to Poona. (Rev. Rec. 406 of 1832, 235). In 1831-32 Sholapur, Barsi, and Mohol were in Poona and formed a sub-collectorate (Rev. Rec. 484 of 1833,31 and Rec. 694 of 1836,313); and Poona was made a principal collectorate and Ahmadnagar reduced to be a collectorate, Karmala and Korti remaining sub-divisions of Ahmadnagar. (Rev. Rec. 408 of 1832, 43,45, 49 and Rec. 548 of 1834, 52). In 1835-36 Sholapur was a sub-collectorate subordinate to Poona. It included the sub-divisions of Sholapur, Barsi Mohol and Madha a part of the old Mohol subdivision. (Rev. Rec. 772 of 1837, 101, 123). In 1838 Sholapur was made a collectorate including the sub-divisions of Sholapur, Barsi, Mohol, Madha, Karmala, Indi, Hippargi, and Muddebihal. (Rev. Rec. 1098 of 1840, 3 and Rec. 1243 of 1841, 40). In 1864 the Sholapur collectorate which stretched from Korti to Nalatvad on the river Krishna some forty miles south of Bijapur was abolished; its southern sub-divisions of Indi, Hippargi Mangoli and Muddebihal were taken from it to form the new collectorate of Kaladgi now (1884) styled Bijapur; and the remaining sub-divisions with the Satara sub-divisions of Pandharpur and Sangola formed the sub-collectorate of Sholapur. In August 1869 this sub-collectorate was raised to be a junior collectorate and the Satara sub-division of Malsiras was added to it in 1875. The collectorate so formed is the present (1884) Sholapur district.]

REVENUE SETTLEMENT, 1818-1840.

These territorial changes show that during the first twenty years (1818-1838) of British rule, the present (1884) district of Sholapur was partly in Satara a native state, which lapsed in 1848, and partly in the British districts of Poona and Ahmadnagar. The revenue history of British Sholapur during this period differs little from the history of Ahmadnagar, and still less from that of Poona as more of Sholapur was in Poona than in Ahmadnagar. As was the case in Poona and Ahmadnagar after a few years of rapid advance the chief characteristics subsequent to 1825 were low prices, heavy assessment and large remissions.

The kamal rates [The Muhammadan or tankha rates of assessment were superceded during the latter years of Maratha rule by what were known as the kamal rates which included cesses of various kinds. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 254.] remained in force till 1830 when, as Sholapur for some years had been steadily deteriorating, they were replaced by Mr. Pringle's settlement. Mr. Pringle's settlement from its errors, its excessive rates and also from the very bad seasons which followed its introduction, broke down; short or ukti and lease or kauli [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 61, 184, 335, 427.] rates were granted between 1836 and 1839; and in 1840 the thirty years' revenue survey settlement was begun by Captain Wingate. In the Sholapur sub-division the approximate average acre rates were under the Musalman tankha 1s. 1½d. (9 as.), under the Maratha kamal 1s. 7⅞d. (13¼ as.), under Mr. Pringle's settlement of 1830 1s. 5¼d. (11½ as.), and under the survey settlement of 1840 9⅞d. (6 7/12 as.). The average collections under the Maratha kamal were at the rate of 1s. 3⅞d. (10 7/12 as.), the average collections under Mr. Pringle's settlement were at the rate of 1s. 1¾d. (9 1/6 as.), and the average collections under the survey settlement were at the rate of 9⅞d. (6 7/12 as.). [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 254-255] During the twenty years ending 1838 the condition of the Sholapur district was no less distressed than that of Poona. The revenue survey was begun in Sholapur at the same time and under the same officers as in Poona. In Poona the first survey settlement was introduced into Indapur between 1836 and 1838 and in Sholapur the first survey settlement was introduced into Mohol-Madha in 1839-40. The following are the leading details of the Mohol-Madha settlement.

SURVEY.

Mohol-Madha, 1839-40.

In 1839-40 after completing the settlement of Indapur now in Poona, Lieutenants Wingate and Davidson introduced the survey settlement into Madha and Mohol. [Lieut. Wingate, Surv. Supt. 86 of 15 June 1839; Lieut. Davidson, Asst. Supt. 20th May 1839; Bom Gov. Sel. CL. 47, 80.] Until three years before this settlement these two village groups had formed the single sub-division of Mohol. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 53.] In 1822-23 the Mohol group of villages yielded a revenue of about £4950 (Rs. 49,500) on a cultivated area of about 78,000 acres. Between 1822 and 1826 tillage spread to 85,000 acres, but collections fell to about £3700 (Rs. 37,000). Of these four years, 1824-25 was a year of famine whose memory remained in 1871, and in which of a rental of £6300 (Rs. 63,000), only £850 (Rs. 8500) were collected. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 109 and the survey diagram in Lieut. Davidson's Report of 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 84.] After 1825 a decline in tillage set in and steadily continued till in 1832-33 tillage had fallen to 56,000 acres. Like 1824-25, 1832-33 was a year of famine when the collections were about £850 (Rs. 8500). By 1838-39 the revenue had risen to about £4500 (Rs. 45,000). Of the villages of the Mohol-Madha group, complete returns were available only for the Mohol villages. The state of the Madha villages was in every way so much like the state of the Mohol villages that the Mohol details may be taken to apply to both the groups. In the Mohol group during the seventeen years ending 1838-39, the tillage area roughly averaged 69,000 acres. On this the average assessment was £5356 (Rs. 53,560) that is an average acre rate of 1s. 6¾d. (12½ as.) The collections during these years averaged £3200 (Rs. 32,000) or an average acre rate of 11¼d. (7½ as.). Even this reduced rate seemed to press too heavily on the landholders. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 109-110. These averages differ a little from those which the figures in the Mohol statement give.] Between 1822-23 and 1835-36 tillage declined from 78,000 acres in 1822-23 to 57,000 acres in 1835-36, and collections from £4950 (Rs. 49,500) to £3000 (Rs. 30,000). Lieutenant Davidson noticed that every year of large collections was followed by a decline of tillage and every year of low collections was followed by a spread of tillage. In the absence of any record of the character of the different seasons included in this period it is impossible to say how far the changes in tillage were the result of the varying seasons and how far they were due to the changes in the collections. As in other parts of the Deccan a chief cause of the depressed state of the Mohol-Madha villages was the ruinous fall in prices. The rupee price of jvari which, excluding the famine year of 1824-25, in the three years ending 1825-26 averaged 80 pounds (32 shers), fell to 260 pounds (104 shers) in 1826-27 and in 1827-28, and between 1828-29 and 1838-39, except in the famine year of 1832-33 when it rose to 67½ pounds (27 shers), varied from 237½ to 122½ pounds (95 to 49 shers) and averaged 162½ pounds (65 shers). In the three years ending 1838-39 the price was steady at 162½ pounds (65 shers) that is about half as high as during the three years ending 1825-26. [Diagram in Lieut. Davidson's Report of 20th May 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 80-91.] The tillage, collections, and price details are: [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 84-85, Survey Diagrams.]

Mohol Tillage Collections and Produce Prices, 1822-1839.

In 1836-37 short or ukti rates were introduced which were equivalent to the remission of part of Mr. Pringle's assessment. The result of these remissions in the Mohol group was that in the three years ending 1838-39, while tillage rose from 62,000 to 90,000 acres, collections fell from £4800 (RS. 48,000) to £4500 (Rs. 45,000). [Lieutenant Davidson, 20th May 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 84, 85, 87.]

The following statement shows that during the eighteen years ending 1838-39 the gross yearly rent settlement or jamabandi of the Mohol and Madha village groups varied from £13,343 (Rs. 1,33,430) in 1832-33 to £19,758 (Rs. 1,97,580) in 1822-23 and averaged £16,968 (Rs. 1,69,680); the collections varied from £3048 (Rs. 30,480) in 1832-33 to £16,128 (Rs. 1,61,280) in 1833-34 and averaged £11,468 (Rs. 1,14,680); and the percentage of collections varied from 21 in 1824-25 to 97 in 1833-34 and averaged 67. The details are: [A few hundred rupees should be deducted, about enough to bring the average collections to £11,400 (Rs. 1,14,000), on account of balances due to village claimants. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 79.]

Mohol-Madha Revenue. 1821-1839.

In 1839 both of the Mohol and of the Madha village groups the chief characteristic was poverty in the midst of great natural resources [Lieut. Davidson's Report referred to the Mohol group. According to Lieut. Wingate, 15th June 1839, this description was equally true of the Madha villages. Bom. Gov. Sel. OL. 54.] In the opinion of the survey officers the most marked cause of this poverty was the excessive land tax. The escape pipe of a reservoir could not more effectually prevent the rise of its waters than the Maratha kamal prevented the increase of wealth in the Mohol villages. The state of the sub-division was a remarkable proof of the ruinous effects of heavy assessment and yearly remissions. None were rich because it was their interest to be poor. The standard of comfort had fallen so low that in a year of complete or even of partial failure of crops there was no margin left for retrenchment. Some of the villages which had suffered most from the famine of 1832-33 were a mass of roofless walls. The people had died or fled because they were too poor to buy grain. In every country the section of the people who live from hand to mouth are rendered destitute by a season of scarcity. In this tract such was the poverty of the people that one bad year reduced the bulk of them to destitution. Poverty prevented the people from attempting to improve the tillage. With a little capital, garden tillage might be greatly extended and would be one of the best safeguards against the full force of a famine. Another improvement, for which the natural features of the country gave many facilities, was the building of walls to catch soil which was being swept from the uplands to the streams during the rainy season floods. First rate soil gathered behind embankments with the most surprising speed. [Lieut. Davidson, Asst. Supt. of Survey, 20th May 1839: Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 82-83. In Lieut. Davidson's opinion besides a heavy land tax, other causes of poverty were the subdivision of property and early marriages.]

Details collected by the survey officers showed that in five Mohol and Madha villages out of 373 landholders 190 had one to three bullocks, 126 had four to seven bullocks, and only fifty-seven had more than seven bullocks. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 55. The details are:

Mohol-Madha Farm Stock, 1839.

] As in the lands of these villages not fewer than eight bullocks were required to draw a plough and no fewer than four were wanted for the proper working of the harrow, called palli or kulav, these details showed that without help from others nearly half of the landholders could not till their land. Except Tenki, all the villages from which these details were taken had garden land and were rather favourable specimens of the groups. In Tenki, which had suffered cruelly from the 1832-33 famine, of forty landholders only one had cattle enough to work a plough while no fewer than thirty-three had not stock enough to work a harrow. The general poverty of the landholders greatly depressed the husbandry. The Madha villages had 21,834 bullocks and male buffaloes that is only one bullock to every ten dry-crop acres under tillage instead of one bullock to every six acres of dry-crop or jirayat. Lieutenant Wingate was unable to find a single recent case of a price being paid for the privilege of occupying Government dry-crop or jirayat land. The fact that dry-crop land had no sale value showed that the present assessment absorbed the whole rent of the land; further proofs that the assessment absorbed the whole rent of the land were to be found in the batai tenures which obtained in every village. Under every variation these tenures had one common feature that the actual cultivator or under-bolder assigned part of the gross produce to the over-holder on condition that the over-holder paid the assessment. The usual arrangement was that the under-holder bore the cost of seed and tillage, and, after the customary payments had been made, assigned the over-holder a half to a third of the produce. Lieutenant Wingate knew of no instance in which the share of the crop assigned to the over-holder was less than one-third. Even the third was almost always in newly ploughed land which was prepared at greatly more than the ordinary cost. Seeing that these tenures were common in every village, even where waste land was abundant, and every effort was made to induce people to take it for tillage, it would appear a consideration of capital importance that, where they occurred, the cultivator, rather than became responsible for the payment of the assessment, would assign to another a third, nay in most cases a half of his gross produce. The over-holders of fields, cultivated on the crop share or batai tenure, were generally Brahmans or poor hereditary holders or mirasdars who calculated on making some little profit in average and good seasons, and of receiving remissions in bad. In Lieutenant Wingate's opinion these facts proved that the assessment was burdensome. He was persuaded that if it was not for the state monopoly of land in a tract so thinly peopled and so empty of capital as Mohol-Madha, the rent of even the richest lands instead of varying from a third to a half would be less than one-fourth of the produce. Even if the present assessment was not more than what the land could pay in an ordinary season and when grain was selling at an average price, it would be oppressive and ruinous in a tract so liable to failure of crops. [Lieutenant Wingate, 15th June 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 55-59.]

In July 1839 in submitting to Government the survey officers' reports, the Revenue Commissioner Mr. Vibart observed that though he agreed with the survey officers that the people were among the poorest in the Bombay Presidency and that a reduction of assessment was called for, he did not agree with them that the people were on the verge of starvation. Even Lieutenant Wingate's figures of farm stock, though they proved a deficiency, proved also that the people were several removes from starvation. [Mr. Vibart, Rev, Comr. 1301 of 12th July 1839; Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 93,108.]

Tests taken by the survey officers showed a creditable accuracy in the measurements of Mr. Pringle's survey. Of the forty-six Mohol villages examined by Lieutenant Davidson, in five only did the error in measuring the cultivated land exceed ten per cent; the average error of the remaining forty-one villages was five per cent. In the Madha group Lieutenant Wingate found the former survey measurements of cultivated land fairly correct. Eleven of seventy-two villages had to be remeasured; in the remaining sixty-one villages the error in the cultivated land was a little over six per cent. As the boundary marks had disappeared, the whole of the waste land in both the sub-divisions, Mohol and Madha, had to be remeasured. The whole arable area was reclassed on the system followed in Indapur in the Poona district. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 53-54.] The proposed rates for Mohol were ten per cent and for Madha five per cent in advance of the Indapur rates. [The proposals were sanctioned by Government in Letters 3447 of 21st November 1839 and 3779 of 31st December 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 97-106.] The two groups together contained 381,000 acres of Government arable land. At the proposed rates the assessment on the arable area amounted to nearly £13,700 (Rs. 1,37,000). Including £1600 (Rs. 16,000) on account of miscellaneous or sayar revenue and watered land assessment, the full rental of Mohol and Madha under the new settlements amounted to £15,300 (Rs. 1,53,000). The average collections from all sources including the full allowances of claimants or hakdars, village expenses, and outstanding balances, between the British accession and the close of 1838-39, amounted to about £11,450 (Rs.1,14,500) a year. Compared with this the above survey total was £3850 (Rs. 38,500) more or an increase of 33 per cent. The immediate effect of the new settlement was to reduce the rental to £11,600 (Rs. 1,16,000) that is £2500 (Rs. 25,000) or 17½ per cent less than the collections of 1838-39. [ Lieutenant Wingate, 15th June 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 60-61. The new rental Rs. 1,16,000 was Rs. 5000 more than the average collections previous to the introduction of the ukti or short rates. In the two years 1836-1838 the revenue was 'sustained at an unnatural height' by a partial introduction of the revised settlements under the name of short or ukti rates. Ditto, 61.] In the Mohol group the survey rates on the dry-crop or jirayat land under tillage caused a reduction from £4700 to £3700 (Rs. 47,000 - Rs. 37,000) or 21 per cent. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 87.]

Sholapur,1840-41.

In 1840-41 the survey settlement was introduced into Sholapur. The measurements of the Sholapur and Ahirvadi village groups, comprising a circle of twelve to fifteen miles round the town of Sholapur, were tested between November 1838 and June 1839, and the reclassing [The reclassing of the two groups began in December 1838. In Sholapur sixteen villages with an area of 71,618 acres or half of the whole were finished and tested before June 1839. In consequence of the very limited establishment at the beginning the work necessarily proceeded slowly. It was calculated (June 1839) that it would be finished before the next rent settlement or jamabandi, Bom, Gov. Sel. CL. 183.] of the Sholapur group was well advanced when the Survey settlement proposals were submitted in June 1839. Of the whole area of 256,878 acres, of which a very large proportion had lain waste since Mr. Pringle's survey and whose boundaries had been often nearly obliterated, ten per cent were tested. Of seventy-one villages, in fifty-one the error was found to be within ten per cent, in five it was above ten per cent in cultivated land, and in twelve it was above ten per cent in waste land, while three villages required total remeasuring. [In several villages the old survey fractions or tut numbers of ancient fields or kadim dags were remeasured and village boundary stones restored whenever the parties could be brought to agree. Out of 2620 acres in dispute 1480 were settled by arbitration. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 181.] The Sholapur group was bounded on the north-west by Mohol, on the north-east by the Nizam's territory, on the east and south by the Akalkot state, and on the west by the river Sina. [The Nizam's villages were mixed with the Sholapur villages on the north. Three Sholapur villages called phut or detached were isolated in the Nizam's territory, a belt of which about ten miles broad separated Sholapur from Vairag and Barsi. Mangrul the most distant village was eighteen miles from Sholapur. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 185.] Its total area was 401 square miles or 256,878 acres. [The 1839 details are: In the Sholapur group 88,343 acres were under tillage, 43,713 acres of arable waste, 2038 acres of grass land or kurans, 10,867 acres of alienated or inam land, 367 acres disputed, and 19,852 barren; total 165,180 acres. In the Ahirvadi group 39,752 acres were under tillage, 38,048 acres of arable waste, 5388 alienated, 773 disputed, and 7737 barren; total 91,698. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 184.] Of these exclusive of 16,255 alienated acres the total arable area was 210,996 acres and the rest was appropriated as pasture and farmed out. Of 128,095 acres the area under tillage 2434 acres were let at short or ukti rates averaging 3d. (2 as.) an acre. Of garden land there were only 1044 acres in the Sholapur and 599 in the Ahirvadi group or a total of 1643 acres. [The 599 acres of garden land in Ahirvadi were all well-watered and the assessment as fixed by a jury or panchayat in 1835-36 was fair. In Mangrul alone there were 400 acres. As it was an ancient or kadim garden village, the garden land of Mangrul was assessed at an acre rate of 13s. 6d. (Rs. 6¾) though the average acre rate was only 5s. 6d. (Rs. 2¾). Bom. Gov. Sel CL. 184.] The country was bare with a waving surface which in places rose into small hillocks showing the bare rock. It was less rugged and stony than the Mohol group which bounded it on the north-west. The quality of the almost level surface was various and irregular; the dips had much fine alluvial soil. The proportion of each soil in a few villages, which the assistant survey superintendent Captain Bellasis examined, was, of 100 parts, ten black, fifty red, and forty gravelly. The black soil being about one-tenth of the whole was found only in small patches of no great depth, resting on a sandy loam with pebbly limestone under it. Towards the banks of the Sina black soil was more plentiful but meagre, with limestone under-layers. On the whole the soil of this survey group, particularly near Sholapur, Bala, Degaon, and the south-east of Ahirvadi, was rich enough to grow finer products than the depressed people could attempt. Signs of careless tillage were common everywhere, and a field was seldom ploughed but from necessity. The climate was dry and the supply of rain, as there were neither hills nor woods, was very scanty. All the late or rabi grains, oils and pulses were grown, but there was little bajri. The rude though often efficient system of tillage was in all respects like that of Indapur and east Bhimthadi.

