Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. 1 of 3, by James Tod

Trade at Bhīlwāra.

—The chief commercial mart, Bhilwara, which showed not a vestige of humanity, rapidly rose from ruin, and in a few months contained twelve hundred houses, half of which were occupied by foreign merchants. Bales of goods, the produce of the most distant lands, were piled up in the streets lately overgrown with grass, and a weekly fair was established for the home manufactures. A charter of privileges and immunities was issued, exempting them from all taxation for the first year, and graduating the scale for the future; calculated with the same regard to improvement, by giving the mind the full range of enjoying the reward of its exertions. The right of electing their own chief magistrates and the assessors of justice, was above all things indispensable, so as to render them as independent as possible of the needy servants of the court. A guard was provided by the government for their protection, and a competent authority nominated to see that the full extent of their privileges, and the utmost freedom of action, were religiously maintained. The entire success of this plan may at once be recorded to prevent repetition. In 1822, Bhilwara contained nearly three thousand dwellings, which were chiefly inhabited by merchants, bankers, or artisans. An entire new street had been constructed in the centre of the town, from the duties levied, and the shops and houses were rented at a moderate rate; while many were given up to the proprietors of their sites, returning from exile, on their paying the price of construction. But as there is no happiness without alloy, so even this pleasing picture had its dark shades to chasten the too sanguine expectation of imparting happiness to all. Instead of a generous emulation, a jealous competition checked the prosperity of Bhilwara: the base spirit of exclusive monopoly desired a distinction between the native and the stranger-merchant, for which they had a precedent in the latter paying an addition to the town-duty of metage (mapa). The unreasonableness of this was discussed, and it was shown to be more consonant to justice that he who came from Jaisalmer, Surat, Benares, or Delhi, should pay less than the merchant whose domicile was on the spot. When at length the parties acquiesced in this opinion, and were intreated and promised to know [485] none other distinction than that of ‘inhabitant of Bhilwara,’ sectarian differences, which there was less hope of reconciling, became the cause of disunion. All the Hindu merchants belong either to the Vaishnava or Jain sects; consequently each had a representative head, and ‘the Five’ for the adjudication of their internal arrangements; and these, the wise men of both parties, formed the general council for the affairs of Bhilwara. But they carried their religious differences to the judgement-seat, where each desired pre-eminence. Whether the point in dispute hinged on the interpretation of law, which with all these sects is of divine origin, or whether the mammon of unrighteousness was the lurking cause of their bickerings, they assuredly did much harm, for their appeals brought into play what of all things was least desired, the intrigues of the profligate dependents of the court. It will be seen hereafter,^[18] in visits to Bhilwara, how these disputes were in some degree calmed. The leaders on both sides were distinctly given to understand they would be made to leave the place. Self-interest prevented this extremity; but from the withdrawing of that active interference (which the state of the alliance did not indeed warrant, but which humanity interposed for their benefit) together with the effect of appeals to the court, it is to be apprehended that Bhilwara may fail to become what it was intended to be, the chief commercial mart of Central India.^[19]

Reform of the Nobility.

—Of the three measures simultaneously projected and pursued for the restoration of prosperity, the industrious portion has been described. The feudal interest remains, which was found the most difficult to arrange. The agricultural and commercial classes required only protection and stimulus, and we could repay the benefits their industry conferred by the lowest scale of taxation, which, though in fact equally beneficial to the government, was constructed as a boon. But with the feudal lords there was no such equivalent to offer in return for the sacrifices many had to make for the re-establishment of society. Those who were well inclined, like Kotharia, had everything to gain, and nothing left to surrender; while those who, like Deogarh, Salumbar, or Badnor, had preserved their power by foreign aid, intrigue, or prowess, dreaded the high price they might be called upon to pay [486] for the benefit of security which the new alliance conferred. All dreaded the word ‘restitution,’ and the audit of half a century’s political accounts; yet the adjustment of these was the corner-stone of the edifice, which anarchy and oppression had dismantled. Feuds were to be appeased, a difficult and hazardous task; and usurpations, both on the crown and each other, to be redeemed. ‘To bring the wolf and the goat to drink from the same vessel,’ was a task of less difficulty than to make the Chondawat and Saktawat labour in concert for the welfare of the prince and the country. In fine, a better idea cannot be afforded of what was deemed the hopelessness of success than the opinion of Zorawar Singh, the chief of the latter clan, who had much to relinquish: “Were Parameswara (the Almighty) to descend, he could not reform Mewar.” We judged better of them than they did of each other.

