Exzerpte aus John Budd Phear, „The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon“ (1881)

Nach der Handschrift, MEGAdigital (MEGA² IV/27).¹ Traducción al español

Sir J. Phear: „The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon.“ 1880.

I) Modern Village Life in Bengal.

(Bis wo das Gegentheil angezeigt, das Zeug Abdrucke v. Artikeln in Calcutta Review f. 1874, July and October numbers.)

Was der Mann beschreibt, ist »agricultural village« im Deltaic Bengal; von den sea lines der Sunderbunds on the South, to the curve, which, passing through Dacca, Pubna, Moorsheedabad, forms the lower boundary of the red land of the North, the whole country ist almost perfect alluvial plain; exhibits generally large open spaces, oft very large, limited to the eye by heavy masses of foliage. Diese open spaces, during the height of the South-West Monsoon, more or less covered with water, at the end of the rains by green waving swarths of rice, u. in dry season to a large extent fallow ground, varied by plots of the different cold weather (rabi) crops. (3, 4) Fast no roads, ausser a few trunk roads of communication zwischen the capital u. district towns, sonst only irregular tracks, sometimes traversable by wheels, along the balks (or ails) which divide and subdivide the soil into small cultivated patches or khēts. Die wenigen sonstigen roads sind kachcha, d.h. unmetalled, ausser in dry season. (West Bengal – (im Gegensatz zu Deltaic Bengal – relatively high land) liegt ausserhalb des Delta below the ghāts, something like roads through and about the large villages, obgleich oft not fitted for wheel traffick. p. 4)

Als main roads for locomotion u. carriage of goods dienen innumerable khals (canals), branching out from Hooghly, Ganges, Pudda, Megma etc rivers, intersecting the country in all directions. (5) Ob das village placed on the high bank of a khal (the banks meist of bare, greasy mud, high enough above the water) or is situated inland, it invariably stands on relatively elevated ground above reach of the water während Regensaison u. fast hidden, in the midst of a jungle; diese villages zugänglich von jeder Seite across the khets by passing along the dividing (ails) balks. No trace of street or any arrangement of the houses in them. (6) Each dwelling is a small group of huts, generally four – a homestead. The site of the group a carefully levelled platform, raised somewhat above the general elevation of the village land, roughly square in figure, and containing 800–1000 □ yards in area. The huts made of bamboo and plastered over with mud, sometimes with mud alone, the floor of the structure also of mud being again raised above the level of the platform; each hut is one apartment only, about 20 feet long and 10 or 15 feet wide, commonly without a window, side walls low, roof highly peaked, thatched with a jungle grass, the eaves (Dachrinnen) project considerably, thus forming low verandahs on the back and front of the hut. Diese huts (mostly 4) der homestead are ranged on the sides of the platform, facing inwards, berühren sich selbst, shut aber gewissermassen in the interior space – the house-space (uthān). ⦗Ist Hof space \ Ist quadrangle⦘ Hier spielen die Kinder, seeds are spread to dry, the old women sit and spin etc (7, 8)

Die principal hut hat oft ausser der Thüre which opens on this interior quadrangle a second door and well kept verandah on the opposite side opening on the path, by which the dwelling can be best approached; this is the baithakhāna (sitting room) wo strangers or men not belonging to the family, received; u. sehr oft auch das Schlafzimmer der male members der family; the mud floor of the hut or verandah, spread mit a mat, reicht dazu hin etc. Die hut which faces the baithakhāna is appropriated to the women and children; eine der 2 andern huts contains the chula (mud fireplace), serves as kitchen; endlich die 4te Hütte ist a gola (store-room for grain). In einer der huts, sei es in quadrangle or outside, ist der dhenki u. die Hütte heisst dhenki ghar; dhenki ist a very large pestle (Mörserkeule) and mortar (Mörtel) dessen main purpose to husk (enthülsen) Reis. Der Mörtel gewöhnlich ein Gefäss ausgehöhlt of a log of wood u. is sunk in the ground; die pestle ist ein Hammerkopf, auch aus Holz, eines horizontalen Hebe bar which works on a low post or support u. dessen anderer arm is depressed by 1 or 2 women applying their weight to it; sobald sie ihren Arm loslassen fällt der Hammer, pounds the paddy in the mortar u. durch Wiederholung dieser Operation the [husk of the] grain is rubbed off. Paddy, the grain [of] rice, gleicht etwas barley, u. must be husked before eaten. Der dhenki attains its object surprisingly. (8–10)

Ist die Familie better off als on average, so mag die Hüttengruppe der homestead mehr als 4 Hütten enthalten, one or more, der bullockshed, gola od. selbst dhenki-ghar situated ausserhalb des quadrangle, perhaps in front of or near to a corner. (10–11)

The homestead platform generally surrounded irregularly by large trees, wie mango, pīpal, palms. In small clearings among these a few herbs u. vegetables are grown for family use in the curry (diese small vegetable plots meist wenig mehr als irregular scratchings in the midst of low jungle undergrowth; nothing like a garden, no flowers); das whole area or compound belonging to the homestead marked off from its neighbours, generally, very obscurely, by most rude metes and bounds, sehr selten a neat fence; die Weiber halten den hardened mud floor des house-space, der principal huts u. verandahs sehr clean, often adorn the front wall des baithakhāna mit grotesque figures in chalk; in der Regel remainder of the homestead compound in a most neglected dirty state. Der modern Bengali wenig Begriff of neatness, ist absolut unfähig, unassisted, of drawing a straight line or an evenly curved line; the traces left by his plough, the edges of his little fields, the rows of his planted paddy etc like inked spider legs across a sheet of paper. (11, 12)

The ordinary agricultural village of Bengal is a closely packed aggregate of such homesteads … more or less concealed among the trees of their compounds; hier u. da waste land in the shape of unoccupied sites for dwellings; auch tanks or ponds of water in the excavations, which furnished the earth for the construction of the homestead, platforms etc. (12)

Diese Teiche (Weiher) od. Bassins oft rich in all sorts of abomination (wimmeln alle mit fish), overhung mit jungle, and surface covered with shiny pond-weed; hier the people bathe, cleanse their body cloths, get their drinking water, catch fish in them. (13) In Bengal jeder pool of water swarms with fish, small or great; the very ditches, gutters and hollows dried up for months, on the first heavy downfall filling them, turn out to be complete preserves of fish. (l.c.) Manchmal has a fortunate or wealthy ryot a tank attached to his homestead all his own, to which his neighbours have no right to resort. (l.c.) maidān (green bewachsen)

Das land tilled by the cultivators of the village, i.e. the bulk of the inhabitants, is a portion of the lower-lying plain outside and around the village. Die family of the homestead – consisting of a father and sons, or of brothers or of cousins – cultivates von 2 to 10 acres in the whole, made up of several plots often lying at some distance from each other. Die men gehn zu ihrem Work at daybreak, plough on shoulder, driving their cattle before them along the nearest village path which leads to the open; manchmal they return at noon for a meal and a bath in the tank u. gehn dann wieder aus for their work; öfter aber bleiben sie bis afternoon, having some food brought [to] them about midday by the women and children. (14) One man and his young son (still in his boyhood) with a plough and a pair of oxen will cultivate 3 acres (u. so [on] in proportion), perhaps more, with the aid received in reaping etc. No purely agricultural class wie in England. Small cultivators u. die überflüssigen Hände einer Familie arbeiten spare times for hire on their neighbours’ land; in some villages, wo die occupation of a caste, z. B. the weavers caste, naturally died out, the members forced to earn their livelihood by manual labour, arbeiten u. a. auch auf Land for wages. Für den Herbst ist oft besondres arrangement made. The paddy grown on land in one situation reift oft später od. früher als paddy grown under slightly different circumstances ⦗Crops are known by designations drawn from the months or seasons in which they are reaped or gathered, as Bhaduwi, Kharif, Rabi; u. diese respectively depend upon the season of sowing.⦘ u. so small gangs of cultivators from one village or district go to help the cultivators of a distant village to cut their paddy, this assistance being returned if needed. The remuneration received for this work is usually one bundle out of every five, or out of every seven, that are cut. The foreigners build a mat hut for themselves in the harvest field u. nach geleistetem Dienst carry home their bags of grain. (15, 16)

Grosse uniformity of life etc in all the component classes of a village. (16) Das House des wealthier or more influential man ist manchmal pakka or brick-built (aber Plan wie bei bamboo homestead) generally out of repair and partially broken down. Er hat zahlreichere Kleider u. better blankets; seine cooking ustensils u. die sehr wenigen other domestic articles sind vielleicht of Brass statt Erdenwaare, seine hukhas (hukha od. hookha a form of pipe for smoking tobacco) of metal or even silver mounted statt einer Cocosnussschale, seine Weiber tragen reicheren u. zahlreicheren Schmuck. Er hat vielleicht a wooden gaddi (takhtaposh) (gaddi = a seat, takhtaposh = a low platform or sitting place) in his receiving room, on which he and his guests or clients may sit cross-legged, slightly raised above the earthen floor. Hat vielleicht a richly carved statt a plain sanduk (strong box) for the custody of his valuables, or a plurality of them. Sonst both households gleich primitiv; food rice in some form or other and curry (mit Currysauce bereiteter Ragout) u. dies eaten by taking it out of the platter or off the plaintain leaf with the fingers. (17, 18) Zu Haus u. while at work most men go naked, ausser the dhoti (loin cloth) u. Kinder bis 7 od. 8 Jahr meist absolut nackt. (18) Wealth zeigt sich by the expenditure of money at family ceremonies, wie bei marriages, bei shraddhas (funeral obsequies) u. readings of national and religious epics, the Bhagbut, Rāmāyana etc. Bei shadis (shádi = nuptial ceremony) u. shraddhas the cost is in the purchase and preparation of offerings, presents and payments to Brahman priests, presents to, and the feeding of, Brahmans generally. For the readings, the Brahman narrator (kathak) paid very highly u. he u. his audience oft maintained for several days by the employer. Then certain religious festivals are kept annually by such families as can afford it, Kalis’ in Kartik (October), Saraswati’s or Sri Panchamis’ in Magh (end of January), and ceremonies in honour of Durga commonly performed by well-to-do people. (19, 20) The Social Respect commanded by wealth, meted out in Bengal very much according to the mode or degree of magnificence with which these semi-public family duties (in fact spectacles) are performed. (20)

Women all sehr superstitious etc, do all the menial work of the household, even when family of the better classes; go daily to the tanks to fetch water, gives opportunity for gossip etc, astrologers live in all villages als Auguren zur Deutung aller phenomena des täglichen Lebens, gelenkt durch supernatural governors. (spiritual agencies) (21–23)

Der Boden worauf die homestead stands u. the small surrounding compound, is hired of a superior holder; a common rent is Re. 1, 1–4, 1–8 p.a. for the homestead plot u. etwas weniger für das attached piece. Die Buildings, die die homestead bilden, gewöhnlich constructed durch tenant, gehören ihm; zieht er fort, so kann er die Materialien mitnehmen od. verkaufen; dies ein Grund, warum mud, mat u. bamboo dwellings the rule u. pakka (brick-built) houses the exception. The largest mat hut of a homestead kostes Rs 30–50 to build entirely anew; the chulha (cooking stove) is made by the women of mud. The dao (bill-hook, Spitzhaken), as a tool the Bengali’s jack-of-all trades, is got from the village blacksmith for a few annas. The plough-handle des cultivator prepared almost for nothing by the ryot himself, perhaps mit assistance des village carpenter, u. its toe is shod with iron by the village blacksmith for 1 rupee. ⦗Plough is a most simple wooden tool ohne Eisen ausser the pointed ferule at the toe; gleicht genau in shape a thin anchor; one claw goes into the ground at such an inclination that the other is nearly vertical and serves as a handle for the ploughman; the shank is the plough-beam to which the bullocks are attached. There is no share coulter or breast; the pointed end only stirs the earth, does not turn it. The whole so light that a man easily carries it over his shoulder.⦘ An average pair of bullocks obtainable for Rs 20, u. the price der few earthen pots and pans of various sorts – constituting the necessary ustensils for household purposes – may be reckoned in pice. (23, 24) So klein das accumulated capital des villager’s u. selbst dies oft due to the mahājan. ⦗Mahājan = merchant, money-dealer – one who makes it his business in the villages to advance money and grain to the Ryot on the pledge of crop⦘. (24) Extreme poverty of by far the largest portion, i.e. the bulk of the population in Bengal (the richest part of India !) seldom rightly apprehended by the English people. The tropical climate u. the tropical facility of producing rice admit of life and a certain low type of health being maintained on a minimum of means. 7 rupees a month a sufficient income for support of a whole family; food the principal item of expense, u. probably one rupee 8 annas a month in most parts of Bengal sufficient to feed an adult man u. 12 annas a woman even in a well-to-do establishment. Die villagers, die cultivators, have mostly sufficient rice of their own growth for their home consumption; the little cash they require is the produce of the sale of the rabi (cold weather) crops. Die andren villagers buy their rice unhusked (paddy) from time to time in small quantities, u. alle so ihr Salz, Taback (wenn sie ihn nicht selbst bauen), gurh (coarse sugar of date tree etc, hardened into a cake – molasses), oil, masala (spice, seasoning) fast täglich at the general dealer’s (modi) shop. (25) Für Kaufen, wie of curry spices, the pice or ¼ anna (1 anna = 1 /16 silver rupee), the lowest piece struck by the Mint, nicht sufficiently small u. cowries (Kauri a small shell (cypræa) used as money) at the rate of about 5,120 to the rupee universally employed to supplement the currency. (26)

