BOOK III
SKETCH OF A FEUDAL SYSTEM IN RĀJASTHĀN
CHAPTER 1
Feudalism in Rājasthān.
—It is more than doubtful whether any
code of civil or criminal jurisprudence ever existed in any of
these principalities; though it is certain that none is at this day
discoverable in their archives. But there is a martial system
peculiar to these Rajput States, so extensive in its operation as
to embrace every object of society. This is so analogous to the
ancient feudal system of Europe, that I have not hesitated to
hazard a comparison between them, with reference to a period
when the latter was yet imperfect. Long and attentive observation
enables me to give this outline of a system, of which there
exists little written evidence. Curiosity originally, and subsequently
a sense of public duty (lest I might be a party to injustice),
co-operated in inducing me to make myself fully acquainted with
the minutiae of this traditionary theory of government; and
incidents, apparently trivial in themselves, exposed parts of a
widely-extended system, which, though now disjointed, still
continue to regulate the actions of extensive communities, and
lead to the inference, that at one period it must have attained a
certain degree of perfection.
Many years have elapsed since I first entertained these opinions,
long before any connexion existed between these States and the
British Government; when their geography was little known to
us, and their history still less so. At that period I frequently
travelled amongst them for amusement, making these objects
subservient thereto, and laying the result freely before my Government.
I had [130] abundant sources of intelligence to guide me
in forming my analogies; Montesquieu, Hume, Millar, Gibbon[1]:
but I sought only general resemblances and lineaments similar
to those before me. A more perfect, because more familiar
picture, has since appeared by an author,[2] who has drawn aside
the veil of mystery which covered the subject, owing to its being
till then but imperfectly understood. I compared the features of
Rajput society with the finished picture of this eloquent writer,
and shall be satisfied with having substantiated the claim of these
tribes to participation in a system, hitherto deemed to belong
exclusively to Europe. I am aware of the danger of hypothesis,
and shall advance nothing that I do not accompany by incontestable
proofs.
The Tribal System.
—The leading features of government
amongst semi-barbarous hordes or civilized independent tribes
must have a considerable resemblance to each other. In the
same stages of society, the wants of men must everywhere be
similar, and will produce the analogies which are observed to
regulate Tatar hordes or German tribes, Caledonian clans, the
Rajput Kula (race), or Jareja Bhayyad (brotherhood). All the
countries of Europe participated in the system we denominate
feudal; and we can observe it, in various degrees of perfection
or deterioration, from the mountains of Caucasus to the Indian
Ocean. But it requires a persevering toil, and more discriminating
judgement than I possess, to recover all these relics of civilization:
yet though time, and still more oppression, have veiled
the ancient institutions of Mewar, the mystery may be penetrated,
and will discover parts of a system worthy of being rescued from
oblivion.
Influence of Muhammadans and Mahrattas.
—Mahratta cunning,
engrafted on Muhammadan intolerance, had greatly obscured
these institutions. The nation itself was passing rapidly away:
the remnant which was left had become a matter of calculation,
and their records and their laws partook of this general
decay. The nation may recover; the physical frame may be
renewed; but the
morale of the society must be recast. In this
chaos a casual observer sees nothing to attract notice; the theory
of government appears, without any of the dignity which now
marks our regular system. Whatever does exist is attributed
to fortuitous causes—to nothing systematic: no fixed principle
is discerned, and none is admitted; it is deemed a mechanism
without a plan. This opinion is hasty. Attention to distinctions,
though often merely nominal [131], will aid us in discovering the
outlines of a picture which must at some period have been more
finished; when real power, unrestrained by foreign influence,
upheld a system, the plan of which was original. It is in these
remote regions, so little known to the Western world, and where
original manners lie hidden under those of the conquerors, that
we may search for the germs of the constitutions of European
States.
[3] A contempt for all that is Asiatic too often marks our
countrymen in the East: though at one period on record the
taunt might have been reversed.
In remarking the curious coincidence between the habits,
notions, and governments of Europe in the Middle Ages, and those
of Rajasthan, it is not absolutely necessary we should conclude
that one system was borrowed from the other; each may, in
truth, be said to have the patriarchal form for its basis. I have
sometimes been inclined to agree with the definition of Gibbon,
who styles the system of our ancestors the offspring of chance
and barbarism. “Le système féodal, assemblage monstrueux de
tant de parties que le tems et l’hazard ont réunies, nous offre un
objet très compliqué: pour l’étudier il faut le décomposer.”[4]
This I shall attempt.