Negotiations with the Chiefs.

—It were superfluous to detail all the preparatory measures for the accomplishment of this grand object; the meetings and adjournments, which only served to keep alive discontent. On the 27th of April, the treaty with the British Government was read, and the consequent change in their relations explained. Meanwhile, a charter, defining the respective rights of the crown and of the chiefs, with their duties to the community, was prepared, and a day named for a general assembly of the chieftains to sanction and ratify this engagement. The 1st of May was fixed: the chiefs assembled; the articles, ten in number, were read and warmly discussed; when with unmeaning expressions of duty, and objections to the least prominent, they obtained through their speaker, Gokuldas of Deogarh, permission to reassemble at his house to consider them, and broke up with the promise to attend next day. The delay, as apprehended, only generated opposition, and the 2nd and 3rd passed in inter-communications of individual hope and fear. It was important to put an end to speculation. At noon, on the 4th of May, the grand hall was again filled, when the Rana, with his sons and ministers, took their seats. Once more the articles were read, objections raised and combated, and midnight had arrived without the object of the meeting being advanced, when an adjournment, proposed by Gokuldas, till the arrival of the Rana’s plenipotentiary from Delhi, met with a firm denial; and the Rana gave him liberty to retire, if he refused his testimony of loyalty. The Begun chief, who had much to gain, at length set the example, followed by the chiefs of Amet and Deogarh, and in succession by all the sixteen nobles, who also signed as the proxies of their [487] relatives, unable from sickness to attend. The most powerful of the second grade also signed for themselves and the absent of their clans, each, as he gave in his adhesion, retiring; and it was three in the morning of the 5th of May ere the ceremony was over. The chief of the Saktawats, determined to be conspicuous, was the last of his own class to sign. During this lengthened and painful discussion of fifteen hours’ continuance, the Rana conducted himself with such judgment and firmness, as to give sanguine hopes of his taking the lead in the settlement of his affairs.

Enforcement of the Treaty.

—This preliminary adjusted, it was important that the stipulations of the treaty ^[20] should be rigidly if not rapidly effected. It will not be a matter of surprise, that some months passed away before the complicated arrangements arising out of this settlement were completed; but it may afford just grounds for gratulation, that they were finally accomplished without a shot being fired, or the exhibition of a single British soldier in the country, nor, indeed, within one hundred miles of Udaipur. ‘Opinion’ was the sole and all-sufficient ally effecting this political reform. The Rajputs, in fact, did not require the demonstration of our physical strength; its influence had reached far beyond Mewar. When the few firelocks defeated hundreds of the foes of public tranquillity, they attributed it to ‘the strength of the Company’s salt,’^[21] the moral agency of which was proclaimed the true basis of our power. ‘Sachha Raj’ was the proud epithet applied by our new allies to the British Government in the East; a title which distinguished the immortal Alfred, ‘the upright.’

It will readily be imagined that a reform, which went to touch the entire feudal association, could not be accomplished without harassing and painful discussions [488], when the object was the renunciation of lands, to which in some cases the right of inheritance could be pleaded, in others, the cognisance of successful revenge, while to many prescriptive possession could be asserted. It was the more painful, because although the shades which marked the acquisition of such lands were varied, no distinction could be made in the mode of settlement, namely, unconditional surrender. In some cases, the Rana had to revoke his own grants, wrung either from his necessities or his weakness; but in neither predicament could arguments be adduced to soften renunciation, or to meet the powerful and pathetic and often angry appeals to justice or to prejudice. Counter-appeals to their loyalty, and the necessity for the re-establishment of their sovereign’s just weight and influence in the social body, without which their own welfare could not be secured, were adduced; but individual views and passions were too absorbing to bend to the general interest. Weeks thus passed in interchange of visits, in soothing pride, and in flattering vanity by the revival of past recollections, which gradually familiarized the subject to the mind of the chiefs, and brought them to compliance. Time, conciliation, and impartial justice, confirmed the victory thus obtained; and when they were made to see that no interest was overlooked, that party views were unknown, and that the system included every class of society in its beneficial operation, cordiality followed concession. Some of these cessions were alienations from the crown of half a century’s duration. Individual cases of hardship were unavoidable without incurring the imputation of favouritism, and the dreaded revival of ancient feuds, to abolish which was indispensable, but required much circumspection. Castles and lands in this predicament could therefore neither be retained by the possessor nor returned to the ancient proprietor without rekindling the torch of civil war. The sole alternative was for the crown to take the object of contention, and make compensation from its own domain. It would be alike tedious and uninteresting to enter into the details of these arrangements, where one chief had to relinquish the levy of transit duties in the most important outlet of the country, asserted to have been held during seven generations, as in the case of the chief of Deogarh. Of another (the Bhindar chief) who held forty-three towns and villages, in addition to his grant; of Amet, of Badesar, of Dabla, of Lawa, and many others who held important fortresses of the crown independent of its will; and other claims, embracing every right [489] and privilege appertaining to feudal society; suffice it, that in six months the whole arrangements were effected.