In a large village 3 or 4 modi’s shops. (Sells auch liquid articles) Beschreibung solchen shop’s. (25–28)

Hāt or market held in most villages twice a week; meist a tolerably open part of the village site; meist keine stalls for the protection of the sellers or their goods; when so simply long narrow lines of low shed roofs covering a raised floor, supported on bamboo posts, without any side walls. (28, 29) Zum hāt bringt der producer his spare paddy, mustard-seed, betel-nuts, sugar-cane, gurh treacle, his chillies, gourds, yams; the fisherman his fish, the seedcrusher his oils, the old widow her mats and other handy work, the potter his gharas (= a necked, narrow mouthed, earthen vessel) u. gamlas (gamla = open earthen vessel), the hawker his piece-goods, bangles etc; the town trader’s agents u. the local modis come to increase their stocks, the rural folks to supply their petty wants, all gossip, not a few stay to drink. (not rare this accomplishment in India) Each vendor sits cross-legged on the ground with his wares set out around him, u. for the privilege of this primitive stall he pays a certain small sum or contribution in kind to the owner of the hāt, meist der Zamīndār. (proprietor of the rest of the village land) Die profits derived from a popular hāt sufficiently considerable [relative] to the ordinary rent to induce a singular competition on the part of the neighbouring Zamīndārs; jeder will set up a hāt, verbietet den ryots Besuch der andern, führt oft zu Keilereien. (29, 30)

Ist das village, or any substantial portion of it, inhabited by Mussulmans, dann a masjīd (mosque) in it; of brick, wenn a member der community defrays the cost of erecting it, meist of mat and bamboo; the mulla, who officiates there may be a tradesman, or modi, gifted with a smattering of Arabic sufficient to read the Koran; ist in theory chosen by the mahalla (Muhammedan quarter), aber praktisch the office hereditary, remunerated durch small money payments made bei marriages u. other ceremonies. (31)

Patshāla or hedge school; along a village path a group of 10–20 almost naked children, squatting under a pīpal tree, near a homestead, or even under a thatched verandah dazugehörig, engaged in marking letters on a plantain or a palm leaf, or in doing sums on a broken piece of foreign slate, od. even on the smoothed ground before them – the indigenous means of educating the rising generation. Instruction here given gratis, for contrary to an oriental’s social and religious feelings of propriety that learning of any sort should be directly paid for; der teacher an elderly Brahman: Guru Mahasoy; eigentlich soll er nur Brahmanen u. andre twice-born classes unterrichten, thut’s aber faktisch für outside classes für reading u. writing the vernacular, arithmetic etc; gelegentlich verbindet ein modi mit seinem shop auch dies business mit Bezug auf die children squatting under the eaves of his shop hut. – Der instructor erhält bei special events in der family v. den parents of his pupils small presents of rice or dāl (= split peas, or any other split pulse), or even a piece of cloth, ditto when an urchin achieves a marked stage in his progress. (32, 33) A Brahman [guru] gets in addition his share of the gifts to Brahmans, so serious an item of expense in the celebration of the many festivals obligatory on a well-to-do Bengali. (34)

In parts of Bengal noted for Sanscrit learning, wie Vikrampur u. Nuddea etwas Aehnliches gleich einer old-fashioned Engl. grammar school sometimes met with; a turn of the village path brings you to a Tol; dort in half open mat shed sit cross-legged on the raised mud floor a dozen Brahman youths decently clad, mit Sanscrit manuscripts on their laps, learning grammar; each remains 2 or 3 or even more years at this monotonous occupation, wie transcribing sacred rolls, until he is able to pass to the home of deepest learning, Nobodweep. Master of the Tol a Brahman Pundit who in obedience to the Hindu principle not only teaches but maintains his scholars, (34, 35), personally stets poor (35). Er u. seine disciples leben v. den Gaben der richer Hindus in neighbourhood; während 2 Monaten Ferien besucht er sie der Reihe nach, u. never leaves a roof ohne Honorar von 1 Rupee, 2, selbst 20 je nach wealth of his host. (35, 36)

One or more specimens of the Byragi and his female companion – coarse licensed beggars of a religious ascetic order (aber meist lose Vögel) in den meisten villages; in seiner homestead one of the huts a thakurbāri of Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) wo die members of the very numerous sect of Boistubs od. Vaisnabas (Vishnubites) on certain festivals lay their offerings. The Byragi ist der minister einer der sects which owe their origin to the great reformer Chaitanya about 300 years since. (36, 37)

The homestead of the goāla, or cowman, wovon several in a village, wie die seiner neighbours, ist cultivator wie most of them. Meist the cowshed [will be] actually brought up to the uthān and fill one of the sides. Die cows tiny little animals often not more than 3 feet high u. miserably thin. Are kept tethered close, side by side of each other in the open shed, there fed with dried grass, wetted straw, ausser when under the care of a boy they can on the waste places about the village, and on the fallow khēts pick up what they find. All Hindus – if they can afford it, consume milk; after rice and pulse (dāl bhāt) it [is] the staple food of the people; keine Butter noch Käse; der goāla verkauft nicht nur Milch in raw state, sondern compounds auch die various preparations of it, thickened; eine davon dahi gleich a mass of thick clotted cream (with all the fluid portion omitted), is daily hawked about from homestead to homestead by the goālas in earthen gharas, carried scale-fashion, or bahangi (a bamboo furnished with cords at each end, by means of which luggage is carried slung across the shoulder), suspended von den 2 extremities of a bamboo across the shoulder. (37, 38, 39)

Blacksmith’s shop: a thatched shed, with old iron and new of small dimensions lying about in confusion. Im centre des mud floor is a very small anvil, close to the fireplace, welcher a hole sunk in the ground. The nozzle of the very primitive bellows is also let into the ground. The headsmith, sitting on a low stool or on his heels, works the bellows by pulling a string with one hand while with a tongs in the other he manipulates the iron in the fire, and then, still keeping his seat, turns to the anvil [whereon] with a small hammer in his right hand he performs the guiding part in fashioning the metal, and an assistant also squatting on his heels follows his lead with a larger hammer. The hammer heads are long, on one side only of the haft, and unbalanced by any make-weight, and the anvil is exceedingly narrow; yet the blows struck by both workmen with unerring precision. The villagers brauchen nur wenig in the shape of iron work; a few nails, the toes of the ploughs, cultivating hoes (kudalis) billhook or cleaver (dao), the bonti ⦗a broad sickle-shaped knifeblade, fixed vertically into a heavy wooden stand. In use, the stand is held firm by the feet, and the fish, vegetable, straw or other article to be cleaned, sliced, or cut up, is with the hand duly worked against the concave cutting edge thus made fast.⦘ of domestic and other use (fixed curved blade), all diese articles made or repaired by the village blacksmith. His stock of Iron is mainly English hoop iron bought at the nearest town by him, or for him, which has come out to India in the shape of bands round the imported piecegood bales. (39–41)

»Professionals« im village: not seldom the kabiraj or native doctor (of the Vaidya caste), trägt seine Pillen in paper packets in a tolerably large bundle (cover within cover) in the end of his chadr od. Chadar (a sheet, or cloth) mit sich herum; many of his pills, compounded after receipts of antiquity, excellent specifics; der kabiraj macht vorher in jedem einzelnen Fall bargain, z. B. Re 1 od [Rs] 2 f. die ordinary medicine mit 2 or 3 visits in an obstinate case of malarious fever. (41, 42)

Astrologer, fast in jedem principal village; ist an Acharjee (Lugu Acharjee), but of a somewhat low class of Brahman, whose business is to paint the thakurs (idols) u. die various traditional representations der deities; to prepare horoscopes etc. Andre paint pictures in water colours for decorative use bei great ceremonies performed by the richer families; keine Perspektive, aber outline u. colour well depicted on the flat; many of these men work together on a given subject for monthly pay of Rs 20–30; meist aber each prepares his pictures at leisure in his own home u. presents them when finished to some rich person, wofür er meist ample remuneration erhält. (42, 43)

Gottesworship bei den Mohammedanern congregational u. personal; the masjid, public preaching, united prayer u. adoration offered by individuals collected in congregations die characteristic features. (43)

Bei den Hindus der Cultus domestic u. vicarious; the family idol, daily service u. worship des idol performed by a priest for the family, and the periodic celebration of ceremonies in honour of that manifestation of the deity which the family adopts, wie for the deceased ancestors’ souls, die principal ingredients. Unter den wealthy Hindus the hereditary spiritual guide, the hereditary Purohit (family priest) and the service of the jewelled thakur form the keystone of the joint family structure; u. die poor folks of a country village dasselbe in ärmlicher Form. Jeder respectable household that can afford the small expense has a rude thakur, or image of its patron deity placed in a separate hut of the homestead u. a Brahman comes daily to perform its worship u. service; die village purohits – belonging to a lower caste of imperfectly educated Brahmans – an extremely ignorant set of men. In some districts mostly foreign to the village, coming there from a distance, residing in it for a few years, then return home for an interval, providing a substitute or vicar während ihrer period of absence; erhalten remuneration in the shape of offerings u. small fees, haben pretty good livelihood by serving several families at a time. Wie die andren Brahmanen they come in for a share of the gifts distributed by wealthy men bei family ceremonies u. festivals. Grossentheils purohit erblich; stets so bei families of social distinction; diese haben mehre spiritual guides exclusively for themselves; the guru (spiritual instructor of the individual who gives him the mantra = a passage from the Veda, a prayer), der higher class purohit who is an Acharjee u. conducts the periodic puja (Poojah = Worship) festivals of the family in addition to the ordinary purohit who performs the daily service of the thakur. (44–46)

The mass of the ryots who form the population of the village too poor to have a family deity; müssen sich begnügen part der audience zu bilden bei religious festivals celebrated by their richer neighbours, u. den annual pujas performed at the village mandap (an open-sided roofed structure or building) on behalf of the community. (46)

Mandal – the village headman; the chaukidar – the village watchman, or constable; the barber, u. the washerman auch noch wichtige Personnages, ebenso carpenter, potter, weaver, fisherman; jalkar-wála = one who has a right of fishing; pith-worker etc.

Zemindar and Mahājan.

The wooded dwelling area (des village) is skirted by waste or common land of very irregular breadth u. beyond this again comes the cultivated land of the open plain (māth). Up to a certain line – of immemorial origin but ordinarily well ascertained – all the land both waste u. cultivated, reckoned outwards from the village, belongs to the village (als possession); on the other side of the line begins another community land. In Theilen von Bengal wo portions der country in a state of nature the limits des village territory include jungle u. sonst unappropriated land. (48, 49)

The village and its land als Ganzes heissen a mauzah. (49) Dies Land des mauzah cultivated in small patches by the resident ryots on payments of dues, according to the nature of the soil, and the purpose of the cultivation, to the Zemindar; they are most commonly variable and capable of adjustment from time to time zwischen Zemindar u. Ryot, (50) are classified mit extreme minuteness according to characters attached to the land by custom, not all concrete. (51) So:

Sali – land wholly submerged während period of rains – of different grades; Suna, not submerged, also of different grades;

Nadki, land for which rent is paid in cash per bigah; Bhaoli, land for which rent paid in kind, part of the produce; – ebenso Bhaoli: land for which rent is paid in cash per crop per bigah,

Bhiti – raised house-site land. (51) Khudkasht, lands which the residents of the village are entitled to cultivate;

Pahikasht – land which outsiders may cultivate. (52)

Diese characters adhere almost permanently to the same land; for each village a recognized rate of rent (nirkh) properly payable according to them. When the occupation, wie meist der Fall mit Sunaland, on an utbandi-jama (rent according to the land actually tilled, when land tilled one year is allowed to lie fallow the next) u. die cultivation is by alternation of cropping u. fallow, zahlt der Ryot nur so viel von jeder Sorte of lands as he actually tills. In most villages by far the larger portion of land is Khudkasht. (52)

Also the open lands des village divided up among the resident ryots in small allotments, oft consisting of several scattered pieces, generally comprehending land of various qualities – rarely über 10 acres in Total u. oft viel weniger, … Zahlung der Rente durch each ryot to Zemindar nach shifting scale, depending upon more or less of the elements mentioned. (53)

Abbreviated example of the year’s account zwischen ryot u. zemindar.

