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Book III – Sketch of a Feudal System in Rajasthan

Chapter 1

Feudalism in Rajasthan

It is more than doubtful whether any code of civil or criminal jurisprudence ever existed in any of these principalities; though it is certain that none is at this day discoverable in their archives. But there is a martial system peculiar to these Rajput States, so extensive in its operation as to embrace every object of society. This is so analogous to the ancient feudal system of Europe, that I have not hesitated to hazard a comparison between them, with reference to a period when the latter was yet imperfect. Long and attentive observation enables me to give this outline of a system, of which there exists little written evidence. Curiosity originally, and subsequently a sense of public duty (lest I might be a party to injustice), co-operated in inducing me to make myself fully acquainted with the minutiae of this traditionary theory of government; and incidents, apparently trivial in themselves, exposed parts of a widely-extended system, which, though now disjointed, still continue to regulate the actions of extensive communities, and lead to the inference, that at one period it must have attained a certain degree of perfection.

Many years have elapsed since I first entertained these opinions, long before any connexion existed between these States and the British Government; when their geography was little known to us, and their history still less so. At that period I frequently travelled amongst them for amusement, making these objects subservient thereto, and laying the result freely before my Government.

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I had [130] abundant sources of intelligence to guide me in forming my analogies; Montesquieu, Hume, Millar, Gibbon509: but I sought only general resemblances and lineaments similar to those before me. A more perfect, because more familiar picture, has since appeared by an author510, who has drawn aside the veil of mystery which covered the subject, owing to its being till then but imperfectly understood. I compared the features of Rajput society with the finished picture of this eloquent writer, and shall be satisfied with having substantiated the claim of these tribes to participation in a system, hitherto deemed to belong exclusively to Europe. I am aware of the danger of hypothesis, and shall advance nothing that 1 do not accompany by incontestable proofs.

The Tribal System

The leading features of government amongst semi-barbarous hordes or civilized independent tribes must have a considerable resemblance to each other. In the same stages of society, the wants of men must everywhere be similar, and will produce the analogies which are observed to regulate Tatar hordes or German tribes, Caledonian clans, the Rajput Kula (race), or Jareja Bhayyad (brotherhood). All the countries of Europe participated in the system we denominate feudal; and we can observe it, in various degrees of perfection or deterioration, from the mountains of Caucasus to the Indian Ocean. But it requires a persevering toil, and more diseriminating judgement than I possess, to recover all these relics of civilization: yet though time, and still more oppression, have veiled the ancient institutions of Mewar, the mystery may be penetrated, and will discover parts of a system worthy of being rescued from oblivion.

Influence of Muhammadans and Mahrattas

Mahratta cunning, engrafted on Muhammadan intolerance, had greatly obscured these institutions. The nation itself was passing rapidly away: the remnant which was left had become a matter of calculation, and their records and their laws partook of this general decay. The nation may recover; the physical frame may be renewed; but the morale of the society must be recast. In this chaos a casual observer sees nothing to attract notice; the theory of government appears, without any of the dignity which now marks our regular system. Whatever does exist is attributed

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to fortuitous causes – to nothing systematic: no fixed principle is discerned, and none is admitted; it is deemed. a mechanism without a plan. This opinion is hasty. Attention to distinctions, though often merely nominal, [131] will aid us in discovering the outlines of a picture which must at some period have been more finished; when real power, unrestrained by foreign influence, upheld a system, the plan of which was original. It is in these remote regions, so little known to the Western world, and where original manners lie hidden under those of the conquerors, that we may search for the germs of the constitutions of European States511. A contempt for all that is Asiatic too often marks our countrymen in the East: though at one period on record the taunt might have been reversed.

