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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 18, p. 343.

ADMINISTRATION 343 Talukdar. The First Talukdar exercises a general supervision over the work of all his subordinates. Each tdluk is under a tahsilddr. The District civil court is presided over by the First Talukdar with a Afadadgcir or judicial Assistant for both civil and criminal work, there being no Ndzim-i-Diwdni. There are altogether ten subordinate civil courts, three presided over by the Second and Third Talukdars, and seven by the tahsilddrs. The First Talukdar is the chief magistrate of the District and his Assistant is also a joint-magistrate, who exercises powers in the absence of the First Talukdar from head- quarters. The Second and Third Talukdars and the tahsilddrs have magisterial powers of the second and third class. Serious crime is not heavy, dacoities, theft, and house-breaking being the common offences in ordinary years. Little is known of the early history of land revenue. Up to 1821 an anchanaddr (estimator) was appointed to every ten villages, who estimated the standing crops and submitted his estimates to the dmils. On `wet' lands irrigated by tanks, and I dry' lands, the State and the ryot had equal shares, but on 'wet' lands supplied by channels and wells the ryot's share was three-fifths and three-fourths respectively. In 1821 ziladdrs (revenue managers) were appointed, who entered into an agreement for a period of ten years with patels or village headmen to pay annually a sum equal to the average receipts of the previous ten years. In 1835 groups of villages were made over to zaminddrs on the sarbasta or contract system, which continued to the time of Messrs. Dighton and Azam Ali Khan, the revenue managers or ziladdrs in 1840. Five years later this was changed in certain tdluks and the revenue was collected departmentally, partly in kind and partly in cash. The sarbasta or contract system was completely abolished on the formation of regular Districts in 1866, when rates of assessment were fixed per bigha (4 acre). The revenue survey of the whole District has not yet been completed. The tdluks of Nalgonda and Devalpalli have very recently been settled, the increase in their revenue being nearly Rs. 46,200, or more than 16 per cent. The average assessment on `dry' land is Rs. 1-14 (maximum Rs. 2-12, minimum Rs. 1-4), and on `wet' land Rs. 15 (maximum Rs. 18, minimum Rs. ii). The land revenue and total revenue in recent years are given below, in thousands of rupees:- --I 1881. x891. 1901. igo3. Land revenue . 8,20 1093 11,97 12,38 Total revenue. 12,99 16,83 22,49 22,22 Owing to changes in area effected in 1905, the revenue demand is now about 14.6 lakhs.