Chapter 18 (2)

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.

FACSIMILE OF NATIVE DRAWING OF PARTĀB SINGH AND RĀĒMALL.
_To face page 572._
]

=The Landed System.=—The ryot (cultivator) is the proprietor of the soil in Mewar. He compares his right therein to the _akshay duba_,[4.18.29] 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[4.18.30] 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,”[4.18.31] 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.”[4.18.32] 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[4.18.33] 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[4.18.34] 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.[4.18.35] 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_,[4.18.36] 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_,[4.18.37] 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[4.18.38] 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_’[4.18.39] 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.[4.18.40] 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;[4.18.41] 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.[4.18.42] 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.”[4.18.43] 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:

The father to the bough,
And the son to the plough

is practically understood by the Jats and Bhumias[4.18.44] 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,[4.18.45] and the liability, like every other branch of the State, to two war taxes.[4.18.46]

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.[4.18.47] 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.

=Modes of Collecting Rents.=—There are two methods of levying the revenues of the crown on every description of corn—_kankut_ and _batai_, for on sugar-cane, poppy, oil, hemp, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and garden stuffs, a money payment is fixed, varying from two to six rupees per bigha. The _kankut_[4.18.48] is a conjectural assessment of the standing crop, by the united judgement of the officers of government, the Patel, the Patwari, or registrar, and the owner of the field. The accuracy with which an accustomed eye will determine the quantity of grain on a given surface is surprising: but should the owner deem the estimate overrated, he can insist on _batai_, or division of the corn after it is threshed; the most ancient and only infallible mode by which the dues either of the government or the husbandman can be ascertained. In the _batai_ system the share of the government varies from one-third to two-fifths of the spring harvest, as wheat and barley; and sometimes even half, which is the invariable proportion of the autumnal crops. In either case, _kankut_ or _batai_, when the shares are appropriated, those of the crown may be commuted to a money payment at the average rate of the market. The _kut_ is the most liable to corruption. The ryot bribes the collector, who will underrate the crop; and when he betrays his duty, the _shahnah_, or watchman, is not likely to be honest: and as the _makai_, or Indian corn, the grand autumnal crop of Mewar, is eaten green, the crown may be defrauded of half its dues. The system is one of uncertainty, from which eventually the ryot derives no advantage, though it [503] fosters the cupidity of patels and collectors; but there was a _barar_, or tax, introduced to make up for this deficiency, which was in proportion to the quantity cultivated, and its amount at the mercy of the officers. Thus the ryot went to work with a mill-stone round his neck; instead of the exhilarating reflection that every hour’s additional labour was his own, he saw merely the advantage of these harpies, and contented himself with raising a scanty subsistence in a slovenly and indolent manner, by which he forfeited the ancient reputation of the Jat cultivator of Mewar.

=Improvement in the Condition of the People.=—Notwithstanding these and various other drawbacks to the prosperity of the country, in an impoverished court, avaricious and corrupt officers, discontented Patels, and bad seasons, yet the final report in May 1822 could not but be gratifying when contrasted with that of February 1818. In order to ascertain the progressive improvement, a census had been made at the end of 1821, of the three central fiscal districts[4.18.49] watered by the Berach and Banas. As a specimen of the whole, we may take the _tappa_ or subdivision of Sahara. Of its twenty-seven villages, six were inhabited in 1818, the number of families being three hundred and sixty-nine, three-fourths of whom belonged to the resumed town of Amli. In 1821 nine hundred and twenty-six families were reported, and every village of the twenty-seven was occupied, so that population had almost trebled. The number of ploughs was more than trebled, and cultivation quadrupled; and though this, from the causes described, was not above one-third of what real industry might have effected, the contrast was abundantly cheering. The same ratio of prosperity applied to the entire crown demesne of Mewar. By the recovery of Kumbhalmer, Raepur, Rajnagar, and Sadri-Kanera from the Mahrattas; of Jahazpur from Kotah; of the usurpations of the nobles; together with the resumption of all the estates of the females of his family, a task at once difficult and delicate;[4.18.50] and by the subjugation of the mountain districts of Merwara, a thousand towns and villages were united to form the fiscal demesne of the Rana, composing twenty-four districts of various magnitudes, divided, as in ancient times, and with the primitive [504] appellations, into portions tantamount to the tithings and hundreds of England, the division from time immemorial amongst the Hindus.[4.18.51] From these and the commercial duties[4.18.52] a revenue was derived sufficient for the comforts, and even the dignities of the prince and his court, and promising an annual increase in the ratio of good government: but profusion scattered all that industry and ingenuity could collect; the artificial wants of the prince perpetuated the real necessities of the peasant, and this, it is to be feared, will continue till the present generation shall sleep with their forefathers.