In remarking the curious coincidence between the habits, notions, and governments of Europe in the Middle Ages, and those of Rajasthan, it is not absolutely necessary we should conclude that one system was borrowed from the other; each may, in truth, be said to have the patriarchal form for its basis. I have sometimes been inclined to agree with the definition of Gibbon, who styles the system of our ancestors the offspring of chance and barbarism. “Le système féodal, assemblage monstrueux de tant de parties que le temps et l’hazard out réunies, nous offre un objet très compliqué: pour l’étudier il faut le décomposer512.” This I shall attempt.

The form, as before remarked, is truly patriarchal in these

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States, where the greater portion of the vassal chiefs, from the highest of the sixteen peers to the holders of a charsa513 of land, claim affinity in blood to the sovereign514.

The natural seeds are implanted in every soil, but the tree did not gain [132] maturity except in a favoured aspect. The perfection of the system in England is due to the Normans, who brought it from Scandinavia, whither it was probably conveyed by Odin and the Sacasenae, or by anterior migrations, from Asia; which would coincide with Richardson’s hypothesis, who contends that it was introduced from Tatary. Although speculative reasoning forms no part of my plan, yet when I observe analogy on the subject in the customs of the ancient German tribes, the Franks or Gothic races, I shall venture to note them. Of one thing there is no doubt – knowledge must have accompanied the tide of migration from the east: and from higher Asia emerged in the Asi, the Chatti, and the Cimbric Lombard, who spread the system in Scandinavia, Friesland, and Italy.

Origin of Feuds

“It has been very common,” says the enlightened historian of the Feudal System in the Middle Ages, “to seek for the origin of feuds, or at least for analogies to them, in the history of various countries; but though it is of great importance to trace the similarity of customs in different parts of the world, we should guard against seeming analogies, which vanish away when they are closely observed. It is easy to find partial resemblances to the feudal system. The relation of patron and client in the republic of Rome has been deemed to resemble it, as well as the barbarians and veterans who held frontier lands on the tenure of defending them and the frontier; but they were

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bound not to an individual, but to the state. Such a resemblance of fiefs may be found in the Zamindars of Hindustan and the Timariots of Turkey. The clans of the Highlanders and Irish followed their chieftain into the field: but their tie was that of imagined kindred and birth, not the spontaneous compact of vassalage515.”

I give this at length to show, that if I still persist in deeming the Rajput system a pure relation of feuds, I have before my eyes the danger of seeming resemblances. But grants, deeds, charters, and traditions, copies of all of which will be found in the Appendix, will establish my opinions. I hope to prove that the tribes in the northern regions bf Hindustan did possess the system, and that it was handed down, and still obtains, notwithstanding seven centuries of paramount sway of the Mogul and Pathan dynasties, altogether opposed to them except in this feature of government where there was an original similarity. In some of these States – those least affected by conquest – the system remained freer from innovation. It is, however, from Mewar chiefly that I shall deduce my examples, as its internal [133] rule was less influenced by foreign policy, even to the period at which the imperial power of Delhi was on the decline.

Evidence from Mewar

As in Europe, for a length of time, traditionary custom was the only regulator of the rights and tenures of this system, varying in each State, and not unfrequently (in its minor details) in the different provinces of one State, according to their mode of acquisition and the description of occupants when required. It is from such circumstances that the variety of tenure and customary law proceeds. To account for this variety, a knowledge of them is requisite; nor is it until every part of the system is developed that it can be fully understood. The most trifling cause is discovered to be the parent of some important result. If ever these were embodied into a code (and we are justified in assuming such to have been the case), the varied revolutions which have swept away almost all relics of their history were not likely to spare these. Mention is made of several princes of the house of Mewar who legislated for their country; but precedents for every occurring case lie scattered in formulas, grants, and traditionary sayings. The inscriptions still existing on stone would alone, if collected, form a body of

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laws sufficient for an infant community; and these were always first committed to writing, and registered ere the column was raised. The seven centuries of turmoil and disaster, during which these States were in continual strife with the foe, produced many princes of high intellect as well as valour. Sanga Rana, and his antagonist, Sultan Babur, were revived in their no less celebrated grandsons, the great Akbar and Rana Partap: the son of the latter, Amra, the foe of Jahangir, was a character of whom the proudest nation might be vain.