The Case of Arja.

—In the painful and protracted discussions attendant on these arrangements, powerful traits of national character were developed. The castle and domain of Arja half a century ago belonged to the crown, but had been usurped by the Purawats, from whom it was wrested by storm about fifteen years back by the Saktawats, and a patent sanctioning possession was obtained, on the payment of a fine of £1000 to the Rana. Its surrender was now required from Fateh Singh, the second brother of Bhindar, the head of this clan; but being regarded as the victorious completion of a feud, it was not easy to silence their prejudices and objections. The renunciation of the forty-three towns and villages by the chief of the clan caused not half the excitation, and every Saktawat seemed to forgo his individual losses in the common sentiment expressed by their head: “Arja is the price of blood, and with its cession our honour is surrendered.” To preserve the point of honour, it was stipulated that it should not revert to the Purawats, but be incorporated with the fisc, which granted an equivalent; when letters of surrender were signed by both brothers, whose conduct throughout was manly and confiding.

Badnor and Amet.

—The Badnor and Amet chiefs, both of the superior grade of nobles, were the most formidable obstacles to the operation of the treaty of the 4th of May. The first of these, by name Jeth Singh (the victorious [chief] lion), was of the Mertia clan, the bravest of the brave race of Rathor, whose ancestors had left their native abodes on the plains of Marwar, and accompanied the celebrated Mira Bai on her marriage with Rana Kumbha. His descendants, amongst whom was Jaimall, of immortal memory, enjoyed honour in Mewar equal to their birth and high deserts. It was the more difficult to treat with men like these, whose conduct had been a contrast to the general license of the times, and who had reason to feel offended, when no distinction was observed between them and those who had disgraced the name of Rajput. Instead of the submission expected from the Rathor, so overwhelmed was he from the magnitude of the claims, which amounted to a virtual extinction of his power, that he begged leave to resign his estates and quit the country. In prosecution of this design, he took post in the chief hall of the palace, from which no entreaties could make him move;^[22] until the Rana, to [490] escape his importunities, and even restraint, obtained his promise to abide by the decision of the Agent. The forms of the Rana’s court, from time immemorial, prohibit all personal communication between the sovereign and his chiefs in matters of individual interest, by which indecorous altercation is avoided. But the ministers, whose office it was to obtain every information, did not make a rigid scrutiny into the title-deeds of the various estates previous to advancing the claims of the crown. This brave man had enemies, and he was too proud to have recourse to the common arts either of adulation or bribery to aid his cause. It was a satisfaction to find that the two principal towns demanded of him were embodied in a grant of Sangram Singh’s reign; and the absolute rights of the fisc, of which he had become possessed, were cut down to about fifteen thousand rupees of annual revenue. But there were other points on which he was even more tenacious than the surrender of these. Being the chief noble of the fine district of Badnor, which consisted of three hundred and sixty towns and villages, chiefly of feudal allotments (many of them of his own clan), he had taken advantage of the times to establish his influence over them, to assume the right of wardship of minors, and secure those services which were due to the prince, but which he wanted the power to enforce. The holders of these estates were of the third class of vassals or gol (the mass), whose services it was important to reclaim, and who constituted in past times the most efficient force of the Ranas, and were the preponderating balance of their authority when mercenaries were unknown in these patriarchal states. Abundant means towards a just investigation had been previously procured; and after some discussion, in which all admissible claims were recognized, and argument was silenced by incontrovertible facts, this chieftain relinquished all that was demanded, and sent in, as from himself, his written renunciation to his sovereign. However convincing the data by which his proper rights and those of his prince were defined, it was to feeling and prejudice that we were mainly indebted for so satisfactory an adjustment. An appeal to the name of Jaimall, who fell defending Chitor against Akbar,^[23] and the contrast of his ancestor’s loyalty and devotion with his own contumacy, acted as a talisman, and wrung tears from his eyes and the deed from his hand. It will afford some idea of the difficulties encountered, as well as the invidiousness of the task of arbitrating such matters, to give his own comment verbatim: "I remained faithful when his own kin deserted him, and was [491] one of four chiefs who alone of all Mewar fought for him in the rebellion; but the son of Jaimall is forgotten, while the ‘plunderer’ is his boon companion, and though of inferior rank, receives an estate which elevates him above me"; alluding to the chief of Badesar, who plundered the queen’s dower. But while the brave descendant of Jaimall returned to Badnor with the marks of his sovereign’s favour, and the applause of those he esteemed, the ‘runner’ went back to Badesar in disgrace, to which his prince’s injudicious favour further contributed.