Throughout the two groups of Sholapur and Ahirvadi, the roads or more properly the cart-tracks were good. Within Sholapur limits the Poona road had been cleared of stones. The fords of the Sina near Narkhed, Lamboti, Nandur and Tirha, all required clearing and repair. Sholapur in the centre of the group was a considerable thriving town of 24,000 people. It was a ready, in fact the only, market for the surplus produce of the surrounding villages. In 1838 the import duties amounted to £1354 (Rs. 13,540). Large quantities of kirana, ginger, garlic, safflower, betel, surangi and other valuable products were brought from the neighbouring Nizam's villages to Sholapur. Sholapur was also a centre of the salt and betelnut trade between the Ratnagiri coast and the inland tracts, and for cotton, coarse cotton cloths, and robes, from the surrounding villages.

Before they came into British possession the most flourishing period of the Sholapur and Ahirvadi groups was said to have been about the beginning of the century when they were under the management of Ramchandra Shivaji a relative of the Peshwa. At that time nearly the whole of the arable land was said to have been under tillage and all the wells in repair. From this state of prosperity the groups were thrown into the deepest poverty by the famine of 1803-4 which was known as the one and a quarter sher or panchchipti year and nearly emptied the country. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 185,186.] From 1817 (Fasli 1227) they were superintended by Abaji Ballal the commander or killedar of Sholapur under the Mankeshvar of Tembhurni until Abaji was deposed for oppression a little before the affair at Ashta. The old or mamul measures, which as usual varied in every six or eight villages, were the shera and taka (72 to the sher),the paisas,the adhelas and the bigha of the Musalmans; all varied with the quality of the soil. The full or sosti rates, including all the extra cesses levied by the Peshwa's managers, must have weighed heavily on the Kunbi and paralysed his exertions, had not tracts of the poorer lands, particularly under Mankeshvar's management, been given on easy rising leases or istava kaula and at light or ukti rates as an offset to the heavy regular rate. It was this that gave rise to the present (1839) clamour for leases or kauls as the existing assessment was as heavy as the total or kamal without the leases. In some villages Captain Bellasis found only one rate for every kind of soil; in others there were as many as five or six rates. At Narkhed where the original or mamul bigha was the nominal measure, five rates were in force varying from eight to twelve annas the bigha, and leases or kauls ran from five to seven years. The fields varied in size from twenty to forty acres and the rates averaged £1 10s. to £2 10s. (Rs.15-Rs. 25) the navtak or one-eighth of a sher. [In the Sholapur group the tankha total was Rs. 61,360; kamal Rs. 97,921; and paimaesh survey, apparently Mr. Pringle's, Rs. 89,263. In the Ahirvadi group the tankha total was Rs. 55,410, kamal Rs. 72,514, and paimaesh Rs. 59,098. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL, 187.] The twenty-four years ending 1838 included five specially bad years, three 1820-21, 1824-25, and 1832-33 of partial famine caused by drought; one of failure of crops from excess of rain, the year known as 'kardisal'; and one 1825-26 known as the rat year or undirsal when the crops were nearly destroyed by rats. In 1838-39 little or no rain fell. During the twenty-two years ending 1839 cholera had thrice thinned the population. The only specially good season was 1833-34, known as the crop-year or piksal. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 185, 192.] The tillage and revenue details of the Sholapur and Ahirvadi groups during the sixteen years ending 1838 are: [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 193-194.]

Sholapur Pargana: Tillage and Revenue, 1822 -1838.

Ahirvadi Pargana: Tillage and Revenue, 1822 -1838.

During the nineteen years ending 1838-39 at Sholapur the rupee price of jvari fell from 85 pounds (14 shers) in 1820-21 to 77½ pounds (31 shers) in 1838-39 and of bajri from 52 ½ to 67½ pounds (21-27 shers). [This is a large sher measuring one-ninth more than Indapur, that is about 2½ pounds. The yearly details are:

Sholapur Produce Rupee Prices, 1820-1839.

In 1820-21 there was no rain, in 1824-25 there was a partial famine and in 1832-33 there was a famine. Bom, Gov, Sel. CL, 192.]

In 1839 the proportion of arable waste was 33 per cent in the Sholapur group and 48 per cent in the Ahirvadi group. Most of this waste land bore marks of former tillage. Seventeen of the thirty Ahirvadi villages were nearly empty, all of which showed signs of former prosperity. Except these seventeen Ahirvadi villages, the villages were many degrees better than most in Bhimthadi, Indapur or Mohol. Still they were very ruinous and filthy, the walls were in ruins, and the appearance of most villages was uncomfortable and desolate. The headmen had lost the greater part of their incomes. They were everywhere apathetic and indifferent, and in some villages no man could be found willing to take the post of headman. Their houses were in ruins; many were living in the thatched corners of old mansions or vadas. Numbers who formerly owned a horse a cart or a camel were reduced to the bare necessities of life and forced to work in the fields as labourers. The village clerks were not so badly off as the headmen. Most of the landholders were without the means of completing their four-pair team of plough cattle. Great and small were sunk in debt and powerless to repair wells or to spread tillage. [Captain Bellasis, Assistant Survey Superintendent, 26th June 1839, Sholapur and Ahirvadi Survey Report, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 187-189.]

Except in a few villages the highest dry-crop or jirayat acre rates of the old survey were about 4s. (Rs. 2). One of the most heavily assessed villages was Ulha eight miles north of Sholapur. The rate here was 4s. 1½d. (Rs. 2 1/16) the acre. Captain Bellasis remembered (1839) that before the 1832 famine this had been a prosperous village, populous and with a couple of shops. In 1839 it was next to deserted, the shops were removed, the trees had disappeared, the wall was down, and the place in ruins. Of 4100 arable acres 2475 were waste, and the revenue had fallen from £106 12s. (Rs. 1066) in 1831-32 to £61 16s. (Rs. 618) in 1838-39. The village headman and clerk had become involved in defalcations and were ruined; there was an outstanding balance of £346 12s. (Rs. 3466). Several of the people who had left Ulha were settled in the Nizam's village of Taradgaon. In 1827, three years before Mr. Pringle's survey, Ulha yielded a net revenue of £200 (Rs. 2000). [The rest of these overassessed and misclassified Villages all shared in the ruin and misery. Bom. GOV. Sel. CL. 188.] That this ruin was the work of over-assessment was shown by the neighbouring village of Honsal which though similar to Ulha was assessed at only 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) per acre. Nearly the whole village was under the plough; out of 2049 arable acres only 384 were waste; the revenue was improving, only £8 (Rs. 80) were outstanding; and during the seven years ending 1839 the remissions amounted to only £10 (Rs. 100). [Captain Bellasis, 26th June 1839, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 187 -188.]

On the basis of the rates introduced into Indapur in Poona, Captain Bellasis proposed a highest dry-crop acre rate of 2s. (Re. 1). Though this was 33 per cent higher than the Indapur rate, the immediate effect of the settlement was estimated to be a reduction of about 27½ per cent. [The collections of 1838 were £7783 (Rs. 77,830); the largest collection since the 1830 survey was £9040 (Rs. 90,400); the rental estimated at the new survey rates on the actual tillage £5630 (Rs. 56,300) and on the entire arable land £8739 (Rs. 87,390). Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 189-191.] Captain Bellasis believed that this slight sacrifice of revenue would prove so great a relief to the landholders that the spread of tillage would soon make up or more than make up for the loss of revenue. Many well-to-do landholders would at once come in from the Nizam's villages. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 191.]

Settlement proposals for the Mandrup group of forty villages, the rest of the Sholapur sub-division, were made in 1839-40, and the settlement was introduced in 1840-41 in the entire sub-division including Sholapur Ahirvadi and Mandrup. The Mandrup group was bounded on the north by Mohol and on the east south and west by the Sina and Bhima rivers. Across the Sina on the east lay Sholapur Ahirvadi and the Akalkot state. Across the Bhima on the south-west and west was a strip of land belonging to the Patvardhan family. Beyond the Patvardhan strip the territory of the Satara chief formed the bank of the Bhima on the south till its meeting with the Sina. The greatest length of the Mandrup group was about twenty-three miles from north-west to south-east and its greatest breadth about eighteen miles. It included forty villages of which one was a double-owned or dumala village of the Nipanikar, and two, which belonged to the Sholapur sub-division, were for convenience placed under the mahalkari of Mandrup. The total area was 138,470 acres of which 4857 acres were under the dumala village. The country was in general flat, particularly on the banks of the Sina. In some parts of the upper end of the group the ground was rocky and uneven. With this exception and that of a few risings near the centre the whole of the land was a black soil plain. Beginning at Kamti Khurd and going down the Sina to Kudal, the land of thirteen villages was beautiful. Except little patches of grazing ground the greater part was a deep black mould. The land of Kamti Budrukh, Gunjegaon, Jamgaon, Vatvat, Barud, and Malkauta was not good. Kandalgaon, Antroli, Yelgaon, Mandrup, and Nandni had mixed soil, some good some very inferior, and Vadapur had a ridge of rocky ground. With these exceptions, beginning at Miri and going down the Bhima to Kudal, including Vinchur and Nimbargi, the land on the Sina side was excellent.

Most of the Mandrup villages were sadly ruined. The walls in some places were unconnected pieces of mud, and in others the old site only was pointed out. Yelgaon was the only village at which any attempt had been made to rebuild the wall, the headman having induced each of the villagers to build a little. The village officers were apathetic and indifferent. [Ensign Robertson, Asst. Surv. Supt. 1839-40, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 198.]

Many villages in Mandrup had streams holding water throughout the year. In many cases this water was not used though ruined water-lifts were not uncommon. The survey officer feared some time must pass before the people would again be able to use these streams. Some years of low assessment would be required before the capital would be available. The village wells were in a bad state, and the want of water caused great distress to man and beast. No use for irrigation purposes was made of the water either of the Bhima or of the Sina. The great force of these rivers when in flood was a reason why no attempt had been made to throw a dam across them and no water was raised by bags because the people believed that to pollute the river with the touch of leather was a sin. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 199.] The two chief roads were to Bijapur and to Rajapur. Streams and rivers made these roads difficult for carts and the soil was so heavy and black that the roads could not be kept in repair during the wet weather. Many of the fords across the Bhima and the Sina required clearing and improving. These villages had suffered considerably from gangs of robbers. The people were much impoverished and nothing would so much tend to improve them as a light assessment. The only industry was agriculture and in consequence of the high assessment they had been forced to live in the poorest possible way. In Mr. Robertson's opinion, probably an incorrect opinion, they were perhaps the worst housed, worst fed, and worst clothed people in the world. There was no trade and no manufactures. The poverty and wretchedness of the cultivators were gradually undermining the class above them and bade fair to involve all in the common ruin. [Ensign Robertson, 1839-40, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 199, 203-204.]

As in the formerly settled village groups, in Mandrup Mr. Pringle's survey measurements were tested, and villages in which more than ten per cent of error was found, were remeasured. Mr. Robertson found the old survey measurements upon the whole very good. In all cases a new classing was introduced. Mr. Robertson proposed rates fifteen per cent above those introduced into Indapur. The rates of several malas or vegetable gardens had been revised a few years before Mr. Robertson's settlement by a jury or panchayat who had fixed a bigha rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) equal to an acre rate of 8s. (Rs. 4). This rate Mr. Robertson did not change. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 205 - 266.]

In April 1840 Lieutenant Wingate the Survey Superintendent submitted Captain Bellasis' proposals for the Sholapur-Ahirvadi survey group and Lieutenant Robertson's proposals for the survey group of Mandrup. Lieutenant Wingate observed that the soils, climate, and circumstances of the Sholapur sub-division in all essential respects were the same as those of the adjoining subdivisions of Mohol and Madha. At the same time the Sholapur group had the great advantage of the Sholapur market. This advantage was almost certainly the reason why its tillage had been less subject than other neighbouring groups to extremes of depression. In the seventeen years ending 1838-39 the rental had varied from £12,173 (Rs. 1,21,730) in 1832-33 to £17,247 (Rs. 1,72,470) in 1822-23 and averaged £14,623 (Rs. 1,46,230). The details are: [Remissions and balances include items on account of sayar or miscellaneous revenue. It would be enough if about £100 (Rs. 1000) a year were added to the collections on this account. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 213. The sher was a large sher, one-ninth larger than that of Indapur. The 1820-21 prices were jvari 14 and bajri 21 and in 1821-22 jvari 25 and bajri 22½ shers the rupee. Ditto, 192.]

Sholapur Land Revenue, 1822-1839.

Though the revenue and the cultivation in 1840 were fully equal to the average of past years, there was no want of evidence that the sub-division was far from prosperous, and that the state of the people had seriously declined under British management. This was the case in spite of the extensive and flourishing market of Sholapur where the demand for field produce was greater than it had been in the times of the late government. Lieutenant Wingate from what he had himself seen was satisfied that there was an utter absence of activity or enterprise among the husbandmen and that both the villages and the husbandry were wretched. That this was chiefly due to an excessive land tax, Lieutenant Wingate was convinced from reflection and still more from observing the happy results which had immediately followed a reduction in every group of villages hitherto settled. In a country so subject to drought as this part of the Deccan it would probably be impossible to do without yearly remissions, at least until garden tillage had greatly increased and the state of the people had much improved. The yearly remissions and outstandings during the period before the survey settlement were large, averaging twenty per cent of the land revenue. This in Lieutenant Wingate's opinion showed that the present assessment was grievously disproportioned to the means of the cultivators. In illustration of the opposite effects of heavy and light assessment Lieutenant Wingate cited the already mentioned case of the two neighbouring and similar villages of Ulha and Honsal in which a highest dry-crop acre rate of 4s. 3½d. (Rs. 2 1/16) had reduced Ulha to ruin and a corresponding average rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) had raised Honsal to prosperity. He also cited the case of Indapur which had passed through the bad season of 1838-39 without requiring more than four per cent of remissions. All these considerations led to the conclusion that the Sholapur rates called for reduction. [Lieutenant Wingate, Surv. Supt. 29th April 1840. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 210-211.] Lieutenant Wingate supported Captain Bellasis' proposal for a highest dry-crop acre rate of 2s. (Re. 1) for the Sholapur-Ahirvadi group, a rate which as already noticed was thirty-three per cent higher than the Indapur rate. For the Mandrup group, instead of Mr. Robertson's proposed increase of fifteen per cent over the Indapur rate, Lieutenant Wingate proposed an increase of twenty per cent. These rates gave an average acre rate of 9d. (6 as.) for the Sholapur group and 10½d. (7 as.) for the Mandrup group where the soil was better. The total survey rental for the entire Sholapur sub-division including the extra cess to be imposed on watered lands, amounted to £12,700 (Rs. 1,27,000), or £1100 (Rs. 11,000) in excess of the average collections of the seventeen preceding years, and £400 (Rs. 4000) in excess of the collections of the four preceding years. The garden assessment had been fixed by jury or panchayat about 1836. No complaints had been made against it. It was moderate but very unequal, the acre rates varying from 4s. to 13s. 6d. (Rs. 2-6¾). Lieutenant Wingate believed that in many cases the number of acres allotted to the gardens was underrated. On this account and to ensure greater equality of assessment as well as similarity of system in the newly settled sub-divisions, Lieutenant Wingate proposed the extension to this Sholapur sub-division of the plan adopted in Indapur, Mohol and Madha. The plan originally proposed for Mohol-Madha differed in a slight degree from that carried into effect in Indapur, but as the modifications had not met with the approval of Government, the Indapur system was adhered to. Every garden, whether previously taxed or not, was assessed at one uniform acre rate of 4s. (Rs, 2). The number of acres was adjusted to meet the difference in the supply of water and other circumstances affecting the value of the land for the purposes of irrigation. This settlement proved generally acceptable to the holders of gardens, and though the aggregate amount of the extra tax imposed was considerably over £800 (Rs. 8000) in the Mohol-Madha group, very few complaints were received. Lieutenant Wingate recommended that this plan should be adopted in the Sholapur subdivision. Lieutenant Wingate's proposals were sanctioned by Government in August 1840 and the settlement was introduced in 1840-41. [Government Letter 2587 of 8th August 1840. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 220.]

Barsi, 1840-41.

