334
VIZAGAPATAM DISTRICT
are invested with the civil powers of District Munsifs, subject to
the appellate authority of their respective divisional officers, who
exercise the powers of Subordinate Judges. There is, however, but
little civil litigation in so backward an area, only one in i,6oo of the
population bringing any kind of suit in most years, though the corre-
sponding figure for the Presidency as a whole is one in 115.
Criminal justice is dispensed by two Sessions courts, one for the
ordinary tracts, presided over by the District and Sessions judge,
and one for the Agency tract. In the latter the Collector, or Agent,
is the Sessions judge, and some of the work is done by the senior
Civilian divisional officer, who is an Additional Sessions Judge. In
the ordinary tracts serious offences against person and property are not
common, their frequency, as elsewhere, usually varying with the state
of the season. In the Agency tract, however, grave crimes are of
frequent occurrence, owing to the wild character of the country and
the people. Murder, dacoity, and cattle theft are common; and alto-
gether this is one of the most criminal tracts in the Presidency.
The revenue system in force before the Circars (Sarkars) were ceded
to the Company (1765) consisted simply in the Faujdar or Nawab
farming or leasing out the greater part of the country to revenue
agents, who received a percentage of what they collected. In accor-
dance with Oriental custom, these revenue posts tended to become
hereditary ; and before the cession their holders were usually called
zaminddrs, and the local area of the jurisdiction of each was known
as his zaminddri. At the same time the Nawabs appropriated for
their own use and for the support of the Musalman garrisons certain
lands called haveli, usually situated near the large towns, which were
always under their own immediate management. After the cession
this distinction between zaminddri and haveli or Government land
was retained for some time, but it was abolished on the introduction
of the permanent settlement in r8oz. The District then contained
sixteen ancient zaminddris. These were permanently settled for an
annual peshkash of 8 lakhs. The haveli lands were parcelled out into
convenient areas and sold by auction, and. thus also brought under
the zaminddri system. In this way twenty-three new estates were
formed, with a peshkash of' nearly 4 lakhs. These and the sixteen
ancient zaminddris formed the new Collectorate of Vizagapatam.
The District as thus created was entirely zaminddri; but between
1833 and 1844 twelve estates were confiscated for rebellion or resumed
on other accounts, and constituted into the three ryotwdri tdluks of
Golgonda, Sarvasiddhi, and Palkonda. The last named, however, was
leased to Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co. in 1846 and not resumed by
Government till 1892.
The ancient system of 'land assessment was by division of the
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