Hamīra of Badesar.

—Hamira of Badesar was of the second class of nobles, a Chondawat by birth. He succeeded to his father Sardar Singh, the assassin of the prime minister even in the palace of his sovereign;^[24] into whose presence he had the audacity to pursue the surviving brother, destined to avenge him.^[25] Hamira inherited all the turbulence and disaffection, with the estates, of his father; and this most conspicuous of the many lawless chieftains of the times was known throughout Rajasthan as Hamira ‘the runner’ (daurayat). Though not entitled to hold lands beyond thirty thousand annually, he had become possessed to the amount of eighty thousand, chiefly of the fisc or khalisa, and nearly all obtained by violence, though since confirmed by the prince’s patent. With the chieftain of Lawa (precisely in the same predicament), who held the fortress of Kheroda and other valuable lands, Hamira resided entirely at the palace, and obtaining the Rana’s ear by professions of obedience, kept possession, while chiefs in every respect his superiors had been compelled to surrender; and when at length the Saktawat of Lawa was forbid the court until Kheroda and all his usurpations were yielded up, the son of Sardar displayed his usual turbulence, ‘curled his moustache’ at the minister, and hinted at the fate of his predecessor. Although none dared to imitate him, his stubbornness was not without admirers, especially among his own clan; and as it was too evident that fear or favour swayed the Rana, it was a case for the Agent’s interference, the opportunity for which was soon afforded. When [492] forced to give letters of surrender, the Rana’s functionaries, who went to take possession, were insulted, refused admittance, and compelled to return. Not a moment could be lost in punishing this contempt of authority; and as the Rana was holding a court when the report arrived, the Agent requested an audience. He found the Rana and his chiefs assembled in ‘the balcony of the sun,’ and amongst them the notorious Hamira. After the usual compliments, the Agent asked the minister if his master had been put in possession of Syana. It was evident from the general constraint, that all were acquainted with the result of the deputation; but to remove responsibility from the minister, the Agent, addressing the Rana as if he were in ignorance of the insult, related the transaction, and observed that his government would hold him culpable if he remained at Udaipur while his highness’s commands were disregarded. Thus supported, the Rana resumed his dignity, and in forcible language signified to all present his anxious desire to do nothing which was harsh or ungracious; but that, thus compelled, he would not recede from what became him as their sovereign. Calling for a bira, he looked sternly at Hamira, and commanded him to quit his presence instantly, and the capital in an hour; and, but for the Agent’s interposition, he would have been banished the country. Confiscation of his whole estate was commanded, until renunciation was completed. He departed that night; and, contrary to expectation, not only were all the usurpations surrendered, but, what was scarcely contemplated by the Agent, the Rana’s flag of sequestration was quietly admitted into the fortress of Badesar.^[26]

The Case of Āmli.