In extenso füllt diese Geschichte (285, 286) 40 u. oft mehr Parallele Columns, mit column for arrears etc. (286) Matter of fact that the Bengal ryot [is] little disposed to move u. for generation after generation, from father to son, the same plots of land, or approximately so, remain in the hands of the same family. (53)

The zemindari is an aggregate of many entire mauzahs. (54)

Die jährliche Rente meist gezahlt in 3 or 4 kists (instalments) die collection dieser Rents nur ausführbar durch an organized staff, commonly called, both individually and collectively, the zemindar’s, or zamindari amla; besteht gewöhnlich aus:

einem Tehsildar (collector of the rents; if the zemindari is large, one Tehsildar collects für je 3 or 4 mauzahs.)

In jedem village od. Mauzah a Tehsildar’s kachahri, ⦗(auch called »Cutcherry« nämlich a court or office where public business, or the business of a zemindar’s estate (wie hier), is done)⦘; dort the zamindari books and papers relative to the village collections made up and kept. Bookkeeping von Hindus carried to an almost absurd extent of detail; would be tedious to describe all the books kept in due course of the kachahri business; the principal of them are: 3 or 4 books genannt chittha (Memorandum – name of a business book used in the management of a Zamindar’s property, in which measurements and other like information are entered); dies ist in fact a numbered register in various ways and in minute detail of all the small dags, or plots into which the village lands are divided, the measurement of each, its situation, the quality of the land, the ryot who cultivates it etc, the last of them being the khatiyan (an account book of the nature of the ledger), or ledger, which gives under each man’s name all the different portions of land held by him, with their respective characteristics. The jama bandi a sort of assessment paper made up for each year, with the view of showing for every ryot, as against each portion of the land held by him, the rate at which it is held, according to quality or crop, and also to exhibiting the total amount which in this way becomes due from him, and the kists in which it is to be paid; and the jamawasil-baki (resuming the principal statements of the jama bandi) – an account paper showing simultaneously the full rent, the amount collected, and the amount of arrears, in respect of an estate, village, or district.

A Bengali account book is formed by sewing together with a cord any number of very long narrow loose sheets at one of their ends, and when it is closed the free ends of the sheets are folded back upon the ends which are thus bound. (55–57)

The Gumashta (Gomashta) ⦗generally agent, one who carries on business for another⦘ u. Patwári: ⦗one who keeps the collection papers of a mauzah, and commonly also makes the collections of the village⦘, or similar offices, whatever their different names in different districts, are charged with keeping up the kachahri-books according to the varying circumstances of the ryots’ holdings; haben daher das ganze Jahr durch (als spies des Zemindar!) a sharp eye upon the ryots’ doings. As a rule diese Burschen selbst belong to the class of village ryots u. sind selbst cultivators. Findet sich hence that the plots in their hands are the best in the village; ihr »proper work« verhindert sie selbst to cultivate u. they are »supposed« to pay other ryots tilling the soil for them; sie mogeln meist dass dies gratis geschieht; erschleichen u. erpressen sich auch »the offer of gratifications«. In so weit dies office hereditary, dass generally the son succeeds the father; aber das meist nothwendig, weil selten mehr als 1 od. 2 andre unter den villagers das für dies Geschäft nöthige Quantum v. Lesen u. Schreiben besitzen. (57–59)

Der Zemindar ist der »superior lord« der ryots (»subjects«) both by habit u. feeling glebae adscripti; seine Authorität u. die seines amla in Zaum gehalten durch den mandal (gewöhnlichste Bezeichnung, wechselt aber mit District), the village head man, mouthpiece u. representative der ryots des village in all matters between them and the zemindar or his officers. Der Mandal cultivator wie die übrigen ryots, keineswegs der reichste unter ihnen; sein office in theory wählbar, in fact fast invariably von father to son u. so hereditary aus selbem Grund dass alle occupations u. employments in India hereditary. Er muss hinreichend lesen u. schreiben u. die Zemindari accounts verstehn können u. bekannt sein mit den customary rights der villagers; erhielt nicht directes emolument, aber die ryots helfen ihm v. Zeit zu Zeit gratuitously in his cultivation, zahlt oft auch geringere Rent als die andren ryots. Der mandal u. a few of the elder men constitute the village panchayat, by whom the most ordinary disputes u. quarrels are adjusted. ⦗Er erklärt Pancháyat a body of five caste men, villagers or others, who deal [with] and settle disputes relating to caste, occupation etc.⦘ In more obstinate cases the mandal and the parties go to the zemindar or his representative the náib ⦗Deputy or representative – the head officer or steward representing the zemindar in the management of large zemindaries⦘ or gumashta, for discussion and representation. So ohne die theuren public courts viel Justizadministration in den rural districts of Bengal abgemacht. (59–61)

Residirt der Zemindar im Dorf, so oft der barber who shaves the members of his family, the dhobi who washes for them, the head darwan (porter) and other principal servants – sind hereditary, haben portion of village land zu relativ low rent or rent free; der dhobi u. barber have the right to be employed at customary rates of pay by all the ryots; oft carpenter u. blacksmith in gleicher Lage; der hereditary watchman (chaukidar) erhält sein Land rent free; ebenso Brahman priest, whether of the Zemindar’s family, or maintained for the village pujas etc. (61, 62) (dieser Esel Phear nennt die Constitution des village feudal)

Ausserhalb dieser Village Constitution der Mahājan, der village capitalist. Der village ryot muss periodisch Geld auslegen; z. B. a Hütte der homestead neu zu bauen or to repair, Pflug od. anderes Instrument zu machen, Paar bullocks zu kaufen, Saat für Aussaat nöthig, endlich Reis für sich u. Familie, several kists of his rent to be paid before all his crops can be secured and realised. Im western part des Delta reichen seine savings selten hin to tide him ganz über die Periode die verfliessen muss bevor seine jährliche Production einkommt. Muss also zum Mahājan gehn for money and for paddy as he wants them. Gewöhnlichste Transactionsweise zwischen beiden Seiten: das paddy for sowing and for food, u. auch andrer Saamen, wird geliefert unter Bedingung dass er sie returnirt +50% in quantity zur Herbstungszeit; Geld andrerseits to be repaid, auch at harvest time, mit 2% per Monat Zins entweder in Form von Equivalent of Paddy, reckoned at Bazaar prices, or in cash at the option of the lender. Als security für Execution dieses Uebereinkommens nimmt der mahājan häufig Hypotheke auf des ryot’s future crop u. er hilft sich selbst to the stipulated amount on the very threshing floor, in the open field. (63, 64)

Der Zemindar – dieser falsche engl. landlord – merely a rent-charger; der ryot a field-labourer, living from hand to mouth; der mahājan, der das farming Capital liefert, die Arbeit zahlt u. allen Profit einsteckt, ist ein stranger, having no proprietary interest in the land; a creditor only, whose sole object is to realise his money as advantageously as possible. After setting aside in his golas ⦗gola = a hut, meist circular in form, in which grain is stored.⦘ as much of the produce come to his hands, as he is likely to need for his next year’s business, he deals with the rest simply als cornfactor, sending it to the most remunerative market. A thriving mahājan may have a whole mauzah or more under his hand – and yet he has no legitimate proprietary status in the community, while those who have – the ryot … and the Zemindar … for different reasons are apparently powerless. (64–65) Hence x) der unprogressive character of an agricultural village, so beschrieben by a young zemindar, Babu Peary Chund Mookerjee Beng. Soc. Sci. Trans. vol. IV, sec. 4, p. 1.

„A husbandman of the present day is the primitive being he always (!) has been. With a piece of rag round his loins for his clothing, bare feet, a miserable hut to live in, and a daily fare of the coarsest description, he lives a life … unruffled by ambition. If he gets his two meals and plain clothing he is content with his lot, and if he can spare a few rupees for purchasing jewellery for his wife and children, and a few rupees more for religious ceremonies, he will consider himself as happy as he can wish to be. He is the greatest enemy of social reform ⦗? wäre nicht enemy of getting himself the rent he pays to Zemindars, old or young!⦘, and never dreams of throwing off the trammels which time or superstition has spun around him. He will not send his son to school for fear ⦗and a very just one, too!⦘ of being deprived of his manual assistance in the field; he will not drink the water of a good tank because he has been accustomed to use the water of the one nearer to his house; he will not sow a crop of potatoes or sugar-cane because his forefathers never did it; he will allow himself to be unmercifully fleeced by his hereditary priest to secure the hope of utter annihilation after death … the ryots too poor (!), too ignorant, too disunited among themselves to effect … improvement.“ (65–67)

Domestic life.

Wealthy enterprising zamindars sehr selten im Mofussil ⦗ (or Mafassal) = the country as opposed to the town; the subordinate as opposed to the principal⦘. The Hindu gentleman of the Bengali village, the landed proprietor of the locality, had income von Rs 100 to Rs 200 per Jahr höchstens; nicht immer a pakka house; his property is probably a share of the village, or of several villages together, held on some tenure; his net income = dem remainder of the collections he has made from the ryots after he has paid the jama ⦗od. jamma = the aggregate of payments made for land in the year – the total rent⦘ of his tenure to his superior or to the Government, as the case may be. (68, 69)

Bhadra-log, respectable well-to-do people, who are not Brahmans;

Andar Mahal ⦗das Wort Mahalla = a division of a town, a quarter⦘, the portion of the house or homestead allotted to the female members of the family, which strangers and non-privileged males are not allowed to enter.

Ashan = a square piece of carpet; thāl a metal plate or dish; pān = a betel leaf.

Tiffin = a refreshment; bau = young married girl; bári = a dwelling house, homestead.

Universal habit in Bengal prevalent in all classes for the members of a family to live joint and to enjoy the profits of property jointly. z. B. in Ryot’s family: nach Tod des Vaters, seine Söhne, früher dependent members of the family living in the same homestead and assisting the father in the cultivation of his jot (= jote = both the land which the cultivator tills, and his tenure of it), continue [to live] in same homestead, cultivating the same jot, but now as owners. Manchmal tragen sie ihre Namen collectively ein statt dessen des Vaters in das book of the zamindar’s kachahri; manchmal the dead man’s name remains there unaltered. Jeder brother, with his wife and children, if possible, occupies a separate hut in the homestead, u. so oft nöthig für dies purpose, an additional hut added to the group. (76, 77) Die brothers by law entitled to equal shares of inheritance in the whole of any heritable property they have thus taken in common, and each has a right at any time to compel a partition. Stirbt einer der Brüder, his sons, wenn er keine hat, his widow, step into his place and represent him in all respects. (77) Generation auf Generation fortgehend würde dies a complex distribution of undivided shares hervorbringen; aber bei ryots kommt’s rasch zu End the smallness of the original subject rendering the aliquot parts insignificant. Eh es so weit, die jüngeren members der family give up or sell their shares to the others u. suchen sich andre Beschäftigung. Ist das jot inheritable in its nature, so die jointly living members of family actually divide the land unter einander according to their shares and cultivate separately. So das Land in some villages subdivided into absurdly small plots u. this evil has a natural tendency to increase. (78)

In wohlhabenden Familien mit bedeutenden Besitzungen sei es in Handel od. in Zamindaries u. other landed tenures, the state of „jointhood“ dauert gewöhnlich lang. The whole property managed by one member of the family called the „karta“, meist das älteste Individuum der ältesten Branche; theoretisch responsible to the entire body of joint-co-sharers, jeder von denen kann einsehn die family books of accounts u. papers regularly kept in a sort of office (daftarkhana) by the family servants; selten jedoch one interferes, bis quarrel, dann fought out mit acrimony, partition effected and accounts insisted upon. As a rule the co-sharers content to be supported in the family house, out of the family funds, each getting, as he wants, sufficient small sums of money for ordinary personal expenses. Das money saved nach disbursement of the general family u. proprietary expenses, is invested by the karta in the purchase of some addition to the joint property; das Geld required for extraordinary family ceremonies or religious performances commonly raised durch den Karta in the form of a loan charged on the common property. (78–80) Dies domestic community oft sehr numerous; erstens die co-sharers, Brüder, Neffen u. male cousins deren fathers’ shares have devolved upon them u. die widows or daughters of co-sharers, verstorben ohne Söhne oder Enkel; zweitens: the mixed class of dependent members – wives and children of existing co-sharers, wives and daughters of former co-sharers (whose shares went to sons) and individuals labouring under any infirmity disqualifying them from inheriting. In Calcutta u. selbst im Mofussil Beispiele von Familien v. 300–400 Individuen, incl. servants, living in one house. Meist zählt die family 50–100. (80, 81)

deorhi ⦗entspricht der French conciergerie; nämlich in entrance passage of old family house, oft auf beiden Seiten a raised floor mit 1 od. 2 open cells worin die darwans (doorkeepers) sit, lie u. sleep, in fact dwell.⦘

Puja dalan: die verandah, deren chief purpose to serve as a stage for the performance of religious and domestic ceremonies.

Shámiana (Tent canvas stretched horizontally across, as a covering, from side to side of a quadrangle, or from top to top of poles, firmly fixed in the ground – awning.)

Thakurbāri, chamber where the figure of the family deity (thakur) resides u. where its daily service u. worship is performed. Weiber dürfen nicht selbst worship the family idol or any visible thakur, ausser der clay figure of Siva made for every-day worship. The Shastras forbid to women and Sudras all knowledge and use of sacred texts.

