GAZETTEER
the díwán. The upper division consists of the tánas of Jeypore, Koraput, Nandapuram, Rámagiri, Malkanagiri, Kótapád, Umarkót, Bhairava Singapur and Naurangpur; and the lower of those of Ganupur. Gudári, Ráyagada, Kalyána Singapur and Náráyanapatnam. In addition there are certain scattered villages in other parts of the district, and half of the Mádgole estate (68 villages) has been mortgaged (see p. 322) to Jeypore. The net income from all sources is some seven lakhs per annum. The land revenue is highest in Gunupur, Kótapád and Ráyagada, and lowest in Rámagiri and Malkanagiri. Each tána is divided into vaguely defined muttas and is in charge of an ámin (also styled a nigamán) under whom are revenue inspectors, sometimes called samntdars. The village establishments consist of the headman, or naik, and certain menials called bárikes, chelláns or gondas, and they are remunerated by the profits of cultivating certain land set aside in each village for them, and called 'the naik's land,' or by grain fees from the villagers. In Khond villages the headman is called the majji or sámanto and in Savara villages the gomángo. These people also have a kind of spokesman called the péshini, who arranges matters with officials. Round about Naurangpur, headmen of big villages are sometimes called báranaiks, which literally means head of twelve villages.
The land revenue is administered on methods which are without a parallel in other Madras districts and are interesting from the survival of the ancient feudal spirit which they exhibit. No survey or settlement has ever been carried out; and though in the lower division a good deal of the land is held on ryotwari tenure most of that above the Gháts is administered under a village-rent system called mustájari. The mustájars, or renters of the
villages, are very usually the naiks. They are yearly tenants and receive pattas (locally known as cowles) from, and give muchilikas (kadapás) to, the Mahárája; but the amounts they pay vary but little from year to year and often the same mustájar holds his village for a long term. They send in no accounts. In theory they are merely agents for the collection of the revenue, being remunerated by being allowed to cultivate, rent free, a certain definite piece of land ear-marked for the purpose) by immemorial custom. They are supposed to have no power to eject ryots or enhance their sists, though they may profit by the sist of any land newly brought under cultivation during their lease. In practice, however, it is admittedly difficult to prevent them from oppressing their ryots and levying forced labour for the cultivation of their own lands; while the fact that the villagers have no occupancy right in their fields renders the latter unwilling to sink
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