—One more anecdote may suffice. The lands and fortress of Amli had been in the family of Amet since the year 27, only five years posterior to the date to which these arrangements extended; their possession verged on half a century. The lords of Amet were of the Sixteen, and were chiefs of the clan Jagawat. The present representative enjoyed a fair character: he could, with the chief of Badnor, claim the succession of the loyal; for Partap and Jaimall, their respective ancestors, were rivals and martyrs on that memorable day when the genius of Chitor abandoned the Sesodias. But the heir of Amet had not this alone [493] to support his claims; for his predecessor Partap had lost his life in defending his country against the Mahrattas, and Amli had been his acquisition. Fateh Singh (such was his name) was put forward by the more artful of his immediate kin, the Chondawat interest; but his disposition, blunt and impetuous, was little calculated to promote their views: he was an honest Rajput, who neither could nor cared to conceal his anger, and at a ceremonious visit paid him by the Agent, he had hardly sufficient control over himself to be courteous, and though he said nothing, his eyes, inflamed with opium and disdain, spoke his feelings. He maintained a dogged indifference, and was inaccessible to argument, till at length, following the example of Badnor, he was induced to abide by the Agent’s mediation. He came attended by his vassals, who anxiously awaited the result, which an unpremeditated incident facilitated. After a long and fruitless expostulation, he had taken refuge in an obstinate silence; and seated in a chair opposite to the envoy, with his shield in front, placed perpendicularly on his knees, and his arms and head reclined thereon, he continued vacantly looking on the ground. To interrupt this uncourteous silence in his own house, the envoy took a picture, which with several others was at hand, and placing it before him, remarked, "That chief did not gain his reputation for swamidharma^[27] (loyalty) by conduct such as yours." His eyes suddenly recovered their animation and his countenance was lighted with a smile, as he rapidly uttered, “How did you come by this—why does this interest you?” A tear started in his eye as he added, "This is my father!"—“Yes,” said the Agent, "it is the loyal Partap on the day he went forth to meet his death; but his name yet lives, and a stranger does homage to his fame."—“Take Amli, take Amli,” he hurriedly repeated, with a suppressed tone of exultation and sorrow, “but forget not the extent of the sacrifice.” To prolong the visit would have been painful to both, but as it might have been trusting too much to humanity to delay the resumption, the Agent availed himself of the moment to indite the chhorchitthi^[28] of surrender for the lands.

With these instances, characteristic of individuals and the times, this sketch of the introductory measures for improving the condition of Mewar may be closed. To enter more largely in detail is foreign to the purpose of the work; nor is it requisite for the comprehension of the unity of the object, that a more minute dissection of the parts should be afforded. Before, however, we exhibit the [494] general results of these arrangements, we shall revert to the condition of the more humble, but a most important part of the community, the peasantry of Mewar; and embody, in a few remarks, the fruits of observation or inquiry, as to their past and present state, their rights, the establishment of them, their infringement, and restitution. On this subject much has been necessarily introduced in the sketch of the feudal system, where landed tenures were discussed; but it is one on which such a contrariety of opinion exists, that it may be desirable to show the exact state of landed tenures in a country, where Hindu manners should exist in greater purity than in any other part of the vast continent of India.

The Landed System.

—The ryot (cultivator) is the proprietor of the soil in Mewar. He compares his right therein to the akshay duba,^[29] which no vicissitudes can destroy. He calls the land his bapota, the most emphatic, the most ancient, the most cherished, and the most significant phrase his language commands for patrimonial ^[30] inheritance. He has nature and Manu in support of his claim, and can quote the text, alike compulsory on prince and peasant, “cultivated land is the property of him who cut away the wood, or who cleared and tilled it,”^[31] an ordinance binding on the whole Hindu race, and which no international wars, or conquest, could overturn. In accordance with this principle is the ancient adage, not of Mewar only but all Rajputana, Bhog ra dhanni Raj ho: bhum ra dhanni ma cho: ‘the government is owner of the rent, but I am the master of the land.’ With the toleration and benevolence of the race the conqueror is commanded “to respect the deities adored by the conquered, also their virtuous priests, and to establish the laws of the conquered nation as declared in their books.”^[32] If it were deemed desirable to recede to the system of pure Hindu agrarian law, there is no deficiency of materials. The customary laws contained in the various reports of able men, superadded to the general ordinances of Manu, would form a code at once simple and efficient: for though innovation from foreign conquest has placed many principles in abeyance, and modified others, yet he has observed to little purpose [495] who does not trace a uniformity of design, which at one time had ramified wherever the name of Hindu prevailed: language has been modified, and terms have been corrupted or changed, but the primary pervading principle is yet perceptible; and whether we examine the systems of Khandesh, the Carnatic, or Rajasthan, we shall discover the elements to be the same.

If we consider the system from the period described by Arrian, Curtius, and Diodorus, we shall see in the government of townships each commune an ‘imperium in imperio’; a little republic, maintaining its municipal legislation independent of the monarchy, on which it relies for general support, and to which it pays the bhog, or tax in kind, as the price of this protection; for though the prescribed duties of kings are as well defined by Manu ^[33] as by any jurisconsult in Europe, nothing can be more lax than the mutual relations of the governed and governing in Hindu monarchies, which are resolved into unbounded liberty of action. To the artificial regulation of society, which leaves all who depend on manual exertion to an immutable degradation, must be ascribed these multitudinous governments, unknown to the rest of mankind, which, in spite of such dislocation, maintain the bonds of mutual sympathies. Strictly speaking, every State presents the picture of so many hundred or thousand minute republics, without any connexion with each other, giving allegiance (an) and rent (bhog) to a prince, who neither legislates for them, nor even forms a police for their internal protection. It is consequent on this want of paramount interference that, in matters of police, of justice, and of law, the communes act for themselves; and from this want of paternal interference only have arisen those courts of equity, or arbitration, the panchayats.