Hat die Familie 3 or 4 generations, removed von dem common ancestor, erreicht, so there several heads of branches; diese branches settle themselves by stirpes, in separate parts of the house under their own heads; … manchmal die Separation so complete that the portion of the house allotted to each branch is parted off from the remainder of the house by blocking up of doors, and by the opening of a separate entrance. Each group as a rule messes by itself, and every adult member of it has a room to himself in which he lives, all the female members together in the inner apartments, commonly called among Europeans the Zenana. All the branches usually keep joint with regard to the worship of the family deity. Und selbst wenn the branches sever in everything – i.e. in food, worship, and estate – the same family deity is commonly retained by all, and the worship conducted by the different branches in turn, each turn proportionate in duration to the owner’s share in the joint property. z. B. if family in its divided state is represented by 4 heads, 2 brothers, and their 2 nephews, sons of a 3d brother deceased, the turn or pallas of worship would be respectively 4 months, 4 months, 2 months and 2 months or equimultiples of these. (85, 86)

Nur in Calcutta u. andern sehr large towns the family swarm continues in the family hive at such dimensions. Aber in country villages, wo des Zamindar’s family sich maintained for many generations, much about the same thing occurs. (86)

Maidán, an open grass-coverd space; mandir a temple; mandap an open-sided roofed structure, or building.

Majlis an assembly. Mohant the superior of a math (an endowed temple od. shrine; máth dagegen, the open arable plain, forming the cultivated land of a village.) Gaddi, a seat.

Grave and Gay.

inordinate love of spectacles. (89) Drinking to a considerable extent. »In a portion of the Veds the delights of intoxication are dwelt upon, and some of the tantric writings [are] devoted to the encouragement of drink.« … tarí, spirit made [from] many sorts of saccharine juices, especially from the juice of the tarí palm, u. made largely in every village by crude native methods, is evidently of purely home origin. (90)

Bengali of all ranks like gambling; cards u. dice the common form prevaling with the middle classes. (91)

In Bengal 2 distinct sects under the Muhammedans, Sunnís u. Shias; both a good deal given to observances u. practices of Hinduism; the Bengali Musulman is nothing but a roughly converted Hindu. In den besten u. fruchtbarsten Theilen des Delta das mohammedan. Element über 60% der Bevölkerung, im rest of Bengal Proper ists 30–40%; in einigen districts die villages ganz mohammed. od. ganz Hindu, aber more commonly hat jedes village sein Mohammed. quarter u. sein Hindu quarter. (91, 92)

Viele sects auch unter den Hindus, (92) pretty universally in the rural villages Boistobs (mit immense number of varieties u. subdivisions), Saktas, Sivas, Ganapatyas etc. (93) Die chief development der Boistobs – deren Vishnu ist the Brahma (Krishna eine seiner incarnations) – originated mit Chaitanya, who preached purity, meditation, and the equality of all men, without distinction of sect or caste, before God. And a certain freedom from caste trammels and disregard of religious observances, with an appreciation of the importance of conduct, still seem to characterise the sect. The Boistobs have been, and even now are being, recruited from all castes, but taken together in all their varieties … are commonly reckoned as a sort of caste by themselves etc. (94)

Die Saktas vielleicht die majority der village inhabitants; jetzt in a great deal united mit den Saivas, die upon Siva (the Destroyer) look as the primary and more exalted form of Brahma u. die Saktas speziell verehren die divine nature in its activity, the female forms of the supreme deity, as Dúrga od. Kalí; der Sivaite u. Sakta worship in a marked degree a worship of dogma, gorgeous ceremony, u. bloody sacrifices etc. Die Boistobs den Saktas gegenüber »Protestanten«. (94, 95)

Der monastic order is celibate u. in great degree erratic u. mendicant, hat aber anchorage places u. headquarters in the maths (Ursprünglich Bedeutung von math scheint Cell oder Chamber wie von Eremit); heutzutag typisch math ist an endowed temple or shrine mit a dwelling place for a superior (the Mohant) u. his disciples (Chelas); das endowment der math entweder result of a private dedication, oder aber of a grant by an already existing wealthy math, gegen die es in gewisser Art Subordination bleibt etc. (96–100)

In einzelnen Fällen the Mohants, either by decline from the strict path of sanctity originally marked out for them, or even in prosecution of the founder’s purpose ⦗für die Stiftung, nicht für die einzelnen Mönche⦘, make the acquirement of wealth by trade their great object. Sehr viel instances davon in the north-western parts der Bengal presidency, wo numerous trader Mohants of great wealth and influence to be found. (p. 97)

A shrine (dargah) of some holy Mohammedan fakir oft to be met with on the wayside, with the hut or homestead of its keeper near at hand. Passers-by of all creeds and denominations throw in their cowries and pice. (101) In a large village will be a mandap, i.e. a spacious open-sided covered-in room, wo die village púja festivals celebrated u. other village gatherings (as in a vestry room) occur; manchmal ist’s pakka structure, meist of bamboo u. thatch; ist usually kept up by the Zamindar. (l.c.)

Rural crime.

Dakaiti ⦗Dakait one of a gang of robbers⦘ or gang robbery (anglice: dacoity.) (badmashes = the bad characters of a village; pitara: a wicker work or other slightly-constructed box of peculiar shape) (p. 102–105) Verfahren (charakteristisch!) der Polizei. (105–107) Das Gericht. (108–110) Mookhtar = law agent.

Mord for vindicating family honour (relates to womankind). (111–115)

Purely agrarian outrage more common than any other. »A strong sense of vested right unprotected by the arm of the law leads in India as elsewhere to the endeavour at vindicating it by violence.« (115) Krakehle (blutige) unter den Ryots selbst. (115–118) Affray of the Zamindar’s people on den Mandal. (headman of the village) ⦗A mauzah had been sold in execution of a decree, a stranger had purchased it; der new Zamindar takes measures for enhancing the rents of his ryots; war successful at obtaining kabulyats ⦗kabulyat = the counterpart of a pottah or lease, nämlich given by the tenant to his landlord⦘ at increased rates from several ryots, aber der mandal des village, dessen example most influential, sturdily held out and led the opposition. Gegen ihn schickt der Zamindar seine retainers, with the view of capturing him and carrying him off. (Endet mit Mord v. ein paar Leuten; aber Mandal Sieger p. 118, 119) p. 119–120. Andrer case wo die Ryots gegen den Mandal weil er zu sehr die Seite des Zamindar in certain matters nehme; therefore resolved in „committee“ that he should be punished and warned, lassen ihn durch einige »charged« damit durchprügeln. (wobei er †) (120, 121)

Faction fight zwischen den Ryots verschiedner tenure-holders. (p. 121–123) (Todtschlägerei)

Jangal (Jungle) = a wood, any tract, large or small, wo das natural growth of trees, bushes, and vegetation undisturbed.

Bhát = boiled rice; bigha a landmeasure; in Bengal = about ⅓ acre; Arhar = kind of pulse (cytisus cajan) grown for food.

Administration and Landlaw.

(Dies der letzte Abschnitt (VI) dieses Buchs, der schon vorher in Calcutta Review gedruckt.)

A zillah district in India, fälschlich compared to an Engl. county, umfasst area von 2–3000 □ m. u. has population von 2 millions f.i., während County of Suffolk, z. B., hat nur area v. 1,454 □ m. u. population of some 360,000. Alle European officers of a Zillah höchstens a dozen, ⦗wovon ½ about kept by their duties at the Zillah station⦘, viz. 1 magistrate and collector mit 3 od. 4 joint assistant u. deputy magistrates, 1 district and sessions judge, 1 small court, or subordinate judge, 1 superintendent of police, 1 assistant superintendent of police u. 1 medical officer. (125)

⦗Selten »has one of them a real command of the vernacular language«. (126)⦘

No taxgatherers in India (save those recently introduced, mit der imposition of a license tax); all taxes sind land revenue, stamps (needed for every proceeding in a court of justice or public office or copy of any paper filed in a court or office or document of agreement or receipt etc), customs u. excise (die tari u. Salz für Ryot vertheuert). Kürzlich Steuervermehrung durch imposition of a road cess, a small rateable addition to the rent of each ryot, which he pays to his rent-receiver, dieser an Government. (128, 129)

A portion of the rent, every cultivator of the soil pays for his plot, goes to Government as land revenue; es bezieht about 20½ Millions £St per annum in the shape of land revenue. (133)

Vor dem Bengal settlement of 1793 der Zemindar bekanntlich nur Steuercollector, nicht landlord. Bursche Phear says: »The area of his zamindari covered large districts of country and was reckoned not in bighas but in communities of men – mauzahs.« Seine »money proceeds« wurden nicht »spoken of as rent, sondern als jamas (collections) of the included villages«. Seine assets were »made up of the jamas of the sub-tenures, and the collections of the villages.« (135) The zamindar’s village kachahri (schon vor den Engländern) was an office in each mauzah, with a headman, an accountant, and a field officer. (hatten die früher beschriebnen duties der jetzigen Collectors etc. des Zemindar) Die kachahris von je 5 or 6 mauzahs, je nach deren size, were supervised by a superior officer, say a Tehsildar, who had his own kachahri, with its books and papers, either duplicates of, or made up from those of, the mauzah kachahris. Die collections effected by the officers of the village kachahri were handed over to him, and he passed them to a next high officer. So the moneys arrived at last at the Zamindar’s own kachahri; out of them he paid the Gvt revenue due from his Zemindari, and kept the rest for himself. (138)

Each middleman was so the apex and head of a structure precisely like the principal structure in form and constitution, nur mit a smaller basis. A slight disturbing force might serve to detach it and leave it standing by itself, or to put it into an appendent condition. (139) (See also: Hunter: „Orissa“) Lang vor den Engländern the original simplicity of the Zemindari system lost; there were Zemindaris u. taluqs of several orders and designations paying revenue directly to Gvt; innerhalb derselben wieder subordinate taluqs u. tenures converted from the condition of being parts of a homogeneous collecting machine into semi-independence, u. zahlend in that character a recognized jama directly to the superior kachahri statt to send on to it in ordinary course their respective collections. (141)

(By u. by) jeder subordinate jama-paying »mahal« or tenure wurde bald a miniature zamindari, worin gewisse jamas were taken in lieu of collections, and the remaining collections were made by the old machinery. Waste Land grants or concessions were also the origin of taluqs, both dependent and independent, and so, too, jaghir grants for services. (141, 142)

Innerhalb des village selbst – mit Bezug auf die occupation of land – an analogous process came into operation. The principal persons of the zemindari amla and the headmen of the ryots (mandals), or others of influence, and privileged persons such as Brahmans, often got recognized as holding upon fixed and favourable terms larger portions of the village lands than they could or did cultivate. These … they sublet, wholly or in part, and so arose varieties of »jots« u. ryottee-tenures. (142) Vor der legislation of 1793 die middle tenures, wie sie damals existed, depended for their maintenance upon usage, and the personal power and influence of the holder. The ryottee-tenures u. jots ditto regulated by usage, the arbitrament of the village panchayat u. the Zamindari amla; alles customary, involving nothing of personal proprietary right. (142, 143) Die Verwandlung – durch die English rogues and asses – der Zemindars in private proprietors machte eo ipso (wenn auch nicht in Idee jener asses) all intermediate interests zu rights in land, u. the owner of any such interest could encumber the land or alienate it within the limit of the right; seine ownership selbst konnte wieder die complex Hindu joint-parcenary form annehmen. (147, 148)

A middle tenure or interest below the revenue-paying zamindar is essentially the right, on payment of the proper jama to a superior holder, to make collections from the cultivators of land and to take the jamas from subordinate holders within a specified area. (148) The middle tenure of every degree is thus in a great measure an account book matter, and is very completely represented by the jamabandi paper. Will the owner of such a property benefit a child or a family connection, so kann er’s thun by making him a mokarari (= that which is fixed or established – permanent) grant, in some form, of a portion of his collections. (149) Allzumeist the tenure of the grantor himself amounts only to a right to a fractional share of the rents, etc, and then his grant ⦗made to child etc⦘ will pass a fraction of a fraction. (149–50) Such a tenure holder mag auch make a grant dieser Art to a stranger in consideration of a bonus or premium. Er mag’s auch thun um to ensure to himself, in the shape of the rent reserved on the subject of grant, the regular receipt of money wherewith to pay his own jama. Oder er mag, by way of affording security for the repayment of a loan of money made to him, temporarily assign to the lender under a zar-i-peshgi ticca his tenure right of making collections. In these or similar modes, the Bengali tenure-holder, proprietor, zemindar (whatever else the name) is obliged to deal with his interest when he wants to raise money, or to confer a benefit; veräussert er also nicht ganz u. gar the entirety of his interest, wozu er nur selten Zuflucht nimmt, wenn er’s vermeiden kann – so klar that in each instance he creates a fresh set of proprietary rights. (150)

