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of the pargana was parcelled out between birtias, who never, however, attained the independent position which was held by the birtias of the neighbouring pargana of IJtraula. They were entitled to a fourth of the whole profits after deducting the cultivator's share and the expenses of labour that is, when the village was held on grain rents, the whole produce was collected in the threshing-floor, the ploughman, the ingatherers, the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the -remaining village servants first took their dues, the grain left was then divided into two equal heaps, of which the cultivating occupant took one, and of the other, one-fourth was taken by the birtia head of the village, the remaining three-fourths by the taluqdar or Government officer. If money rents were agreed on, they were based on an estimate of the probable value of the grain heap after deducting the village dues and the occupant's share. The village was leased at the full value of this, and at the end of the year one-fourth of the sum was remitted to the birtia.
The financial records show a continual progress in wealth and extension of tillage from the commencement of this century. In 1794 A. D., the first year for which settlement papers exist, the Government demand stood at Rs. 2,045, which within ten years had risen to Rs. 6,579. few bad seasons caused a temporary fall, but from 1819 A. D. the rise was steady, In 1854 A. D., Rae Sadhan Lai, till 1852 A. D. it stood at Rs. 10,157. a servant of the great revenue farmer Raja Krishan Datt Ram, was invested with the nizumat of Gonda-Bahraich, and Gop^l Tiwari, a relation of the The same man a few years raja, was sent as tahsildar to Burhapara. before had a misunderstanding with the Path^n leader Ashraf Bakhsh Kh^n, and his position now gave him an admirable opportunity of gratifying his resentment. Taking a force of 2,300 men, he devastated the whole of his enemy's estate, burning down the villages, cutting the crops, and, driving off the cattle. Ashraf Bakhsh was not strong enough to meet him in open field, so he retreated with a band of desperadoes to the jungles, and by way of reprisal visited the villages of other proprietors with the atroThe wretched cities marked by the Government tahsildar in his own. inhabitants fled in numbers to the protection of English law in the neighbouring district of Basti, and such was the desolation, that the Government revenue in 1855 A. D. had fallen to Rs. 1,710, the lowest figure at which
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had stood for the past sixty years. Annexation followed, Gopal Tiwari withdrew his force, and his prisoners escaped from the Dh^nepur fort, the cultivators re-crossed the frontier, and again took possession of their old fields, and Ashraf Bakhsh left the forest, and engaged for his estate of The remainder of the pargana was settled with the old forty-one villages. zamindari birtias. The progress since then has been extraordinary. In 1856 A. D., an experienced native officer was deputed to roughly calculate the He reported cultivated area and collect materials for a summary settlement. that 5,708 acres were under cultivation, on which the admitted rent was Fifteen Rs. 9,942 and the Government demand was fixed at Rs. 6,744. years later, in 1871, the pargana was regularly surveyed, and it was found that the cultivated area had nearly quadrupled, while the admitted rent had risen to Rs. 35,448. The necessary rise in_ the Government demand was so enormous, and so much of the land was jungle clearing and held at yearly increasing rents, that the settlement officer determined on proposing it