But to return to the freehold ryot of Mewar, whose bapota is the watan and the miras of the peninsula—words of foreign growth, introduced by the Muhammadan conquerors; the first (Persian) is of more general use in Khandesh; the other (Arabic) in the Carnatic. Thus the great Persian moralist Saadi exemplifies its application: "If you desire to succeed to your father’s inheritance (miras), first obtain his wisdom" [496].

While the term bapota thus implies the inheritance or patrimony, its holder, if a military vassal, is called Bhumia, a term equally powerful, meaning one actually identified with the soil (bhum), and for which the Muhammadan has no equivalent but in the possessive compound watandar, or mirasdar. The Caniatchi ^[34] of Malabar is the Bhumia of Rajasthan.

The emperors of Delhi, in the zenith of their power, bestowed the epithet zamindar upon the Hindu tributary sovereigns: not out of disrespect, but in the true application of their own term Bhumia Raj, expressive of their tenacity to the soil; and this fact affords additional evidence of the proprietary right being in the cultivator (ryot), namely, that he alone can confer the freehold land, which gives the title of Bhumia, and of which both past history and present usage will furnish us with examples. When the tenure of land obtained from the cultivator is held more valid than the grant of the sovereign, it will be deemed a conclusive argument of the proprietary right being vested in the ryot. What should induce a chieftain, when inducted into a perpetual fief, to establish through the ryot a right to a few acres in bhum, but the knowledge that although the vicissitudes of fortune or of favour may deprive him of his aggregate signiorial rights, his claims, derived from the spontaneous favour of the commune, can never be set aside; and when he ceases to be the lord, he becomes a member of the commonwealth, merging his title of Thakur, or Signior, into the more humble one of Bhumia, the allodial tenant of the Rajput feudal system, elsewhere discussed.^[35] Thus we have touched on the method by which he acquires this distinction, for protecting the community from violence; and if left destitute by the negligence or inability of the government, he is vested with the rights of the crown, in its share of the bhog or rent. But when their own land is in the predicament called galita, or reversions from lapses to the commune, he is ‘seised’ in all the rights of the former proprietor; or, by internal arrangements, they can convey such right by cession of the commune.

The Bhūmia.

—The privilege attached to the bhum,^[36] and acquired from the community by the protection afforded to it, is the most powerful argument for the recognition of its original rights. The Bhumia, thus vested, may at pleasure drive his own plough [497], the right to the soil. His bhum is exempt from the jarib (measuring rod); it is never assessed, and his only sign of allegiance is a quit-rent, in most cases triennial, and the tax of kharlakar,^[37] a war imposition, now commuted for money. The State, however, indirectly receives the services of these allodial tenants, the yeomen of Rajasthan, who constitute, as in the districts of Kumbhalmer and Mandalgarh, the landwehr, or local militia. In fact, since the days of universal repose set in, and the townships required no protection, an arrangement was made with the Bhumias of Mewar, in which the crown, foregoing its claim of quit-rent, has obtained their services in the garrisons and frontier stations of police at a very slight pecuniary sacrifice.

Such are the rights and privileges derived from the ryot cultivator alone. The Rana may dispossess the chiefs of Badnor, or Salumbar, of their estates, the grant of the crown—he could not touch the rights emanating from the community; and thus the descendants of a chieftain, who a few years before might have followed his sovereign at the head of one hundred cavaliers, would descend into the humble foot militia of a district. Thousands are in this predicament: the Kanawats, Lunawats, Kumbhawats, and other clans, who, like the Celt, forget not their claims of birth in the distinctions of fortune, but assert their propinquity as “brothers in the nineteenth or thirtieth degree to the prince” on the throne. So sacred was the tenure derived from the ryot, that even monarchs held lands in bhum from their subjects, for an instance of which we are indebted to the great poetic historian of the last Hindu king. Chand relates, that when his sovereign, the Chauhan, had subjugated the kingdom of Anhilwara ^[38] from the Solanki, he returned to the nephew of the conquered prince several districts and seaports, and all the bhum held by the family. In short, the Rajput vaunts his aristocratic distinction derived from the land; and opposes the title of ‘Bhumia Raj,’ or government of the soil, to the ‘Bania Raj,’ or commercial government, which he affixes as an epithet of contempt to Jaipur: where “wealth accumulates and men decay.”