Evidence from Inscriptions

The pen has recorded, and tradition handed down, many isolated fragments of the genius of these Rajput princes, as statesmen and warriors, touching the political division, regulations of the aristocracy, and commercial and agricultural bodies. Sumptuary laws, even, which append to a feudal system, are to be traced in these inscriptions: the annulling of monopolies and exorbitant taxes; the regulation of transit duties; prohibition of profaning sacred days by labour; immunities, privileges, and charters to trades, corporations, and towns; such as would, in climes more favourable to liberty, have matured into a league, or obtained for these branches a voice in the councils of the State. My search for less perishable documents than parchment when I found the cabinet of the prince contained them not, was unceasing; but though the bigoted Muhammadan destroyed [134] most of the traces of civilization within his reach, perseverance was rewarded with a considerable number. They are at least matter of curiosity. They will evince that monopolies and restraints on commerce were well understood in Rajwara, though the doctrines of political economy never gained footing there. The setting up of these engraved tablets or pillars, called Seoras516, is of the highest antiquity. Every ,subject commences with invoking the sun and moon as witnesses, and concludes with a denunciation of the severest penalties on those who break the spirit of the imperishable bond. Tablets of an historical nature I have of twelve and fourteen hundred years’ antiquity, but of grants of land or privileges about one thousand years is the oldest. Time has destroyed many, but man more. They became more numerous during the last three centuries, when successful struggles against their foes produced new privileges, granted in order to recall the scattered

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inhabitants. Thus one contains an abolition of the monopoly of tobacco517; another, the remission of tax on printed cloths, with permission to the country manufacturers to sell their goods free of duty at the neighbouring towns. To a third, a mercantile city, the abolition of war contributions518, and the establishment of its internal judicial authority. Nay, even where good manners alone are concerned, the lawgiver appears, and with an amusing simplicity519: “From the public feast none shall attempt to carry anything away.” “None shall eat after sunset,” shows that a Jain obtained the edict. To yoke the bullock or other animal for any work on the sacred Amavas520, is also declared punishable. Others contain revocations of vexatious fees to officers of the crown; “of beds and quilts521” “the seizure of the carts, implements, or cattle of the husbandmen522,” – the sole boon in our own Magna Charta demanded for the husbandman. These and several others, of which copies are annexed, need not be repeated. If even from such memoranda a sufficient number could be collected of each prince’s reign up to the olden time, what more could we desire to enable us to judge of the genius of their princes, the wants and habits of the people, their acts and occupations? The most ancient written customary law of France is A.D. 1088523, at which time Mewar was in high [135] prosperity; opposing, at the head of a league far more powerful than France could form for ages after, the progress of revolution and foreign conquest. Ignorance, sloth, and all the vices which wait on and result from continual oppression in a perpetual struggle for existence of ages’ duration, gradually diminished the reverence of the inhabitants themselves for these relics of the wisdom of their forefathers. In latter years, they so far forgot the ennobling feeling and respect for the stone which told’ their once exalted condition, as to convert the materials of the temple in which many of these stood into places of abode. Thus many a valuable relic is built up in the castles of their barons, or buried in the rubbish of the fallen pile.

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Books of Grants

We have, however, the books of grants to the chiefs and vassals, and also the grand rent-roll of the country. These are of themselves valuable documents. Could we but obtain those of remoter periods, they would serve as a commentary on the history of the country, as each contains the detail of every estate, and the stipulated service, in horse and foot, to he performed for it. In later times, when turbulence and disaffection went unpunished, it was useless to specify a stipulation of service that was nugatory; and too often the grants contained but the names of towns and villages, and their value; or if they had the more general terms of service, none of its details524. From all these, however, a sufficiency of customary rules could easily be found to form the written law of fiefs in Rajasthan. In France, in the sixteenth century, the variety of these customs amounted to two hundred and eighty-five, of which only sixty525 were of great importance. The number of consequence in iNfewar which have come to my observation is considerable, and the most important will be given in the Appendix. Were the same plan pursued there as in that ordinance which produced the laws of Pays Coutumiers526 of France, viz. ascertaining those of each district, the materials are ready.

