a tribute of from 10 to 40 per cent, called malikhána. The amount and description of rent due from the cultivators to the proprietors was also prescribed, even in the case of the tenants-at-will upon whom no permanent arrangement was binding. Waste lands and forests were declared to belong to Government, after a liberal deduction of waste (from 100 to 200 per cent, of the cultivated area and called the dupati land) had been set apart round each village for the extension of cultivation, firewood and grazing purposes. The abkári revenue was also resumed, and the ráni of Bhadráchalam was granted a deduction of Rs. 4,428 from her peshkash as compensation for the loss she suffered through the resumption of this and the forests. This settlement was thus altogether different in principle from those carried out in zamindaris in this Presidency.
Besides the occupied proprietary tracts, the country contained a vast extent of waste land and small area of occupied land the proprietary right in which was vested in Government. The latter consisted of a number of small and neglected villages in the heart of the forest, in which only shifting cultivation (podu) was practised. The ryots in these were given occupancy rights over all fields which they could prove to have been continuously held by them, and a small assessment — apparently four annas on the extent culturable with one axe, about three acres — was levied.
After Bhadráchalam became part of the Gódávari district, the question of its re-settlement arose. The original settlement had been far less favourable to the proprietor than those carried out in this Presidency, and the proprietor pressed for a reduction of his peshkash and the restoration of his former rights to the revenue from abkári and the forests. The general lines upon which the re-settlement should proceed were ultimately laid down in 1885; but it was not carried out till 1888-89 nor introduced till 1890. The inferior tenures were not interfered with — indeed ryots with provisional occupancy tenures were granted absolute occupancy rights. The average rates on Government wet and dry land were put at 8 annas and 4 annas respectively, and cultivation is now measured up annually. The peshkash was fixed at two-thirds of the various superior and inferior proprietors' assets, ascertained by a scrutiny of their accounts, subject to the proviso that no curtailment exceeding 15 per cent, should be effected in any proprietor's income. The abkári and forest revenue were again retained in the hands of Government, but as an act of grace an allowance of Rs. 4,000 a year was made to the zamindar of Bhadráchalam as compensation therefor, the deduction from
