The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s3.t6.2

v2.c15.s3.t6.2

But the establishment of new villages in the forest clearings proved to be a hard task fraught with many difficulties. It was not always easy to find suitable settlers who would consent to be transplanted to form the new communities. The government did not itself undertake this work; it was left to the efforts of enterprising farmers chartered by the State who would visit villages in their neighbourhood and gather together bands of men eager to break loose from the entanglements of the joint family, and to set themselves up in independent homesteads. The government also encouraged such movements by granting special privileges to the emigrants. They were allowed to cultivate the land at first for a term of three years free from the payment of any rent or fiscal charges; from the fourth year onwards taxes were levied at low rates which were gradually raised year by year until they came up to the level of those obtaining in the older established villages of the vicinity.