_Abstract of the Fiscal Revenues of Mewar in the years
1818-19-20-21-22._

Spring harvest of 1818 Rs. 40,000

” 1819 451,281

” 1820 659,100

” 1821 1,018,478

┌ The active
superintendence

” 1822 936,640 ┤ of the British Agent
being

└ almost entirely
withdrawn.

_Abstract of Commercial Duties included in the above._

In 1818 _Nominal_
1819 Rs. 96,683
1820 165,108
1821 220,000
┌ Farmed for three years,
│ from 1822, for 750,000 rupees,
1822 217,000 ┤ which was assigned by the
│ Rana for the liquidation of
└ tribute fallen in arrear.

=Mines and Minerals.=—There are sources of wealth in Mewar yet untouched, and to which her princes owe much of their power. The tin mines of Jawara and Dariba alone, little more than half a century ago, yielded above three lakhs annually;[4.18.53] besides rich copper mines in various parts. From such, beyond a doubt, much of the wealth of Mewar was extracted, but the miners are now dead, and the mines filled with water. An attempt was made to work them, but it was so unprofitable that the design was soon abandoned.

Nothing will better exemplify the progress of prosperity than the comparative population of some of the chief towns before, and after, four years of peace:

No. of houses in No. of houses in 1822.
1818.

Udaipur 3,500 10,000

Bhilwara _not 2,700
one_

Pur 200 1,200

Mandal 80 400

Gosunda 60 350 [505]

=The Feudal Lands.=—The feudal lands, which were then double the fiscal, did not exhibit the like improvement, the merchant and cultivator residing thereon not having the same certainty of reaping the fruits of their industry; still great amelioration took place, and few were so blind as not to see their account in it.[4.18.54] The earnestness with which many requested the Agent to back their expressed intentions with his guarantee to their communities of the same measure of justice and protection as the fiscal tenants enjoyed was proof that they well understood the benefits of reciprocal confidence; but this could not be tendered without danger. Before the Agent left the country he greatly withdrew from active interference, it being his constant, as it was his last impressive lesson, that they should rely upon themselves if they desired to retain a shadow of independence. To give an idea of the improved police, insurance which has been described as amounting to eight per cent in a space of twenty-five miles became almost nominal, or one-fourth of a rupee per cent from one frontier to the other. It would, however, have been quite Utopian to have expected that the lawless tribes would remain in that stupid subordination which the unexampled state of society imposed for a time (as described in the opening of these transactions), when they found that real restraints did not follow imaginary terrors. Had the wild tribes been under the sole influence of British power, nothing would have been so simple as effectually, not only to control, but to conciliate and improve them; for it is a mortifying truth, that the more remote from civilization, the more tractable and easy was the object to manage, more especially the Bhil.[4.18.55] But these children of nature were incorporated in the demesnes of the feudal chiefs, who when they found our system did not extend to perpetual control, returned to their old habits of oppression: this provoked retaliation, which to subdue requires more power than the Rana yet possesses, and, in the anomalous state of our alliances, will always be an embarrassing task to whosoever may exercise political control.

In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the years of oppression that have swept the land will be held in remembrance by the protecting power, and that neither petulance nor indolence will lessen the benevolence which restored life to Mewar, or mar the picture of comparative happiness it created.