The form, as before remarked, is truly patriarchal in these
States, where the greater portion of the vassal chiefs, from the
highest of the sixteen peers to the holders of a charsa[5] of land,
claim affinity in blood to the sovereign.[6]
The natural seeds are implanted in every soil, but the tree did
not gain [132] maturity except in a favoured aspect. The perfection
of the system in England is due to the Normans, who
brought it from Scandinavia, whither it was probably conveyed
by Odin and the Sacasenae, or by anterior migrations, from Asia;
which would coincide with Richardson’s hypothesis, who contends
that it was introduced from Tatary. Although speculative
reasoning forms no part of my plan, yet when I observe analogy
on the subject in the customs of the ancient German tribes, the
Franks or Gothic races, I shall venture to note them. Of one
thing there is no doubt—knowledge must have accompanied the
tide of migration from the east: and from higher Asia emerged
in the Asi, the Chatti, and the Cimbric Lombard, who spread
the system in Scandinavia, Friesland, and Italy.
Origin of Feuds.
—“It has been very common,” says the
enlightened historian of the Feudal System in the Middle Ages,
“to seek for the origin of feuds, or at least for analogies to them,
in the history of various countries; but though it is of great
importance to trace the similarity of customs in different parts of
the world, we should guard against seeming analogies, which
vanish away when they are closely observed. It is easy to find
partial resemblances to the feudal system. The relation of patron
and client in the republic of Rome has been deemed to resemble
it, as well as the barbarians and veterans who held frontier lands
on the tenure of defending them and the frontier; but they were
bound not to an individual, but to the state. Such a resemblance
of fiefs may be found in the Zamindars of Hindustan and the
Timariots of Turkey. The clans of the Highlanders and Irish
followed their chieftain into the field: but their tie was that of
imagined kindred and birth, not the spontaneous compact of
vassalage.”
[7]I give this at length to show, that if I still persist in deeming
the Rajput system a pure relation of feuds, I have before my eyes
the danger of seeming resemblances. But grants, deeds, charters,
and traditions, copies of all of which will be found in the Appendix,
will establish my opinions. I hope to prove that the tribes in the
northern regions of Hindustan did possess the system, and that
it was handed down, and still obtains, notwithstanding seven
centuries of paramount sway of the Mogul and Pathan dynasties,
altogether opposed to them except in this feature of government
where there was an original similarity. In some of these States—those
least affected by conquest—the system remained freer
from innovation. It is, however, from Mewar chiefly that I shall
deduce my examples, as its internal [133] rule was less influenced
by foreign policy, even to the period at which the imperial power
of Delhi was on the decline.
Evidence from Mewar.
—As in Europe, for a length of time,
traditionary custom was the only regulator of the rights and
tenures of this system, varying in each State, and not unfrequently
(in its minor details) in the different provinces of one
State, according to their mode of acquisition and the description
of occupants when required. It is from such circumstances that
the variety of tenure and customary law proceeds. To account
for this variety, a knowledge of them is requisite; nor is it until
every part of the system is developed that it can be fully understood.
The most trifling cause is discovered to be the parent of
some important result. If ever these were embodied into a code
(and we are justified in assuming such to have been the case),
the varied revolutions which have swept away almost all relics
of their history were not likely to spare these. Mention is made
of several princes of the house of Mewar who legislated for their
country; but precedents for every occurring case lie scattered
in formulas, grants, and traditionary sayings. The inscriptions
still existing on stone would alone, if collected, form a body of
laws sufficient for an infant community; and these were always
first committed to writing, and registered ere the column was
raised. The seven centuries of turmoil and disaster, during which
these States were in continual strife with the foe, produced many
princes of high intellect as well as valour. Sanga Rana, and his
antagonist, Sultan Babur, were revived in their no less celebrated
grandsons, the great Akbar and Rana Partap: the son of the
latter, Amra, the foe of Jahangir, was a character of whom the
proudest nation might be vain.
Evidence from Inscriptions.
