this Presidency, to transfer the taluk to this latter. Its revenue history is therefore distinct from that of the rest of the district.
Bhadráchalam is a portion of a large zamindari estate which is said to have been in the possession of the present family since 1324, and the rest of which remained, at the time of the cession in 1860, a part of the Nizam's Dominions. The possession of the property by the present owners has on several occasions been seriously, though not permanently, interrupted by feuds with a rival family. Rékapalle, which was formerly a separate taluk but is now embodied in Bhadráchalam, was leased out in 1815 by the proprietors of the latter estate to renters who subsequently set at nought their authority and even rose in arms against them. These people were accordingly registered as inferior proprietors at the settlement which followed the cession in 1860. Another class of inferior proprietors were the 'Doras,' to whom the owners of the estate had been wont to rent out certain areas on short leases on a commission of from 20 to 40 per cent, of the gross produce. Their position was also defined at the settlement.
Besides fixing the position of the superior and inferior proprietors, this settlement also determined the status of the ryots. Some of these possessed varying degrees of occupancy right in the soil,1[1] but the rest were tenants-at-will. The occupancy rights conferred ranged from a conditional right (in the case of those who had held their land for twelve years) to an absolute right, and in all cases the proprietors were prohibited from raising the ryots' rents during the currency of the settlement.
The assessment of the peshkash to be paid by the proprietors was calculated by regular settlement operations. The villages were grouped for purposes of assessment into chuks (subdivisions) with reference to their fertility and locality, and the land was surveyed and the soils classified field by field. The rental which each class of soil in each chuk might be assumed to be able to pay was then calculated with reference to the money rents actually paid during the last five years, and to the value of rents paid in kind. Of the assumed rental thus arrived at, one half was taken as the peshkash.
The Doras above referred to had to pay the superior proprietors the whole of the peshkash so fixed on each village, together with road and school cesses each amounting to two per cent, on the peshkash, a dák cess of a half per cent., and
- ↑ 1 These are clearly set out in the papers printed with G.O. No. 122, Revenue, dated 29th January 1885, pp. 4 and 5.
