LAND TENURES OF INDIA.

MALABAR.*

In this province the exclusive right to the hereditary possession and usùfruct of the soil belonged to the ryot, or farmer, and was termed jenm, or birthright. It originally vested in the Namboories, or Brahmins of the western coast, and in the Nairs, who, though Sudras, were the chief landed proprietors and military tribe of Malabar. Latterly the Mapellas, or Moplas (Musulmans of Arabian descent), possessed themselves by degrees of much of the jenm property in this province. Till the conquest of Malabar by the Mohammedan princes of Mysore, the jenmkars seem to have paid no dues to the government: a land revenue appears till then to have been unknown, though Sir Thos. Munro thinks that, at least, contributions from landholders were occasionally exacted by the raja. The province was divided into petty principalities, and the revenue of the prince consisted (besides the jenm of his hereditary lands) of various fines, escheats, offerings, and dues unconnected with landed property, unless the tax on the estates of deceased Moplas may be considered as a land-tax.†

The jenmkars, holding their lands on the tenure of the sword, yet entitled to subsistence-money when called into active service, and exempt from all tax on the land, were independent owners. They held by right of birth, not of the prince, but in common with him; so that they possessed a property in the soil more absolute than even that of the European landlord.

The Nambbories, however, as well as the rajahs, Mopla merchants, and some other jenmkars, being precluded by their several avocations from farming occupations, leased their lands and slaves ‡ for a limited period to an inferior class of ryots, termed patomkars, who, in consideration of a fixed rent, in kind or money paid by them to the jenmkar, acquired, during the period of the lease, all his rights, except the disposal of the jenm. Though many jenmkars thus rented out their lands to tenants, many also cultivated their own estates. All were remarkably tenacious of their jenm, with which they parted ́only through the most urgent necessity. This strong attachment to their hereditary property seems to have given rise to another class; namely, the kanumkars, or holders of the kanum, a species of land-mortgage prevalent in this province, the peculiarity of which consists in its never admitting of foreclosure, and in its containing, within itself, an inherent principle of selfredemption. When in distress, the jenmkar borrowed money on his land, which he pledged for the interest on the debt; and by a series of deeds, he could gradually raise nearly the full price of his estate on this kind of mortgage.

The

As the subject of property in land amongst the natives of India is highly curious and interesting, we propose to lay before our readers, in this and succeeding numbers, a succinct account of the original tenures in the provinces subject to the Madras Government, compiled from the official papers selected and printed from the Records at the East-India House, and chiefly from a Minute of the Madras Board of Revenue, dated 5th January 1818.

+ See our last volume, p. 270. Some slight discrepancy will be perceived between the former article and the present: in the former (extracted from Sir Thos. Munro's statement) the subject of tenures was touched incidentally only.

In Malabar and Canara, the inferior labourer is generally the personal slave of the proprietor, and is sold and mortgaged by him, independently of his lands. These slaves, belonging to the most degraded class of Hindoos, generally outcasts, usually reside in the outskirts of the villages, receiving from their employers little more than food, with a scanty supply of raiment. In some provinces (as in the Tamil country) these domestic slaves are adscripti gleba, and may even claim merahs, or hereditary private property, in the incidents of their villeinage; but, in Malabar and Canara, though it is not the landlord's interest to sell the slaves who cultivate their lands, yet they dispose of the increasing stock; and their power to dispose of all their slaves, independently of their lands, seems undisputed.

The debt became fastened, as it were, to the soil, from which it never could be separated: if the jenmkar transferred his land, the incumbrance went with it.

So long as the interest on the debt was paid, the mortgagee had no control over the soil; but on failure of payment of the interest, the kanumkar was entitled to possession, and might then rent out the land to new patomkars, or cultivate it himself: but he was obliged to pay the jenmkar all excess of rent or produce beyond the interest on the debt: and though the latter might, in consideration of a further advance from the mortgagee, transfer to him the jenm, and thereby make him landlord; the kanumkar, as such, could never foreclose or dispose of the jenm to satisfy his debt; he must wait the convenience of the jenmkar, or sell or mortgage his own kanum.

Where the debt was light, the jenmkar still retained so valuable a property in the soil, that he seldom lost possession; but where the debt became heavy, so that the interest absorbed the chief part of the landlord's rent, the mortgagee often acquired possession, and the jenmkar's property in the land was frequently reduced to a handful of grain, or some nominal surplus, paid merely to mark the nature of the tenure. The jenmkar might, however, always redeem the kanum by paying off the principal; but if the kanumkar had obtained possession of the land, the jenmkar was bound to pay him also the value of any permanent improvements.

This species of redeemable mortgage is known in other provinces; but in Malabar alone it possesses the peculiarity of an inherent principle of selfredemption or extinction. All kanum-deeds were to be renewed after the lapse of a certain number of years, or on the death of the jenmkar; and when the new deeds were issued, thirteen per cent. was deducted from the original principal. In the course of time, therefore, the land became released from the mortgage, and reverted to the heirs of the mortgager free of incumbrance. This rule is not now strictly observed, owing to its not appearing in the written instruments, and perhaps to our courts deeming it inequitable to the mortgagee.