—The pen has recorded, and tradition
handed down, many isolated fragments of the genius of these
Rajput princes, as statesmen and warriors, touching the political
division, regulations of the aristocracy, and commercial and
agricultural bodies. Sumptuary laws, even, which append to a
feudal system, are to be traced in these inscriptions; the annulling
of monopolies and exorbitant taxes; the regulation of transit
duties; prohibition of profaning sacred days by labour; immunities,
privileges, and charters to trades, corporations, and
towns; such as would, in climes more favourable to liberty, have
matured into a league, or obtained for these branches a voice in
the councils of the State. My search for less perishable documents
than parchment when I found the cabinet of the prince
contained them not, was unceasing; but though the bigoted
Muhammadan destroyed [134] most of the traces of civilization
within his reach, perseverance was rewarded with a considerable
number. They are at least matter of curiosity. They will
evince that monopolies and restraints on commerce were well
understood in Rajwara, though the doctrines of political economy
never gained footing there. The setting up of these engraved
tablets or pillars, called Seoras,
[8] is of the highest antiquity.
Every subject commences with invoking the sun and moon as
witnesses, and concludes with a denunciation of the severest
penalties on those who break the spirit of the imperishable bond.
Tablets of an historical nature I have of twelve and fourteen
hundred years’ antiquity, but of grants of land or privileges
about one thousand years is the oldest. Time has destroyed
many, but man more. They became more numerous during the
last three centuries, when successful struggles against their foes
produced new privileges, granted in order to recall the scattered
inhabitants. Thus one contains an abolition of the monopoly of
tobacco;
[9] another, the remission of tax on printed cloths, with
permission to the country manufacturers to sell their goods free
of duty at the neighbouring towns. To a third, a mercantile
city, the abolition of war contributions,
[10] and the establishment
of its internal judicial authority. Nay, even where good manners
alone are concerned, the lawgiver appears, and with an amusing
simplicity:
[11] “From the public feast none shall attempt to carry
anything away.” “None shall eat after sunset,” shows that a
Jain obtained the edict. To yoke the bullock or other animal for
any work on the sacred Amavas,
[12] is also declared punishable.
Others contain revocations of vexatious fees to officers of the
crown; “of beds and quilts
[13]”; “the seizure of the carts, implements,
or cattle of the husbandmen,”
[14]—the sole boon in our own
Magna Charta demanded for the husbandman. These and several
others, of which copies are annexed, need not be repeated. If
even from such memoranda a sufficient number could be collected
of each prince’s reign up to the olden time, what more could we
desire to enable us to judge of the genius of their princes, the
wants and habits of the people, their acts and occupations?
The most ancient written customary law of France is
A.D. 1088,
[15]
at which time Mewar was in high [135] prosperity; opposing, at
the head of a league far more powerful than France could form
for ages after, the progress of revolution and foreign conquest.
Ignorance, sloth, and all the vices which wait on and result from
continual oppression in a perpetual struggle for existence of ages’
duration, gradually diminished the reverence of the inhabitants
themselves for these relics of the wisdom of their forefathers.
In latter years, they so far forgot the ennobling feeling and respect
for ‘the stone which told’ their once exalted condition, as to
convert the materials of the temple in which many of these stood
into places of abode. Thus many a valuable relic is built up in
the castles of their barons, or buried in the rubbish of the fallen
pile.
Books of Grants.
—We have, however, the books of grants to the
chiefs and vassals, and also the grand rent-roll of the country.
These are of themselves valuable documents. Could we but
obtain those of remoter periods, they would serve as a commentary
on the history of the country, as each contains the detail of
every estate, and the stipulated service, in horse and foot, to be
performed for it. In later times, when turbulence and disaffection
went unpunished, it was useless to specify a stipulation of
service that was nugatory; and too often the grants contained
but the names of towns and villages, and their value; or if they
had the more general terms of service, none of its details.
[16] From
all these, however, a sufficiency of customary rules could easily
be found to form the written law of fiefs in Rajasthan. In
France, in the sixteenth century, the variety of these customs
amounted to two hundred and eighty-five, of which only sixty
[17]
were of great importance. The number of consequence in Mewar
which have come to my observation is considerable, and the most
important will be given in the Appendix. Were the same plan
pursued there as in that ordinance which produced the laws of
Pays Coutumiers
[18] of France, viz. ascertaining those of each
district, the materials are ready.