_The Sixteen chief Nobles of Mewar, their Titles, Names, Clans, Tribes,
Estates,
number of Villages in each, and their Value._

────────┬─────────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────────────────
│ │ │ │ │ Number │ Value,│
Title. │ Names. │Clan. │Tribe. │Estate. │ of │ A.D.│REMARKS.
│ │ │ │ │Villages.│ 1760.│
────────┼─────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────────────────
Raj │ Chandan │Jhala │Jhala │Sadri │ 127 │ 100,000│┌These estates
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││are all diminished
Rao │ Partap │Chauhan │Chauhan│Bedla │ 80 │ 100,000│┤one-half in nominal
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││amount; and their
Rao │ Mohkam │Chauhan │Chauhan│Kotharia │ 65 │ 80,000││revenues still
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │└ more.
Rawat │ Padma │Chondawat │Sesodia│Salumbar │ 85 │ 84,000│Would realize this
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Thakur │ Zorawar │Mertia │Rathor │Ghanerao │ 100 │ 100,000│This chief ceases to
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │be one of the 16
│ │ │ │ │ │ │since the Rana
│ │ │ │ │ │ │lost the province
│ │ │ │ │ │ │of Godwar.
Rao │Keshodas │—— │Pramar │Bijolia │ 40 │ 45,000│Would realize this
│ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Rawat │Gokuldas │Sangawat │Sesodia│Deogarh │ 125 │ 80,000│Would realize more
│ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Rawat │ Maha │Meghawat │Sesodia│Begun │ 150 │ 200,000│This includes
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │usurpations—now
│ │ │ │ │ │ │seized by Sindhia.
│ │ │ │ │ │ │The estate would
│ │ │ │ │ │ │realize 70,000
│ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Raj │ Kalyan │Jhala │Jhala │Delwara │ 125 │ 100,000│Would realize
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │two-thirds
│ │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Rawat │ Salim │Jagawat │Sesodia│Amet │ 60 │ 60,000│Do., do.
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │
Raj │Chhattar │Jhala │Jhala │Gogunda │ 50 │ 50,000│Would realize this
│ Sal │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Rawat │ Fateh │Sarangdevot│Sesodia│Kanor │ 50 │ 95,000│Would realize half
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Maharaja│ Zorawar │Saktawat │Sesodia│Bhindar │ 64 │ 64,000│Would realize this
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │if cultivated.
Thakur │ Jeth │Mertia │Rathor │Badnor │ 80 │ 80,000│Do., do.
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │
Rawat │ Salim │Saktawat │Sesodia│Bansi │ 40 │ 40,000│┌These chiefs have
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││ lost all their
Rao │Surajmall│Chauhan │Chauhan│Parsoli │ 40 │ 40,000││ influence and half
│ │ │ │ │ │ │└ their estates.
│ │ │ │ │ │ │┌These chiefs have
Rawat │ Kesari │Kishanawat │Sesodia│Bhainsror │ 60 │ 60,000││ taken rank on the
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ │┤ depression of the
Rawat │ Jawan │Kishanawat │Sesodia│Kurabar │ 35 │ 35,000││ above—they never
│ Singh │ │ │ │ │ ││ appear at court
│ │ │ │ │ │ │└ on the same day.
────────┴─────────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────────────────
Total number and estimated value of their │┐ │ │
estates sixty years ago, omitting Bhainsror │├ 1,181 │ 1,310,000│
and Kurabar, then enrolled in the second ││ │ │
grade of chieftains. │┘ │ │
─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────────────────

_Note._—The inferior grades possessed estates to a still larger amount, conjointly yielding a revenue of thirty lakhs of rupees; and as each thousand rupees of estate furnished on emergency three horses completely equipped, the feudal interest could supply nine thousand horse besides foot, of which they make little account. [Accounts of the present condition of these nobles will be found in Erskine ii. A. under the headings of their estates.]

-----

Footnote 4.18.1:

See Appendix, No. VIII., for treaty with the Rana.

Footnote 4.18.2:

Commanded by Major-General Sir R. Donkin, K.C.B.