In 1840-41 the survey settlement was introduced into Barsi. Barsi lay to the north of Sholapur separated from it by a narrow belt of the Nizam's country. It was the level tract between the Balaghat range of hills to the east and the Sina river to the west. The tract was of no great width and had a gentle south-west slope from the hills to the river. None of the streams which crossed it were of any considerable size. The Bhogavati which had a course of forty miles from its source in the Balaghat till it met the Sina at the village of Narkhed, was the most considerable. A few smaller streams in favourable seasons held running water during the greater part of the year and in some few villages their water was used for the land. [Lieutenant Wingate (16th September 1840) thought that the stream water supply might be better husbanded than at present in certain localities but the supply of water was too small to make any considerable extension in tillage possible. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 330, 342.] Still Barsi was on the whole better supplied with running streams than any other sub-division north of the Bhima. Barsi was believed to have a better climate than the rest of Sholapur owing to the nearness of the Balaghat hills, which rose three to five hundred feet above the Barsi plain. As regards markets also, Barsi was better placed than either Mohol or Madha though it was not so well placed as Sholapur. Almost the whole of its surplus produce was in the first instance disposed of at its own marts of Barsi and Vairag. Both were considered prosperous towns for the Deccan, though of late years eclipsed by the flourishing mart of Sholapur. [Vairag was twenty-eight miles north of Sholapur and had (1840) 1663 houses and 6831 people. Barsi was twelve miles north of Vairag and had (1840) 1787 houses and 9732 people. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 331.]

In 1818, when it came under British management, the Barsi sub-division was more flourishing than any other sub-division in Sholapur. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 333. At this (1840) time the district consisted of Sholapur, Barsi, Mohol, Madha, Karmala, Indi, Hippargi and Muddebihal. Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 1243 of 1841, 32.] In 1840 Lieutenant Wingate held that under British management it had seriously deteriorated. The reason for this was that in spite of the fall of prices the attempt had been made to realize the same revenue as when prices were high. In 1818-19 nearly the whole arable land was under tillage, and for the first two years (1818-1820) every rupee of the assessment was collected. This extent of exaction proved excessive and was followed in the third year (1820-21) by a marked diminution of the cultivation. Still as prices continued good until 1821-22 the collections were made with punctuality. About this period, prices began to fall rapidly. Still for several years the remissions granted were liberal and tillage continued to spread until it reached its greatest height in 1826-27; the collections rose to an unprecedented amount and were enormous, whether compared with those of preceding or of following years. This apparently flourishing state of things was, in Lieutenant Wingate's opinion, deceptive and disastrous in its consequences. He thought that in 1840 the sub-division was still suffering from the over-exactions of 1826-27. A considerable decrease of cultivation and revenue immediately took place, and, with few and inconsiderable exceptions, the decline continued till 1835-36, when the revenue and the tillage were little more than one-half  of what they had been nine years before. About 1830 Mr. Pringle's settlement was introduced into Barsi. During the ten years it remained in force the fluctuations of cultivation and revenue, excepting in the famine year of 1832-33, were comparatively small. Their average amount was lower than that of the preceding years of British management. From this Lieutenant Wingate inferred that Mr. Pringle's system was better than that which it supplanted, but was too burdensome to allow the sub-division to advance. During the ten years of Mr. Pringle's settlement the rate of assessment on the land in cultivation averaged more than 2s. (Re. 1) per acre, while in the preceding years the average acre rate was less than 2s. (Re. 1), and this was more especially remarkable in the first two years (1818-1820) when, with reference to the quantity of land in cultivation, the assessment was actually lower than it had ever since been. That is when the sub-division came into British possession and produce prices were high, the cultivators paid a lower acre rate than about 1840 when the value of produce had fallen about fifty per cent. From a mere comparison of the difference of assessment in money, no just conception of the actual weight of the land tax at the two different periods could be formed. The correct way to ascertain the weight of the land tax was to estimate the assessment on cultivated land in produce. Under Mr. Pringle's settlement the assessment on cultivated land, estimated in produce, was at least double what it had been when the subdivision came into British possession. More need-not be said to account for the sub-division at one period having been flourishing with nearly the whole arable land under cultivation, and at the other depressed with one-half of its arable land waste. The increase of cultivation, in 1839-40 was owing to extensive grants of waste land at short or ukti rates. [Lieut. Wingate, Surv. Supt. 16th Sept. 1840. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 334-335.] The returns showed that during the twenty-two years ending 1839-40 the collections had varied from £20,037 (Rs. 2,00,370) in 1826-27 to £3988 (Bs. 39,880) in 1832-33. The details are:

Barsi Revenue, 1818-1840.

The survey diagram showed that twenty-two years before, when produce prices were about double what they were in 1840, Barsi was flourishing, the cultivated land paying an average-acre rate of 1s. 8¼d. (13½ as.); under Mr. Pringle's settlement it was much less prosperous, and in spite of the  great fall in prices the average acre rate on the cultivated land was more than 2s. (Re. 1). From this Lieu-tenant Wingate argued that to ensure the restoration of the subdivision to its former prosperous condition, and to compensate for the great depreciation in the value of produce, the assessment ought to be fixed not only lower than Mr. Pringle's, but even much lower than that existing at the time of the British acquisition. The depreciation in the value of produce was probably not less than fifty per cent. On the other hand the landholder had formerly been subjected to several indirect cesses from which he was now relieved, while the security of his tenure was enhanced. For these reasons Lt.Wingate thought that an average rate of assessment higher than one-half of that which obtained at the time of acquisition might be imposed with safety. He also thought, from other considerations such as climate and position, that Barsi could well bear rates of assessment equal to those of Sholapur that is thirty-three per cent higher than those introduced into Indapur. Calculations based on the assessment of several villages showed that at these rates the average acre charge would be 11¼d. (7½ as.) on the whole arable land, 245,000 acres, giving a highest dry-crop assessment of £11,500 (Rs. 1,15,000), or, including the extra tax on watered land, a total rental of £12,000 (Rs. 1,20,000). This new rental was £500 (Rs. 5000) or four per cent less than the average collections £12,500 (Rs. 1,25,000) on account of land revenue during the twenty-two years ending in 1840; £500 (Rs. 5000) or. 4.35 per cent more than the collections of the eighteen years ending in 1840; and £1500 (Rs. 15,000) or 14.28 per cent more than the collections of the twelve years ending in 1840. The immediate effect of the settlement was a reduction from £10,600 (Rs. 1,06,000) in 1839-40 to £8400 (Rs. 84,000) or 20.75 per cent. [Bom. Gov. Sal. CL. 336.]

The existing garden settlement in Barsi was, as in the Sholapur subdivision, a temporary arrangement. Lieutenant Wingate proposed to fix the extra water-cess on the Barsi garden lands in the way that had been adopted in Mohol, Madha, and Sholapur. In no subdivision of the district, as it was constituted in 1840, was the quantity of irrigated land at all considerable or one-fourth what it might easily be. It was of the utmost importance to fix a rate of assessment so moderate as to offer every encouragement to the extension of irrigation. The extra rate was intentionally low. At the same time in the sub-divisions into which it had been introduced, it had been followed by so considerable an increase of irrigation that this, low rate had on the whole increased the revenue from garden land. The irrigated land of Barsi as of the rest of the collectorate was almost wholly well-watered. The channel-watered land was small in area and smaller in value. It depended on streams whose supply was sufficient or insufficient according to the abundance or the scarcity of the rainfall. In some seasons two garden crops were raised, in others only one, and occasionally water was so scarce that nothing could be grown. Under these conditions systematic garden husbandry was impossible, and the lands commanded by water-channels had almost no special value. Lieutenant Wingate had hitherto placed a small extra assessment on channel-commanded land with reference to the particular advantages of each field, and he proposed to follow a like course in the case of Barsi. It was in reality of no importance what plan was followed, as the area of channel-watered or patasthal land was inconsiderable and there existed no probability of its ever being materially increased. The case of the well-watered garden land was very different. It was impossible to attach too much importance to the extension of well irrigation. So great were the facilities throughout the Sholapur collectorate of extending garden cultivation by sinking wells, that Lieutenant Wingate was (1840) satisfied that four times the present agricultural population might by this means be supported in ease and plenty, and the country in great measure freed from dependence on its extremely scanty and uncertain rainfall. Lieutenant Wingate's proposals were sanctioned by Government in November 1840. [Lieutenant Wingate, Survey Superintendent, 16th September 1840, and Government Letter 3427 of 7th November 1840. Bom. Gov. SeL CL. 329-342. ]

Ropla, 1842-43.

The survey settlement was introduced into the Ropla petty division of Karmala in 1842-43 and into the main division of Karmala in 1843-44. In 1840-41 the area of the Ropla petty division was 125,030 acres. Of these 8446 acres were held free of rent and 11,667 were unarable, leaving 104,917 acres of arable' rent-paying land. Of these about 74,000 acres were tilled and about 30,000 or thirty per cent, most of which was extremely poor, were waste. As the Ropla group lay only ten to twenty miles east of Indapur, the conditions of the two tracts were closely alike. The nearness of the eastern hills to the Ropla group made the late or September-November rainfall more certain and heavier than in Indapur. The late or rabi Ropla harvest was therefore always better. The kinds of produce, the qualities of soil, and the mode of tillage were precisely the same in Ropla as in Indapur. Bajri and jvari were the two chief grains, the proportion of bajri to jvari being as one to four. So entirely did the two millets form the staple crop that the lands left for the other grains seldom yielded more than was wanted for home use. In Ropla as in Indapur the soil was black and heavy along the rivers and brown and lighter near the central watershed. The heavy ten-bullock plough was common to both and the times of sowing and reaping were the same. In markets the difference was slight. Ropla had no market of any note. The price returns for Karmala twelve miles north-west of Ropla and for Indapur showed that the Karmala prices, apparently for Indian millet, were only about five per cent higher than the Indapur prices. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 428,436-437. 444.]

The Ropla villages had passed from the Nizam to the British in 1821. In 1842 the people still looked back with horror on their state under the Nizam. All was uncertain and oppressive. Their fields were given them at low rates, but if the crop promised well the rent was doubled or trebled. If the enhanced rates were not paid the crop was seized and the husbandmen thrown into confinement and punished. The people were wretched and much of the land was waste. In 1842 their condition was markedly better than the condition of the people of the neighbouring Nizam's villages, which were mostly deserted and overgrown with brushwood, the few people being extremely wretched and poverty-stricken. In the Ropla villages most of the arable land was under tillage. The people though not well-to-do, were comparatively well off and were secure. They were not well-to-do because the assessment was too heavy. Liberal remissions had been granted, but the system of remissions had disadvantages. The crops had to be left uncut till their condition was examined. The examining clerk made the remissions small for fear he should be thought corrupt, and the testing officer made them smaller on the belief that the clerk was likely to be too lenient. The people were far from well-to-do. They lived on grain borrowed from time to time from the village Vani to whom, with few exceptions, they were much in debt. They paid their rents with money borrowed from these Vanis at very high interest, and in return gave them all the produce of their fields at prices which, as the Vanis always combined together, were far below the market rates. Though in the hands of moneylenders, the people did not feel the pressure of poverty. Any of them who remained staunch to one Vani always had his wants moderately supplied. [Mr. W. S. Price, Asst. Supt. 25th July 1842, Bom. Gov. Sel CL. 432-433.] The returns show that in the Ropla villages during the nineteen years ending 1841 the tillage area varied from 41,655 acres in 1834-35 to 74,896 in 1840-41 and averaged 52,849 acres. The returns show that the group passed through three periods, five years of prosperity ending in 1826-27 with an average tillage area of 60,435 acres; nine years of depression ending in 1835-36 with an average tillage area of 44,533 acres; and five years of steady recovery, the tillage area rising from 46,884 acres in 1836-37 to 74,896 acres in 1840-41. During the first of these three periods (1822-1827) the collections varied from £1629 (Rs. 16,290) in 1824-25 to £4477 (Rs. 44,770) in 1826-27 and averaged £3347 (Rs. 33,470); during the second period (1827-1836) the collections varied from £1064 (Rs. 10,640) in 1829-30 to £3647 (Rs. 36,470) in 1833-34 and averaged £2274 (Rs. 22,740); during the five years ending 1840-41 the collections varied from £2764 (Rs. 27,640) in 1838-39 to £3578 (Rs. 35,780) in 1836-37 and averaged £3159 (Rs. 31,590). The last four years 1837-1841, in consequence of very liberal remissions, combined an increase in tillage and a lowering of the demand. The details are [Bom Gov. Sel. CL. 442.]:

Ropla Tillage and Revenue, 1822-1841.

During the twenty years ending 1840-41 there had been two years of famine prices 1824-25 and 1832-33, in both of which at Ropla jvari sold at about 40 pounds (20 shers) the rupee. There was one year, 1822-23, of surprising cheapness jvari selling, if the returns are correct, at about 256 pounds (128 shers) the rupee. During the remaining seventeen years the rupee price of jvari varied from about 84 pounds (42 shers) in 1825-26 to about 160 pounds (80 shers) in 1828-29, 1830-31, 1834-35, and 1837-38, and averaged about 122 pounds (61 shers). During the five years ending 1840-41 the rupee price of jvari had varied from about 160 pounds (80 shers) in 1837-38 to about 104 pounds (52 shers) in 1839-40 and averaged about 130 pounds (65 shers). There seemed to be no sign of any general rise in prices. The details are:

Ropla Jvari Prices : Shers the Rupee, 1821-1841.

Lieutenant Nash the Survey Superintendent agreed with Mr. Price that the Ropla villages contrasted well with the neighbouring Nizam's villages. At the same time the assessment was too high. The older assessment on which it was based, in Lieut. Nash's opinion, had been a nominal rather than an actual rental. How impossible it was to collect was shown by the fact that in the Karmala sub-division during the twenty years ending 1842, of an assessment of £290,000 (Rs. 29,00,000), £130,000 (Rs. 13,00,000) or about 45 per cent had to be remitted. In the last year (1841-42) of £17,900 (Rs. 1,79,000) £9160 (Rs. 91,600) or more than one-half of the demand, had to be foregone. Though in the end the people might not be actually overassessed, a system of large remissions opened a wide door for fraud. So long as the district was kept prosperous only by the yearly grant of enormous remissions, Government-must be the loser in all cases where bribes were successfully given to obtain special remissions. On the other hand landholders who did not bribe had their fields rated too highly, that the total amount of remissions might not be so high as to attract notice by the favour shown to those who paid for favour. [Lieutenant Nash, Survey Superintendent, 19th September 1842, Bom, Gov. Sel CL. 424-425. These remarks apply to the Karmala sub-division generally.]

As the existing fields appeared in most cases to be at variance with Mr. Pringles records all the land was remeasured. As in Indapur, the soil was divided into nine classes of different qualities. Mr. Price and Lieutenant Nash proposed for the Ropla group the same dry-crop rates as had been introduced into Madha which lay immediately to the south, that is an increase of five per cent over Indapur rates. For the garden land which yielded no very valuable crops, Mr. Price proposed acre rates of 4s., 3s., and 2s. (Rs. 2, Rs. 1½ and Re. 1) and Lieutenant Nash recommended that the one Indapur rate of 4s. (Rs. 2) the acre should be adopted. At the proposed dry-crop rates the assessment of 104,917 acres of arable land in the whole Ropla group amounted to £3733 (Rs. 37,380) that is an average acre rate of 8½d. (5 2/3 as.). This was 3⅜d. (2¼ as.) less than the past average acre payment, and ⅜ d. (¼ a.) less than the Indapur average, because the quantity of superior soils was greater in Indapur than in Ropla. Compared with £3074 (Rs. 30,740) the sum collected for dry-crop land in 1840-41, the assessment on the same area at the new rates showed a reduction of £421 (Rs. 4210) or 13.7 per cent. The total survey rental exceeded the average amount of the dry-crop collections of the previous nineteen years by £1128 (Rs. 11,280) that is an increase of 43 per cent. [During the nineteen years ending 1840-41 the total survey rental £3733 (Rs. 37,330) was exceeded only by the dry crop collections of 1826-27 which amounted to £4286 (Rs 42,860). Mr. Price, 1842, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 438.] Government sanctioned the rates proposed by Lieutenant Nash, in October 1842. [Government Letter 3134 of 31st October 1842, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 449-450.]

Karmala, 1843-44.