Such a collection would be amusing, particularly if the traditionary were added to the engraved laws. They would often appear jejune, and might involve contradictions; but we should see the wants of the people; and if ever our connexion (which God forbid!) should be drawn closer, we could then legislate without offending national customs or religious prejudices. Could this, by any instinctive [136] impulse or external stimulus, be effected by themselves, it would be the era of their emersion from long oppression, and might lead to better notions of government, and consequent happiness to them all.

Noble Origin of the Rajput Race

If we compare the antiquity and illustrious descent of the dynasties which have ruled, and some which continue to rule, the small sovereignties of Rajasthan, with many of celebrity in Europe, superiority will often attach to the Rajput. From the most remote periods we can trace nothing ignoble, nor any vestige of vassal origin. Reduced in

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power, circumscribed in territory, compelled to yield much of their splendour and many of the dignities of birth, they have not abandoned an iota of the pride and high bearing arising from a knowledge of their illustrious and regal descent. On this principle the various revolutions in the Rana’s family never encroached; and the mighty Jahangir himself, the Emperor of the Moguls, became, like Caesar, the commentator on the history of the tribe of Sesodia527. The potentate of the twenty-two Satrapies of Hind dwells with proud complacency on this Rajput king having made terms with him. He praises heaven, that what his immortal ancestor Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, failed to do, the project in which Humayun had also failed, and in which the illustrious Akbar, his father, had but partial success, was reserved for him. It is pleasing to peruse in the commentaries of these conquerors, Babur and Jahangir, their sentiments with regard to these princes. We have the evidence of Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of Elizabeth to Jahangir, as to the splendour of this race: it appears throughout their annals and those of their neighbours.

The Rathors of Marwar

The Rathors can boast a splendid pedigree; and if we cannot trace its source with equal certainty to such a period of antiquity as the Rana’s, we can, at all events, show the Rathor monarch wielding the sceptre at Kanauj, at the time the leader of an unknown tribe of the Franks was paving the way towards the foundation of the future kingdom of France. Unwieldy greatness caused the sudden fall of Kanauj in the twelfth century, of which the existing line of Marwar is a renovated scion528.

The Kachhwahas of Amber

Amber is a branch of the once illustrious and ancient [137] Nishadha. now Narwar, which produced the ill-fated prince whose story529 is so interesting. Revolution and conquest compelled them to quit their ancestral abodes. Hindustan was then divided into no more than four great kingdoms. By Arabian530 travellers we have a confused picture of

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these States. But all the minor States, now existing in the west, arose about the period when the feudal system was approaching maturity in France and England.

The others are less illustrious, being the descendants of the great vassals of their ancient kings.

The Sesodias of Mewar

Mewar exhibits a marked difference from all the other States in her policy and institutions. She was an old-established dynasty when these renovated scions were in embryo. We can trace the losses of Mewar, but with difficulty her acquisitions; while it is easy to note the gradual aggrandisement of Marwar and Amber, and all the minor States. Marwar was composed of many petty States, whose ancient possessions formed an allodial vassalage under the new dynasty. A superior independence of the control of the prince arises from the peculiarity of the mode of acquisition; that is, with rights similar to the allodial vassals of the European feudal system.

Pride of Ancestry

The poorest Rajput of this day retains all the pride of ancestry, often his sole inheritance; he scorns to hold the plough, or to use his lance but on horseback. In these aristocratic ideas he is supported by his reception amongst his superiors, and the respect paid to him by his inferiors. The honours and privileges, and the gradations of rank, amongst the vassals of the Rana’s house, exhibit a highly artificial and refined state of society. Each of the superior rank is entitled to a banner, kettle-drums preceded by heralds and silver maces, with peculiar gifts and personal honours, in commemoration of some exploit of their ancestors.