Such a collection would be amusing, particularly if the traditionary
were added to the engraved laws. They would often
appear jejune, and might involve contradictions; but we should
see the wants of the people; and if ever our connexion (which God
forbid!) should be drawn closer, we could then legislate without
offending national customs or religious prejudices. Could this,
by any instinctive [136] impulse or external stimulus, be effected
by themselves, it would be the era of their emersion from long
oppression, and might lead to better notions of government, and
consequent happiness to them all.
Noble Origin of the Rājput Race.
—If we compare the antiquity
and illustrious descent of the dynasties which have ruled, and
some which continue to rule, the small sovereignties of Rajasthan,
with many of celebrity in Europe, superiority will often attach
to the Rajput. From the most remote periods we can trace
nothing ignoble, nor any vestige of vassal origin. Reduced in
power, circumscribed in territory, compelled to yield much of
their splendour and many of the dignities of birth, they have not
abandoned an iota of the pride and high bearing arising from a
knowledge of their illustrious and regal descent. On this principle
the various revolutions in the Rana’s family never encroached;
and the mighty Jahangir himself, the Emperor of the
Moguls, became, like Caesar, the commentator on the history of
the tribe of Sesodia.
[19] The potentate of the twenty-two Satrapies
of Hind dwells with proud complacency on this Rajput king
having made terms with him. He praises heaven, that what
his immortal ancestor Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty,
failed to do, the project in which Humayun had also failed, and
in which the illustrious Akbar, his father, had but partial success,
was reserved for him. It is pleasing to peruse in the commentaries
of these conquerors, Babur and Jahangir, their sentiments
with regard to these princes. We have the evidence of Sir
Thomas Roe, the ambassador of Elizabeth to Jahangir, as to the
splendour of this race: it appears throughout their annals and
those of their neighbours.
The Rāthors of Mārwār.
—The Rathors can boast a splendid
pedigree; and if we cannot trace its source with equal certainty
to such a period of antiquity as the Rana’s, we can, at all events,
show the Rathor monarch wielding the sceptre at Kanauj, at the
time the leader of an unknown tribe of the Franks was paving
the way towards the foundation of the future kingdom of France.
Unwieldy greatness caused the sudden fall of Kanauj in the
twelfth century, of which the existing line of Marwar is a renovated
scion.
[20]The Kachhwāhas of Amber.
—Amber is a branch of the once
illustrious and ancient [137] Nishadha, now Narwar, which produced
the ill-fated prince whose story
[21] is so interesting. Revolution
and conquest compelled them to quit their ancestral abodes.
Hindustan was then divided into no more than four great kingdoms.
By Arabian
[22] travellers we have a confused picture of
these States. But all the minor States, now existing in the west,
arose about the period when the feudal system was approaching
maturity in France and England.
The others are less illustrious, being the descendants of the
great vassals of their ancient kings.
The Sesodias of Mewār.
—Mewar exhibits a marked difference
from all the other States in her policy and institutions. She was
an old-established dynasty when these renovated scions were in
embryo. We can trace the losses of Mewar, but with difficulty
her acquisitions; while it is easy to note the gradual aggrandisement
of Marwar and Amber, and all the minor States. Marwar
was composed of many petty States, whose ancient possessions
formed an allodial vassalage under the new dynasty. A superior
independence of the control of the prince arises from the peculiarity
of the mode of acquisition; that is, with rights similar to the
allodial vassals of the European feudal system.
Pride of Ancestry.
—The poorest Rajput of this day retains all
the pride of ancestry, often his sole inheritance; he scorns to
hold the plough, or to use his lance but on horseback. In these
aristocratic ideas he is supported by his reception amongst his
superiors, and the respect paid to him by his inferiors. The
honours and privileges, and the gradations of rank, amongst the
vassals of the Rana’s house, exhibit a highly artificial and refined
state of society. Each of the superior rank is entitled to a banner,
kettle-drums preceded by heralds and silver maces, with peculiar
gifts and personal honours, in commemoration of some exploit
of their ancestors.
Armorial Bearings.
—The martial Rajputs are not strangers
to armorial bearings,
[23] now so indiscriminately used in Europe.