As has been noticed the survey settlement was introduced into the main Karmala group in 1843-44. This group was bounded on the north-west by Karjat in Ahmadnagar, on the east by the river Sina and the Nizam's territories, on the south by the Ropla group, and on the south-west by the river Bhima and Indapur. It comprised 196,204 acres of which 9680 were held free, 31,854 were unarable, and 154,670 were arable. The highway of traffic between Poona and the Haidarabad districts to the east of the Balaghat hills passed through this group, as did the highways from Ahmadnagar to Sholapur and Pandharpur. Though there were no hills, much of the surface was rough and rocky. The Karmala group included the whole of the Vangi and parts of the old Shrigonda and Kadevalit sub-divisions. Of these groups, until they passed to the British in 1818, the villages of Vangi had for sixteen years been held by Sadashiv Pant Mankeshvar. The Shrigonda and Kadevalit groups did not pass to the British till 1821. Except one year during which they had lapsed to the Nizam, these groups had for upwards of 120 years formed part of the estate of the Nimbalkar family. As landlords Mankeshvar and Nimbalkar had greatly differed. Mankeshvar's demands were moderate and varied with the season. Nimbalkar, who was always pressed for funds to keep his troops, rackrented his people. In spite of the difference in management, when they came under the British, the condition of the two groups was almost equally wretched, as Mankeshvar's efforts to improve his villages had been thwarted by the ravages of the Pendharis. Mr. Price was satisfied that the people had greatly improved under British management. One great difference between the state of the country under the Marathas and under the British was that under the Marathas there was a large body of non-productive consumers. Their demand served to keep up the price of grain, and the crops found a ready market. Under the English, when almost all were producers, prices had fallen and crops were difficult to sell. This, by forcing Government to grant large remissions, caused them a serious loss of revenue. At the same time it was accompanied by one great advantage. In former times little grain was stored and in the famines of 1792-93 and 1803-4 the people died in masses. In 1842 there was enough grain in store to carry the people through a year of complete failure of crops. It was true that the stores of grain were in the Vanis' hands, and that the landholders lived by a ruinous system of borrowing. It was usual to lay the blame of the impoverished state of the people on the heavy assessment. This explanation, Mr. Price was satisfied, was only partly correct. In the Karmala group the nominal assessment had not formed the basis of a single rent settlement. In the early years of British management low rate leases had been granted, and afterwards outstandings were allowed to stay over or be tahkub, or lands Were given at short or ukti rates. During the twenty years ending 1842 not one-half of the nominal assessment had been levied. [The satisfactory state of Karmala, compared with other parts of Sholapur, is partly duo to the fact that it had belonged to Ahmadnagar and not to Poona.] Applying the settlement rates which had been sanctioned for Ropla to the Karmala villages, and deducting on account of waste land, Mr. Price found that they would yield about the same amount of revenue as what had actually been received by Government. He thought that the reason why the people had prospered so little under so moderate a demand was the corruption of the village officers. In spite of the increased independence of the people and the elaborate checks on fraud which had been introduced under British management, in 1842-43 Mr. Price knew that the villages had paid the village officers large sums to have their crops under-estimated. In former years the village officers never told the people what remissions had been granted, but continued to screw as much out of them as they could. [Mr. Price, Asst. Supt. 18th July 1843, Bom, GOV. Sel, CL. 463-465,] As in Ropla, the Karmala returns for the twenty years ending 1841-42 show three periods, the five years ending 1826-27 a time of prosperity, with a tillage acreage varying from 117,667 in 1825-26 to 133,934 in 1823-24 and averaging 127,966; the ten years ending 1836-37 a time of depression, the tillage varying from 83,270 acres in 1835-36 to 110,848 in 1829-30 and averaging 94,174; and the five years ending 1841-42 a time of recovery, with tillage varying from 100,444 acres in 1837-38 to 143,796 in 1841-42 and averaging 128,741. The collections for the third period varied from £3262 (Rs. 32,620) in 1839-40 to £5728 (Rs. 57,280) in 1841-42 and averaged £4286 (Rs.42,860). Compared with what would have been taken had the Ropla rates been in force, the greatest excess was £6424 (Rs. 64,240) in 1826-27 instead of £4251 (Rs. 42,510). In four out of the twenty years, the amount taken was very much less than the amount which would have been due under the Ropla rates. The average fpr the whole period was almost the same, £4116 (Rs. 41,160) of collections and £4078 (Rs. 40,780) due under the Ropla rates. The details, are: [Bom, Gov. Sel. CL.468.]

Karmala Tillage and Revenue, 1822-1842.

continued..

The soils, field tools, tillage, times of sowing and reaping, and the kinds of produce were the same as in Indapur. The only points of difference were that the fall of rain during the late crop or rabi season was more plentiful in Karmala than in Indapur and that its market was better. The greater fall of late crop rain was common to Karmala and Ropla. In the Ropla group the value of this better rainfall had been estimated at five per cent. Mr. Price proposed a corresponding increase of five per cent for the Karmala group and a further increase of five per cent because of Karmala's better market. At these rates the dry-crop assessment of the Government arable area amounted to £6531 (Rs. 65,31Q) that is an average acre rate of about 10⅛d. (6¾ as.). This compared with the average assessment during the twenty years ending 1841-42 showed a decrease of £1710 (Rs. 17,100) or 20 per cent. Compared with the average collections of the same twenty years the survey rental showed an increase of £2416 (Rs. 24,160) or 58 per cent, and compared with the average of the. five years ending 1841-42 an increase of £2245 (Rs. 22,450) or 52 per cent. The immediate effect of the settlement on the tillage area of 1841-42 was an increase from £5728 (Rs. 57,280) to £6075 (Rs. 60,750) or six per cent. For garden land Mr. Price proposed the Indapur or Ropla acre rate of 4s. (Rs. 2) at which the total garden assessment amounted to £266 (Rs. 2660). [Mr. Price, Asst. Supt. 18th July 1843, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 462-467.]

In July 1843, in submitting Mr. Price's report, Lieutenant Nash noticed that the cause of the cheapening of grain was not so much the increase of production, for tillage had spread but little. The cause was rather the stoppage of the flow of money which the Marathas used to bring from the greater part of India to the Deccan. It was not so much that there was more grain in the land as that there was less money. While agreeing with Mr. Price that the hoarding of large quantities of grain was likely to some extent to lighten the extreme pressure of famine, Mr. Nash pointed out that so long as the grain was in the hands of dealers and not in the hands of husbandmen, the gain was comparatively slight, because the people were thrown out of work by the stoppage of field labour and had no funds with which to buy the grain. Mr. Nash thought that in the case of the Karmala group Mr. Price was correct in holding that if the remission clerks had given the landholders the benefit of the amounts remitted, the people would not have suffered from over-assessment. He also agreed with Mr. Price that a large proportion of the remissions had never reached the landholders, or that, if they did, they had been obliged to pay heavily for them. [Lieutenant Nash, Surv. Supt. 166 of 24th July 1843. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 451 -452.] Lieutenant Nash concurred in Mr. Price's rates both for dry-crop and for garden lands. Government sanctioned the proposed garden rate. As regards dry-crop they agreed with the Collector Mr. Suart that the Ropla rates and not five per cent over the Ropla rates should be adopted. This deduction of five per cent from the estimated dry-crop rental reduced the amount from £6075 (Rs. 60,750) to £5772 (Rs. 57,720). The reduced total represented a slight increase of £44 (Rs. 440) or 0.76 per cent above the dry-crop collections of 1841-42. [Bom. Gov. Letter 3302 of 12th 'October 1843, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 475-477.]

Pandharpur, 1856-57.

In 1856-57 the survey settlement was introduced into seventy-one villages of the Pandharpur sub-division. At that time Pandharpur was in Satara. A group of seventy-one villages in the south and south-east was settled in the beginning and the remaining sixty-nine villages in the close of 1857. The first group included all the villages to the south of and the villages immediately to the north of the Man river; the second group included all the remaining villages up to the river Bhima the northern and north-eastern boundary of Pandharpur. In the first group of seventy-one villages the climate was not favourable to tillage, the rainfall being both scanty and uncertain. [In point of rainfall and general circumstances the south of Pandharpur was very, similar to the north of Bijapur in Kaladgi and of Athni in Belgaum. Pandharpur was separated from Bijapur and Athni by about four miles of alienated or jagir land. Capt W. C. Anderson. 20 of 17th January 1857.] As regarded moisture the villages in the south of the group were in a slight degree worse off than those in the north and north-east. The reason was that in the south villages rocky and shallow soils prevailed and the rain ran off instead of being absorbed and again given out to the atmosphere. Judging from the soil of its-southern part, Pandharpur was an early or kharif crop district, the red and gray soils predominating so greatly as to reduce the black and heavy soils to a fraction of the whole. The eagerness with which black soils were sought, showed that the climate was more favourable to late or rabi tillage, and that these soils would bear a much heavier relative rate than they would in districts having a climate more favourable to the growth of early crops. Except those to the south all the surrounding districts had a larger supply of rain, and the rain in the south as far as Bijapur was almost uniform with that which fell in the south and south-east villages of Pandharpur. A really good season in Pandharpur should have heavy rain in June followed by light continued showers during July August and September, and closing with heavy falls during October and the beginning of November. Such a season would secure both the early and the late harvest. It had not occurred within the fifteen years ending in 1857. Daring that period there were only two more than middling seasons, 1847-48 when there was a remarkably good early crop and 1851-52 when there was a specially heavy late crop. [Mr. W. S, Price, Asst. Supt. Southern Maratha Country, January 1857.] Of the crops which were the same as in Bijapur, jvari, bajri, cotton, and kardai, there was more of bajri and less of kardai in Pandharpur than in Bijapur. When any important purchases or sales had to be made, the markets of Sholapur and Pandharpur were resorted to. The ordinary markets available for the people of South Pandharpur were at Sangola, Mangalvedha, Nazre, Javli, and Jath. Of these Sangola, Mangalvedha, and Jath went more lively than the others. Jath had also the advantage of being a cattle-market and was resorted to when the poorer class of cattle had to be bought or sold. The places to bay good cattle at were Sholapur, Pandharpur, and above all Barsi, which was the chief cattle-market in the whole country. Sholapur was the greatest general market with a sure and profitable outlet for produce and special facilities for buying. The surplus supply of millets found so ready a sale in the west and south that it had seldom to be sent to the Konkan. Large quantities of kardai or saffiower oil were taken to the south and west even as far as the Konkan where it found a ready sale and the cotton was carried to the coast for shipment to Bombay. The landholders had no share in the carrying trade. They sold the produce to the local moneylender, who either himself exported it or handed it to an outside dealer who moved about the country gathering grain. Enough coarse blankets and cotton cloth were made to meet the local demand. There was no export. There were many mills or ghanas for pressing the kardai oilseed, the chief being at Kautali an alienated village on the Bhima.

Pandharpur did not pass to the British till 1848 when the Satara state lapsed. The rates of assessment at the time of the survey had been long in force. The assessment was pitched at so high a standard that large permanent reductions were required to induce husbandmen to keep their old lands or to take up new. These reductions were ostensibly made to equalize the assessment, but as they were on no systematic plan and rather with an eye to the influence or means of the cultivator than to the capabilities of the land, the pressure of the permanent assessment had become more unequal than ever. Influential village officers and landholders secured large reductions when no reduction was wanted, while the poorer husbandmen were tempted by the levy of only nominal rates to hold lands which they had not stock enough to till properly, trusting, if the crop failed, that they would be allowed a remission even of the little revenue they had engaged to pay. By this means the Government treasury failed to recover its dues, a large part of the cultivating classes was kept impoverished, and the productive powers of the district were impaired by the loss of the labour of the large class of pauper husbandmen, who, tempted by the nominal rent, derived a bare subsistence by cultivating on their own account in place of living on the wages of labour. Notwithstanding the large permanent reduction of assessment, every year large remissions were required on account of the failure of crops, the failures being in part due to the deficiency of rain but to a greater extent to imperfect tillage. [Capt. W. C. Anderson, Surv, Supt 20 of 17th January 1857.] The returns for this south-east and south Pandharpur group for the ten years ending 1856 show a tillage area varying from 161,366 acres in 1846-47 to 169,563 in 1851-52 and averaging 166,400, and collections varying from £4650 (Rs. 46,500) in 1848-49 to £6361 (Rs. 63,610) in 1846-47 and averaging £5728 (Rs. 57,280). The details are:

Pandharpur Tillage and Revenue. 1846-1856.

As a class the landholders were badly off. Very few were free from debt, and still fewer had the means of cultivating their fields properly. This was partly due to the very unfavourable climate and partly to the laziness of the people who in this respect were a marked contrast to the people to the south of the Krishna. [Mr. W. S. Price, Assistant Superintendent, January 1857.] In fixing the rates to be paid by the seventy-one villages of the group, they were divided into five classes with highest dry-crop acre rates varying from 1s. 10½d. to 1s. 1½d. (15-9 as.). Six villages on the Bhima closer than any others to the great markets of Sholapur and Pandharpur were charged 1s. 10½d. (15 as.). Eight villages near the first class, but somewhat less favourably placed as regards markets, were charged 1s. 9d. (14 as.). Twenty-six villages, still worse placed than the second class, were charged a highest acre rate of 1s. 6d. (12 as.). Twenty-three villages in the south of the sub-division and less favourably situated as regards markets and climate were charged 1s. 3¾d. (10½ as.). And eight villages in the south-east of the sub-division, in all respects the worst of the whole, were charged 1s. 1½d. (9 as.). [The survey rates introduced in the neighbouring districts were: in the main body of Athni highest dry-crop acre rates of 12 as. and 14 as.; in the northern villages of Bijapur a highest dry-crop acre rate of 8 as. The Madha rates agreed with the Pandharpur rates, though the method of classing and rating in that sub-division was a little different from that pursued in the Southern Maratha Country Survey. Capt. Anderson, 20 of 17th January 1857.] Water was nowhere at any great distance from the surface, and many villages had a considerable area of well-watered garden land. The average revised well-water acre rate was estimated at 3s. 6d. (Rs. 1¾). The rate was low, but a low rate was required to encourage well-cultivation which was so necessary in so dry a district. A low rate was also necessary because water was easily procured, and, as no special water rate was to be charged on lands watered from wells built after the survey, if the rate on the old wells was not low, they would fall out of use. The estimated effect of the new rates was to raise the assessment from £6108 (Rs. 61,080) to £7882 (Rs. 78,820), an increase of twenty-nine per cent. The details are:

Pandharpur Survey Settlement, 1857.

Captain Anderson was of opinion that under the new rates the tillage area would at first be somewhat reduced. Pauper cultivators, no longer able to hold land on nominal rates, would take to labour as a means of subsistence, a change which in Captain Anderson's opinion would be most advantageous both to themselves and to the community. The assessment on superior land would be nearly everywhere reduced, and some of the better class of waste would be brought under tillage. It was specially easy to extend irrigation in Pandharpur. Water was everywhere near the surface, and it was thought that new wells would be sunk in all directions. The Man river, a tributary of the Bhima, flowed through the group. Dams might be thrown across it at intervals at no great expense, and a sufficient head of water obtained to irrigate a large area of land and in great measure to secure the people from the frequent disastrous effects of a short rainfall. Government sanctioned the proposed survey rates in February 1857. [Gov. Letter 869 of 21st February 1857.]

Pandharpur-Nateputa, 1857-58.

In 1857-58 the survey settlement was introduced into the remaining sixty-nine villages of Pandharpur and into twenty-seven villages of the Nateputa petty division of Khatav in Satara. [Mr. Price, 28th Nov. 1857, Capt. Anderson, 422 of 10th Dec. 1857] The climate of such of these Pandharpur villages as lay to the east of the parallel of Bhalavni was much the same as that of the villages settled in the previous year. West of the parallel of Bhalavni an improvement in climate began and rapidly increased. The improvement in climate was all in favour of the early or kharif crops, which, owing to the nature of the soil, were widely grown particularly in the villages of the Nateputa group. This better rainfall had the effect of enhancing the relative value of the poorer soils. Over the whole Pandharpur sub-division the rainfall was scanty, though the want of moisture was somewhat less felt in the extreme north than in the centre. Several villages had a few weavers of coarse cloth, the produce of whose looms was entirely used to meet the local demand. In a the north of the sub-division numerous Dhangars or shepherds had large flocks of sheep, whose wool was made into blankets which were sent to the Konkan in considerable quantities.

The people in the north were generally better off than those in the south, chiefly because they were nearer to large markets. In every village there were a few well-to-do landholders, and in consequence of frauds in shifting boundaries and in getting their lands entered at unduly low rates, the village headmen and clerks were often rich. The agriculture was very slovenly, as exceedingly low rates had tempted many to hold more land than they had stock to cultivate. The whole of the survey group was well off for markets. The villages near the large town of Pandharpur were specially well off, and several second-class markets were within and near the edge of this survey group, Bhalavni, Akluj, Velapur, Mhasvad, and Nateputa. The large markets of Indapur and Phaltan were not many miles distant. The railroad, which was being made between Poona and Sholapur, passed within some twenty miles of the northern boundary of Pandharpur; and, besides the made road from Pandharpur to Satara which passed through the centre of this group, to the north was a much used cart track from Pandharpur to Poona. This group of sixty-nine north Pandharpur villages and twenty-seven Nateputa villages had therefore a decided advantage over the southern group which had been settled in the previous year. During the ten years ending in 1857 in the sixty-nine Pandharpur villages tillage had varied from 215,803 acres in 1855-56 to 222,954 acres in 1850-51 and averaged 219,163 acres, and collections had varied from £5204 (Rs. 52,040) in 1849-50 to £7322 (Rs. 73,220) in 1854-55 and averaged £6615 (Rs. 66,150). In twenty-six of the Nateputa villages tillage had varied from 50,490 acres in 1849-50 to 64,087 acres in 1856-57 and averaged 59,199 acres, and collections had varied from £1293 (Rs. 12,930) in 1849-50 to £2481 (Rs. 24,810) in 1847-48 and averaged £1960 (Rs. 19,600). The details are:

Pandharpur-Nateputa Tillage and Revenue, 1847 - 1857.

¹ Details for one village are not available.

The sixty-nine Pandharpur villages were arranged in four classes and charged highest dry-crop acre rates varying from 2s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅛ -⅞). Pandharpur and another village close to it were placed in the first class and charged a rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1 ⅛). Twenty-nine villages were placed in the second class and charged a rate of 2s. (Re. 1); of these six villages were near Pandharpur, and the rest were in the north of the sub-division, having a Blight advantage as regards climate, being well placed for markets, and having the greatest prospect of advantage from the railway. Twenty-two villages to the south of the second class and less favourably placed formed the third class and were charged a rate of 1s. 10½d. (15 as.). In the fourth class were placed sixteen villages which lay to the south of the third class villages and immediately to the north of the villages assessed at 1s. 6d. (12 as.) in the previous year. These sixteen villages were charged a rate of 1s. 9d. (14 as.) because they were similarly situated with those assessed at the same rate in the previous year. Of garden land there were 5000 acres. Little sugarcane was grown; wheat and vegetables were the chief garden crops. The average garden rate was estimated at 3s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅞), and the highest rate was proposed at 7s. (Rs. 3½). The result of the survey settlement was an increase in the rental on tillage from £7192 to £9258 (Rs. 71,920 to Rs. 92,580) or 28 per cent. The details are:

Pandharpur Survey Settlement, 1857-58.

