1 MEMORANDUM ON LAND TENURES AND CUL-
2 TIVATION IN MYSORE.
3 Ir does not appear that a Revenue Survey of the lands in Mysore was
4 ‘ever made prior to the capture of Seringapatam, but one of the first steps
5 adopted after that event by the Dewan Poorniah was a General Pymaish
6 ‘or measurement of fields. The execution of this work however was in»
7 complete and irregular, and the records of the measurement are not now
8 forthcoming in many of the Talooks,
9 Under the present administration no attempt at a General Survey has
10 yet been made, and consequently the extent of the various descriptions
11 of lands cannot be correctly stated. If however we assume Colonel
12 Mackenzie’s estimate pf a superficial area of twenty-seven thousand
13 square miles to be correct, the number of Kondagahs, or Kandies, would
14 be 13,06,800, of these 9,837,254 are calculated to be covered by moun-
15 tains, rivers, nullahs, tanks, roads and wastes, leaving 3,69,546 of
16 cultivable land, of which about 2,84,276 Kandies are under the
17 plough.
18 The lands in every village in Mysore are classed as Kooshky or Dry,
19 Turree or Wet, and Bagayut or Garden, The first class is cultivated with
20 dry grains, requiring no more water for their production than is furnish-
21 ed by the rains as they fall; the second with rice and other wet
22 produce ; and the third with cocoanut and areca trees, chillies and other
23 garden productions. The two last require artificial irrigation from
24 tanks, canals and wells,
25 The village lands are divided into unaeethe (or Kandies, Kolagahs,
26 or Koodows), Bullahs, Seers and Poilees, these being the names for the
27 measures or weights of seed required to sow a given space, But, as
28 these measures varied in each different locality, they were set aside by’
29 Poorniah, and a uniform measure, called the Kistnaraj Kandy, established
30 in their room. ~
31 This Kandy, which was fixed at 160 seers, is the standard now followed
32 by the European Superintendents in their revenue settlements.