The great banner of Mewar exhibits a golden sun [138] on a crimson
field; those of the chiefs bear a dagger. Amber displays the
panchranga, or five-coloured flag. The lion rampant on an
argent field is extinct with the State of Chanderi.
[24]In Europe these customs were not introduced till the period
of the Crusades, and were copied from the Saracens; while the
use of them amongst the Rajput tribes can be traced to a period
anterior to the war of Troy. In the Mahabharat, or great war,
twelve hundred years before Christ, we find the hero Bhishma
exulting over his trophy, the banner of Arjuna, its field adorned
with the figure of the Indian Hanuman.[25] These emblems had a
religious reference amongst the Hindus, and were taken from their
mythology, the origin of all devices.
The Tribal Palladium.
—Every royal house has its palladium,
which is frequently borne to battle at the saddle-bow of the
prince. Rao Bhima Hara, of Kotah, lost his life and protecting
deity together. The late celebrated Khichi
[26] leader, Jai Singh,
never took the field without the god before him. ‘Victory to
Bajrang’ was his signal for the charge so dreaded by the Mahratta,
and often has the deity been sprinkled with his blood and that of
the foe. Their ancestors, who opposed Alexander, did the same,
and carried the image of Hercules (
Baldeva) at the head of their
array.
[27]Banners.
—The custom (says Arrian) of presenting banners as
an emblem of sovereignty over vassals, also obtained amongst
the tribes of the Indus when invaded by Alexander. When he
conquered the Saka and tribes east of the Caspian, he divided
the provinces amongst the princes of the ancient families, for
which they paid homage, engaged to serve with a certain quota
of troops, and received from his own hand a banner; in all of
which he followed the customs of the country. But in these we
see only the outline of the system; we must descend to more
modern days to observe it more minutely. A grand picture is
drawn of the power of Mewar, when the first grand irruption of
the Muhammadans occurred in the first century of their era;
when “a hundred
[28] kings, its allies and dependents, had their
thrones raised in Chitor,” for its defence and their own individually
[139], when a new religion, propagated by the sword of conquest,
came to enslave these realms. This invasion was by
Sind and Makran; for it was half a century later ere ‘the light’
shone from the heights of Pamir
[29] on the plains of the Jumna and
Ganges.
From the commencement of this religious war in the mountains
westward of the Indus, many ages elapsed ere the ‘King of
the Faith’ obtained a seat on the throne of Yudhishthira. Chand,
the bard, has left us various valuable memorials of this period,
applicable to the subject historically as well as to the immediate
topic. Visaladeva, the monarch whose name appears on the
pillar of victory at Delhi, led an army against the invader, in
which, according to the bard, “the banners of eighty-four princes
were assembled.” The bard describes with great animation the
summons sent for this magnificent feudal levy from the heart of
Antarbedi,[30] to the shores of the western sea, and it coincides with
the record of his victory, which most probably this very army
obtained for him. But no finer picture of feudal manners exists
than the history of Prithwiraja, contained in Chand’s poems.
It is surprising that this epic should have been allowed so long
to sleep neglected: a thorough knowledge of it, and of others of
the same character, would open many sources of new knowledge,
and enable us to trace many curious and interesting coincidences.[31]
In perusing these tales of the days that are past, we should be
induced to conclude that the Kuriltai of the Tatars, the Chaugan
of the Rajput, and the Champ de Mars of the Frank, had one
common origin.
Influence of Caste.
—Caste has for ever prevented the inferior
classes of society from being incorporated with this haughty
noblesse. Only those of pure blood in both lines can hold fiefs
of the crown. The highest may marry the daughter of a Rajput,
whose sole [140] possession is a ‘skin of land’:
[32] the sovereign
himself is not degraded by such alliance. There is no moral blot,
and the operation of a law like the Salic would prevent any
political evil resulting therefrom. Titles are granted, and even
fiefs of office, to ministers and civil servants not Rajputs; they
are, however, but official, and never confer hereditary right.
These official fiefs may have originally arisen, here and in Europe,
from the same cause; the want of a circulating medium to pay the
offices. The Mantris
[33] of Mewar prefer estates to pecuniary
stipend, which gives more consequence in every point of view.