The twenty-seven Nateputa villages corresponded on a comparison of advantages with the second and third classes of this Pandharpur group of sixty-nine villages. [The climate was favourable to the early or kharif crops, which, owing to the nature of the soil, were very extensively grown. This group had a marked advantage in nearness to great markets and means of communication with them, with further advantages in prospect at no distant day on the opening of the rail road. The Khatav sub-division was generally separated from Pandharpur by the Mahadev hills, Khatav being above the ghats on the table land and Pandharpur below. The twenty-seven villages of the Nateputa group for settlement comprised that part of the Khatav sub-division which was below the ghats and naturally belonged rather to Pandharpur than to Khatav, from which they were divided by the highest part of the Mahadev range; they were situated immediately to the west of the northern part of Pandharpur, and had the same boundary to the north, the river Bhima.] The Nateputa villages were therefore divided into two classes and charged highest dry-crop acre rates of 2s. (Re. 1) for nineteen villages, and 1s. 10½d. (15 as.) for eight villages immediately under the hills in a broken country and somewhat less favourably placed for traffic than the first class. These twenty-seven Nateputa villages had upwards of 2000 acres of garden land. It. was similar in character to the Pandharpur garden land and was therefore assessed at the same highest acre rate 7s. (Rs. 3½), and the average garden rate was estimated at 3s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅞) the acre. The effect of the survey settlement was an increase in the rental on tillage from £2128 to £3124 (Rs. 21,280 to Rs. 31,240) or 46:8 per cent. The details are: [Of the twenty-seven villages for settlement, the papers of one village were not received by the Survey Superintendent at the time of his report (December 1857). This one village was therefore entirely excluded from the statement.]

Nateputa Survey Settlement. 1857-58.

The proposed survey rates for the sixty-nine Pandharpur and the twenty-seven Nateputa villages were sanctioned by Government in January 1858. [Gov. Letter 265 of 21st January 1858.]

REVISION SURVEY.

Madha, 1869-70.

The revision survey of the Madha sub-division was begun and the revised rates were introduced in 1869-70. [Mr. Grant, Surv. Supt. 40 of 12th Jan. 1871; Bom. Gov.Sel. CL. 5-46, 107-132,] Since the survey in 1840 many territorial changes had taken place. The 1871 Madha included forty Government and two double-owned or dumala villages of the old Madha group, thirty-one Government and five double-owned or dumala villages of the old Mohol group, and eleven Government villages of the Karmala group, or a total of eighty-nine villages. This modern Madha group was of irregular shape. It was bounded on the north-west by the river Bhima, on the east by the river Sina though five villages to the east of this river were included in the sub-division, on the south by Sholapur, and on the west by Pandharpur. Its greatest length from north-west to southeast was about forty miles and it varied in breadth from twenty-five to thirty miles in the north to eighteen or twenty in the south. According to the new survey the area amounted to 390,322 acres of which 339,947 acres were arable, 22,565 unarable, 11,330 meadow or gayran, and 16,480 alienated. [The 10,968 acres of irrigable land, which was almost entirely under wells, was only 3.22 per cent of the total arable area. Bom. Gov, Sel. CL. 118.] The sub-division was a bare waving almost treeless plain, the tops of the low rolling downs often covered with stunted yellow spear grass, a sure sign of barren soil. The watershed passed north-west to south-east through the greatest length of the sub-division; its streams flowed east into the Sina and south into the Bhima which at no point was many miles distant from the south-western boundary. None of these streams were of any size owing to the low elevation at which they took their rise and the shortness of their courses. Except the Bhend none of them continued to flow throughout the year. The Bhend rose near Kem in Karmala and emptied itself into the Sina a little to the north of the village of Undargaon. The belt to the east of the Sina was nowhere of any considerable breadth, while Madha did not pass far enough west to include any of the Bhima plain. The greatest portion of Madha consisted of comparatively high land whose soil was generally shallow though it varied much both in depth and quality. The villages along the Sina formed the richest part of the Madha subdivision and were mostly of black soil, of great depth, and of excellent quality. During the five years ending 1869 the rainfall varied from 12.96 inches in 1865 to 29.95 in 1867. [In 1865, 12.96 inches; 1866, 19.58; 1867, 2995; 1868, 14.64; and 1869, 22.01. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 118.] A large share of the Madha rainfall was late in the season. The late harvest was therefore the chief harvest representing 76 per cent of the whole outturn.

In 1839 when the original survey settlement was introduced the group was supposed to be suffering from over-assessment. The rates were therefore fixed with the view of granting substantial relief. They caused a reduction in the revenue from £14,100 to £11,600 (Rs. 1,41,000 to Rs. 1,16,000) or 17 per cent. [ Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 7, 61. The Survey Superintendent Mr. Grant wrote (Jan. 1871): "A recent article in the Indian Economist attributes the terrible depression which marked the agriculture of the country some thirty or forty years back, not to over-assessment, to which the revenue officers of the day ascribed it, but to the contraction of the currency of the country (under the exactions of foreign rule) and to the continuous fall in the price of produce that resulted from it. Whatever may have been the real cause of the depression which is admitted to have existed then, the only remedy which lay in the hands of the revenue officers was to reduce the assessment which under the existing circumstances was higher than the people could pay. This was accordingly done, and the very low rates fixed have continued in force till now. A few years after the introduction of these rates the real cause of depression, according to the Economist, was removed by the influx of bullion into the country, consequent on the dicovery of the gold fields of California in 1847, followed almost immediately by those of Australia. ' The gold fields,' says the Economist, ' set the industry of the world in motion. It was discovered in the Crimean war that India could grow oil-seeds as well as Russia, and the moment that a stream of silver in payment of these new exports was directed upon the thirsty land, the landholders' emancipation came. We heard no more complaints of over-assessment or outstanding balances.' The correctness of this view is apparently borne out by the returns of cultivation and the prices of produce in this district for the last thirty years." Mr. Grant, Surv. Supt. 40 of 12th January 1871, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 7-8.] Since the 1840 settlement a great advance had been made in communications. There was not a mile of made road in 1839. Since then the railway had been opened passing along the northern boundary of the group with three stations within its limits, Mohol, Madha, and Barsi Road. The Sholapur Pandharpur and Satara road passed through the south of the sub-division and the old Sholapur-Poona road through its centre. In addition to these there was a cross road from Barsi to the Barsi Road station which was continued to Tembhurni. All the villages except four or five in the rocky west had every facility for getting rid of their produce. As regards markets Madha was also particularly well placed. With a few exceptions on the north-west corner no village was more than four or five miles from a market. These local markets were small because of the nearness of Sholapur, Barsi, Karkam, and Tembhurni, where better prices drew the bulk of the produce. There were ten market villages, Madha, Laul, Ashti, Narkhed, Uplai Budrukh, Angar, Kurdu, Mohol, Patkul, and Rural, and two, Karkam and Tembhurni, close beyond the border. Madha had formerly been the chief local market, but trade was said to have left it to avoid certain municipal dues. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 13.] In 1871 Mohol was the most largely attended market, and there was a very useful and yearly increasing market at the Barsi Road station. Tempted by the favourable terms at which cotton could be bought, a small band of Vanis had settled at Barsi Road and built a large rest-house for their caste people who came to trade. Goods met with a ready sale, though there was no particular market day. Weaving was the only manufacture of any importance in this survey group. There were weavers in about twenty villages, the chief of which were Narkhed, Barloni, Patkul, and Bembla. Both cotton cloth and woollen blankets were made but the quality was inferior and the demand was purely local.

Compared with the jvari rupee prices at Madha [ During the nineteen years ending 1839 average jvari rupee prices were 120 pounds or 60 shers of 80 tolas each at Madha and 55 shers at Mohol; during the fifteen years ending 1839 they were 63 shers both at Madha and Mohol; during the ten years ending 1839, 62 shers at Madha and 58 at Mohol; and during the five yean ending 1839, 70 shert at Madha and 60 at Mohol. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 114.] during the ten years ending 1839, the average during the ten years ending 1869 showed an increase from about 124 to 50 pounds (62 - 25 shers) or about 150 per cent. [The details are:

Mohol-Madha Millet Rupee Price, 1839-1869.

Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 20,115.]

According to the former survey the seventy-seven villages brought under the revision settlement contained 269,587 acres of arable land which were assessed at a rental of £10,058 (Rs. 1,00,580). In 1839-40 the first year of the new rates tillage is shown at 223,835 acres and collections at £8139 (Rs. 81,390). During the first three or four years of the survey lease both tillage and revenue increased considerably. Then a decline set and in 1845-46 both tillage and revenue had gone back almost to the point at which they stood in 1839-40. After 1845-46 cultivation soon went up to 250,000 acres, and, with slight fluctuations, remained at about that amount till 1858-59 which was the twentieth year of the lease. The area under tillage in 1858-59 was 251,200 acres and the realized revenue £9738 (Rs. 97,380). At the close of 1857-58 about 18,000 acres of arable land assessed at £580 (Rs. 5800) were still waste. In the five years ending 1863 this waste had been taken and during the five years ending 1869 the whole assessed area was held for tillage. In 1871 the waste arable area was 170 acres assessed at £5 (Rs. 50). The following statement shows the average tillage and revenue during the ten years ending 1849, 1859, and 1869: [Bom. gov. Sel. CL. 110-111, 115. The revision survey diagram shows that during the survey lease (1839-1869) TILLAGE rose from 223,000 acres in 1839-40 to 247,000 acres in 1842-43, fell to 223,000 acres in the next year, and in the four following years rose to 250,000 acres in 1847-48. In the next three years it fell to 233,000 acres in 1850-51, rose to 245,000 acres the following year, and again fell to 238,000 acres in 1852-53. In the next five years it varied between 244,000 acres in 1853-54 and 242,000 acres in 1857-58. After 1857-58 it continued to rise until the area reached 270,000 acres in 1865-66. In the next three years there was no change, the amount in each year being the same as in 1865-66. COLLECTIONS rose from Rs. 82,000 in 1839-40 to Rs. 95,000 in 1842-43, fell to Rs. 81,000 in 1845-46, and again rose to Rs. 96,000 in 1847-48. In the next six years, except in 1851-52 and 1852-53 when they were Rs. 93,500, they fell to Rs. 90,000 in 1853-54. They rose to Rs. Rs. 96,000 in 1854-55 and again fell to Rs. 93,000 in 1857-58. After 1857-58 there was a continued rise until the amount reached Rs. 1,03,000. During these thirty years the collections averaged Rs. 96,000. REMISSIONS amounted to Rs. 8000 in 1839-40, Rs. 13,000 in 1845-46, Rs. 2000 in 1846-47, and Rs. 4000 in 1853-54. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 8-9.]

Madha. Tillage, and Revenue, 1839-1869.

These figures show that for the ten years ending 1849 the collections averaged £9065 (Rs. 90,650), the remissions being about 21/2 percent. During the ten years ending 1859 the remissions were about one-half per cent on an average yearly revenue of £9405 (Rs. 94,050); and during the ten years ending 1869 the remissions amounted only to £2 (Rs. 20) a year out of a yearly revenue of £10,120 (Rs. 1,01,200). For the ten years ending 1849 the average assessment on arable waste was £846 (Rs. 8460) and the total remissions were £234 (Rs. 2340); during the ten years ending 1859 the area of arable waste remained the same, but the improved state of the country was shown by the decrease in remissions from £234 (Rs. 2340) to £52 (Rs. 520); for the ten years ending 1869 the average assessment on waste land was only £75 (Rs. 750) while the average remission were £2 (Rs. 20).

In 1839-40 of 1282 wells 190 were out of repair. During the survey lease ninety-eight wells were repaired and put in working order and 861 new wells were sunk, making in 1870 a total of 2051 working wells. As in Indapur these improvements kept pace with the increase of capital. Daring the first ten years of the survey lease only fifty-seven wells were made, during the next ten years 214 were made, and in the last ten years 590. Assuming as in Indapur that each well cost about £40 (Rs. 400) and each old well was repaired at a cost of £15 to £17 10s. (Rs. 150 - 175), during the thirty years' survey lease more than £35,000 (Rs. 3,50,000) had been spent on wells. The people had also contributed over £700 (Rs. 7000) towards building village offices or chavdis and rest-houses or dharmshalas. [Forty-five offices or chavdis were built at a cost of Rs. 7869 of which Government paid Rs. 3048 and the people Rs. 4821; and twenty-one rest-houses or dharmshalas were built at a cost of Rs. 6962 of which Rs. 4275 were paid by Government and Rs. 2687 by the people. Of the total cost of Rs. 14,831 Government paid Rs. 7323 and the people Rs 7508. Rom. Gov. Sel. CL. 10.] The sale price of dry-crop land, which in 1839 was almost nothing, during the settlement, as is shown later on, rose to twelve to fifteen years' purchase, or taking the assessment at about one lakh of rupees in 1870 the property in land represented £150,000 or fifteen lakhs of rupees. [Bom. Gov. SeL. CL. 12, 112, 113.] During the thirty years of the survey lease population had advanced from 64,195 to 80,676 or 26 per cent; [Compared with.31 per cent in the adjoining sub-division of Indapur this increase of 26 per cent in Madha was small. But the number of people to the square mile of arable area was (1866) 119 in Indapur and (1869) 146 in Madha. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. II.] farm bullocks from 24,793 to 28,490 or 15 per cent [Considering the large expansion of tillage this increase of only 15 per cent in farm cattle is less than might have been expected. This scarcity of cattle was doubtless in some measure, the reason of the slovenly and lax cultivation noticed in the text. Mr. Grant, Surv. Supt. 1871, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 11, and Lieut.-Col. Francis, Surv. Comr. 1871, Bom, Gov. Sel. CL. 113.]; carts from 435 to 1323 or 204 per cent; and ploughs from 1758 to 2423 or 38 per cent; other cattle had decreased from 66,345 to 59,193 or 11 per cent.

In 1871 the dry-crop tillage was lax and careless, though not perhaps more careless than in the neighbouring parts of the Deccan. The land was never ploughed more than once in three or four years and little or no attention was paid to any rotation in the raising of crops. Mr. Fletcher thought this careless tillage was not due to a want of cattle as the returns showed one ox to every 11½ acres while in Nariad one of the most highly tilled parts of the Presidency the proportion was one ox to nine acres. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 8-9.] Mr. Grant the Survey Superintendent was of opinion that the slovenly tillage was due to the low assessment which since the rise in prices represented a very small proportion of the outturn. The result of the very low rates was that the people took large areas of land and worked them carelessly. [In support of his view that the extreme lightness of the rates had favoured slovenly style of tillage, Mr. Grant quoted the following sentences from McCulloch; ' It is difficult to say whether the over or under renting of land be most injurious. If a farm be too high-rented, that is if no exertion of skill or reasonable outlay on the part of the tenant will enable him to pay his rent and obtain a fair return for his trouble, he gets dispirited. The farm is in consequence ill managed, scourging crops are resorted to, and ultimately it is thrown on the landlord's hands in an impoverished and deteriorated condition. But the disadvantages attending the under-renting of land are hardly less obvious. To make farmers leave those routine practices to which they are very strongly attached and become really industrious and enterprising, they must not only have the power of rising in the world; but their rent must be such as to impress them with a conviction that if they do not exert themselves their ruin will assuredly follow. Estates that are under-rented are, uniformly almost, farmed in an inferior style compared with those that are let at their fair value, and the tenants are not generally in good circumstances.' Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 8.] The Survey Commissioner Lieutenant Colonel Francis did not agree with Mr. Grant that the careless tillage was due to the low rates. Colonel Francis thought the chief cause of the slovenly tillage was the uncertain and insufficient rainfall. Until rain fell the ground was so hard that it could not be worked and when rain fell the object was not to work a small plot of ground elaborately but to loosen as much of the surface as possible before it again dried. The difficulty was increased by the small number of cattle. That the slovenliness was not due to laziness, he thought, was shown by the care with which the garden lands which had a certain supply of water were tilled. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL, 111 -112.] In suitable places, as in the village of Kurul on the Sholapur-Satara road and in the villages on the Barsi road, the people showed their willingness to work by their zeal in developing the cart traffic. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 9]

In 1869-70 in the eighty-eight [Of the eighty-eight surveyed villages eighty-two were Government and six two-ownered or dumala.] surveyed villages of Madha the proportion of the tilled area which was under the different crops was of the kharif or early crops, bajri 18.8 per cent, rice 1.1 per cent, tobacco 0.5 per cent, sugarcane 0.6 per cent, matki 1.6 per cent, and kulthi 0.5 per cent, total 23.1 per cent; and of the rabi or late crops jvari 54.7 per cent, wheat 1.1 per cent, gram 1.6 per cent, cotton 9.4 per cent, linseed 0.5 per cent, miscellaneous 8 per cent, and fallow 1.6 per cent, total 76.9 per cent. The areas under the different crops were rice 3541 acres, sugarcane 1770 acres, jvari 185,909 acres, tobacco 1770 acres, wheat 3541 acres, gram 5312 acres, bajri 63,740 acres, cotton 31,870 acres, linseed 1771 acres, matki 5312 acres, kulthi 1770 acres, miscellaneous crops 28,329 acres, and fallow 5312 acres, total 339,947 acres. There were 88,880 people lodged in 18,243 houses; 3319 wells, 2439 for watering, 148 for drinking, and 732 out of repair; 1375 carts; 2669 ploughs; 6144 milch and young buffaloes; 17,492 cows; 31,787 plough oxen; 1826 buffaloes; 39,115 sheep; and 1727 horses. [Bom. Gov, Sel. CL. 40, 44, 46.]