Footnote 4.18.3:

The author had the honour to be selected by the Marquess of Hastings
to represent him at the Rana’s court, with the title of ‘Political
Agent to the Western Rajput States.’ During the campaign of 1817-18 he
was placed as the point of communication to the various divisions of
the northern army; at the same time being intrusted with the
negotiations with Holkar (previous to the rupture), and with those of
Kotah and Bundi. He concluded the treaty with the latter State _en
route_ to Udaipur, where, as at the latter, there were only the
benefits of moral and political existence to confer.

Footnote 4.18.4:

The author had passed through Bhilwara in May 1806, when it was
comparatively flourishing. On this occasion (Feb. 1818) it was
entirely deserted. It excited a smile, in the midst of regrets, to
observe the practical wit of some of the soldiers, who had supplied
the naked representative of Adinath with an apron—not of leaves, but
scarlet cloth.

Footnote 4.18.5:

The Agent had seen him when a boy, at a meeting already described; but
he could scarcely have hoped to find in one, to the formation of whose
character the times had been so unfavourable, such a specimen as this
descendant of Partap.

Footnote 4.18.6:

A description of the city and valley will be more appropriate
elsewhere.

Footnote 4.18.7:

See p. 508.

Footnote 4.18.8:

The escort consisted of two companies of foot, each of one hundred
men, with half a troop of cavalry. The gentlemen attached to the
mission were Captain Waugh (who was secretary and commandant of the
escort), with Lieutenant Carey as his subaltern. Dr. Duncan was the
medical officer.

Footnote 4.18.9:

[Modes in music.]

Footnote 4.18.10:

The buckler is the tray in which gifts are presented by the Rajputs.

Footnote 4.18.11:

If we dare compare the moral economy of an entire people to the
physical economy of the individual, we should liken this period in the
history of Mewar to intermittent pulsation of the heart—a pause in
moral as in physical existence; a consciousness thereof, inertly
awaiting the propelling power to restore healthful action to a state
of languid repose; or what the Rajput would better comprehend, his own
condition when the opiate stimulant begins to dissipate, and mind and
body are alike abandoned to helpless imbecility. Who has lived out of
the circle of mere vegetation, and not experienced this temporary
deprivation of moral vitality? for no other simile would suit the
painful pause in the sympathies of the inhabitants of this once
fertile region, where experience could point out but one page in their
annals, one period in their history, when the clangour of the war
trumpet was suspended, or the sword shut up in its scabbard. The
portals of Janus at Rome were closed but twice in a period of seven
hundred years; and in exactly the same time from the conquest by
Shihabu-d-din to the great pacification, but twice can we record peace
in Mewar—the reign of Numa has its type in Shah Jahan, while the more
appropriate reign of Augustus belongs to Britain. Are we to wonder
then that a chilling void now occupied (if the solecism is admissible)
the place of interminable action? when the mind was released from the
anxiety of daily, hourly, devising schemes of preservation, to one of
perfect security—that enervating calm, in which, to use their own
homely phrase, _Bher aur bakri ekhi thali se piye_, ‘The wolf and the
goat drank from the same vessel.’ [Another, and more usual form is—_Āj
kal, sher bakrī ek ghāt pāni pitē hain_, ‘Nowadays the tiger and the
goat drink from the same stream.’] But this unruffled torpidity had
its limit: the Agrarian laws of Mewar were but mentioned, and the
national pulse instantly rose.

Footnote 4.18.12:

Or rather, who makes the monogrammatic signet _Sahi_ (‘correct’) to
all deeds, grants, etc.

Footnote 4.18.13:

[Properly Sūratnavīs, ‘statement-writer.’]

Footnote 4.18.14:

The Salumbar chief had his deputy, who resided at court for this sole
duty, for which he held a village. See p. 235.

Footnote 4.18.15:

Niyao, Daftar, Taksala, Silah, Gaddi, Gahna, Kapra-bandar, Ghora,
Rasora, Nakkar-khana, Jaleb, Rawala.

Footnote 4.18.16:

[Sāwan sudi tīj, third of the bright half of the month Sāwan (July to
August), a festival celebrated throughout North India.]

Footnote 4.18.17:

[About 45 miles north of Udaipur city.]

Footnote 4.18.18:

In the Personal Narrative.