Such was the nature of landed tenures in Malabar when Hyder Ali invaded the province in the year 1766. The conqueror immediately levied a land-tax, which he at first declared should be half the produce of the soil; but which was afterwards altered to a fixed portion of the jenmkar's rent.

The absence of all accounts and materials for assessing this tax (in a country where no revenue was derived from the soil), and the interested misrepresentations of the people, created much confusion and inequality in the assessment. When the province came into British possession, though the principle of the assessment was known, the actual rate of taxation was found to be different in every district.

The land-tax introduced by Hyder was an assessment of so much money upon each paramba (garden, or plantation), and so much upon each balty (seed or paddy field), which averaged about eighty per cent. of the jenmkar's patom, or rent, in the southern talooks, and about fifty in the northern. Accordingly, there still remained to the landlord, after payment of this tax, a surplus, which he could dispose of as formerly; but at this period the greatest portion of the estates in Malabar were pledged in kanum, and many were, under the circumstances explained, in possession of the kanumkars. The jenmkars, being entitled to all the surplus beyond the kanum interest, had hitherto enjoyed a landlord's profit even from those estates; but this was now almost universally absorbed by the public dues: the deficiencies fell upon the kanumkars.

Asiatic Journ. VoL. XXI. No. 121.

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This assessment, therefore, by destroying or reducing the income derived by the jenmkar from the land, dissolved, or materially loosened the ties which bound him to the soil: but it acted contrariwise with respect to the kanumkar; for in proportion as it affected his immediate interests, the more strongly did it connect him with the land, since, by encroaching on that portion of the landlord's rent appropriated to the payment of the interest on the kanum, it necessarily protracted the period of its discharge. Many jenmkars, in consequence, who had hitherto retained possession of their lands, though pledged, being unable to discharge the interest of their debt in addition to the public assessment, relinquished their estates to the kanumkars, with little prospect of their ever being able to redeem them.

This transfer of the landlord's rights to the kanumkars was further promoted and accelerated by the extraordinary edict of Tippoo Saib, Hyder's son, for the compulsory conversion of the Hindoo population of Malabar to the Musulman faith. Alarmed at a mandate which threatened loss of caste (for even forcible circumcision excludes a Hindoo from his tribe), the jenmkars fled from the country, previously granting, in consideration of small sums of money to supply their immediate necessities, large kanum assignments of their lands to Moplas; who, being Mohammedans, had no ground for alarm, and dexterously availed themselves of the consternation of their Hindoo neighbours to apply advantageously their accumulated wealth.

In the year 1818 the number of jenms, or estates, in Malabar, was 44,378; and the land-assessment being about Star Pags. 4,80,000, each estate, consequently, averaged little more than ten pagodas per annum. Few of the jenmkars, however, were then in possession of their lands. Many of the Namboory or Brahmin landlords never returned from Travancore, whither they fled on the first promulgation of Tippoo's edict, leaving their lands in the posses sion either of their mortgagees or their tenants; and, although many of them have agents in Malabar, who collect and remit to them any surplus rent or produce, others have never settled with their kanumkars for years.

It is computed that about three-fourths of the landlord's rent in Malabar has become vested intrinsically in the kanumkars and patomkars. The rights of each, however, though altered in value, are not in their nature changed. The privileges attached to the patom, the kanum, and the jenm, remain as heretofore; and notwithstanding the latter has lost much of its value, such is still the attachment of the people to rights transmitted from their ancestors, that, although a great number of Hindoo jenmkars, who emigrated from Malabar in consequence of the edict of Tippoo, were forced to pledge their lands almost irrecoverably in kanum, there is not a single instance in which the jenm has been disposed of.

CANARA.

The landed tenures of this province resemble those of Malabar, though they are not precisely the same. What is termed jenm in the latter, is denominated wurgha (separate independent property) in Canara. It seems to have been originally vested in the Nairs, once the exclusive mulees or landlords in this province. They had under them a great number of inferior ryots, termed guenies, or tenants, either permanent or temporary. The mul-guenies, or permanent tenants, were those who had a grant, in writing, from the mulee of a certain portion of land, to be held by them and their heirs for ever, on condition of paying a specified invariable rent; this right could be mortgaged, though not sold, by the mul-guenies. The rent was either in money or grain, as mutually agreed upon; but never a share of the produce. The land, thus alienated,

alienated, never lapsed to the mulee (so long as the stipulated rent was paid) unless through failure of heirs to the mul-guenies. The temporary tenants, or chalie-guenies, rented farms at a fixed rent, in money or grain, for a limited period, either from the original landlords, or the mul-guenies; they corresponded precisely with the patomkars of Malabar.

On the conquest of Canara by the Pandian princes of Madura, in early times, the Nair landlords were mostly extirpated, and were replaced by the Huliers and other castes now in possession of the mulee-rights. The descendants of the original permanent tenants are now termed Nair mul-guenies, to distinguish them from the Shud mul-guenies, whose permanent tenures are of a less ancient origin.