There were 7625 distinctly recorded khatas or holdings; the average area of each holding was 46 acres; the average number of husbandmen to each holding was 1.8; the average area of cultivation to each head of the total population was four acres and for each head of the agricultural population twenty-five acres; the average area to each plough, 133 acres; the average assessment on each holding £2 14s. 4½d. (Rs. 27 3/16). The population was 148½ to the square mile of the total area and 161½ to the square mile of the arable area; the realizable assessment was 4s. 7⅜d. (Rs.2 as.4 11/12) to each head of the population, £39 2s. 2¼d. (Rs. 391 as. 1½) to the square mile of the arable area, and £34 7s. 6¼d. (Rs. 343 as. 12 1/6) to the square mile of the whole area. The survey kamal or total assessment on waste and arable lands deducting the value of alienations, was £39 2s. 4d. (Rs. 391 as. 2 2/3) to the square mile of arable area and £34 7s. 8⅝d. (Rs. 343 as. 13¾) to the square mile of the total area. [Bom. Gov. Sel 45.]

In contrast to their state in 1839, in 1871 the bulk of the people were prosperous and independent. The only exception was the holders of land whose payments were less than £1 (Rs. 10), who, from the Hindu rule of dividing property, had been left with a share of land which was not large enough for their support. In bad seasons these small holders suffered considerably. [Bom. Gov, Sel. CL. 11, 112.] Since the 1839 settlement the value of land had greatly risen. In 1839 dry-crop land had no sale value nor could money be raised on its security. Mortgages were granted on garden and private or inam lands; but Lieutenant Wingate was unable to find a single recent ease of a price being given for the privilege of occupying Government dry-crop land. As a contrast to the above Mr. Grant notices that when he was in Madha in 1870, in the village of Madha eighteen acres of land assessed at £1 16s. (Rs. 18) and containing two wells one built and one half-built, sold for £100 (Rs. 1000), and two dry-crop or Jirayat numbers containing 3 21/40 acres assessed at 3s. 6d. (Rs. 1¾) sold for £3 (Rs. 30); in the village of Darphal four acres assessed at 6s. (Rs. 3) sold for £3 (Rs. 30); and in the village of Padsali 23 acres assessed at £1 (Rs. 10) in which a well had lately been built were bought by the village Vani for £35 (Rs. 350), and he refused to part with the field though he was offered £200 (Rs. 2000). This was an exceptional case. The ordinary sale value for dry crop land varied from twelve to fifteen years' purchase. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 12,112, 113.]

As the waste lands had not been measured in Mr. Pringle's survey, a fresh measurement was required. This showed that the area under tillage was 35,600 acres in excess of the area on which assessment was paid, representing a yearly loss to Government of about £2000 (Rs. 20,000). It was also found advisable to reclass the land. In 1839-40 the Mohol group was assessed at ten per cent and the Madha group at five per cent above the Indapur rates. At the close of the thirty years' lease there was no material difference between the Mohol and the Madha prices. [During the ten years ending 1849 jvari was 3½ per cent cheaper in Madha that in Mohol; during the ten years ending 1859 six per cent cheaper; and during the ten years ending 1869 the difference was little, more that one half per cent. There was even less difference in bajri. During the ten years ending 1849 bajri was 2 per cent dearer at Madha than in Mohol; during the ten years ending 1859 it was 3½ par cent cheaper; and during the ten years ending 1869 it was 2⅛ per cent cheaper Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 14-15.] The tract had been so opened by roads and by the railway that their position as regards markets was precisely the same. Mr. Grant therefore proposed a general highest dry-crop acre rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) for the-whole group and a special rate of 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼),for fifteen. villages within five miles of the railway stations of Mohol Madha and Barsi Road. For seventy-seven [Of the 82 Government villages five were settled in 1856-58. Inquiry was being made whether their lease was to be held to have expired with the rest of the subdivision or to be continuable for thirty years from the date when the rates were introduced. Bora. Gov. Sel CL. 15, 107.] villages whose thirty years' lease had expired or was soon to expire, the effect of the revised settlement was (January 1871) an increase of 77 per cent. [The details were: Rental at old or 1839 rates on cultivated land Rs. 1,00,531, on waste Rs. 48, total Rs. 1,00,579; at new rates on cultivated land Rs. 1,77,933, on waste Rs. 115, total Rs. 1,78,048. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 15.] In spite of this large addition the average acre rate was only 1s. 2d. (9⅛ as.). No extra assessment was placed on well garden lands, the highest acre rate for which was the same as for first class dry-crop lands. [Mr. H. M. Grant, Surv. Supt. 40 of 12th January 1871, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 5-16.] Government sanctioned the proposed rates. They approved the principle of laying no extra cess on well-watered lands. They ordered that the highest dry-crop rate should be imposed only on such of these lands as were formerly subjected to extra well-assessment and not on lands watered from wells sunk during the survey lease. They observed that it was of the utmost importance to give every encouragement to the sinking of wells in a tract whose rainfall was so light and uncertain. Any applications which might be made for advances for well-sinking would meet with favourable consideration. [Gov. Res. 2757 of 9th June 1871 and 4050 of 22ud August 1871, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 125-130.]

Sholapur, 1871-72.

In 1871-72 the revised survey settlement was introduced into Sholapur. At the time of the revision the Sholapur sub-division included 150 villages. Of these 112 Government and two alienated villages belonged to the original Sholapur sub-division; nine were villages of the Nipanikar's which had lapsed to Government since the former survey; fifteen Government villages and one alienated village had been transferred from the old Mohol sub-division; and eleven villages had been received from the Nizam. The revised settlement was introduced into 147 of the Government and one of the alienated villages. The total area of the 135 Government villages included in the survey diagrams was 789 square miles or 504,080 acres, and the number of inhabitants 135,710 or 172 to the square mile. At Sholapur during the eighteen years ending 1870 the rainfall had varied from 13.65 inches in 1855 to 35.78 inches in 1869, and averaged 26.5 inches. [The details are:

Sholapur-Poona Rainfall, 1853-1870.

] At the time of the 1840 survey settlement the people were much distressed. One of the chief changes which had taken place during the thirty years of the survey lease was the opening of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway connecting Sholapur with the eastern and western shores of the continent of Hindustan. As Sholapur was the only railway station within the subdivision, it, as in 1840, continued the chief market for local produce. Besides the railway, during the survey lease many roads had been opened. Among these the chief were to Poona, Haidarabad, Pandharpur, Akalkot, and Bijapur. So great an impulse had been given to traffic that during the thirty years the number of eavts had risen from 219 to 1167 or 433 per cent and during the seven years ending 1870-71 the tolls had yielded a revenue varying from £1562 (Rs. 15,620) in 1867-68 to £2145 (Rs. 21,450) in 1866-67, and averaging £1814 (Rs. 18,140) [The details are:

Sholapur Cart-Traffic Toll-Farm, 1864-1871.

] There were public ferries on the Sina at Lamboti, Tirha, Vadakbal, and Vangi; and on the Bhima at Ghodeshvar, Takli, and Bandarkauta. The farm of these ferries during the five years ending 1871 averaged £339 8s. (Rs. 3394). In the Sholapur cantonment during the seven years ending 1871 jvari rupee prices had ranged from 28 pounds in 1864.65 to 51 in 1868-69 and averaged 38, and bajri from 21 to 54 pounds and averaged 33 pounds. [The details are:

Sholapur Cantonment Prices.

Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 170.]

During the survey lease in 135 Government villages the average yearly tillage increased from 345,620 acres during the ten years ending 1851 to 355,620 acres during the ten years ending 1861, and to 379,490 during the ten years ending 1871. Collections increased from an average of £14,646 (Rs. 1,46,460) in the ten years ending 1851 to £15,207 (Rs. 1,52,070) in the ten years ending 1861, and to £16,213 (Rs. 1,62,130) in the ten years ending 1871. The corresponding fall in remissions was from £36 18s. (Rs. 369) in the first period to £8 6s. (Rs. 83) in the second period and to £8 4s. (Rs. 82) in the third period. [ Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 235. During the first two years of the survey lease (1841 -1843) in 120 Sholapur villages the cultivated area was about 314,000 acres and the collections £13,100 (Rs. 1,31,000), £227 (Rs. 2270) being remitted in 1841-42 and £28 (Rs. 280) in 1842-43. The average waste of these two years was 28,000 acres or about one-twelfth of the whole area. In the two years ending 1845 cultivation fell to 297,000 acres, and the waste rose to 44,400 acres or to about one-eighth. During the three years ending 1848 cultivation and collections rose, the average being 322,645 acres cultivated and £13,969 (Rs. 1,39,690) collected. During the three years ending 1851 tillage fell to 313,000 acres and collections to £13,650 (Rs. 1,36,500). During the three years ending 1854 the average cultivation was 308,000 acres, the collections £13,400 (Rs. 1,34,000), and the waste 35,800 acres or about one-tenth. During the four years ending 1858 the cultivation rose to 315,000 acres and the collections to £13,890 (Rs. 1,38,900). In the three years ending 1861 the average cultivation rose to 335,300 acres and the average collections to £14,510 (Rs. 1,45,100) and the waste fell to 9940 acres or one thirty-fifth. The average collections for the ten years ending 1861 were nearly four per cent in excess of the ten years ending 1851. During the ten years ending 1871 the average cultivation was 344,384 acres, and the average collections £14,889 (Rs. 1,48,890) or seven per cent in excess of those of the second decade and nearly eleven per cent in excess of those of the first decade. The arable waste had shrunk to about the thousandth part of the whole area. In the fifteen villages transferred from Mohol to Sholapur the average waste during the five years ending 1846 was 4932 acres or 13.8 per cent, and the average collections £1181 (Rs. 11,810). During the five years ending 1851 the average yearly collections rose to £1233 (Rs. 12,330) and the waste fell to 1092 acres or three per cent. During the ten years ending 1861 collections averaged £1284 (Rs. 12,840) and waste 1366 acres; and during the ten years ending 1871 collections averaged £1324 (Rs. 13,240) and waste was only 019 per cent. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 168-169.] At the time of the 1840 settlement there were 1119 wells in working order and 463 out of repair. During the thirty years' lease 213 or nearly one-fifth of the wells then at work had fallen into disrepair; seventy-five of the old wells had been repaired and 537 new wells built of which 298 or nearly three-fifths had been made during the ten years ending 1870. The result was an increase in working wells of 395 or 35.3 per cent. In January 1872 the great Ekruk lake had been completed about three miles to the north of Sholapur. Of other public works during the lease sixty-two village offices or chavdis and thirteen rest-houses or dharmshalas had been built at a cost of £1827 (Rs. 18,270) of which about £974 (Rs. 9740) had been paid by Government and £853 (Rs. 8530) by the people. During the survey lease in 135 Government villages, population had increased from 106,962 to 135,710 or 26.8 per cent; bullocks from 32,807 to 41,303 or 25.8 per cent; carts from 219 to 1167 or 433 per cent; and ploughs from 2137 to 4511 or 111 per cent. On the other hand cattle sheep and goats showed a decrease from 86,080 to 61,829 or 28 per cent. [Looking to the great increase in ploughs and carts compared with the increase in bullocks, and to the decrease in cattle sheep and goats, the Survey Superintendent, Lieutenant-Colonel Waddington (January 1872), doubted the correctness of the return. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 162-163.] During the lease the material wealth of the villages had greatly increased and the condition of the people much improved. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 223.]

Though less careless than it had been in 1840 the tillage was slovenly. ['My own observations lead me to dissent from the opinion Messrs. Fletcher and Waddington have expressed. Of late years I have noticed a considerable improvement in the cultivation of this part of the Deccan.' Col. Francis, Surv. Comr. 436 of 30th March 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL.. 225.] Except in the outlying villages of Mangrul, Arli, Kalegaon, and Kakramba little pains were taken with the soil; neither weeding nor except in Kalegaon manuring was attended to. Near Sholapur a large area of land let for grazing paid eighteen times the Government assessment. [The details are:

Sholapur Grazing Land Collections, 1871.

] Three-fourths of the tillage was jvari, bajri came next but with only one-tenth of the jvari. With the jvari occasional rows of safflower which required little moisture were almost always grown. Coarse rice was raised in hollows where water lodged and the rice was occasionally followed by a crop of pulse. Neither Mauritius sugarcane nor the mulberry nor the potato was grown. About 14,000 acres or 3.6 per cent of the whole tillage was given to cotton. Surangi or Indian madder was grown in small quantities in dry-crop lands. The garden crops were sugarcane, plantains, guavas, limes, earthnut, wheat, turmeric, and vegetables. Turmeric was chiefly grown in the outlying villages in rotation with sugarcane and wheat. [In 1870-71 in the 147 Government villages into which the revised survey rates were introduced the percentages of the whole area devoted to the different crops were among the early crops, bajri 7.6, cotton 3.6, rice 1.5, sugarcane 0.3, matki, 0.2, and hulga 0.1, total 13.3; and among the late crops, jvari 74.2, gram 2.3, linseed 1.5, wheat 1.1, tobacco 0.1, total 79.2; miscellaneous 5.5, and occupied waste 2. Bom, Gov. Sel, CL. 167,180.] The chief market was the town of Sholapur with 31,000 people among whom were over 7000 traders and craftsmen. At its weekly market £1500 (Rs. 15,000) worth of cotton goods and blankets woven in and near Sholapur, £1000 (Rs. 10,000) worth of grain, and £50 (Rs. 500) or £60 (Rs. 600) of horses and cattle were offered for sale. Weekly markets were also held at Ghodeshvar, Keshar Jovalga, Mandrup, Mangrul, Mardi, Musti, Vadala, and Valsang, where £30 to £250 (Rs. 300-Rs. 2500) worth of goods changed hands. Large quantities of cotton robes or sadis, turbans, coarse cloth or khadi, and carpets were woven; and the blankets commanded good prices. Sholapur had 6425 cotton looms, 4250 weavers, 310 dyers; and 840 thread spinners; Valsang had 200 weavers and 100 dyers and Ahirvadi, Ghodeshvar, Hotgi, Mandrup, Mardi, and Salgad had many looms. The yearly value of the produce of the cotton hand-looms of the sub-division was estimated at £57,600 (Rs. 5,76,000), of the woollen goods at £3900 (Rs. 39,000), of the brass and copper vessels at £2500 (Rs. 25,000), and of the iron tools at £3000 (Rs. 30,000), that is a total of £67,000 (Rs. 6,70,000). In 1872 the people seemed well off and well clothed, and the villages were much better kept and better cleaned than those of Indapur and Bhimthadi. Land sold readily at ten to seventy years' purchase. [Bom, Gov. Sel. CL. 166.]

The Sholapur sub-division was remeasnred and the lands reclassed. In twenty-four of fifty-three numbers taken at a venture from the survey records the error in the former measurement exceeded six per cent; and in six cases it exceeded twenty per cent. The former classification proved suspiciously faulty. Out of eighty-one numbers taken at random in thirty the difference of classification exceeded three annas, in ten numbers the difference exceeded five annas, and in one instance the fault was more than eleven annas. In some of the best placed villages the rates had been exceptionally low. In the lands of the flourishing city of Sholapur the average acre rate was 7d. (4 2/3 as.); and the average in the rich villages of Degaon and Bala was 7½d. (5 as.) and 9⅞d. (6 7/12 as.). The new classing brought to light great inequalities in the former settlement. A highest dry-crop acre rate of 2s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅜) raised Dahitna 186 per cent while with the same highest rate Togarhali rose only 43 per cent; again in Khed and Kegaon, neighbouring villages with a similar highest rate, the increase in Khed was 127 and in Kegaon only 2 per cent. Excluding the eleven villages received from the Nizam, the unrecorded land found under tillage represented about seven per cent of the whole tillage area. Its assessment at the revision average dry-crop acre rate of 1s. 5d. (11 1/3as.) amounted to £1983 (Rs. 19,830). The Survey Superintendent proposed highest dry-crop acre rates of 3s. (Rs. 1½) for the lands of the Sholapur city, 2s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅜.) for the surrounding villages, and 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼) for those more distant. For the Mandrup villages which had not profited so much by the opening of the railway and still depended on ferries to cross the Sina during the rains, the proposed rates were 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼) for the nearest and 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) for the more distant villages. [The details are: Class I. highest dry-crop acre rate 3s. (Rs. 1 j) for the Sholapur city; Class II. 2s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅜) for 39 villages adjoining the city; Class III. 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼) for 52 villages within a radius of five miles or on high roads; Class IV. 2s. 3d. (Rs, 1⅛) for 55 villages, beyond that distance and chiefly in Mandrup; total 147 villages.] Compared with £17,410 (Rs. 1,74,100) the assessment on the land held for tillage in 1870-71 the revision survey rental was £30,931 (Rs. 3,09,310) that is an increase of 77 per cent. The 1548 acres of arable waste were assessed at £68 (Rs. 680) and brought the total assessment to £30,999 (Rs. 3,09,990). The details are:

Sholapur Revised Settlement, 1871-72.

The area watered from channels was small. It was almost confined to Arli, Kalegaon, Salgad, and other outlying villages. For these a highest acre rate of 12s. (Rs. 6) exclusive of dry-crop assessment, for first class water-supply, descending to 3s. (Rs. 1½) in the lowest class, was proposed. The total assessment on account of water was only £199 (Rs. 1990). It was proposed that lands under wells built during the survey lease should be exempted from any extra assessment, and that lands under wells, which existed before the original lease should pay nothing beyond the highest dry-crop rate. For 2503 acres which yielded coarse rice and sometimes a second crop of pulse a highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) was proposed. Want of information regarding the area commanded, and the quantity of the supply, prevented the Superintendent making any proposals for the lands under the Ekruk lake. [Lieut. CoL Waddington, Survey Superintendent, 33 of 16th January 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel.CL. 159-174.] The proposed rates were sanctioned by Government in April 1872. [Gov. Rec. 2033 of 27th April 1872 and 6380 of 24th December 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel CL. 239, 249.]

Pandharpur, 1872-73.