Armorial Bearings

The martial Rajputs are not strangers to armorial bearings531, now so indiscriminately used in Europe.

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The great banner of Mewar exhibits a golden sun [138] on a crimson field; those of the chiefs bear a dagger. Amber displays the panchranga, or five-coloured flag. The lion rampant on an argent field is extinct with the State of Chanderi532.

In Europe these customs were not introduced till the period of the Crusades, and were copied from the Saracens; while the use of them amongst the Rajput tribes can be traced to a period anterior to the war of Troy. In the Mahabharat, or great war, twelve hundred years before Christ, we find the hero Bhishma exulting over his trophy, the banner of Arjuna, its field adorned with the figure of the Indian Hanuman533. These emblems had a religious reference amongst the Hindus, and were taken from their mythology, the origin of all devices.

The Tribal Palladium

Every royal house has its palladium, which is frequently borne to battle at the saddle-bow of the prince. Rao Bhima Hara, of Kotah, lost his life and protecting deity together. The late celebrated Khichi534 leader, Jai Singh, never took the field without the god before him. ‘Victory to Bajrang’ was his signal for the charge so dreaded by the Mahratta, and often has the deity been sprinkled with his blood and that of the foe. Their ancestors, who opposed Alexander, did the same, and carried the image of Hercules (Baldeva) at the head of their array535.

Banners

The custom (says Arrian) of presenting banners as an emblem of sovereignty over vassals, also obtained amongst the tribes of the Indus when invaded by Alexander. When he conquered the Saka and tribes east of the Caspian, he divided the provinces amongst the princes of the ancient families, for which they paid homage, engaged to serve with a certain quota of troops, and received from his own hand a banner; in all of which he followed the customs of the country. But in these we see only the outline of the system; we must descend to more

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modern days to observe it more minutely. A grand picture is drawn of the power of Mewar, when the first grand irruption of the Muhammadans occurred in the first century of their era; when “a hundred kings, its allies and dependents, had their thrones raised in Chitor,” for its defence and their own individually, [139] when a new religion, propagated by the sword of conquest, came to enslave these realms. This invasion was by Sind and Makran; for it was half a century later ere ‘the light’ shone from the heights of Pamir536 on the plains of the Jumna and Ganges,

From the commencement of this religious war in the mountains westward of the Indus, many ages elapsed ere the ‘King of the Faith’ obtained a seat on the throne of Yudhishthira. Chand, the bard, has left us various valuable memorials of this period, applicable to the subject historically as well as to the immediate topic. Visaladeva, the monarch whose name appears on the pillar of victory at Delhi, led an army against the invader, in which, according to the bard, “the banners of eighty-four princes were assembled.” The bard describes with great animation the summons sent for this magnificent feudal levy from the heart of Antarbedi537, to the shores of the western sea, and it coincides with the record of his victory, which most probably this very army obtained for him. But no finer picture of feudal manners exists than the history of Prithwiraja, contained in Chand’s poems. It is surprising that this epic should have been allowed so long to sleep neglected: a thorough knowledge of it, and of others of the same character, would open many sources of new knowledge, and enable us to trace many curious and interesting coincidences538.

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In perusing these tales of the days that are past, we should be induced to conclude that the Kuriltai of the Tatars, the Chaugan of the Rajput, and the Champ de Mars of the Frank, had one common origin.