Footnote 4.18.19:

Although Bhilwara has not attained that high prosperity my enthusiasm
anticipated, yet the philanthropic Heber records that in 1825 (three
years after I had left the country) it exhibited “a greater appearance
of trade, industry, and moderate but widely diffused wealth and
comfort, than he had witnessed since he left Delhi” [Diary, ed. 1861,
ii. 56 f.]. The record of the sentiments of the inhabitants towards
me, as conveyed by the bishop, was gratifying, though their expression
could excite no surprise in any one acquainted with the characters and
sensibilities of these people. [The author’s anticipation of the
prosperity of this town have not been completely realized; but it is
still an important centre of trade, noted for the manufacture of
cooking utensils, and possessing a ginning factory and a cotton-press
(Erskine ii. A. 97 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.20:

A literal translation of this curious piece of Hindu legislation will
be found at the end of the Appendix. If not drawn up with all the
dignity of the legal enactments of the great governments of the West,
it has an important advantage in conciseness; the articles cannot be
misinterpreted, and require no lawyer to expound them.

Footnote 4.18.21:

"_Kampani Sahib ke namak ke zor se_“ is a common phrase of our native
soldiery; and ”_Dohai! Kampani ki!_" is an invocation or appeal
against injustice; but I never heard this watchword so powerfully
applied as when a _Sub._ with the Resident’s escort in 1812. One of
our men, a noble young Rajput about nineteen years of age, and six
feet high, had been sent with an elephant to forage in the wilds of
Narwar. A band of at least fifty predatory horsemen assailed him, and
demanded the surrender of the elephant, which he met by pointing his
musket and giving them defiance. Beset on all sides, he fired, was cut
down, and left for dead, in which state he was found, and brought to
camp upon a litter. One sabre-cut had opened the back entirely across,
exposing the action of the viscera, and his arms and wrists were
barbarously hacked: yet he was firm, collected, and even cheerful; and
to a kind reproach for his rashness, he said, "What would you have
said, Captain Sahib, had I surrendered the Company’s musket (_Kampani
ki banduq_) without fighting?" From their temperate habits, the wound
in the back did well; but the severed nerves of the wrists brought on
a lockjaw of which he died. The Company have thousands who would alike
die for their _banduq_. It were wise to cherish such feelings.

Footnote 4.18.22:

[An instance of the practice of ‘sitting _dharna_’ to enforce a claim
(Yule-Burnell, _Hobson-Jobson_, 2nd ed. 315 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.23:

See p. 380.

Footnote 4.18.24:

See p. 514 and note.

Footnote 4.18.25:

It will fill up the picture of the times to relate the revenge. When
Jamshid, the infamous lieutenant of the infamous Amir Khan,
established his headquarters at Udaipur, which he daily devastated,
Sardar Singh, then in power, was seized and confined as a hostage for
the payment of thirty thousand rupees demanded of the Rana. The
surviving brothers of the murdered minister Somji ‘purchased their
foe’ with the sum demanded, and anticipated his clansmen, who were on
the point of effecting his liberation. The same sun shone on the head
of Sardar, which was placed as a signal of revenge over the gateway of
Rampiyari’s palace. I had the anecdotes from the minister Siyahal, one
of the actors in these tragedies, and a relative of the brothers, who
were all swept away by the dagger. A similar fate often seemed to him,
though a brave man, inevitable during these resumptions; which
impression, added to the Rana’s known inconstancy of favour, robbed
him of half his energies.

Footnote 4.18.26:

Nearly twelve months after this, my public duty called me to Nimbahera
_en route_ to Kotah. The castle of Hamira was within an hour’s ride,
and at night he was reported as having arrived to visit me, when I
appointed the next day to receive him. Early next morning, according
to custom, I took my ride, with four of Skinner’s Horse, and galloped
past him, stretched with his followers on the ground not far from my
camp, towards his fort. He came to me after breakfast, called me his
greatest friend, “swore by his dagger he was my Rajput,” and that he
would be in future obedient and loyal; but this, I fear, can never be.

Footnote 4.18.27:

Literally faith (_dharma_) to his lord (_swami_).