In 1872-73 the revised survey settlement was introduced into thirty-three villages of the Pandharpur sub-division. As noticed above the Pandharpur sub-division was settled by the survey department in 1857-58 when it formed part of Satara. It was transferred to Sholapur in 1864. Of the thirty-three villages thirty formerly belonged to the Mohol-Madha and three to the Sholapur sub-division. They were transferred to Pandharpur in 1866. The term of their settlement expired with that of Madha in 1869 and revised rates were proposed in 1872-73. These villages lay to the south of the Madha sub-division and between Madha and the Bhima river which had formerly been the boundary between Mohol-Madha and Pandharpur. They comprised a narrow strip of country about forty miles in length skirting the banks of the Bhima. The town of Pandharpur, though on the opposite side of the river, was in the centre of the group. Their area was 104,300 acres of which about 95,000 acres were arable. During the thirty-three years ending 1872, except in 1853-54 when £85 (Rs. 850) were remitted, there were no remissions between 1847 and 1871. In 1871-72 the remissions amounted to £842 (Rs. 8420) or one-fourth of the whole land revenue. Notwithstanding this large deficit the average collections of the ten years before revision were a little in excess of those for the preceding ten years; and, throwing out 1871-72, the collections for the twenty-four years before the revision had been steady at £3400 to £3600 (Rs. 34,000 to Rs. 36,000). During the thirteen years ending 1852 the area of arable waste averaged 6.4 per cent, during the next ten years 4.6, and during the last ten it was inappreciable. [ Bom. Gov. Sel. CL, 270.] The question of fitting rates was almost already settled. The adjoining Madha villages on the north had new rates introduced in 1871-72 and the Pandharpur villages on the south were settled in 1857-58 by the Dharwar or Southern Maratha country survey. In the Madha villages to the north the highest dry-crop acre rate was 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) while in the Pandharpur villages to the south it varied from 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) in Pandharpur and Gopalpur to 1s. 9d. (14 as.). Considering the rise in produce prices since the southern Pandharpur villages had been settled in 1857, Colonel Waddington thought the highest dry-crop acre rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛) imposed in 1871 in the neighbouring Madha villages a fit rate for the present group of thirty-three Pandharpur villages. The effect of the Madha rates was as shown below to raise the assessment on occupied land from £3605 (Rs. 36,050) to £6271 (Rs. 62,710) that is an increase of 74 per cent:

Pandharpur Revision Settlement, 1872-75.

In some villages the new rates raised the assessment over 100 per cent, in Ardnari the rise was over 150 per cent. The average increase in the Madha sub-division had been 77 per cent and the average acre rate 1s. 2d. (9⅓ as.). In the present Pandharpur group of thirty-three villages, though the average acre rate was 1s. 4⅝d. (11 1/12 as.), the increase was only 74 per cent. Channel-watered land was found, in only four villages and the area watered was very small, For this a highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) descending to 1s. (Re.½) was proposed. Well-watered lands were treated in the same way as the well-watered lands of Madha. Of gadi or rice land there were only four acres for which the highest Sholapur acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) was proposed. Only three villages had grass or kuran lands. In 1871 the grass of these villages was sold for £81 As. (Rs. 812). The average receipts during the first thirteen years of the lease had been £25 2s. (Rs. 251), during the next ten years £42 (Rs. 420), and during the last ten years £106 14s. (Rs. 1067). The survey rates were not applied to these grass lands. They continued to be put to yearly auction. In forwarding the Superintendent's proposals the Survey Commissioner Colonel Francis increased the rates of four villages about fourmiles round Pandharpur. This change raised the enhancement under the revised rates from 74 to 76 per cent. [The details are:

Pandharpur Settlement,1872-75.

] Government sanctioned the proposed rates as modified by the Survey Commissioner. [Gov Res 798 of 11th February 1873 and 1355 of 8th March 1873 and 6643 of 10th December 1873, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL." 281,283, 291.]

In 1872-73 the revised survey settlement was introduced into Barsi. In 1872-73, except some outlying villages on the north-east, the Barsi sub-division was fairly regular in shape and was surrounded by the territories of the Nizam. From the Balaghat hills on the north, with an average breadth of about twenty-three miles, Barsi stretched south twenty-five to twenty-eight miles. There was a gradual south-westerly slope with a succession of dips and rises from east to west between each of the streams which crossed the sub-division, the slopes to the crests of the different water-sheds growing more and more gentle towards the east. As usual the richest land was towards the bottom of the slopes which commonly became almost level along the banks of the streams and were generally dotted with clumps of magnificent mango trees. Scarcely any of the soil was so poor as to bear nothing but spear-grass. Even the barrennest parts had earth enough to yield good grass during the rains. On the whole Barsi was the best part of Sholapur. There were no large rivers, the chief being the Bhogavati, which, after crossing the sub-division, fell into the Sina. The minor streams were the Sina, Chandni, Nagjhari, Bedki, Zarina, and Ram. The rainfall was heavier in Barsi than in any other part of Sholapur. The appearance of the sub-division, even in so dry a year as 1871, the green grass and splendid river-side trees, the pools in almost every stream bed, the number of working wells, and the nearness of the water to the surface, satisfied (14th August 1872) Colonel Waddington that Barsi had a better climate than any other part of Sholapur to the north of the Bhima. At the town of Barsi during the nine years ending 1871 the fall had varied from 16.67 inches in 1871 to 43.19 inches in 1870 and averaged 25.62 inches. [The details are:

Barsi Rainfall, 1863 -1871.

Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 308.] Barsi was about thirteen miles distant from the Balaghat hills. In Colonel Waddington's opinion the country between Barsi and the hills had a heavier fall than Barsi. Little land was watered except from wells. There were no large waterworks. The dam. of the old Karkera reservoir in Koregaon in the extreme north-west had been repaired by Government about 1858 but was carried away in the floods of 1870, which also destroyed the dam of the Kaudgaon pond in the east of the sub-division.

In 1840-41 when the survey settlement was introduced, the people were much depressed. In the early years of British rule the sub-division was flourishing; nearly the whole of the land being under tillage. Owing to the fall in prices in 1835-36 the revenue and cultivation were little more than one-half what they had been nine years before. Barsi produce prices were not available for the years before 1856. In the Survey Superintendent's opinion the rise must have been quite as great in Barsi as in the neighbouring sub-divisions and could not have been less than 60 to 70 per cent. The average prices of jvari and bajri between 1866-67 and 1871-72 were about three times as high as the prices between 1856-57 and 1860-61 and the difference in the price of wheat was even greater. During the fifteen years ending 1871 the rupee price of jvari had varied from sixty-one to thirteen shers and averaged about thirty-three shers. [The details are:

Barsi Produce Prices: Shers the Rupee,1856-1872.

Bom. Gov. Sel. CL, 313-314] In the first year of the survey settlement the Barsi villages made a very sudden advance. A bad season in 1845-46 checked the advance and several years of variable revenue and tillage followed. But about 1853-54 a steady upward turn set in and by about 1860 the full rental began to be realized. Between 1861 and 1872 the full rental continued to be realized without any remission. During the twelve years ending 1852 the average collections were £10,374 (Rs. 1,03,740), the average waste 40,803 acres, and the average remissions £442 (Rs. 4420). At the time of the settlement Captain Wingate estimated that in 1840-41 the first year of the settlement the assessment on the land under cultivation would be £8400 (Rs. 84,000). But the records show that in the first year of the new settlement 25,000 acres of waste were taken for tillage and the revenue rose to £10,688 (Rs. 1,06,880). Still 50,000 acres or little more than one-fifth of the whole arable area was waste, and £892 (Rs. 8920) of remissions were allowed. In 1841-42 7000 acres of waste were taken for tillage and only £17 (Rs. 170) were granted in remissions. In 1842-43 the waste again rose to 46,986 acres and in the following year to 55,246. In 1844-45 the waste was slightly less and in 1845-46 over 11,000 acres were taken for tillage, but the remissions amounted to the large sum of £4087 (Rs. 40,870). In 1846-47 over 18,000 acres were taken for tillage and the waste reduced to 24,254 acres, and only £32 (Rs. 320) were remitted. From 1846-47 tillage again gradually declined until in 1851-52 the waste amounted to 35,490 acres or about one-seventh of the whole area. In 1852-53 tillage again shrank and the waste rose to 41,167 acres; remissions were only £8 (Rs. 80). After 1852-53 the waste rapidly decreased while collections rose and remissions dwindled until in 1861-62 the twenty-second year of the settlement there were 2633 acres of waste, the collections were £12,348 (Rs. 1,23,480), and there were no remissions. During the ten years ending 1872 almost the whole waste was taken for tillage, the collections averaged £12,459 (Rs. 1,24,590), and there were no remissions.

During the thirty-two years ending 1872 population had increased from 66,245 to 100,566 or 51 per cent, houses from 13,788 to 18,495 or 34 per cent, village offices from 48 to 126 or 162 per cent, carts from 705 to 1794 or 154 per cent, ploughs from 1543 to 2476 or 60 per cent, bullocks from 26,466 to 31,469 or 18 per cent, and cattle sheep and horses from 58,831 to 64,905 or 10 per cent. Wells showed an increase from 1776 to 2844 or 60 per cent. In 1840 there had been 1776 working wells. In 1872 there were 3947 wells of which 136 were used for drinking, 967 were out of repair, and 2844 that is an increase of 60 per cent were used for watering. Of these 110 had been made during the twelve years ending 1852, 299 during the ten years ending 1862, and 987 during the ten years ending 1872. [Lientenant-Colonel Waddington, Survey Superintendent, 564A of 14th August 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 310.]

Though Barsi was on the whole the best sub-division in Sholapur few villages were almost entirely of the best soil. On the other hand there was almost no very poor soil. The field tools in use were the same as in other parts of the Deccan, and the heavier dry-crop soils were not ploughed more than once in four or five years. In the intermediate years the surface was merely scratched with a harrow but this seemed to be all that it required. The garden lands were very carefully ploughed and harrowed every year and were heavily manured. Manure was also occasionally used in the dry-crop soils. The chief early or kharif crops were bajri, tur, cotton, mug, ambadi, and til; the late or rabi crops were jvari which covered 62 per cent of the whole, wheat, gram, linseed, and safflower. The garden products were turmeric, earthnuts, barley, rice, wheat, onions, sweet potatoes, yams, chillies, and vegetables, and also jvari and maize for fodder. Sugarcane and plantains were occasionally grown and a few villages had gardens of pan or betel vine but the staple garden crops were turmeric and earthnuts. [In 111 Government villages the early crops were 23.3 percent and the late 76.7 per cent. The details are: Of the early harvest bajri 5.1, cotton 2, rice 1.7, earth nut 4.6, chillies 0.5, tur 4.4, flax 1.4, nicer seed 2.3, miscellaneous 1.3, total 23.3; of the late harvest jvari 62.2, gram 4.5, wheat 2.5, safflower 0.5, turmeric 0.5, miscellaneous 2.6, occupied waste 3.9, total 76.7. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 319.]

The chief line of traffic was the twenty-two miles from the town of Barsi to the Barsi Road railway station. This was bridged and metalled throughout, and was one of the best highways in this part of the Deccan, as it was originally intended for a tramway. It passed through Barsi to Yedsi above the Balaghat hills; but beyond Barsi it was not metalled. There was a road from Barsi by Vairag to Sholapur but this was unbridged and unmetalled and in many parts was scarcely even a cleared track. The cotton sent from the Barsi Road railway station chiefly came from the Nizam's territories but much of the oil seed, grain, and other field produce was grown in Barsi. In 1840 Captain Wingate estimated the value of the cotton trade of Barsi at about £12,500 (Rs. 1,25,000). The average for the five years ending 1871 showed 337,424 mans or at about £2 (Rs. 20) a man about £600,000 to £700,000 (Rs. 60,00,000-Rs. 70,00,000) that is an increase of over fiftyfold [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 307, 346.] There were two towns Barsi and Vairag and four large villages Kari, Pangaon, Pangri, and Tadval. Next to Sholapur, Barsi was the largest town in the district In 1872 it had a population of 15,759 that is an advance since 1840 of 62 per cent and 4314 houses or a rise of 141½ per cent. It was a well built town with broad clean streets. About 250 carts passed through it every day. The chief market towns were Barsi, Vairag, and Pangri, and, besides live stock and grain, the chief articles for sale were turmeric, sugar, butter, cotton, metals, oil, wood, cotton and woollen twists, cloth, dyes, tobacco, leather, and bangles. In Barsi about £10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000) worth of goods were estimated to change hands weekly, and in Vairag about £1400 (Rs. 14,000) worth. Manufactures were confined to the weaving of coarse cotton and woollen cloths. The chief weaving centres were Barsi, Pangri, Tadval, and Vairag. They had together 376 cotton looms and 117 woollen looms. The people were thriving. Though 1871 had been a bad year, almost every village had a number of stacks of straw or kadba. For five years there had been no remissions, and no sales of land because of failure to pay the Government rent. [Lienutenant Colonel Waddington, Surv. Supt. 564A of 14th August 1872, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 312.] The sale and mortgage value of land varied from five to seventy times the assessment. [Bom. Gov Sel. CL. 310-311.]

Under the revision survey the 111 Government villages were arranged in four classes with highest dry-crop acre rates varying from 3s. to 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1½ - 1⅛). The highest rate of 3s. (Rs. 1½) was confined to the town of Barsi. In the second class with a rate of 2s. 9d. (Rs. 1⅜) were fifty-eight villages within five or six miles of Barsi, or near the hills, or on the road to Vairag, or to Barsi Road station. Forty-seven villages made up the third class with a rate of 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼); these villages were further from Barsi and the hills to the south of the road from Barsi to Vairag, and some villages in the north-east corner. A group of five villages in the south-east corner formed the fourth class with a rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛). [In 1872 the total number of villages in Barsi was 124 of which 116 were Government and eight two-ownered or dumala. Of these only 111 Government and four two-ownered or dumala came under the revised settlement. The remaining five Government villages of which three had lapsed in 1848 and two in 1854 had been brought under settlement in 1856 and 1858 by the Dharwar Survey. Department. Bom. Gov. Sel, CL. 316.] The effect of the settlement was a rise of 80 per cent in the first class, 66 in the second, 62 in the third, and 95 in the fourth class. The new rental gave for the tour classes average acre rates of 1s. 6⅛d. (12 1/12as.), 1s.6½d.(12 1/3as.),1s. 4⅞d (11 3/12 as.), and 1s.1⅝ d. (9 1/12 as.). The average increase on the 111 Government villages included in the survey diagram was 66 per cent and the average acre rate on dry-crop land was 1s. 5⅝d. (11¾as.) against the Sholapur rate of 1s. 5d. (11⅓as.). In these 111 Government villages the largest collections between 1818-19 and 1839-40 exclusive of miscellaneous or sayar revenue were £18,930 (Rs. 1,89,300) in 1826-27. Compared with this the revised survey rental £20,725 (Rs. 2,07,250) showed an increase of £1795 (Rs. 17,950) or 9.48 per cent. Compared with the collections under the original settlement the new rental was £10,351 (Rs. 1,03,510) or 100 per cent more than the average revenue during the twelve years ending 1852, £8900 (Rs. 89,000) or 75 per cent more than the average during the ten years ending 1862, and £8266 (Rs. 82,660) or 66 per cent more than the average during the ten years ending 1872. Cases of a very great increase in individual villages were less common than in the Sholapur sub-division. In only eleven instances was the increase more than 100 per cent. The greatest rise was in the village of Gormala which was raised 150 per cent and the least was in Pimpalvandi and Turk Pimpri which were raised 13 per cent. The following statement shows the effect of the revision in 111. Government villages:

Barsi Revision Settlement, 1872-73.

Under the existing settlement the assessment on land watered by wells and channels was £831 (Rs.8310). This had been imposed by a lump without any detail of what proportion was on account of the well-watered and what on account of the channel-watered land. The revision survey showed 14,133 acres under wells so that by abandoning the cess on wells at least £2800 (Rs.28,000) would be foregone. [Bom. Gov Sel CL.318,349.] The channel-water area was 1058 acres for which a highest water rate of 9s (Rs.4½) decreasing to 1s.(Re.½) was proposed. The total channel water assessment in 111 villages was £191 (Rs.1910) or an average additional acre rate of 3s. 7½ d. (Rs.1 13/16) [Lieutenant-Colonel Waddington, Survey Superintendent, 564A of 14th Aug.1872, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL, 304-319.] Expect that the fourth class rate was lowered from 2s. 3d to 2s. (Rs.1⅛-1), the survey Superintendent's proposals were approved and sanctioned. [Gov. Res. 1031 of 31st February1873, Bom Gov. Sel, CL381-384.]

Karmala, 1873-74.

In 1873-74 the revised survey settlement was introduced into Karmala. The Karmala sub-division lay in the north-west of the district between the Bhima and the Sina rivers. It was bounded on the north by Karjat in Ahmadnagar, on the east by the Sina river with the Nizam's territory beyond, on the south by Madha in Sholapur, and on the west by the Bhima river with Indapur of Poona beyond. The greatest length of the sub-division from north to south was thirty-eight miles and its breadth from east to west twenty-eight miles. Its total area was 772 square miles or 494,063 acres. The water-parting of the Bhima and Sina rivers which ran from Kem north-west to a little west of the town of Karmala divided the sub-division in two. The country was a succession of rises and dips with a good deal of high tableland in places covered with loose stones and occasionally with boulders. Near Kem were two small hills and much of the north and north-west was rough and fissured by large streams. Except in the valleys and near villages, trees were rare and stunted compared with the Barsi trees. The soil as a rule was good though shallow. The climate of Karmala was less favourable than that of Madha. During the nine years ending 1871 the average rainfall at Karmala was 18.56 inches against 20.48 at Madha. [The details are:

Karmala Rainfall, 1863-1871.