Was ferner a middle tenure or right of land als Gegenstand of joint ownership angeht, so z. B. eine ganze share of a village (oder of any number of villages) sei = 16 annas (= 1 Re.); nun habe einer a fractional share, say a 9½ annas share; dies kann statthaben in 3 od. 4 verschiednen Formen. Es kann bedeuten, 1): the tenure holder has a mokarari (permanent) right to the rents and dues arising out of a specified portion of the area of the village which is separated from the rest by metes and bounds; and bears to the entirety the proportion of 9½: 16. Oder: 2) in certain parts of the area covered by the grant he has a sole right to the rents, and in other parts to a fractional portion only, so arranged that in the whole he gets 9½ out of 16 annas of the entire profits of the area etc. Meist incidental to his right, dass er das ihm Zuständige can collect by his own officers at his own kachahri; vielleicht hat er aber auch nur das Recht to draw his fractional share of the net collections made at a joint-kachahri belonging, so to speak, to several shareholders. (151, 152) Aber der owner dieser mokarari tenure of 9½ annas of property usually a joint-family, or a group of persons representing an original joint-family: alle Glieder solcher Gruppe haben jedes seine eigne share in the tenure, which, although existing in a state undivided from the rest, is capable of being assigned to a purchaser separately from them. Ausserdem, very often, each member of the group can, as between himself and his shareholders, insist upon having an actual partition of the subject of tenure. Sobald dies geschehn wird er by himself separately entitled to a fraction z. B. der 9½ anna tenure; sage zu ⅙ derselben; dann seine besondre share of the rents and profits accruing from the area covered by the tenure, subject of course to the payment of the superior rent or jama, is ⅙ of 9½ annas = 1 anna 9 pie. So das mauzah selbst, the unit in terms of which the zamindari calculated, comes to be divided into small portions; u. der rent-receiver who stands to a particular ryot in the position of zamindar kann sein u. ist oft a very small man indeed. z. B. der ryot may have to pay the whole of his rent to the patwári of the 1 anna 7 pie shareholder, or to pay 1 anna 7 pie out of 16 annas of his rent to him, and the remainder to the other shareholders separately, or in groups; or he may have to pay the entirety of his rent to the joint-kachahri from which each shareholder will get his share on division. (153, 154)

This system of sub-infeudation and subdivision of joint-interests, accompanied by severalty of right, prevails universally throughout Bengal. (154) Daher beispiellose complexity of landed interests u. keiner hat ein Interesse improvements des land zu machen. (l.c.)

Unter diesem System die locally resident zamindars generally small shareholders of subordinate tenures, deren means nicht greatly superior to those of the well-to-do ryots. (155)

Die lands of a village broadly unterscheidbar in 2 sets: the ryottee lands (the bulk of the village area, the village lands) einerseits, u. andrerseits the Zamindar’s ⦗in letzter instance der dem government revenue-paying Zamindar⦘ Land, ziraat, khamar, nij-jot or sir-lands (auch noch andre terms dafür). (155, 156) In Bengal heisst das erstere Land meist the ryot’s »jot«. (156) Wenn dieser wieder sub-lets, so his lessee derives everything from him and goes out of possession with him whenever he goes (erhält also nie a sub-tenure properly so called). (157) By legislative enactment, actual occupation of the same land for a period of 12 years confers upon the ryot (if he has it not otherwise, by custom etc) a personal right of occupation on payment of a fair and reasonable rent; and occupation for 20 years at a uniform rate of rent generally confers a right of occupation at that rate. A very large number of ryots in Bengal have in one way or another acquired permanent rights of occupancy in the land which they cultivate, but the remainder, a larger number, merely occupy, on payment of the rents and dues which usually have been paid to the Zemindar’s kachahri in respect of their land; meist much less in rate than rents paid by agricultural tenants in Engld. Zemindar kann theoretically verlangen was ihm gutdünkt before the commencement of every year, u. turn this class of ryot out, if he does not agree, but seldom does so. (157–58)

On ziraat, khamar, nij-jot, or sir-lands Zamindar kann das Land auf eigne Rechnung bebauen, or put in cultivators on any terms which they agree to accept; sie sind seine tenants, er ihr landlord im (europäischen) ordinary sense of the word; hier hat der Zamindar unqualified ownership in land … – in ryottee lands the use belongs to the ryots. (158–59)

In einigen Theilen Bengal’s, jots od. ryottee interest in considerable tracts of unreclaimed jungle, or otherwise waste lands, have at times been granted, of a perpetual character, upon insignificant rents; das land afterwards sub-let to cultivators. In solchen Fällen nicht zu unterscheiden between the jot-dar u. an ordinary middle tenure-holder. (159)

Ways and Means.

Fast absence of the means of intercommunication between village and village, and between one portion of a rural district and another. (161) there is not a stone, or anything harder than clay, to be found in the soil of the delta; and the floods of the rainy season break down, and sometimes almost obliterate, such roadways as have not been expensively constructed by skilled engineers. (162)

The vehicles in use for the carriage of goods are boats, the heads of men and women, little tiny bullocks, and bambu carts of very rude construction; when well-to-do people travel they are carried in palkis and doolies, or go by boat. In the dry season the men, the bullocks, and the carts can and do go anywhere. The local traffick usually takes place in detail of very small quantities. The dána (= grain) or other seed is trodden out by the bullocks at the khaliān almost on the plot where it is grown. ⦗In some districts wie in Chota Nagpore, a rude handflail is used for thrashing grain⦘; and both the grain and the straw are very easily carried to the homestead on the heads of the various members of the ryot’s family. The surplus produce, if any, of the ryot which does not go to his mahajan passes in little items to the nearer hāts, and so becomes diffused over the neighbouring mauzahs, or is carried on further to the larger hāts, the mahajan u. the modi affording the only village depôts. The larger hāts again, or local centres of country produce trade, are commonly situated on roads or khāls. The produce trader here, by his agents, gathers in the result of his scattered purchases, and sends it away in carts or boats; and thus the outflow takes place very evenly. (163, 164)

It is often said, on occasions of scarcity or famine, that the stream will not reverse itself when necessary. (164) Aber die Sache die: As long as the ryots are able to pay the requisite retail price, the village mahajans u. modis will succeed in keeping up their stocks, whatever the local deficiency may be. (164, 165) Aber wenn season of scarcity approaches sind beide, mahajan u. modi »inactive«. They know very accurately the extent of their clients’ and customers’ means. Der mahajan naturally enough declines to increase his stock at great cost to himself, when his clients are already hopelessly involved in debt to him; u. der village modi for like reason will not lay in a stock at abnormal prices to retail it to those who cannot pay for what they purchase. This state of things would be completely changed if neither the mahajan nor the village dealer had reason to doubt the ability of the ryot to pay a remunerating price for imported food. (165) It is the occurence of pauperism in the ryots, when a certain price of food-stuffs is reached, which throws the ordinary machinery out of gear. (166)

Was aber in times of scarcity the Government activity betrifft etc ⦗paralysirt diese sich selbst to a great extent, dies der sense of the »Kohl« of Phear, aber sehr richtig dies.⦘ Was thut Gvt in emergencies of this sort? Errichtet »relief works on a large scale, where great numbers of people«, drawn from their homes, are massed together within limited areas; grain in cosiderable quantities ist transported from the outside to certain local centres, for the support of those engaged on these works and for the distribution so far as practicable by the hands of the local committees. (166) Die preparations des Government für dies unusual work themselves very greatly hinder ordinary traffic in rural lines of route; boats and carts etc, have to be collected – even impressed – in all directions, and become locked up for days and weeks, before they are actually wanted, damit sie certainly ready when needed. So, nicht nur while gvt is importing, sondern long before it commences to do so, private enterprise is left without a vehicle. (167) Die Govmt method of proceeding hat direct tendency to remove the pressure upon the village mahajans u. modis u. to make the market which they supply noch unsichrer, indem das Gvt draws away as many persons as possible, u. zwar die able-bodied rather than the infirm, from their homes, u. wirkt ebenso by supplying grain. – As soon as Gvt announces its anticipation of a famine and its intention to take extraordinary measures of prevention, all natural effort at the village end of the system ceases. (168)

Peon (for Piada) = footman (inferior servants of a Zemindar or landholder); Sandúk or sinduk = a wooden chest;

Ryot = – Raiyat, originally a subject, jetzt peasant;

Rabi od. Rubbee = The March and April period of the year; the harvest season of the crops sown or planted after the cessation of the monsoon rains in September or October of the preceding year.

Táluq = a dependency; Tehsildar or Tahsildar, one who collects rents or revenue.

Top, od. tope, od. topu – a grove of fruit-bearing trees.

Zu bemerken dass Tári od. tádi vulgarly toddy the juice of palm tree, fermented or unfermented; auch spirit made v. other sources.

Ueber die Means der agricultural families in Eastern Bengal: sieh Memorandum, dem Phear zugestellt von Baboo Ram Sundar Basack, of Dacca. Phear giebts in »Appendix«, Note A

Value of Property possessed by different classes of Ryots. (p. 284)

Charpoy = a frame of wood, having a web of tape or cord stretched across it, and resting upon 4 short legs. Dao billhook or cleaver.

Ist class of ryots; cultivate 15 bigas and upwards and have a family of 1 or 2 brothers u. 4 or 5 grown-up sons. Ihre Zahl sehr gering.

II class〃〃; cultivate 8 or 10 bigas, mit about 3 or 4 male adults in the family. Ihre Zahl > als die der first class. Ein ryot hat oft no other adult male in the family to assist him, but capital enough to employ labourers, gehört dann zu 1st od. 2nd class.

III class〃〃 4 or 5 bigas, have 1 son or brother or nobody to assist them (können daher nur 4–5 bigas bebauen). Bilden die Majorität.

IV class: a large number; haben 1 or 2 bigas of land, sustain themselves u. family mainly by working for others on hire; sind labourers more properly than regular cultivators. 275, 276

Die values hier estimated at cost of erection; if sold in good condition fetch generally less, variirt aber (sale price) mit condition, situation, demand etc.

Ist class ryot has generally a brass kalsi (kalsi = a large water pot) 3 or 4 lotahs (lotah or pali = tumbler), 4 or 5 thalas (plates), 1 or 2 batis (bati = 1 cup), 1 boughna (brass vessel) or 2 iron pans. The quantity of brass forming these ustensils about 12 or 15 seers; when bought the cost per seer von Re. 1 8a. to Rs 2; when sold the price varies von 12a. (annas) to Re. 1 4a. per seer. On the whole the value of these ustensils = Rs 20. – The iron basins and 1 or 2 china plates in the case of Mahommedans, u. country earthenware pots and dishes to be valued at couple of rupees.

Baskets u. other utensils made of bamboos or cane-work, wie jhakee, dalli, kula, dalla, katta u. dhama, or measure of capacity, may be valued at 1 Re.

Bei IInd class ryots the total quantity of brass about 8 or 10 seers = Rs. 8 12, or 15; the other class of utensils at Rs. 2.

A IIId class ryot has generally 1 or 2 brass lotahs (tumblers), 1 or 2 thalas, sometimes a boughna; quantity = 5 seers, about = Rs. 8. Die earthen u. bamboo utensils same as in 2 nd class, for the want of brass utensils to be supplied by these.

Unter Ist class ryots haben nur wenige anything like the sinduk, stets in the house of a trading class in the village. Preis = 15–20 Rs. Statt der regular family sinduks haben die ryots dieser Klasse meist one small chest of mangoe or other inferior wood, and 1 or 2 petaras (od. pitara (see oben)) constructed of matted cane, zu price von Rs. 2 to 4 (die petaras kosten ebensoviel). Ausserdem haben meiste Ryots od. deren females 1 or 2 small wooden or tin boxes to keep cash, ornaments od. other valuables. Price davon 1½ Rs. Gesammtvalue dieser chests, boxes etc = 6–8 Rs.

IId class families haben generally 1 petara and 1 small box or 2, about = 3 or 4 Rs.

IIId class ryots haben höchstens jhaels or small petaras in some cases, v. Price = about 1½ Rs.

The general custom to keep the valuables hidden in earthenware pots kept under the ground or outside.

Mit sehr wenigen Ausnahmen haben die Ryots keine chowkees or charpoys etc. Statt dessen different spreadings on the floor, at night for the bedding. 1 Re. for each family … average value of spreadings for all sects of ryots. All ryots use chhalas or gunny bags to sit upon, which are, when occasion requires, used also to hold grains.

Seats of various kinds made of bamboo slips, canes, and splinters of betel-nut tree, and of small planks called peera or low stools; so small in size that they can hold only one man on each.

Each ryot male or female has 2 dhutees of coarse Manchester cloth for ordinary use while out of work about 12 feet long and 3 feet broad. In well-to-do families haben ausserdem namentlich die females country sharees u. zenana coats, and men chaddars, manchmal peerans. Für die Wintersaison haben elderly men u. women chaddars of thick cloth, while at work they use very narrow and short gamchas or worn out clothes turned into smaller size. No difference among the different classes as to the clothes possessed by a family ausser soweit dies depends upon the number of individuals in each. Der average value of clothes belonging to each individual male u. female, about Rs 2.

