CHAPTER IV
The Bárámahal—Munro as Collector
By the treaty of Seringapatam, Tipú ceded half his dominions to the East India Company and their allies—the Nizám and the Maráthás. The portion that came to the Company was the District of Malabar on the west coast, Dindigal, now part of the District of Madura, and what was then known as the Bárámahal, a part of the present District of Salem.
For the civil administration of the latter of these Lord Cornwallis selected Captain Read, with the title of Superintendent of Revenue of the Bárámahal; and Lieutenant Munro and two other military officers were appointed as his assistants. The selection of military officers for this work was due partly to the deficiency of civil servants with a sufficient knowledge of the language, and partly to the unsatisfactory manner in which the revenue administration of the older possessions of the Company had been conducted. In the Northern Circárs, for example, the land belonged chiefly to zamindárs, who paid a fixed sum to Government, farming out the land to renters, who