] As regards rain the north-east of Karmala had perhaps a slight advantage over the south near Tembhurni. But the seasons were most uncertain; a really good one did not come oftener than once in three or four years. When the season was good, the harvest was so abundant that if the people were more provident, they could easily tide over the poor years and meet the Government demands. But the bulk of the people were in the hands of the moneylenders to whom most, if not the whole, gain of a good harvest went. [Bom, Gov. Sel. CL. 414.]

At the former settlement in 1842-44 Karmala included two revenue divisions: the mahalkari's charge of thirty-four Government and one alienated villages and the mamlatdar's charge of forty-eight Government and one alienated villages, that is a total of eighty-two Government and two alienated villages. The territorial changes made in 1859-60, 1862-63, and 1866-67 and the lapse of three villages in 1869-70 had increased Karmala to 111 Government and twelve alienated villages, all of which were under a mamlatdar. All of these 123 villages had been surveyed at different times. The revised rates proposed in 1873 were to be introduced into ninety-three Government villages which contained an area of 346,603 acres with 68,971 people or 125 to the square mile. The first survey settlement was introduced into them between 1842 and 1844.

During the ten years ending 1841 the average rupee price of Indian millet or jvari was 86 pounds (43 shers) and of millet or bajri 64 pounds (32 shers); during the ten years ending 1852 Indian millet was at 128 pounds (64 shers) -and millet at 100 pounds (50 shers), or a decrease in price of about 33 per cent in Indian millet or jvari and 36 per cent in millet or bajri. During the ten years ending 1862 the average price rose to nearly the same as that of the ten years ending 1841 that is to 80 pounds (40 shers) of jvari and to 66 pounds (33 shers) of bajri. During the ten years ending 1872 the average price was jvari 42 pounds (21 shers) and bajri 34 pounds (17 shers), or an increase of 90 and 94 per cent over the ten years ending 1862, and of 205 per cent in jvari and 194 per cent in bajri over the ten years ending 1852. The average of the fifteen years ending 1857 was jvari 112 pounds (56 shers) and bajri 90 pounds (45 shers), and, excluding the five years of extremely high prices ending 1867, the average for the fifteen years ending 1872 was jvari 62 pounds(31 shers) and bajri 50 pounds (25 shers) or eighty per cent above the corresponding prices in the fifteen years ending 1857. [The details are:

Karmala Grain Prices: Shers the Rupee, 1843-1873.

The average of the fifteen years ending 1857-58 was jvari 112 pounds (58 shers) and bajri 90 pounds (45 shers), excluding the five years of famine and American war prices (1863-1868), the average of the fifteen years ending 1872-73 was jvari 62 pounds (31 shore) and bajri 50 pounds (25 shers). Bom. Gov. Sel. CL.416-417.]

In 1843 when the settlement was introduced there were no less than 72,800 acres or 37 per cent of arable waste assessed at £2543 (Rs. 25,430). During the four years ending 1847 half the waste was taken for tillage; at the same time in 1845-46 the remissions amounted to £4473 (Es. 44,730) or more than half the assessment. From 1847 to 1851 the cultivation and collections steadily decreased until in 1850-51 the waste was no less than 79,919 acres and the collections only £7478 (Es. 74,780). The two years ending 1853 saw the waste reduced to 61,000 acres and the collections increased to £8335 (Es. 83,350). The average cultivation during the ten years ending 1853 was 211,116 acres, the remissions £546 (Es. 5460), and the collections £7849 (Es. 78,490). During the ten years ending 1863 the waste lands were steadily absorbed and the collections simultaneously rose, until in 1862 there were only 758 acres of unoccupied assessed land and the revenue collected was £10,679 (Es. 1,06,790). The average remissions during this period were only £7 (Rs. 70), the occupied area was 250,105 acres, and the collections £9919 (Rs. 99,190) or 26 per cent higher than during the ten years ending 1853. In the ten years ending 1873 the average cultivation was 271,415 acres and the average collections £10,652 (Rs. 1,06,520), the waste being only 464 acres. Remissions amounting to £437 (Rs.4370) were granted only in 1871-72. Compared with £8198 (Rs. 81,980) the average collections of the five years ending 1843, the average collections for the ten years ending 1873 showed an increase of thirty per cent.

During the thirty years ending 1873 in the ninety-three villages under revision, population increased from 55,733 in 1843 to 68,971 in 1873 or 24 per cent, carts from 449 to 1276 or 184 per cent, ploughs from 1762 to 2421 or 37 per cent, bullocks and male buffaloes from 25,907 to 27,433 or 5.8 per cent, and sheep and goats from 32,567 to 34,780 or 6.8 per cent; houses decreased from 10,952 to 9974 or 8.9 per cent; and working wells increased from 1090 to 1730 or 58 per cent. Of the new wells 49 were made in the ten years ending 1853, 150 in the ten years ending 1863, and 391 in the ten years ending 1873.

Mr. Whitcombe estimated that of the whole soil fifty per cent was black, twenty-five per cent red, and twenty-five per cent stony. Except along the banks of the streams and in the valley of the Sina river the black soil was usually somewhat shallow. It was frequently stiff and clayey in texture and required a heavy rainfall to ensure a full crop. In favourable years the outturn was equal or even superior to the best black soils, but in ordinary years it yielded an indifferent crop and in unfavourable years the outturn scarcely paid for the seed. A small quantity of alluvial land lay along the Bhima. The people of Jategaon were hardworking and painstaking and ploughed their lands every year; the usual practice in the Karmala sub-division was to plough the land only once in three, four, or even in five years, the harrow alone being employed in the intermediate years. Much more labour was bestowed on the garden lands. The use of manure was confined almost entirely to gardens except close to the town of Karmala where the population was denser and more manure was available., One cause of slovenly tillage was the small number of plough cattle. In 1873 the stock of cattle was insufficient for the proper tillage of the land; In many cases men held fifty or sixty acres of land without owning a single working bullock. No land could be properly worked whose owner trusted to the chance of hiring bullocks in the sowing season. The uncertain and scanty rainfall was another cause of careless tillage. This was not peculiar to Karmala; it affected almost all the subdivisions of Sholapur. The usual crops were jvari, bajri, safflower, a small quantity of wheat, cotton, and gram chiefly in garden lands and other crops in small proportions. The occupied waste was less in proportion to the cultivated area than in most of the lately settled sub-divisions. The usual rotation of crops was in early harvest or kharif land in the first year bajri mixed with tur, hemp, and khurasni; in the second year a late crop; and in the third the same as in the first year. In late harvest or rabi lands in the first year bajri, in the second year jvari with every fifth furrow of safflower and two or three furrows of linseed, and in the third, year the same as in the first year. In garden lands the succession was in the first year bajri, with a second crop of wheat gram or vegetables; in the second year Indian corn, rice, udid, or mug; in the third year the same as the first year and sometimes but seldom sugarcane. The proportions in which the different crops were grown were in 1872, 57.5 per cent of jvari, 15.4 of bajri, and 27.1 of other crops. [The details were: jvari 57.5, bajri 15.4, kardai 4.9, cotton 3.1, wheat 2.4, gram 2.3, math 1.8, tur 1.4, hulga 1.6, khurasni 0.9, ambadi 0.7, mug 0.5, rice O.3, chillies 0.3, bhuimug 0.3, Indian corn 0.3, linseed 0.3, castor oil 0.3, tobacco 0.2, til 0.2, miscellaneous 0.2, sugarcane 0.1, ratali 0.1, satu 0.1 and occupied waste 4.8. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 413.]

Karmala was crossed from west to east by the Peninsula Railway. The railway followed the course of the Bhima about half-way through the sub-division, passed over the water-shed near the Kem station, and from Kem followed the Sina valley until it crossed the Sina near Mohol. Three railway stations Pomalvadi, Jeur, and Kem were within Karmala limits and two Diksal and Barsi Road were close to its border. Karmala was indifferently off for roads. The only made roads were ten miles from Karmala to the Jeur station and a short piece of the Poona-Sholapur road which passed through South Karmala. The chief fair weather road was from Ahmadnagar to Karmala and thence to Sholapur, Pandharpur, and Barsi. A good deal of traffic used to pass by this route but the railway had almost monopolised the carriage, although many thousand pilgrims annually travelled through the sub-division on their way to Pandharpur. Still at times a not inconsiderable cart traffic passed through Karmala from Sholapur and Barsi to Nagar. Karmala was well provided with markets. Besides the chief market town of Karmala, weekly markets were held within the sub-division at Tembhurni, Kem, Vangi, Kondej, Korti, and Sonari and the markets of Indapur, Kurdu, Narsingpur, Akluj, and Paranda were within easy reach. In addition to its local markets the subdivision enjoyed the advantage of the railway, which offered every facility for the transport of surplus produce to Poona, Bombay, and Sholapur. The manufactures were confined to the making of a few coarse cotton and woollen fabrics, such as robes, turbans, khadis, and blankets. The number of cotton looms was 229 and of woollen looms ninety-six. Considerable quantities of saltpetre were made in the rudest manner by the lowest castes the Mangs and Mhars. The process was simple and' cheap. The soil was mixed with water in shallow pans built of stone and mortar allowing evaporation to take place by the heat of the sun. The yearly yield of a pan was estimated to average four to five thousand pounds. It was sold to dealers at sixteen pounds the rupee, and retailed rough at ten or twelve pounds and refined by boiling at six or seven pounds. The manufacture was carried on in the fair season and the outturn in 1872-73 was estimated at 250,000 pounds; the license fees for the right to make saltpetre amounted to £80 (Rs. 800). [During the ten years ending 1871-72 in thirty-one Karmala villages the average revenue derived by Government on account of fees for the privilege of manufacturing saltpetre amounted to £40 (Rs. 400). The details are: In 1862-63, thirty-nine Villages, Rs. 267; 1863-64, thirty-four villages, Rs. 312; 1864-65, sixty-one villages, Rs. 608; 1865-66, fifty-two villages, Rs. 623; 1866-67, twenty villages, Rs. 355; 1867-68, eight villages, Rs. 146; 1868-69, fourteen villages. Rs. 121; 1869-70, twenty-three villages, Rs. 477; 1870-71, twenty-four villages, Rs. 496; 1871-72, thirty-one villages, Rs. 553,; average thirty-one villages and Rs. 396. ' Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 410-411.]

The state of the people was unsatisfactory. Mr. Whitcombe the Assistant Survey Superintendent thought the want of progress was due to the scanty and uncertain rainfall; Colonel Waddington thought it was because people held more land than they could properly cultivate; and Colonel Francis thought the chief cause was the influence of the moneylender. It could hardly be over-assessment as the average dry-crop acre rates were only half an anna higher than in Indapur.[ Lieut.-Colonel Waddington, Surv. Supt. 921 of 3rd October 1873, Bom, Gov. Sel. CL. 415. 'My own inquiries on this subject lead me to think that dealings with the savkar who seems to have retained more hold on the cultivators than in other sub-divisions have been the retarding influence at work in this case,' Colonel Francis, Surv. Comr. 2297 of 13th December 1873, Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 481.]

In Karmala as in other parts of Sholapur it was common for occupants to sublet their lands. Land was usually sublet for a payment of grain. In dry-crop land the commonest arrangement was that the occupant should pay the Government assessment, and in the case of wheat and gram supply two-fifths of the seed grain, and receive two-fifths of the produce. In garden lands the usage was for the occupant to pay the Government demand and one-third of the expense of leather bag, ropes, manure, and weeding, and in the case of wheat, gram, and sugar, find one-third of the seed, and exact one-third of the produce. In the event of lands being sub-let for grazing, the payments were in cash and the receipts were generally considerably more than the Government rental. The occupancy right of land sold for considerably less than in many other sub-divisions. Dry-crop lands fetched 2s. to £1 (Rs. 1-10) the acre and garden lands £1 10s. to £4 12s. (Rs. 15 - 46); the higher rate was rare. [In Indapur the average value from sale deeds was about seventeen years purchase of the assessment and in Madha it was as high as Rs. 20 for dry-crop and Rs. 80 for garden land. Bom. Gov, Sel. CL. 414,481.]

The ninety-three Government villages were divided into three classes and charged highest dry-crop acre rates varying from 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼) to 2s. (Re. 1). Jeur and Kem at which there were railway stations were placed in the first class and charged a highest rate of 2s. 6d. (Rs. 1¼). The second class contained twenty-one villages and was charged a highest rate of 2s. 3d. (Rs. 1⅛); one of these villages was Ropla; the other villages lay within four miles of a railway station and along the line. The third class contained the seventy remaining villages which were further removed from the railway; they were charged a highest rate of 2s. (Re. 1). In the village of Singevadi the increase under the new assessment exceeded seventy per cent. This was a specially good village and the old classification was thought to be much too low, especially the classification of the alluvial soil of which there were nearly 200 acres. In three other villages the assessment was raised between 60 and 70 per cent but in none of these did the new average acre rate exceed 1s. ⅞d. (8 7/12 as.). In Nimbhora in which the assessment was most raised the new average acre rate was only 8⅝d. (5 9/12 as.).

In 1872-73 the occupied area was 271,194 acres and the collections £10,690 (Rs. 1,06,900). Under the revised survey the occupied area was 293,487 acres and the proposed assessment £14,776 (Rs. 1,47,760), which was £4086 (Rs. 40,860) or 38 per cent higher than the payments of 1872-73. There was besides a small quantity of unoccupied land which was assessed at £64 (Rs. 640) making a total of £14,840 (Rs. 1,48,400). [The details are:

Karmala Settlement, 1873-74.

] Irrigation was chiefly confined to wells of which 1730 were in working order in 1873 against 1090 in 1843. The 1873 well-assessment ranged from 6d. to £2 14s. (Rs.¼-27) on each well according to capability, and the total well-assessment was £456 8s. (Rs. 4564). Under the revision survey there was no separate water charge on well-water. Channel-watered lands were all watered from lately built temporary dams. With few exceptions the water-supply did not last beyond the end of December or the beginning of January. A few villages had wafer enough for the growth of wheat and onions, and the supply was available until the middle or the end of February. The highest acre rate for channel-watered lands was proposed at 7s. 6d. (Rs. 3¾), and the total rental amounted to £98 (Rs. 980) giving an average acre rate of 3s. 1½d. (Rs. 1 9/16). Of rice land there were only thirty-four acres on which a highest acre rate of 6s. (Rs. 3) was imposed. [Lieut-Colonel Waddington, 921 of 3rd Oct. 1873. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 406-423.] The proposed settlement was sanctioned by Government in February 1874. [Gov. Res. 707 of 7th February 1874. Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 500.]

REVISED SETTLEMENT REDUCED, 1874.

In October 1874, in consequence of the marked fall in produce prices during the three previous years, [Jvari 56 pounds the rupee In 1872-73, 69 in 1873-74, and 63 in 1874-75; and bajri 52 pounds in 1872-73, 65 in 1873-74, and 68 in 1874-75.] Government decided that it was advisable to limit and in some cases to reduce the amount of revision enhancements. It was right that Government should share in the increase of wealth caused by high prices, and by improved communications. It was also right that mistakes in the former survey should be corrected and that land which was held in excess of the proper area should pay its due rental. At the same time as there seemed reason to believe that the high prices which had ruled during the ten years ending 1871 would not continue, it was advisable to fix a limit to revision enhancements. [The details are:

Sholapur Survey Settlement, 1839-1844and 1869-1874.

Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 133 and CLI. 174.] It was ordered that in future in no group of villages should the revision enhancement be more than thirty-three per cent; in no single village should it be more than sixty-six per cent without being reported to Government; and in no holding should it be more than 100 per cent without being reported to Government. The enhancement of the rental of a holding was generally due to one of three causes. Land was assessed which in the first survey had been included in a number as unarable; the holder had spread over the bordess of his land and encroached on waste; and land was more highly valued than before because of a change in the valuation scale. As regards land originally included in a number as unarable but on revision found to be arable Government inclined to the opinion that the holder should have the benefit of the doubt and the change in the soil be considered an improvement and therefore should remain untaxed. This ruling was cancelled in consequence of objections taken to it by the Government of India. As regards land included in a holding through the encroachment of the holder on Government waste, Government ruled that encroachments should in every case be regularly assessed. As regards changes in the official valuation of land, Government noticed that after the introduction of the survey several years passed before the system for the uniform valuing of soil was perfected. The system laid down in the orders known as the Joint Rules published in 1847-48 was sound and correct. It was probable that in none of the settlements which had been made after the passing of the Joint Rules would a revaluing be required. In the case of settlements which had been made before the Joint Rules were in force, variation from the Joint Rules standard, if very small, should be allowed, care being taken to keep the valuation of poor soils low. Village groups whose revision enhancements were in excess, of the enhancement now sanctioned by Government, were to receive the following treatment. In all village groups the revision enhancement was to be reduced to fifty per cent. [Bom. Gov. Sel. CL. 133] After the enhancement of a village group had been reduced to fifty per cent, if the enhancement in any one village remained more than 75 per cent and the enhancement in any one holding remained over 100 per cent, the case was to be reported for the orders of Government. In consequence of these orders the revision enhancements reduced from 74 to 38 per cent in Madha, from 77 to 44 per cent in Sholapur, from 76 to 46 per cent in Pandharpur, and from 62 to 42 per cent in Barsi. [Bom. Gov. Sol. CL. The highest dry-crop acre rates finally sanctioned are: Madha Rs. 1⅛ and Rs. 1; Sholapur Rs. 1⅜, Rs 1¼, Rs. 1⅛, and Rs. 1; Pandharpur Rs. 1⅛ and Rs.1 15/16; Barsi Rs. 1⅜, Rs. 1¼, Rs. 1, Re. 1⅛; Karmala Rs. 1¼,Rs, 1⅛, and Re.1.] The details are:

Sholapur Revised Survey Settlements Reduced, 1876.