Besides the mulees, mul-guenies, and chalie-guenies, there are possessors of land on a perpetually redeemable mortgage, differing from the kanum of Malabar only in the absence of the obligation to renew the deed (which involved the ultimate extinction of the debt); and also in its having two denominations; namely, tooradhoo (pledge shewn), where the mortgagee is without possession of the land; and bogyadhi (positive enjoyment), when, in default of payment of interest on the debt, the mortgagee assumes possession. An essential difference, however, existed between the jenmkars of Malabar and the mulees of Canara, in that the former enjoyed their hereditary rights free from assessment; whereas, the landlords of Canara held their tenures under the express condition of a payment to government, which seems to have existed from time immemorial, and was originally one-sixth of the produce. On the conquest of Canara before-mentioned, the assessment was increased to about one-tenth of the produce, and so continued till the province was annexed to the new empire of Bijnagur, about the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Hurryhur Roy, one of the first kings of that dynasty, is said to have remodelled the land-assessment of Canara; raising it to nearly one-fourth of the produce, by levying a fixed sum of money on each estate, and apparently each field: one pagoda was required from so much land as required two and a half kautees of rice (the staple grain) to sow it. The seed is calculated to bear to the produce the proportion of one to twelve.

This assessment, called the rekha, or standard tax of Canara, continued fixed for upwards of two centuries, till, under the Bednore government, it was increased about ten per cent. But when the province fell under the baneful administration of the Musulman princes of Mysore, the extra-assessments, as in Malabar, nearly annihilated private property in the soil; so that, at its acquisition by the British, many of the landlords had sunk to the condition of mere labourers on their own estates.

The first British collector in Canara was Colonel (now Sir Thomas) Munro, under whose judicious arrangements the assessment was reduced to about thirty-four per cent. on the ancient rekha; in consequence of which relief, prosperity began immediately to re-appear in the province, and innumerable claims arose to land, which resumed its former value. The destructive effects of the Mysore system had so confused the rights of property, that it became difficult to distinguish between mulees, mortgagees, and guenies, more especially as the absolute transfer of the landlord's rights was more common in Canara than in Malabar. Private property in land, however, is still highly valuable. The sale price of estates differs according to circumstances; but the result of a calculation founded on actual sales, in the different talooks of this province, gave, in 1818, on an average, eleven years' purchase.

The provinces of Malabar and Canara seem originally to have constituted one distinct Hindoo state. Language and other peculiarities discriminate three of these states in the territories subject to the presidency of Fort St. George. The five northern circars of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Rajahmundry, Masulipatam, and Guntoor, together with the districts of Bellary, Cuddapah, Palnaud, and Nellore, or wherever the Telinga is the language of the people, may be considered one of these; the second may be said to include the district of Chingleput, the two divisions of the Arcot Subah, Salem, Baramahl, Coimbatore, Madura, Dindigul, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, and Tinnevelly, or wherever the Tamil language is spoken; and the third comprises the provinces of Malabar and Canara, where the Malayalim and Tulavoo are the vernacular dialects.

THE BURRAMPOOTER, OR BRAHMAPUTRA.

We extract the following observations upon the source and course of this important river from the Calcutta Government Gazette of May 9.

The late operations to the eastward have already added materially to our knowledge of the countries in that direction, and will lead to the most important improvements in their geography. Among the objects of the first interest is the real source of the Burrampooter, which, there is reason to think, will require a correction very analogous to that made in the origin of the Ganges, and which, by cutting off several hundred miles of a singularly and improbably devious course, will be found much nearer to the plains through which it flows, than has hitherto been imagined. The Burrampooter has been identified with the San-po, which the Chinese geographers traced through Great Tibet, running from west to east. They lost it on its turn to the south; but the Jesuit missionaries very justly concluded that it must pour its waters into the Bay of Bengal. In conformity with this notion, M. D'Anville was disposed to think it the same with the river of Ava, or Irrawuddy; he was probably in the right. Major Rennell, however, connected the San-po at its bend with the Burrampooter, in consequence of his tracing its course, in 1765, from the east, and not, as before represented, from the north. The inquiries to which this discovery led, furnished him with an account of its general course to within 100 miles of the place where Du Halde left the San-po; on which he adds, 'I could no longer doubt that the Burrampooter and the San-po were one and the same river;' and to this were added the positive assurances of the Assamese, that their river came from the north-west, through the Bootan mountains. The Ava River, Major Rennell identifies with the Now Kian River of Yunan.

"The connexion of the San-po and Burrampooter is, however, upon Major Rennell's own showing, entirely conjectural; and it does not follow that, because the streams were traced to within 100 miles of each other, they were the same. At any rate, if the same, we must conclude that the Burrampooter, after flowing many hundred miles, must be a deep, broad, and stately stream, unless we can imagine any such diversion of its waters as would amount, indeed, to the different direction of the main river, whilst the Burrampooter was only an inconsiderable branch. The San-po, where left by the Chinese, is called a very large river, and the name itself, San-po, is said to imply The River, κατ' εξοχην. How happens it, then, upon entering Assam, to have lost all claim to such a character, and to be little more than a hill torrent, with only three or four feet of water in its greatest depth? Such, at least, appears to

be