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V.

very intelligent public officer; and that the proceedings of APPEND. the courts of justice in numerous other cases led to the same conclusion respecting the relative situation of ryots and zemíndárs."

Mr. Ross, a judge of the Chief Court, likewise, in a very judicious minute of 22d March, 1827*, states that a fixed rate never was claimed by mere ryots, whether resident or non-resident, in the upper provinces; inquires when such a fixed rent was in force? and whether it was intended to remain fixed, however the value of the land might alter? and concludes as follows: "As to the custom of the country, it has always been opposed to such a privilege, it being notorious that the zemíndárs and other superior landholders have at all times been in the practice of extorting from their ryots as much as the latter can afford to pay."

(M) Called in Hindostan páikásht; in Guzérat, ganwatti (leaseholder); in the Maratta country, upri; and under Madras, páikári and páracudi.

(N) They are called ashraf (well-born) in Hindostan, and pánder pésha in some parts of the Deckan.

(0) There is an acknowledged restriction on all permanent tenants, which prevents their cultivating any land within the village that does not belong to the landlord of whom they rent their fixed portion and their house; but not only permanent tenants, but village landholders themselves, occasionally hold land as temporary tenants in other villages. In some parts of India the government levies a tax on the permanent tenants of land paying revenue who farm other lands from persons exempt from payment; and Appendix to Report of 1832, p. 125.

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APPEND. in some, the government officer endeavours to prevent their withdrawing from their assessed lands in any circumstances. This last, however, is reckoned mere violence and oppression.

(P) This system may be illustrated by the example of the petty state of Cach, which being of recent formation retains its original form unimpaired. "The whole revenue of this territory is under fifty lacs of cories (about sixteen lacs of rupees), and of this less than thirty lacs of cories belongs to the Ráo; the country which yields the remaining twenty lacs being assigned to the collateral branches of his highness's family, each of whom received a certain appanage on the death of the Ráo from whom it is immediately descended.

"The family of these chiefs is derived at a recent period from Tatta in Sind, and they are all sprung from a common ancestor, Humeerjee, whose son, Ráo Khengar, acquired the sovereignty of Cutch before the middle of the sixteenth century of our æra.

"The number of these chiefs is at present about 200, and the whole number of their tribe in Cutch is guessed at 10,000 or 12,000 persons. This tribe is called Jhareja. It is a branch of the Rájpúts. The Ráo's ordinary jurisdiction is confined to his own demesne, each Jhareja chief exercising unlimited authority within his lands. The Ráo can call on the Jharejas to serve him in war; but must furnish them with pay at a fixed rate while they are with his army. He is the guardian of the public peace, and as such chastises all robbers and other general enemies. It would seem that he ought likewise to repress private war, and to decide all disputes between chiefs; but this prerogative, though constantly exerted, is not admitted without dispute. Each chief has a similar body of kins

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men, who possess shares of the original appanage of the APPEND. family, and stand in the same relation of nominal dependence to him that he bears to the Ráo. These kinsmen form what is called the bhyaud or brotherhood of the chiefs, and the chiefs themselves compose the bhyaud of the Ráo.” *

The same practice, with some modifications, prevails through the whole of the Rájpút country.

The territories allotted to feudatories in Méwár (the first in rank of these states) was at one time more than three fourths of the whole†, and was increased by the improvidence of a more recent prince.

(Q) It must have been some check on this spirit of independence, that until within less than two centuries of the present time it was usual for all the chiefs, in Méwár at least, periodically to interchange their lands; a practice which must have tended to prevent their strengthening themselves in their possessions, either by forming connections or erecting fortifications.‡

The rapid increase of these appanages appears to have suggested to the governments the necessity of putting a limit to their encroachments on the remaining demesne. In Márwár, a few generations after the conquest, so little land was left for partition that some of the rája's sons were obliged to look to foreign conquest for an establishment§; and in Méwár, one set of descendants of early ránas seem to have been superseded, and probably in part dispossessed, by a more recent progeny. ||

* Minute on Cach, by the Governor of Bombay, dated January 26th, 1821.

+ Colonel Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 141.

Ibid. vol. i. p. 164., and note on 165.

§ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 20.

Ibid. vol. i. p. 168.

APPEND.

y.

(R) The following remarks apply to both descriptions of military jágírs.

Lands held for military service are subject to reliefs in the event of hereditary succession, and to still heavier fines when the heir is adoptive. They are subject to occasional contributions in cases of emergency. They cannot be sold or mortgaged for a longer period than that for which the assignment is made. Sub-infeudations are uncommon except among the Rájpúts, where they are universal.

There was no limitation of service, and no extra payments for service, in the original scheme of these grants.

Pecuniary payments at fixed rates in lieu of service, or rather on failure of service when called on, were common among the Marattas; and arbitrary fines were levied on similar occasions by the Rájpúts.

MAHOMETANS.

BOOK V.

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ARAB CON-
QUESTS TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MAHO-
METAN GOVERNMENT IN INDIA.

489

CHAP. I.

ARAB CONQUESTS.

I.

Rise of the

Mahome

THE attacks either of Greeks or Barbarians had CHAP. hitherto made no impression beyond the frontiers of India, and the Hindús might have long remained undisturbed by foreign intrusion, if a new spirit had not been kindled in a nation till now as sequestered as their own.

The Arabs had been protected from invasion by their poverty, and prevented, by the same cause, from any such united exertion as might have enabled them to carry their arms abroad.

Their country was composed of some mountain tracts and rich oases, separated or surrounded by a sandy desert, like the coasts and islands of a sea.

The desert was scattered with small camps of predatory herdsmen, who pitched their tents where they could quench their thirst at a well of brackish water, and drove their camels over extensive tracts

tan reli

gion.

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