In the great ‘register of patents’ (patta bahi) of Mewar we find a species of [498] bhum held by the greater vassals on particular crown lands; whether this originated from inability of ceding entire townships to complete the estate to the rank of the incumbent, or whether it was merely in confirmation of the grant of the commune, could not be ascertained. The benefit from this bhum is only pecuniary, and the title is ‘bhum rakhwali’^[39] or land [in return for] ‘preservation.’ Strange to say, the crown itself holds ‘bhum rakhwali’ on its own fiscal demesnes consisting of small portions in each village, to the amount of ten thousand rupees in a district of thirty or forty townships. This species, however, is so incongruous that we can only state it does exist: we should vainly seek the cause for such apparent absurdity, for since society has been unhinged, the oracles are mute to much of antiquated custom.

Occupiers’ Rights in the Land.

—We shall close these remarks with some illustrative traditions and yet existing customs, to substantiate the ryot’s right in the soil of Mewar. After one of those convulsions described in the annals, the prince had gone to espouse the daughter of the Raja of Mandor, the (then) capital of Marwar. It is customary at the moment of hathleva, or the junction of hands, that any request preferred by the bridegroom to the father of the bride should meet compliance, a usage which has yielded many fatal results; and the Rana had been prompted on this occasion to demand a body of ten thousand Jat cultivators to repeople the deserted fisc of Mewar. An assent was given to the unprecedented demand, but when the inhabitants were thus despotically called on to migrate, they denied the power and refused. “Shall we,” said they, "abandon the lands of our inheritance (bapota), the property of our children, to accompany a stranger into a foreign land, there to labour for him? Kill us you may, but never shall we relinquish our inalienable rights." The Mandor prince, who had trusted to this reply, deemed himself exonerated from his promise, and secured from the loss of so many subjects: but he was deceived. The Rana held out to them the enjoyment of the proprietary rights escheated to the crown in his country, with the lands left without occupants by the sword, and to all, increase of property. When equal and absolute power was thus conferred, they no longer hesitated to exchange the arid soil of Marwar for the garden of Rajwara; and the descendants of these Jats still occupy the flats watered by the Berach and Banas [499].

In those districts which afforded protection from innovation, the proprietary right of the ryot will be found in full force; of this the populous and extensive district of Jahazpur, consisting of one hundred and six townships, affords a good specimen. There are but two pieces of land throughout the whole of this tract the property of the crown, and these were obtained by force during the occupancy of Zalim Singh of Kotah. The right thus unjustly acquired was, from the conscientiousness of the Rana’s civil governor, on the point of being annulled by sale and reversion, when the court interfered to maintain its proprietary right to the tanks of Loharia and Itaunda, and the lands which they irrigate, now the bhum of the Rana.^[40] This will serve as an illustration how bhum may be acquired, and the annals of Kotah will exhibit, unhappily for the ryots of that country, the almost total annihilation of their rights, by the same summary process which originally attached Loharia to the fisc.

The power of alienation being thus proved, it would be superfluous to insist further on the proprietary right of the cultivator of the soil.

Proprietary Rights in Land.

—Besides the ability to alienate as demonstrated, all the overt symbols which mark the proprietary right in other countries are to be found in Mewar; that of entire conveyance by sale, or temporary by mortgage; and numerous instances could be adduced, especially of the latter. The fertile lands of Horla, along the banks of the Khari, are almost all mortgaged, and the registers of these transactions form two considerable volumes, in which great variety of deeds may be discovered: one extended for one hundred and one years;^[41] when redemption was to follow, without regard to interest on the one hand; or the benefits from the land on the other, but merely by repayment of the sum borrowed. To maintain the interest during abeyance, it is generally stipulated that a certain portion of the harvest shall be reserved for the mortgagee—a fourth, a fifth, or gugri—a share so small as to be valued only as a mark of proprietary recognition.^[42] The mortgagees were chiefly of the commercial classes of the large frontier towns; in [500] many cases the proprietor continues to cultivate for another the lands his ancestor mortgaged four or five generations ago, nor does he deem his right at all impaired. A plan had been sketched to raise money to redeem these mortgages, from whose complex operation the revenue was sure to suffer. No length of time or absence can affect the claim to the bapota, and so sacred is the right of absentees, that land will lay sterile and unproductive from the penalty which Manu denounces on all who interfere with their neighbour’s rights: “for unless there be an especial agreement between the owner of the land and the seed, the fruits belong clearly to the land-owner”; even “if seed conveyed by water or by wind should germinate, the plant belongs to the land-owner, the mere sower takes not the fruit.”^[43] Even crime and the extreme sentence of the law will not alter succession to property, either to the military or cultivating vassal; and the old Kentish adage, probably introduced by the Jats from Scandinavia, who under Hengist established that kingdom of the heptarchy, namely:

