Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/258

180 BAH not being ousted from the land actually in their own occupation. The taluqdar, finding them complaisant, would allow them this much, and would be pretty sure to permit them to hold the bits of land around the homestead denominated "dih." Where, however, the cultivating community were strong in themselves and united in their determination to resist the lord's encroachments, he sometimes had to abandon it. This, however, but very rarely happened, for, as has been noted above, this district has, with the exception of the Raikwári muháls, been always well-nigh destitute of such strong proprietary bodies. As a rule, the extinction of all valuable rights on the part of the ex-proprietor was prompt and complete. Bahraich classed. The taluqdari estates in this district are thirty-six in number and com- Taluqdazi estates in prise 1,760 villages, the revised assessment of which is Rs. 9,61,481-9-8. Of these eleven are ancestral, seven have been acquired within the forty years imme- diately preceding annexation, while eighteen are estates which having been confiscated from their original owners, have been conferred on loyal grantees. The number of villages comprised in these three classes of es- tates is shown thus :— CLASS OF ESTATE. Number of estates. Number of Revised Government villages. demand. Ancestral Newly-acquired... Loyal grants TOTAL 178 Rs. A. P. 828 4,76,811 5 6 138 81,196 13 2 794 3,83,473 7 0 9,41,481 9 8 36 1,760 It must also be borne in mind that the 794 villages which are now held in loyal grant were confiscated from parties who had held the greater number of them for many generations,-one ilága, that of Ikauna, being one of the oldest in Oudh. In connection with the description of the mode in which the taluqdari tenures arose, should be noticed the species of tenure Bhayái villages; known as Bhayái. In nearly all of the families of their origin. the lord in this district the principle of primogeniture has regulated the succession to their estates. Inasmuch, however, as this principle debarred the younger members of a family from all share in the property, and in but few cases did these brethren leave their father's house for service, or with any other object, it became necessary for the heir on succeeding to his ancestral estate to provide for them. This was done. usually by apportioning them one, two, or three villages each for their maintenance, to be held rent-free, The number of villages so assigned depended entirely on the generosity of the donor or his apprehensions of trouble in the future if he neglected to provide suitably for his portionless, but perhaps high-spirited, brethren. For the first generation the villages