Footnote 4.18.28:

Paper of relinquishment.

Footnote 4.18.29:

The _dūb_ grass [_Cynodon dactylon_] flourishes in all seasons, and
most in the intense heats; it is not only _amara_ or ‘immortal,’ but
_akshay_, ‘not to be eradicated’; and its tenacity to the soil
deserves the distinction.

Footnote 4.18.30:

From _bap_, ‘father,’ and the termination of, or _belonging to_, and
by which clans are distinguished; as Karansot, ‘descended of Karan’;
Mansinghgot, ‘descended of Mansingh.’ It is curious enough that the
mountain clans of Albania, and other Greeks, have the same
distinguishing termination, and the Mainote of Greece and the Mairot
of Rajputana alike signify _mountaineer_, or ‘of the mountain,’
_maina_ in Albanian; _mairu_ or _meru_ in Sanskrit. [The words have no
connexion.]

Footnote 4.18.31:

_Laws_, ix. 44.

Footnote 4.18.32:

[“When he [the king] has gained victory, let him duly worship the gods
and honour righteous Brāhmanas, let him grant exemptions, and let him
cause promises of safety to be proclaimed. But having fully
ascertained the wishes of all the (conquered), let him place then a
relation of (the vanquished ruler on the throne), and let him impose
his conditions. Let him make authoritative the lawful customs of the
inhabitants, just as they are stated to be” (Manu, _Laws_, vii. 201
f., trans. Bühler, _Sacred Books of the East_, xxv. 248 f.).]

Footnote 4.18.33:

[“Let him [the king] cause his annual revenue in his kingdom to be
collected by trusty (officials), let him obey the sacred law (in his
transactions with) the people, and behave as a father to all men”
(Manu, _Laws_, vii. 80). “Not to turn back in battle, to protect the
people, to honour the Brāhmanas, is the best means for a king to
secure happiness” (_ib._ vii. 88). “From the people let him (the king)
learn (the theory) of the (various) trades and professions” (_ib._
vii. 43). “But (he who is given) to these vices (loses) even his life”
(_ib._ vii. 46), trans. Bühler, _Sacred Books of the East_, xxv.]

Footnote 4.18.34:

_Cani_, ‘land,’ and _atchi_, ‘heritage’: _Report_, p. 289.—I should be
inclined to imagine the _atchi_, like the _ot_ and _awat_, Rajput
terminations, implying clanship. [Tamil _kāniyātchi_, ‘that which is
held in free and hereditary property’; _kāni_, ‘land,’ _ātchi_,
‘inheritance’ (Wilson, _Glossary_, _s.v._; _Madras Manual of
Administration_, iii. 58).]

Footnote 4.18.35:

See p. 195.

Footnote 4.18.36:

See p. 195.

Footnote 4.18.37:

See Sketch of Feudal System, p. 170.

Footnote 4.18.38:

Nahrwala of D’Anville; the Balhara sovereignty of the Arabian
travellers of the eighth and ninth centuries. I visited the remains of
this city on my last journey, and from original authorities shall give
an account of this ancient emporium of commerce and literature.

Footnote 4.18.39:

Salvamenta of the European system.

Footnote 4.18.40:

The author has to acknowledge with regret that he was the cause of the
Mina proprietors not re-obtaining their _bapota_: this arose, partly
from ignorance at the time, partly from the individual claimants being
dead, and more than all, from the representation that the intended
sale originated in a bribe to Sadaram the governor, which, however,
was not the case.

Footnote 4.18.41:

Claims to the _bapota_ appear to be maintainable if not alienated
longer than one hundred and one years; and undisturbed possession (no
matter how obtained) for the same period appears to confer this right.
The _miras_ of Khandesh appears to have been on the same footing. See
Mr. Elphinstone’s _Report_, October 25, 1819, ed. 1872, p. 17 f.,
quoted in _BG_, xii. 266. [The word _mīrās_ means ‘inherited estate,’
the right of disposal of which rests with the holder. The Jāts
certainly did not bring the custom to Kent.]

