DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29302#0050
( 16 )
The origin of the bigha I cannot trace ; probably it was applied
originally only to irrigated lands, which have paid cash rates from a
very long time back, both in this tract and in the adjacent chiefships.
It is measured with a 4^ foot quadam (20 x 20), which gives an
area of 900 square yards. This is less than the Umballa bigha ; at
least, I thought it was, and tried to make it larger. But I found
I was going against local opinion ; so I accepted the 4^-foot (quadam),
and 900 square yards bigha, as a standard already established, and
which therefore I ought not to try to alter.
Subsequently, when I found in the office of the Commissioner of
Commissioner’s No. 2f5 the Division the correspondence of 1857, I
dated 27th October 1857, was rather disconcerted to find Mr. Barnes
paragraph 17. speaking of the jiin as four-fifths of an acre;
which would make the bigha 968 square yards, and the quadam a
fraction over 56 inches. With refereuce to this, I can only say that
the acre has hitherto been reckoned not as 20 pathas of the jun
measure, but as 22 pathas. I have accepted both jun and bigha as
I found them in local use ; and I think that they are now as they
were applied in 1856.
21. In conversation with the agriculturists
I found that their own account of the rates of
last Settlement was per bigha*—
Rs. A. P.
... 1 0 0
... 0 12 0
... 0 8 0
... 0 6 0
And though I observed that these were slightly higher than those stated
in the Settlement record, I thought that the rates stated by the people
were the more convenient of the two. Trying them on the area, they
seemed to me to lead up to as high a revenue as we ought to take;
and, as to changing for any reasons of my own the old proportions
which these rates bore to each other, obviously if I had attempted
anything of the kind I should have very much unsettled the old
khewats, and the people were certain to think their old custom better
than my new opinions. I was a little perplexed how to treat the
Changar cultivation. It is really bad land, and yields little but kulth,
Rates, Bharauli Ilaqa, per
bigha.
Eul 1st
„ 2nd
Bakhil 1st
„ 2nd
* Note.—Since writing the above, the Rana of Kothar, who is one of the more
intelligent of the adjacent hill chiefs, informs me that part of his territory has for a
long time paid the following rates—
Eul lands from 12 annas to Re. 1 1
Bakhil lands from 6 annas to 10 annas > per bigha,
Changar lands two annas )
Grass fields and grazing waste are not charged The same rates he informs me prevail
in the Keonthal State. The Baghat rates are higher, the land being better ; some of
the irrigation paying as much as Re. 1| per bigha. The Patiala rates he believed to
be lighter than those of his own chiefship and Keonthal. Cash rates on irrigated
land are universal. Where the revenue due from unirrigated land is taken in kind,
the rate is one-fourth produce.
The Rana could not tell me the origin of these rates ; he said they were very old.
The origin of the bigha I cannot trace ; probably it was applied
originally only to irrigated lands, which have paid cash rates from a
very long time back, both in this tract and in the adjacent chiefships.
It is measured with a 4^ foot quadam (20 x 20), which gives an
area of 900 square yards. This is less than the Umballa bigha ; at
least, I thought it was, and tried to make it larger. But I found
I was going against local opinion ; so I accepted the 4^-foot (quadam),
and 900 square yards bigha, as a standard already established, and
which therefore I ought not to try to alter.
Subsequently, when I found in the office of the Commissioner of
Commissioner’s No. 2f5 the Division the correspondence of 1857, I
dated 27th October 1857, was rather disconcerted to find Mr. Barnes
paragraph 17. speaking of the jiin as four-fifths of an acre;
which would make the bigha 968 square yards, and the quadam a
fraction over 56 inches. With refereuce to this, I can only say that
the acre has hitherto been reckoned not as 20 pathas of the jun
measure, but as 22 pathas. I have accepted both jun and bigha as
I found them in local use ; and I think that they are now as they
were applied in 1856.
21. In conversation with the agriculturists
I found that their own account of the rates of
last Settlement was per bigha*—
Rs. A. P.
... 1 0 0
... 0 12 0
... 0 8 0
... 0 6 0
And though I observed that these were slightly higher than those stated
in the Settlement record, I thought that the rates stated by the people
were the more convenient of the two. Trying them on the area, they
seemed to me to lead up to as high a revenue as we ought to take;
and, as to changing for any reasons of my own the old proportions
which these rates bore to each other, obviously if I had attempted
anything of the kind I should have very much unsettled the old
khewats, and the people were certain to think their old custom better
than my new opinions. I was a little perplexed how to treat the
Changar cultivation. It is really bad land, and yields little but kulth,
Rates, Bharauli Ilaqa, per
bigha.
Eul 1st
„ 2nd
Bakhil 1st
„ 2nd
* Note.—Since writing the above, the Rana of Kothar, who is one of the more
intelligent of the adjacent hill chiefs, informs me that part of his territory has for a
long time paid the following rates—
Eul lands from 12 annas to Re. 1 1
Bakhil lands from 6 annas to 10 annas > per bigha,
Changar lands two annas )
Grass fields and grazing waste are not charged The same rates he informs me prevail
in the Keonthal State. The Baghat rates are higher, the land being better ; some of
the irrigation paying as much as Re. 1| per bigha. The Patiala rates he believed to
be lighter than those of his own chiefship and Keonthal. Cash rates on irrigated
land are universal. Where the revenue due from unirrigated land is taken in kind,
the rate is one-fourth produce.
The Rana could not tell me the origin of these rates ; he said they were very old.