All the higher offices—as cup-bearer, butler, stewards of the
household, wardrobe, kitchen, master of the horse—all these are
enumerated as ministerialists
[34] at the court of Charlemagne in
the dark ages of Europe, and of whom we have the duplicates.
These are what the author of the Middle Ages designates as
“improper feuds.”
[35] In Mewar the prince’s architect, painter,
physician, bard, genealogist, heralds, and all the generation of
the foster-brothers, hold lands. Offices are hereditary in this
patriarchal government; their services personal. The title
even appends to the family, and if the chance of events deprive
them of the substance, they are seldom left destitute. It is not
uncommon to see three or four with the title of pardhan or
premier.
[36]But before I proceed further in these desultory and general
remarks, I shall commence the chief details of the system as
described in times past, and, in part, still obtaining in the
principality of the Rana of Mewar.Mewar. As its geography and
distribution are fully related in their proper place, I must
refer the reader to that for a preliminary understanding of its
localities.
Estates of Chief and Fiscal Land.
—The local disposition of the
estates was admirably contrived. Bounded on three sides, the
south, east, and west, by marauding barbarous tribes of Bhils,
Mers, and Minas, the circumference of this circle was subdivided
into estates for the chiefs, while the khalisa, or fiscal land, the
best and richest, was in the heart of the country, and consequently
well protected [141]. It appears doubtful whether the khalisa
lands amounted to one-fourth of those distributed in grant to the
chiefs. The value of the crown demesne as the nerve and sinew
of sovereignty, was well known by the former heads of this house.
To obtain any portion thereof was the reward of important services;
to have a grant of a few acres near the capital for a garden
was deemed a high favour; and a village in the amphitheatre or
valley, in which the present capital is situated, was the ne plus
ultra of recompense. But the lavish folly of the present prince,
out of this tract, twenty-five miles in circumference, has not
preserved a single village in his khalisa. By this distribution,
and by the inroads of the wild tribes in the vicinity, or of Moguls
and Mahrattas, the valour of the chiefs were kept in constant
play.
The country was partitioned into districts, each containing
from fifty to one hundred towns and villages, though sometimes
exceeding that proportion. The great number of Chaurasis[37]
leads to the conclusion that portions to the amount of eighty-four
had been the general subdivision. Many of these yet remain:
as the ‘Chaurasi’ of Jahazpur and of Kumbhalmer: tantamount
to the old ‘hundreds’ of our Saxon ancestry. A circle of posts
was distributed, within which the quotas of the chiefs attended,
under ‘the Faujdar of the Sima’ (vulgo Sim), or commander of
the border. It was found expedient to appoint from court this
lord of the frontier, always accompanied by a portion of the royal
insignia, standard, kettle-drums, and heralds, and being generally a
civil officer, he united to his military office the administration of
justice.[38] The higher vassals never attended personally at these
posts, but deputed a confidential branch of their family, with
the quota required. For the government of the districts there
were conjoined a civil and a military officer: the latter generally
a vassal of the second rank. Their residence was the chief place
of the district, commonly a stronghold.
The division of the chiefs into distinct grades, shows a highly
artificial state of society.
First class.—We have the Sixteen, whose estates were from
fifty thousand to one hundred thousand rupees and upwards, of
yearly rent. These appear in the [142] presence only on special
invitation, upon festivals and solemn ceremonies, and are the
hereditary councillors of the crown.[39]
Second class, from five to fifty thousand rupees. Their duty
is to be always in attendance. From these, chiefly, faujdars and
military officers are selected.[39]
Third class is that of Gol[39] holding lands chiefly under five
thousand rupees, though by favour they may exceed this limit.
They are generally the holders of separate villages and portions
of land, and in former times they were the most useful class to the
prince. They always attended on his person, and indeed formed
his strength against any combination or opposition of the higher
vassals.
Fourth class.—The offsets of the younger branches of the
Rana’s own family, within a certain period, are called the babas,
literally ‘infants,’ and have appanages bestowed on them. Of
this class are Shahpura and Banera; too powerful for subjects.[40]
They hold on none of the terms of the great clans, but consider
themselves at the disposal of the prince. These are more within
the influence of the crown. Allowing adoption into these houses,
except in the case of near kindred, is assuredly an innovation;
they ought to revert to the crown, failing immediate issue, as did
the great estate of Bhainsrorgarh, two generations back. From
these to the holder of a charsa, or hide of land, the peculiarity of
tenure and duties of each will form a subject for discussion.