is practically understood by the Jats and Bhumias ^[44] of Mewar, whose treason is not deemed hereditary, nor a chain of noble acts destroyed because a false link was thrown out. We speak of the military vassals—the cultivator cannot aspire to so dignified a crime as treason.

Village Officials: the Patel.

—The officers of the townships are the same as have been so often described, and are already too familiar to those interested in the subject to require illustration. From the Patel, the Cromwell of each township, to the village gossip, the ascetic Sannyasi, each deems his office, and the land he holds in virtue thereof in perpetuity, free of rent to the State, except a small triennial quit-rent,^[45] and the liability, like every other branch of the State, to two war taxes.^[46]

Opinions are various as to the origin and attributes of the Patel, the most important personage in village sway, whose office is by many deemed foreign to the pure Hindu system, and to which language even his title is deemed alien. But there is no doubt that both office and title are of ancient growth, and even etymological rule proves the Patel to be head (pati) of the community.^[47] The office of Patel [501] of Mewar was originally elective: he was ‘primus inter pares,’ the constituted attorney or representative of the commune, and as the medium between the cultivator and the government, enjoyed benefits from both. Besides his bapota, and the serano, or one-fortieth of all produce from the ryot, he had a remission of a third or fourth of the rent from such extra lands as he might cultivate in addition to his patrimony. Such was the Patel, the link connecting the peasant with the government, ere predatory war subverted all order: but as rapine increased, so did his authority. He became the plenipotentiary of the community, the security for the contribution imposed, and often the hostage for its payment, remaining in the camp of the predatory hordes till they were paid off. He gladly undertook the liquidation of such contributions as these perpetual invaders imposed. To indemnify himself, a schedule was formed of the share of each ryot, and mortgage of land, and sequestration of personal effects followed till his avarice was satisfied. Who dared complain against a Patel, the intimate of Pathan and Mahratta commanders, his adopted patrons? He thus became the master of his fellow-citizens; and, as power corrupts all men, their tyrant instead of their mediator. It was a system necessarily involving its own decay; for a while glutted with plenty, but failing with the supply, and ending in desolation, exile, and death. Nothing was left to prey on but the despoiled carcase; yet when peace returned, and in its train the exile ryot to reclaim the bapota, the vampire Patel was resuscitated, and evinced the same ardour for supremacy, and the same cupidity which had so materially aided to convert the fertile Mewar to a desert. The Patel accordingly proved one of the chief obstacles to returning prosperity; and the attempt to reduce this corrupted middle-man to his original station in society was both difficult and hazardous, from the support they met in the corrupt officers at court, and other influences ‘behind the curtain.’ A system of renting the crown lands deemed the most expedient to advance prosperity, it was incumbent to find a remedy for this evil. The mere name of some of these petty tyrants inspired such terror as to check all desire of return to the country; but the origin of the institution of the office and its abuses being ascertained, it was imperative, though difficult, to restore the one and banish the other. The original elective right in many townships was therefore returned to the ryot, who nominated new Patels [502], his choice being confirmed by the Rana, in whose presence investiture was performed by binding a turban on the elected, for which he presented his nazar. Traces of the sale of these offices in past times were observable; and it was deemed of primary importance to avoid all such channels for corruption, in order that the ryot’s election should meet with no obstacle. That the plan was beneficial there could be no doubt; that the benefit would be permanent, depended, unfortunately, on circumstances which those most anxious had not the means to control: for it must be recollected, that although “personal aid and advice might be given when asked,” all internal interference was by treaty strictly, and most justly, prohibited.

After a few remarks on the mode of levying the crown-rents, we shall conclude the subject of village economy in Mewar, and proceed to close this too extended chapter with the results of four years of peace and the consequent improved prosperity.