Dhutee: a piece of Manchester cloth, known in the bazaar as longcloth or American drill; Shari, a piece of cloth put on by women having borders of different colours; Chadars or sheet – a piece of American drill or long cloth measuring about 9 feet in length; Peeran or shirt, a coat newly introduced into fashion of American drill or longcloth. Gamcha or napkin, a piece of cloth short in breadth and length. Kantha, quilt stuffed with rags.

In Ist class (ryot) family, of 12 persons, 4 of whom may be left out of consideration, in consideration of the different persons wearing the same clothes, the value der clothes = Rs 15 or 16; In IId class of about 7 persons, wo 3 persons may be left out for same reason, average value of clothes = Rs 8 or 9; in IIId class families of 2 or 3 individuals, clothvalue = Rs 4 or 5.

In addition to these Rs 3, 2, and 1 may be taken as the average value of leps (quilt), kanthas, and pillows belonging to a family of Ist, IInd, and IIId class ryot respectively.

Ornaments: adult males use none; boys have sometimes brass or silver bangles for the hands and mandulees or patta to hang from the neck; women use ornaments of various kinds made of gold or silver and sometimes of brass, als da sind:

Nath, a ring for the nose; Besar, an ornament hung from the nose; Dana beads for the neck used by Hindus, but very seldom; Kalse ornaments for arms; Balla = bangles; Mul or kharu-anklets; Churi, bracelet used by Mahommedans; Hasli, a large ring round the neck. – On the whole, the value of ornaments belonging to a Ist class family = Rs 40–50. (Women whose husbands are living, when Mahommedans use churi of silver or of lac, u. when Hindu a pair of shell bracelets.) für IInd class family about Rs 30, für IIId class family about Rs 10 or 15.

Im cookhouse kaum article ausser pata (a flat stone) und puta (a stone muller) for grinding condiments in addition to brass and earthen pots. So: Ghotee, a brass or earthen water-pot; Raing, an earthen pot used in cooking rice; Patil, an earthen basin used in cooking curry; Shara, an earthen cover for a pot; Jhajree, an earthen vessel for straining water when washing rice etc; Hatta, an iron or wooden ladle or spoon used in cooking; Bowlee an iron tongs used in catching pots when warm; Tagaree, a wooden bowl for holding things cooked.

Diese, zus. mit dhenki, ukti u. mosal (a large wooden mortar u. pestle) to be valued about 3 Rs. for each family.

Ryots keep generally, according to their circumstances, a quantity of rice, mustard etc, for consumption during the year, and seeds for next year’s cultivation; the value for 1st class 90–100 Rs, 2nd class Rs 40–50, 3d class Rs 25.

Cattle: Ist class family 8 or 10 cows and bullocks, manchmal a couple of goats or sheep; in case of Mahommedans a number of fowls; IInd class family 4 or 5 cows, u. a IIId class 2 or 3; the value of cattle for Ist Rs 70, IInd Rs 40, IIId Rs 20.

Instruments: A Ist class family besitzt about 8–10 ploughs u. 3 or 4 harrows, valued at Rs 8; for IInd u. IIId class respectively value der ploughs Rs 5 u. Rs 3.

A Ist class family hat generally 3 daos, 4 or 5 kachees, 2 kodalees or spades, 1 khuntee (a digging hoe) u. an axe: Gesammtvalue Rs 5; IInd u. IIId class selben articles in less numbers, of value of Rs 3 u. Rs 2 respectively.

Boats: Ryots living in low lands u. fields etc, watered by annual inundation, and on river side, have generally a dingee (a small boat) of value of Rs 10–30. Dieses Luxus »instrument« nur bei Ist u. IInd class ryots, sehr selten bei IIId class.

The large IV class hat im allgemeinen a single house, a brass lota or thalla, or a stone or wooden plate and cane or bamboo basket etc, and nothing in the way of a sinduk or charpoys; 1 or 2 mats and kanthas and pillows and a couple of dhutees, a plough, a harrow, a dao, a kodalee, a kachee u. manchmal a cow or 2; value des ganzen Krams in average may be estimated at Rs 25.

Kodál or Kodáli: a hoe, by means of which the work of the spade, the shovel, and the hoe alike is done.

Kathak: a professional story teller; one who recites traditional poems etc.

Láthi, or Láttee: a stick or bludgeon, usually of bamboo, heavily ringed and feruled with metal; Morha, a stool.

Mulla or Mulána: one who has charge of the village mosque, Mahommedan schoolmaster.

Kachcha: Raw, crude, immature, incomplete; Pakka: ripe, mature, complete.

Nirkh, a standard or customary rate, as of rent, etc.

Pálla, a turn (Reihe die an einen kommt) as of worship, or enjoyment of property.

Dhoti: the cloth worn round the loins; Bhát, boiled rice;

Ghát: the landing slope, or steps, on the bank of a river, or of a tank; the pass up a mountain or ridge of hills, sometimes the line of the hill itself.

Jágir, Jághir, a service tenure of land or revenue; Jalkar-wála, one who has rights of fishing.

Folgt nun die 2te Abtheilung v. Phear’s book über Ceylon. Dieser Bursch residirte 10 Jahre in Calcutta; lebte in Ceylon 1877–79. Das 3d Paper (Evolution of the Indo-Aryan Social u. Land System) was read 1872 durch den Burschen vor der Bethune Society of Calcutta.

II) The Agricultural Economy in Ceylon.

1) The Village Economy.

Island of Ceylon = a Pear; the circular portion of the Pear occupied by a mass of mountains rising manchmal to 7–8000 feet, bordered at its base with a margin of lower land which continues to the coast on all sides. (173)

The New North Central Province, constituted on 6. Sept. 1873, for administrative purposes, covers the mid-island portion of the Northern plain … interminable jungle in a state of nature, dotted very sparsely with tiny specks of yellow-green cultivation mit some few pools of water or tanks … the surface nicht absolutely flat, sondern mit considerable undulation an einigen Stellen, an andern broken by low ridges or rounded bosses of gneiss. In der Regel die pools seem by origin nur accumulations of water in natural depressions of the ground as have no outlet sufficiently low to drain them … aber their depth u. size in most instances artificially increased durch an earthen bund or embankment, thrown across the lower side of the depression. In den drier seasons des Jahrs, as the water bulk shrinks back towards the bund, i.e. towards the deeper side, it withdraws from the greater portion of the tank space, so that the jungle is enabled to flourish there (as it also does on the embankment itself) eben so vigorously als überall sonst in the surrounding tracts. Daher schwer den tank zu sehn, selbst wenn man in seiner Nähe. Und when der tank voll, much of it closely resembles a circuit of flooded forest. (173–75)

Anuradhapura, the classic city of the Mahawansa, für 7–800 Jahre die metropolis der successiv regierenden dynasties ruling over the larger portion of Ceylon, dann für eben so lange Zeit left to decay, is sehr nah dem Mittelpunkt der neuen Provinz. Ihre nachträgl. Bevölkerung (1871 nur 16 to □ m., the inhabitants of the rural villages u. the modern bazar counted together) für sehr lange Periode, bis lately, preserved by the remoteness u. inaccessibility of its situation v. disturbing action of foreign influences of [any] kind, daher dort a »living specimen typical« sehr primitiver agricultural economy u. civilization. (175–6)

Die People are Singhalese u. class themselves mit den Kandyan or highlanders im Unterschied v. den low-country Singhalese who border on the coast of either side; sehr verschieden von den comparatively slight-limbed, black-complexioned Tamils, who constitute the population of the Northern portion des Island. (176, 77) Die Singhalese language belongs to the Aryan group, apparently sprung from a root closely allied to the Sanscritic prakrits of Northern India; aber die Singhalese people haben Aussehn das hindeutet auf intermixture of an Aryan mit some other, yellow-tinted, coarsely-built, ethnic element; sind broad-shouldered, deep-chested, muscular, with a pronounced calf to the leg, like all Mongolian peoples, unlike the Aryans of India; schlagendste peculiarity – excessive hairiness of both male and female. Dies findet sich nicht bei den best bekannten mongolischen Stämmen; aber die Ainos, a Turanian race on the extreme east of Asia, possess this extraordinary capillary development in noch höherem Grad. (177–78)

The Tamil inhabitants der Northern Province, sind ununterscheidbar von their brethren of the mainland of India, with their slight build, black skin, thick lips, open nostrils, coarse hair; they belong unmistakably to the Dravidian race. (179)

Exceptionally, auf den Grenzmarken der Tamil u. Singhalese districts, to be found low caste villages, wo no pure type of either kind preserved. (l.c.)

Ausser der distribution der population des Districts by agricultural villages Fälle of petty u. often ephemeral bazars sprung up at convenient places along the highways – gradually as these have been opened out through the forest, perhaps never kept by the Kandyans, sondern nur durch low country Singhalese, Moormen, or Tamils. (l.c.)

Controlling element des village – the paddy tract or paddy field which is itself »a function of the supply of water«. (179, 180) Meist das field attached, or appended to, a tank u. ist oft strikingly tiny im Verhältniss zum size des entire tank; es wird irrigirt by the flow of water passing out from the tank through a masonry culvert (Abzugskanal) piercing the lowest part of the retaining bund u. öfter noch through a breach or cutting made in the bund itself u. die Lage (the lie) des Feldes so, dass the outflow of water can be made to flood the whole of it in a succession of flats, to the lowest and most remote from it; the line of soil surface from side to side being almost always horizontal throughout. Je nach dem local Character des ground hat das field more or less irregular shape, with its longer extention stretching away from the tank bund. Sonst ist es a simple clearing in that universal jungle prevailing on all sides, selbst bedeckend the actual bund of the tank, and very much of the tank bottom itself. (180)

Jedem Feld entspricht a gama or village, i.e. group of homesteads wo die cultivators live; selten hat a village mehr als ein field; die Gruppe steht im Jungle neben dem field, obscured by trees, and next the bund; exhibits gewöhnlich no order of arrangement. Die einzelne homestead, wenn ihr owner well to do, a low, thatched, mud-wattled hut, of perhaps 2 unlighted rooms opening upon the diminutive veranda, deren floor die earth platform der hut, u. deren roof its projecting eaves; in front dieser hut small, mud-plastered attawas, or roofed cylinders of wicker-work, raised upon supports for storage of grain. (ist equivalent der golas of Bengal) Auf einer Seite steht ausserdem a large open shed, with its little loft for cattle (if the cottier has any), implements, curry grinder, rice pounder (the dhenki of Bengal), etc. Under the back eaves of hut auch a place for ploughs, the surface-smoother, harrows etc. Abutting upon the little homestead’s curtilage, or partially enclosing it, – a garden or loosely cultivated plot for fruit trees, condiments, curry vegetables (sāg of Bengal) etc; the whole meist ill kept and neglected; die different homesteads der village group von einander getrennt durch irregular, ill-defined, muddy tracks. (181, 182)

An Spitze a territorial head, wird in diesen modern days (fälschlich!) »proprietor des village« genannt; er Nachfolger des primitive chieftain; er mag jetzt die Krone (engl.) sein, or a religious foundation, or a private Singhalese gentleman. (182)

Das village field, or paddy tract, divided into portions by parallel balks drawn across it from side to side at right angles to the line of water-flow; each such portion hereditary share of some one person or family resident in or belonging to the village. The principal portion or share – genannt Mottettuwa (Ziraat in Bengal) gehört dem head des village; alle andern shareholders haben dem Burschen to make some contribution of produce in kind, or to render him some defined and specific service, domestic or agricultural. Dies distinction of tenure – produce in kind oder aber service – entspricht genau den raiotti (Ryots) u. lakhiraj conditions of holding in Bengal. Nur der Unterschied: In Bengal die raiotti holding (holding by contributing of share of produce) is the prevalent form u. lakhiraj holding die exception; in Ceylon the holding by rendering of service nilakariya is (or rather was) all but universal, and the other the exception. ⦗Dies beweist, dass Ceylon form die primitivere; denn der Dorfälteste or villagechief war kein landlord, hatte keine »rent« zu beziehn, wurde abgefunden durch »services«⦘ In Bengal the service of the lakhiraj holding stets free u. honourable, such as that of the priest, doctor, watchman etc; in Ceylon that of the nilakariya is usually menial. (183, 84)

Meist a plurality of villages have a common head, u. früher the household establishment of a wealthy native chieftain kept up by turns of menial service discharged by villagers, drafted from the many villages in due order upon the footing of their land tenure obligation. Jetzt the service tenure has so to say become freehold (?). Wo a Buddhist Vihara, or temple, was oft in der North Central Province, der personal service der hier special forms bekleidet, as: maintaining illuminations, thatching or doing other repairs to the pansala (the Buddhist priest’s residence) etc, noch in vollem Gange. (184, 85)

Die administrative organization, zur Perception der services für das head of the village, bestand aus 1 or 2 officials, the Gamerale (the village man), the Lekham (writer or accountant) etc. Some of the more wealthy of the shareholders in the village field, probably by reason of being by family origin of the same blood with the chieftain, hold their share by the service of filling hereditarily one of these offices, or of yielding hospitality to the head of the village, when he comes, or to any other visitors whom the village receives. (185–86)