Revenues and Rights of the Crown.
—I need not here expatiate
upon the variety of items which constitute the revenues of the
prince, the details of which will appear in their proper place.
The land-tax in the khalisa demesne is, of course, the chief source
of supply; the transit duties on commerce and trade, and those
of the larger towns and commercial marts, rank next. In former
times more attention was paid to this important branch of income,
and the produce was greater because less shackled. The
liberality on the side of the crown was only equalled by the
integrity of the merchant, and the extent to which it was carried
would imply an almost Utopian degree of perfection in their
mutual qualities of liberality and honesty; the one, perhaps,
generating the other. The remark of a merchant recently, on
the vexatious train of duties and espionage attending their
collection, is not merely figurative: "our ancestors tied their
invoice to the horns of the oxen
[42] at the first frontier post of
customs, and no intermediate questions [143] were put till we
passed to the opposite or sold our goods, when it was opened
and payment made accordingly; but now every town has its
rights." It will be long ere this degree of confidence is restored
on either side; extensive demand on the one is met by fraud and
evasion on the other, though at least one-half of these evils have
already been subdued.
Mines and Minerals.
—The mines were very productive in
former times, and yielded several lacs to the princes of Mewar.
[43]
The rich tin mines of Jawara produced at one time a considerable
proportion of silver. Those of copper are abundant, as is also
iron on the now alienated domain on the Chambal; but lead least
of all.
[44]The marble quarries also added to the revenue; and where
there is such a multiplicity of sources, none are considered too
minute to be applied in these necessitous times.
Barār.
—
Barar is an indefinite term for taxation, and is connected
with the thing taxed: as
ghanim-barar,
[45] ‘war-tax’;
ghar
ginti-barar,
[46] ‘house-tax’;
hal-barar, ‘plough-tax’;
neota-barar,
‘marriage-tax’; and others, both of old and new standing.
The war-tax was a kind of substitute for the regular mode of
levying the rents on the produce of the soil; which was rendered
very difficult during the disturbed period, and did not accord
with the wants of the prince. It is also a substitute in those
mountainous regions, for the
jarib,
[47] where the produce bears
no proportion to the cultivated surface; sometimes from poverty
of soil, but often from the reverse, as in Kumbhalmer, where the
choicest crops are produced on the cultivated terraces, and on the
sides of its mountains, which abound with springs, yielding the
richest canes and cottons, and where experiment has proved
that four crops can be raised in the same patch of soil within the
year.
The offering on confirmation of estates (or fine on renewal) is
now, though a very small, yet still one source of supply; as is
the annual and triennial payment of the quit-rents of the Bhumia
chiefs. Fines in composition of offences may also be mentioned:
and they might be larger, if more activity were introduced in the
detection of offenders [144].
These governments are mild in the execution of the laws;
and a heavy fine has more effect (especially on the hill tribes)
than the execution of the offender, who fears death less than the
loss of property.
Khar-Lakar.
—The composition for ‘wood and forage’ afforded
a considerable supply. When the princes of Mewar were oftener
in the tented field than in the palace, combating for their preservation,
it was the duty of every individual to store up wood
and forage for the supply of the prince’s army. What originated
in necessity was converted into an abuse and annual demand.
The towns also supplied a certain portion of provisions; where
the prince halted for the day these were levied on the community;
a goat or sheep from the shepherd, milk and flour from the farmer.
The maintenance of these customs is observable in taxes, for the
origin of which it is impossible to assign a reason without going
into the history of the period; they scarcely recollect the source
of some of these themselves. They are akin to those known
under the feudal tenures of France, arising from exactly the same
causes, and commuted for money payments; such as the
droit
de giste et de chevauche.
[48] Many also originated in the perambulations
of these princes to visit their domains;
[49] a black year in the
calendar to the chief and the subject. When he honoured the
chief by a visit, he had to present horses and arms, and to entertain
his prince, in all which honours the cultivators and merchants
had to share. The duties on the sale of spirits, opium, tobacco,
and even to a share of the garden-stuff, affords also modes of
supply [145].
[50]