Footnote 4.18.42:

The _sawmy begum_ of the peninsula in _Fifth Report_, pp. 356-57;
correctly _swami bhoga_, ‘lord’s rent,’ in Sanskrit.

Footnote 4.18.43:

Manu, _Laws_, ix. 52-54, on the _Servile Classes_. [Bühler’s version
differs, but the meaning is practically the same as that of the text.]

Footnote 4.18.44:

Patel.

Footnote 4.18.45:

Patel _barar_.

Footnote 4.18.46:

The Gharginti _barar_, and Kharlakar, or _wood and forage_, explained
in the Feudal System.

Footnote 4.18.47:

In copper-plate grants dug from the ruins of the ancient Ujjain
(presented to the Royal Asiatic Society), the prince’s patents
(_patta_) conferring gifts are addressed to the _Patta-silas_ and
Ryots. I never heard an etymology of this word, but imagine it to be
from _patta_, ‘grant,’ or ‘patent,’ and _sila_, which means a nail, or
sharp instrument; [? _sila_, the stone on which the grant is
engraved]; metaphorically, that which binds or unites these patents;
all, however, having _pati_, or chief, as the basis (see _Transactions
of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 237). [_Pati_, ‘chief,’ has
no connexion with _patta_, ‘a grant,’ the latter being the origin of
_patel_. For the position of the Patel see Baden-Powell, _The Indian
Village Community_, 10 ff.; Malcolm, _Memoir of Central India_, 2nd
ed. ii. 14 ff.]

Footnote 4.18.48:

[_Kan_, ‘grain,’ _kūt_, ‘valuation,’ _batāi_ from _batānā_, ‘to
divide.’]

Footnote 4.18.49:

Mui, Barak, and Kapasan.

Footnote 4.18.50:

To effect this, indispensable alike for unity of government and the
establishment of a police, the individual statements of their holders
were taken for the revenues they had derived from them, and money
payments three times the amount were adjudged to them. They were
gainers by this arrangement, and were soon loaded with jewels and
ornaments, but the numerous train of harpies who cheated them and
abused the poor ryot were eternally at work to defeat all such
beneficial schemes; and the counteraction of the intrigues was painful
and disgusting.

Footnote 4.18.51:

Manu [_Laws_, vii. 119] ordains the division into tens, hundreds, and
thousands.

Footnote 4.18.52:

Farmed for the ensuing three years, from 1822, for seven lakhs of
rupees.

Footnote 4.18.53:

In S. 1816, Jawara yielded Rs. 222,000 and Dariba Rs. 80,000. The tin
of these mines contains a portion of silver. [What the Author calls
the tin mines are probably the lead and zinc mines at Jāwar, 16 miles
south of Udaipur city. They seem now to be exhausted, and search might
be made for other untouched pockets of ore. Those at Darība, which
formerly yielded a considerable revenue, have long been closed
(Erskine ii, A. 53).]

Footnote 4.18.54:

There are between two and three thousand towns, villages, and hamlets,
besides the fiscal land of Mewar; but the tribute of the British
Government is derived only from the fiscal; it would have been
impossible to collect from the feudal lands, which are burthened with
service, and form the army of the State.

Footnote 4.18.55:

Sir John Malcolm’s wise and philanthropic measures for the reclamation
of this race in Malwa will support my assertions [_Memoir of Central
India_, 2nd ed. i. 516 ff., ii. 179 ff.].

-----

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber’s Note

There are references in all three volumes to Genealogical Tables in Volume I, which were not reprinted in this Crooke edition.

The spelling of names and places is variable, as noted in the Editor’s introduction to Volume I, as the system of transliteration underwent many changes in the intervening century. The use of macrons was not yet introduced in James Tod’s day. This text, with very few exceptions, follows the text as printed.

Hyphenation of compound words follows the text, with the rare exception of when it occurs on a line break and the preponderance of other instances provides clear guidance.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here.

A missing letter (‘Ch ubīsa’) in note 3.1.37 on p. 167 was established, by visiting the volume cited, as ‘Chaubīsa’. A missing letter (‘Ch ubīsa’) in note 37 on p. 167 was established, by visiting the volume cited, as ‘Chaubīsa’.