Einige dieser services bestehn in doing smiths’, carpenters’, dhobis’ work or even that of the doctor (Vederale). Im village selbst diese persons paid in their turn by their fellow villagers for their professional or artisan’s functions, either by labour done for them in the tilling of their shares of the village field, or by a quota of the paddy on the payer’s threshing-floor, measured out and delivered when the harvest completed. Other service consists in supplying the village head mit oil, betel-nuts, honey from the jungle, game etc. (186)

Viel wichtiger the combined action on the part of the villagers for their joint benefit, necessitated by the exigencies of cultivation under the primitive conditions obtaining in the North Central Province, and indeed allgemein in Ceylon, z. B. fencing the village field every season against the wild animals of the jungle which surrounds it; kein einzelner shareholder könnte unaided execute the whole work; u. wenn ein Riss (Mangel, flaw) in it irgendwo so ist every shareholder’s plot open to invasion; jeder shareholder so direct interessirt in this work, has to bear his portion of it in proportion to his share in the field. Ebenso wenn a breach im bund (Damm) to be filled up, or some repair to be done to it, dies done by all the shareholders jointly furnishing out of their families or dependents, each in due proportion, a continual supply of labour in successive relays until the work is done. (187)

Obgleich jeder shareholder in the village paddy field, hat erbliches Recht in his plot u. right of cultivating it exclusively, dennoch the mode of cultivation which is generally pursued connects him … in almost every step of his tilling with his neighbours, above and below, either in a dominant or a serviant character. Der Process der Zubereitung u. clearing the soil for the seed sowing or planting, of killing the weeds and keeping them down, and of promoting the growth of the paddy plant, is from beginning to end in a large degree effected by the aid of successive submersions of the plot, which have to be varied as regards the depth of water according to the process and the stage of it. Commonly 3 prolonged submersions in the course of tilling, and 7 shorter ones during the growth of the plant. Da die submergence of a relatively lower plot generally means the submergence of the plots above it, while the paddy plant cannot be depended upon to grow equally fast in all the plots, hence, damit kein risk of one shareholder’s operations destroying the young plants of his neighbours, usual rule dass the shareholder at the lower end of the field should commence the operations of the tilling season in his plot before any one else, and so get a safe start of the man next above him. Selbe order followed by all the others in succession. (188–89)

Wenn in einem Jahr, von Mangel an Wasserzufuhr od. sonst welchem Grund T nur ein Theil des village paddy field can be effectively cultivated, wird that limited portion taken as the whole u. is divided unter den village shareholders as the original entirety was. Die Entscheidung darüber genommen durch die shareholders as a body. Dies jetzt nicht überall known in practice, aber ist oft vorgesehn in the newly framed Gansabawa rules, at the instance of the villagers themselves, to indicate that it was a deeply rooted ancient custom. (189)

Ganz unabhängig v. den relations zum head of the village, daher in each village of the North Central Province (u. in fact prevailing universally) Beamte, the vel vidahne u. others chosen by the shareholders to control and carry out the system of fencing, ploughing, sowing, shifting of allotment, when necessary etc or generally the internal agricultural economy des village. (190)

Die Reis production der irrigated fields nicht genügend to form even the principal portion of the shareholder’s support in der Mehrzahl der villages dieser Provinz. Der ordinary staple of life the dry grain, korakkan, grown upon the upland, i.e. on merely unwatered ground, or ground which the flow of the water cannot be made to reach. A piece of the forest which surrounds the village and the village paddy field, is felled and burnt, and a crop of korakkan is raised thereupon for a couple of consecutive years at most, when the clearing is allowed to relapse into jungle again; and this process is not repeated on the same spot for another 10 years at least. (190–91) This process of chena clearing is often done in the North Central Province by the joint action of the village shareholders, under the management of their own officers; and sometimes the whole course of cultivation which follows is also joint, with a partition only of the produce. Manchmal aber auch, nachdem the clearing effected, the land is divided u. allotted previously to the cultivation; dies immer in case of the plots required for the growth of each household’s vegetables or curry stuff. (191) (cabbage garden) – In den Maritime Provinces scheint dies System of joint clearing unbekannt; jeder who has chena land scheint to own it absolutely, cultivates u. clears it himself at long intervals, or gets this done for him on some terms of anda letting. (191–92)

In einigen wenigen instances, it is said, forest u. chena ground recognized as appurtenant to the village in dem Sinn: die shareholders des village paddy field können ohne Erlaubniss of head of village od. Government clear and cultivate in oben beschriebner Art any portion on the foundation of, and in proportion to their village holdings. Generally the Crown (John Bull) asserts a paramount claim to all jungle u. waste land wherever situated, which has not been before appropriated to actual use; no tree (!) can be felled or chena cultivated thereon ausser mit gvt license. (192)

Das actual work of tilling meist verrichtet durch jeden villager by the hands of his family; paddy cultivating speciell so respectable, fast of sacred character, dass women unwürdig daran Theil zu nehmen, u. dürfen sich nicht zeigen on the threshing floor, namentlich wenn der so called hill paddy, or more highly valued sort of rice grain, is being threshed. (192–93)

Wenn der shareholder ist Weibsperson ohne Kinder, oder er anderweitig beschäftigt, od. gut genug dran to be able to abstain from manual labour, dann common arrangement dass his share cultivated for him by another person upon the terms of this latter, die dann renders dem shareowner a specified share of produce; dies benamst a letting in ande, i.e. half share; meist, vielleicht fast immer, the agreed upon share = ½ the produce both in straw and paddy; der cultivator muss ausserdem give a share to the responsible servant usually sent by the shareowner to remain on the ground and look after his interests from the day of reaping to the day of partition, and having moreover to feed this man during the interval. (193–94)

Fast alle vicarious cultivation assumes this shape; not known: letting the land for a money rent; existirt ditto no class of agricultural labourers, working on the land of another for money hire. In fact, in dem rein agricultural village of Ceylon – practically no money in use. Vielleicht Mehrzahl der villagers haben nicht paddy enough to last them for food till next season of harvest or for seed, oder haben no plough or no oxen. Diese erhalten sie when and as they are required, vom Capitalist des village, on the terms of setting apart for him on the threshing floor a certain stipulated quantity or share of the produce in return for each item of loan. Ebenso remunerated the services des Vederale, village blacksmith u. other artisans. Selbes mag manchmal vorkommen auch in the matter of land labour, aber general custom for neighbouring shareholders to mutually assist one another in this particular when needed. (194–95) Der head of the village mit Bezug auf his muttettuwa has this cultivated umsonst under Aufsicht of the officers by the turns of tillage service due to him from those of the villagers whose tenures involve the service; cultivirt er in this way, so gehört ihm das ganze Product des harvest. Aber auch er zieht oft vor to dispense with these services u. to let out the muttettuwa land in ande (ande on terms of receiving a specified, originally half, share of the produce). (195) Die gegebne Schilderung genommen v. North Central u. Kandyan provinces. (196)

Erst errichtet sich a regal (!) hierarchy on the basis of the village; aber die sovereign power (!), when once constituted, wird in course of time the instrument for generating u. developing ganz neue conditions u. notions (!) of property in land. (l.c.)

2) Land Tenure and State Economy.

to Adigars, Dessaves etc u. andern chieftains by the kings conferred – nicht tracts of land (zum Lohn für military u. civil services), sondern grants of dominion over populations. Der grantee erhielt the chieftain’s customary rights over the villages u. unappropriated lands; daher Nindegama (village unter private ownership) as opposed to the royal or Gabada-gama. (197, 198) Sub-infeudation nicht in Ceylon to any considerable extent. (198) ⦗Even the Bengal subtenures did not attain their extraordinary modern development until after the Permanent Settlement had given the Zamindars an absolute right of property in all the land of their Zemindaries, – a right without parallel in Ceylon.⦘ (199) Einige grants – royal or durch private seignior – became cultivating settlements, having the grantee (nicht the grantor) at their head; der grantor had no connection mit der new community ausser the link of service which bound the grantee to him u. which often in course of time wore out, became unenforceable. Others perhaps were from the beginning exclusive u. free of continuing obligation. (199, 200)

Daher will Phear ableiten die sehr zahlreichen cases of cultivators u. even of non-cultivating proprietors, who own lands by a right of an absolute u. independent character, to be found in all parts of the country, speciell in the maritime provinces, obgleich hier the Dutch dominant authority probably effected the larger part of the change which has taken place in modern times. (200)

So now coming into existence an agricultural labourers’ class; denn wealthy native gentlemen, die Geld auf andrem Weg als Agricultur gewonnen, found themselves able to obtain the labour of the poorer village proprietors for daily money wages, u. so to „farm“ their lands extensiv im English Sinn des term. (200, 201)

Joint family system ebenso conspicuous in Ceylon als in Bengal, doch im erstern selten of so large dimensions; besonders charakteristisch [für] das Ceylon joint-family system: 2 or probably more brothers living together under one roof will have one wife between them; practice discouraged by English legislation, aber keineswegs extinct; still enters as a curious factor in the law of inheritance, which has to be administrated by the civil courts. (201)

Enjoyment der property der joint-family managed by agreement, express or implied, aller adult joint sharers in the family property, who often separate themselves into smaller groups each taking its own plot of land; jeder dissentient sharer can claim to have his share divided off for him. (202) In Fällen von cocoa-nut or areca-nut plantations, of jak trees u. selbst of paddy fields, usual that every gathering of the crop should be made in the presence of all the sharers, and the produce then and there divided according to the shares. In such cases verrichten all the sharers together the necessary work incidental to the cultivation or the keeping up of the plantation and constitute in fact a cooperative society. Eine andre Praxis ist dass die sharers let out the land or plantation in anda, entweder to an outsider, or to one or more of themselves. Dann alle sharers to be present at the division of the produce, which is effected in 2 steps, first division into moieties und dann a division of one moiety among the sharers. (202, 203)

Manchmal the enjoyment of the property by tatta maru succession; erst getheilt (ideell), u. every sharer obtaining his proper number of parts, dann takes the entirety for the same number of seasons as he is entitled to parts, giving it up at the end of such period of time to the sharer who stands next in the rota etc. z. B. A, B, C jointly entitled to a paddy field in undivided shares proportionate to 2, 3, and 4, i.e. to 2/9, 1/3, 4/9 share of the whole respectively, then A would take the whole field for 2 years, B for 3, u. schliesslich C for 4, u. then the set of turns repeated in the same order, for successive periods of 9 years, until some sharer [should] insist upon having an actual partition of the field. (203, 204)

Aehnliche Sorte of Reihenfolge adoptirt in einigen villages an der Küste zum enjoyment by the villagers of the fishing grounds belonging to the village: diese are divided into localities; u. die recognized boats of the village fish these localities by turns which are settled by gansabawa arrangement. Jedes dieser boats mit its nets is a valuable property, belonging to many co-sharers jointly, who are commonly members of one family, and have become entitled to their shares by inheritance … On a day’s fishing the produce is drawn ashore, divided in a sufficient number of lots, each estimated to be worth the same assigned value, u. diese lots then so distributed, dass:

1/50 to the owner of the land on which the fish are brought ashore; ¼ to those engaged in the labour; ⅕ for the assistance of extra nets etc, rendered by third parties in the process of landing and securing the fish, which together: = 2 + 25 + 20 = 47/100; die remaining 53/100 go to the owners of the boat and net according to their shares therein. (204, 205)

panguwa = share of the village paddy field, das dem Singhalese nilakaraya zukommt. (206)

the cultivation in ande bei den Singhalese ist precise counterpart der batai cultivation der Bengalese. The deputing of the right to cultivate the soil, as distinguished from the letting out land as a commodity in beiden agricultiral systems. The usufructuary mortage, flowing from this conception, is the prevailing form of dealing mit the panguwa u. the jot respectively, as commodities. (207, 208)

In Ceylon wie in Bengal double set of village officers, one ernöthigt durch relation der members der little village republic to each other, andre durch relation »with their (!) lord«; der gamerale, lekhama, kankaname entsprechen dem bengal. naib, patwari, gomashta; andrerseits der vel vidane equivalent dem mandal. (208) (3d Ceylon u. Bengal p. 206–213) batai agreement (Bengal), under which the tilling is done by a person not the owner – in consideration of a definite share of the produce being yielded to the owner. (237)

4) The Grain Tax.

Obligation des cultivator to pay to the Crown a tithe or share of his paddy crop if he has any, u. in some parts der country, also of his other grain crops. (214)

In vielen instances villages were kept in hand by the Crown (held khas as it is phrased in India) for the especial support of the central establishments: the muttetuwa darin was service-tilled, or let out in ande, under the direction of royal servants; the produce thus accruing was deposited in kind in royal storehouses (gabedawa), arsenals (awudege), or treasuries (arramudale) according to its sort, u. die personal services due were rendered at the palace or elsewhere, to meet some immediate royal requirement. Die Crown villages or lands were known under various designations: as ratninda or ande, original Crown lands; nillapalla, those which had fallen into the Crown from failure of the office to which they were attached; mallapalla, those reverted to the Crown from death of the Grantee. (216, 17)

Unter Portugiesischer Herrschaft several native powers at times maintained a separate simultaneous existence in the different provinces; but little continuity of general municipal administration of any kind. Village system still in activity, even, im Theil des Landes most affected by foreign influence u. other disturbing forces, in the low part of the country near the coast; durch die services u. contributions derivable from this source, first the native powers of the low country u. nach ihnen the Portuguese, recruited their military forces u. obtained the means of gvt. The Portuguese, when become supreme over the southern maritime circuit of the island, took up the position der native kings, whom they superseded, and adopted their fiscal and administrative machinery as it stood. (217, 218)

Die Holländer, having turned out the Portuguese, ditto in power über die maritime provinces, displaced all the native local heads u. officials; ihr Gvt übernahm the direct collection and benefit der various dues, cesses u. services, fastened upon the holder of the land to whomsoever they had been rendered. (218, 219)

Engländer, in their turn, assuming the gvt der maritime provinces, folgten zuerst dem Vorgang der Dutch, brauchten die services derer, die land on tenure of service hatten (u. on that account duty free), nahmen auch an den storehouses etc the seignior’s share of produce in kind, von den Mallapalla, Nillapalla, Ratninda, or Ande lands u. nahmen endlich such benefits as were derivable from holders of land on other u. uncertain tenures, inclus. the payment of quotas of produce, u. of measures of paddy. (219)

Diese letzte sort of dues converted durch Royal Proclamation of 3 May, 1800, in tax of ⅒ des Produce, scheint sich zu beziehn auf das residue of lands nach Abzug der Government lands u. der lands held on tenure of service to Government. Offenbar waren private seignior und the vihara headship schon verschwunden vor den Dutch. (219, 220)

3 September 1801 durch Proclamation die obligation to service on tenure of land in den maritime provinces abgeschafft (ab 1 Mai 1802) u. solches Land unterworfen to payment to Gvt of ⅒ des produce if high land, ⅕ of produce if low land. Zugleich the payment of ¼ of the produce für Mallapalla, Nillapalla, Ratninda or Ande lands reserved. (220)

Obgleich so die obligation to service divorced from land, ward dem Governor the power reserved to exact it by special order von persons aller castes u. conditions for adequate pay to be given therefore. Die exigencies of the Kandyan war gaben dem Gvt dann den Vorwand to renew a general claim to the services of the people, nicht mit Bezug auf Grundbesitz, sondern of custom and caste, payment to be made at rates fixed by Gvt; 1809 wurde Wegbau zu gratuitous service gemacht, lying on the inhabitants des districts through which they passed. (221) Diese enactments applied nur to the maritime provinces acquired von den Dutch. 1815 erhielten die Britishers durch conquest u. treaty auch das government of the Central or Kandyan Province, bis dahin solely under the adminisration der native powers. 1818, durch Proclamation von 21 November, alle duties bis dahin payable in royal storehouse, treasury, or arsenal u. alle andern duties u. taxes abgeschafft, ersetzt durch tax of ⅒ of the produce on paddy lands, reduced to 1/14 in certain specified Korles. (221, 222) Zugleich die services due in respect of service tenure lands (auf welche grade die neue Tax fiel) retained, obgleich stipulated that the services generally should be paid for at an established rate; aber repair u. making of roads, wie in den maritime provinces, gratuitous service gemacht. (222) Durch Proclamation v. 21 Nov. 1818 auch die liability of certain inhabitants of temple lands to perform service to gvt also retained. (l.c.)

Auf Report v. 24 December 1831 des Lt. Colonel Colebrooke, (nämlich dieser u. Mr. Cameron waren commissioned worden die Administration von Ceylon to inquire into) an Order of Council d.d. 12 April 1832 erklärte, dass Niemand of His Majesty’s native or Indian subjects im island liable to render any service in Bezug auf ihre land tenure, oder wegen ihrer Caste od. sonstwie, zu welchem die subjects of European birth were not liable. Aber auch diese Proklamation enthielt the reservation of services to the crown of holders of land in royal villages in the Kandyan province u. dasselbe for vihara u. private owners in the same province. (222, 223)

According to Ribeyro, Knox u. Valentyn in the Portuguese u. earlier times there was almost no money in the country. All trade which was not a Crown monopoly was effected by barter. Paddy was the commodity which commonly filled the place of coin. Die meisten presents which accompanied all service, took the form of paddy, and nearly all obligations by the way of remuneration or duty were discharged by a measure of grain drawn from the contents of the threshing floor at harvest. (225)

Von dem librarian of the Malagava, Kandy, dem »learned« Suriyagoda Unanse erhielt der Bursch Phear folgende bemerkenswerthe Notiz:

Die frühste Erwähnung irgendeiner tax or contribution des Volks für support of a royal person to be found in the historical books of Ceylon, occurs in the Aggauna Sutta (a sermon by Buddha himself) in Digha Nitraya, u. in the commentary thereon called Sumangala Vilasani by the learned Buddhist divine Buddhagosha. Der passage des sermon lautet: „We shall give a portion of our paddy.“ Dazu commentirt Buddhagosha: „We shall give you at the rate of ammunan of paddy from each field of ours. ⦗Das word „Sali“ im Original is literally a particular kind of rice, soll aber hier stand for all grain produce⦘ You need not follow any trade. But be you our chief.“ (227, 228) Weiter keine tax or obligation an governing power erwähnt; nichts von Diensten; diese, meint Phear, späteren Ursprungs; u. the paddy cesses ultimately often again superimposed upon the services, came in later still, with an increase in the central power of exaction. (228) Das Singhalese word „otu“, wodurch die Gvt tax or claim meistens benamst, heisst „one“, also equivalent only to one portion or one share ohne indication irgendeiner Proportion der share zum Ganzen. (228, 229)

Also das ⅒ im English impost scheint founded upon the practice of the Dutch in granting out Crown lands. Die grain tax folglich nicht älter als the century; in a certain sense return to the earliest u. most widely prevalent form of national revenue developed from the basis of the village organization, aber charakteristisch dass die Ceylon Aryans from the same basis produced the service system in its stead. (229)

III) Evolution of the Indo-Aryan Social and Land System.

At the present time every settlement report sent in to the Government (in India) will be found to furnish instances, and to describe the circumstances of newly created agricultural communities. (234. Phear hätte besser gethan statt seines hypothetischen Kohls description solcher instances zu geben!)

Dieser respectable Esel bildet sich ein, dass »there grew to be, even from the commencement, a gradation of respectability and employment within the village itself.« (!) (Der asinus lässt auch alles durch private families gründen) (p. 238)

The proprietary conception went no farther than this namely, that the particular plot of land which the family or the individual claimed was the part of the village land, which he or it was entitled to cultivate, or to have cultivated for his own benefit. The business of allotment (so long as the practice of allotting remained), the order of cultivation, the maintenance of the water supply, the keeping up of fences, and all other affairs of common interest to the little community, were managed by the heads of families, entitled to their share of the village lands, in the panchayat assembled. (241)

Each little colony or abad. (242) nij or private lands. (243)

Kshatria caste nur mentioned in Brahmanical pages, and it certainly has no reality now. (See Growse’s „Mathura“.) (p. 246) Ebenso the existence of the Vaisya (Kaufmann’s) Kaste nur evidenced by Brahmanical writers. (248) The great bulk of the descendants of the original settlers (speaking of villages in the mass) less careful of purity of blood, or of preserving any mark of descent from the immigrant race … mit ihnen gradually intermixed people of all kinds, aborigines, run-aways from other abads for cause of pauperism, feud, or otherwise, some of whom came to be even allowed a portion of the village lands. (248, 249) Probably the Brahman, Kshatria, Vaisya u. Sudra der Brahmanical codes blos Utopian class distinctions of a prehistoric More. (250)

In allem there is at most conceived only the right to cultivate land, and a deputing of that right to another in consideration of a share in the product. (255) Selbst in seinem private land or nij der chief had only the right to cultivate by himself, or to get somebody else to do it on condition of dividing the produce. (256) The share of produce which the Chief could take from the cultivators was not regulated by his own pleasure, or by the making of a bargain, but by custom, or practice, in regard to which the village panchayat was the supreme authority, and the chief had no power to turn the cultivator out of possession. (257) Die Verwandlung dieser quotas of produce into money payments, or their equivalent (an event which has not happened universally even yet) machte sie nicht zu rent paid for occupation and use of land as an article belonging to and at the disposal of the person paid, but were dues payable to a superior ruling authority … Der Chief, though zamindar of all the land within the Zamindary, was at most landlord (u. das nur als one merely having the right to dispose of the occupation and tilling of the soil) of his nij lands, and in some instances probably of the wastes. Seine machinery was sein kachahri, the centre of local authority, side by side womit the panchayat, i.e. the old abad self-government. (257, 258)

In Manu’s „Institutions“ nowhere a mention of land as a subject of property in the modern English sense. Private ownership of cultivated plots is recognized, ist aber simply the ownership of the cultivator; the land itself belongs to the village; no trace of rent; owner is only another name for cultivator. Er ist under obligation to cultivate lest the Rajah’s or lord’s dues in kind be shortcoming, aber er might cultivate by servants, or arrange with some one else to cultivate on a division of crops. (i.e. the batai system, a form of metayer) In another place of Manu, every one enjoined to keep a supply of grain sufficient for his household for 3 years … almost everybody so supposed to be an actual cultivator… The practice of batai … did not in fact lead to the letting of land: u. rent in any form unknown to Manu. (258, 259)

Selling of land, or even of the use of land, nirgendswo directly alluded to … Appropriating a field, giving a field u. seizing a field erscheinen alle bei Manu, aber nicht buying or selling a field. (259, 260)

Etwas später, nach the Mitakshara, separated kinsmen had acquired uncontrolled power of disposing of their respective shares of the family allotment; dies was a mere transfer of a personal cultivating right, incidental to personal status in the village community, and subject to an obligation to render to the lord his share of the produce. Daher the transaction to be accompanied by specified public formalities; and an out-and-out sale discountenanced except for necessity. Ausserdem, when the transfer not absolute, but conditional by way of security for the repayment of a debt, it always took the form of what is now called a usufructuary mortgage. (260, 261) the usufruct of land by actual tillage on the footing of a right of partnership in the village cultivating community, and not the land itself, constituted the object worauf sich das word »ownership« in den Hindu law writers bezieht. (261)

Dies auch bestätigt durch copper-plates of title, old sanads u. ähnliche evidence; sie disclose the pretty frequent grant or assignment of the right to make collections u. other zamindari rights proceeding from a superior lord, or the gift of a plot from the waste, or out of the zamindar’s ziraat, to a Brahman or other person. But no instance of private transfer by purchase and sale of actual land, or even of the lease of land for a term of years in consideration of a rent. (261, 262) Das Sanchi tablet, wovon a translation given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal v. VI, p. 456, bezieht sich nicht auf purchase u. sale of land as between private owners; sondern an enfranchisement of some sort (such as redemption of liability to pay revenue to the lord) with the view to the land becoming debattar. (262, note 1)

Mr. La Touche’s „Settlement Report of Ajmere u. Mhairwarra“ recently published, obgleich La Touche nach Phear die facts verfälscht durch phraseology borrowed from feudal Europe. (263) Die Sache kömmt darauf heraus: Certain members of the village community enjoy the permanently cultivated or improved lands of the village by some recognized hereditary or customary right of cultivation, sometimes termed ownership u. sometimes proprietorship; zahlen sie the customary share of the produce to the person entitled to receive it, so they consider themselves entitled to continue undisturbed in the occupation and cultivation of their land, or even to transfer it to another; no such thing as the letting of land on terms of profit; private sales of land practically unknown u. the sale of land by the Civil Court (an English innovation) has been prohibited because so opposed to ancient custom as to be incapable of being carried into effect; mortgages are almost all of an usufructuary kind, and in Mhairwarra a kind of metayer system established between the mortgager and the mortgagee: the State – the representative of the former superior Chief – collects the revenue (the modern equivalent to the old customary share of the produce) from the cultivators by certain agency machinery etc, ausser over lands, wo the Chief’s rights to collect dues, and of other kind, were assigned by him to minor Chiefs, – istamrardars or jaghirdars – on conditions of military service, or for other consideration; unter den rights so exercised by the State u. its assignees, was the right to dispose of waste land; obgleich within the State area of collection the revenue is settled in the form of a money payment, in all jaghir estates the revenue is collected by an estimate of the produce, and money assessments are unknown. (p. 263–265) u. sagt La Touche selbst: „the land tenures are, as might be expected, entirely analogous to those prevailing in the adjacent Native States“. (p. 266)

In Europe, im Unterschied vom East, in place of the produce tribute was substituted a dominion over the soil – the cultivators being turned out of their land u. reduced to the condition of serfs or labourers. (266, 267)

In the East, under the village system, the people practically governed themselves, and the contest for power among the Chiefs of the noble class was mainly a struggle for command of the kachahri tabils. (271)

1. Text nach MEGAdigital (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), MEGA² IV/27, Lizenz CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); der editorische Apparat der MEGA ist nicht wiedergegeben. ↩