The sole footnote on p. 311 had no reference in the text. Based on the content of the note, the reference has been inserted at the end of the first paragraph on the page.

The correction to note 4.5.2 beginning on p. 297 was made in order to close a quotation beginning with ‘cloud of war’, but lacking a closing quote. Earlier editions supplied the resolution).

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here.

This list contains issues in the main text. References are to the page and line in the original.

x.36 _Imperial Gazetteer of India_[,] Added.

xlvii.15 Muntakhab[at/u-t]-tawārikh Replaced.

lx.26 the least suspicious kind of historical Added.
evidence[.]

9.24 in the respective historical portions[.] Added.

29.5 the burning plains of Ind[.] Added.

32.18 were learned in the Vedas[.] Added.

48.5 other eight generations anterior[.] Added.

48.7 inhabitants had their appellation, we cannot Added.
say[.]

55.22 descendants of Rama[.] Added.

104.33 after a lapse of 2250 years[.] Added.

110.1 the power of the Pramaras[.] Added.

110.13 to have been patrons of science[.] Added.

166.4 the principality of the Rana of Mewar[.] Added.

222.23 and most powerful fiefs of Mewar[.] Added.

235.19 PANCHOLI RAECHAND a[m/n]d MEHTA MUL DAS Replaced.

251.36 the contemporary of Vikramaditya, [A/B].C. 56. Replaced.

271.10 1[,] Kanaksen Added.

275.16 ‘the rhymer of Aurangabad.[’] Added.

326.5 by a Bhatti Rajput of Jaisalmer[.] Added.

496.17 Rāna Ar[s]i Singh II. Inserted.

504.25 From S. 1825 to S. 1831 [A.D. 1768-74[)/]] Replaced.

544.9 the foreign chieft[ia/ai]ns Transposed.

The following list contains issues corrected or noted in the footnote text. The reference is to the original page and note, and the line within the note (which may appear on a later page).

lx.1.2 (Smith, _EHI_, 387, note; _IA_, i. 269 ff., Added.
iii. 17 ff., xxxii. 167 f.[)]

25.3.1 Baghes, ‘the tiger lord.[’] Added.

128.2.6 and said to be built by Puru.[’/”] Replaced.

156.1.11 ‘household.[”/’] Replaced.

166.1.3 smaller units being called Byālisa, 42, or Restored.
Ch[a]ubīsa, 24

166.1.4 _Supplemental Glossary_, 178 ff.[)] Added.

176.1.13 1i. 319.[)] Added.

184.1.8 Art. ‘Relief,[’] Added.

201.3.7 the fief of his vassal without his Replaced.
consent.[’/”]

241.1.7 et les seconds de le régaler quand i[t/l] Replaced.
passait par leur bourg.

255.1.3 the name of Min[n]agara was changed Removed.

262.2.6 Mers in Porbandar (Wilberforce-Bell, _Hist. of Added.
Kathiawad_, 53)

265.3.4 (_Census Report, Rajputana, 1911_, i. 255[)]. Added.

297.1.7 ‘cloud of war rolled from Himachal[’] Added.

333.1.3 _Maharana Kumbha: Sovereign, Soldier, Added.
Scholar_, Ajmer, 1917, p. 2[)].

381.1.2 calcined shell-li[n/m]e Replaced.

386.2.5 upon [s/t]heir refusal to intermarry Replaced.

398.3.1 A colloqu[ai/ia]l contraction for Partap. Transposed.

435.1.3 J[u/a]dunath Sarkar Replaced.

468.2.11 (Scott’s _History of Aurangzeb’s Successors_, Added.
vol. i. p. 132).

469.3.1 ‘a royal grant[’] Added.

491.1.64 Your favour was received by the Pandit Removed.
Pardhan[)]

496.2.2 in 1814, Ranaji Burtia[:/;] in 1813 Replaced.

509.2.2 on the liquidation of the contribution[,/.] Replaced.

563.1.5 since he left De[hl/lh]i Transposed.

573.1.1 [[]_Cynodon dactylon_] Opening
bracket
added.

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