Influence of Caste

Caste has for ever prevented the inferior classes of society from being incorporated with this haughty noblesse. Only those of pure blood in both lines can hold fiefs of the crown. The highest may marry the daughter of a Rajput, whose sole [140] possession is a ‘skin of land’539: the sovereign himself is not degraded by such alliance. There is no moral blot, and the operation of a law like the Salic would prevent any political evil resulting therefrom. Titles are granted, and even fiefs of office, to ministers and civil servants not Rajputs; they are, however, but official, and never confer hereditary right. These official fiefs may have originally arisen, here and in Europe, from the same cause; the want of a circulating medium to pay the offices. The Mantris540 of Mewar prefer estates to pecuniary stipend, which gives more consequence in every point of view. All the higher offices – as cup-bearer, butler, stewards of the household, wardrobe, kitchen, master of the horse – all these are enumerated as ministerialists541 at the court of Charlemagne in the dark ages of Europe, and of whom we have the duplicates. These are what the author of the Middle Ages designates as “improper feuds542.” In Mewar the prince’s architect, painter, physician, bard, genealogist, heralds, and all the generation of the foster-brothers, hold lands. Offices are hereditary in this patriarchal government; their services personal. The title even appends to the family, and if the chance of events deprive them of the substance, they are seldom left destitute. It is not uncommon to see three or four with the title of pardhan or premier543.

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But before I proceed further in these desultory and general remarks, I shall commence the chief details of the system as described in times past, and, in part, still obtaining in the principality of the Rana of Mewar As its geography and distribution are fully related in their proper place, I must refer the reader to that for a preliminary understanding of its localities.

Estates of Chief and Fiscal Land

The local disposition of the estates was admirably contrived. Bounded on three sides, the south, east, and west, by marauding barbarous tribes of Bhils, Mers, and Minas, the circumference of this circle was subdivided into estates for the chiefs, while the khalisa, or fiscal land, the best and richest, was in the heart of the country, and consequently well protected. [141] It appears doubtful whether the khalisa lands amounted to one-fourth of those distributed in grant to the chiefs. The value of the crown demesne as the nerve and sinew of sovereignty, was well known by the former heads of this house. To obtain any portion thereof was the reward of important services; to have a grant of a few acres near the capital for a garden was deemed a high favour; and a village in the amphitheatre or valley, in which the present capital is situated, was the ne plus ultra of recompense. But the lavish folly of the present prince, out of this tract, twenty-five miles in circumference, has not preserved a single village in his khalisa. By this distribution, and by the inroads of the wild tribes in the vicinity, or of Moguls and Mahrattas, the valour of the chiefs were kept in constant play.

The country was partitioned into districts, each containing from fifty to one hundred towns and villages, though sometimes exceeding that proportion. The great number of Chaurasis544 leads to the conclusion that portions to the amount of eighty-four had been the genera] subdivision. Many of these yet remain:

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as the ‘Chaurasi’ of Jahazpur and of Kumbhalmer: tantamount to the old ‘hundreds’ of our Saxon ancestry. A circle of posts was distributed, within which the quotas of the chiefs attended, under ‘the Faujdar of the Sima’ (vulgo Sim), or commander of the border. It was found expedient to appoint from court this lord of the frontier, always accompanied by a portion of the royal insignia, standard, kettle-drums, and heralds, and being generally a civil officer, he united to his military office the administration of justice545. The higher vassals never attended personally at these posts, but deputed a confidential branch of their family, with the quota required. For the government of the districts there were conjoined a civil and a military officer: the latter generally a vassal of the second rank. Their residence was the chief place of the district, commonly a stronghold.

The division of the chiefs into distinct grades, shows a highly artificial state of society.

First class. We have the Sixteen, whose estates were from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand rupees and upwards, of yearly rent. These appear in the [142] presence only on special invitation, upon festivals and solemn ceremonies, and are the hereditary councillors of the crown.’

Second class, from five to fifty thousand rupees. Their duty is to be always in attendance. From these, chiefly, faujdars and military officers are selected546.

Third class is that of Gol holding lands chiefly under five thousand rupees, though by favour they may exceed this limit. They are generally the holders of separate villages and portions of land, and in former times they were the most useful class to the prince. They always attended on his person, and indeed formed his strength against any combination or opposition of the higher vassals.

Fourth class. The offsets of the younger branches of the liana’s own family, within a certain period, are called the babas, literally infants,’ and have appanages bestowed on them. Of

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this class are Shahpura and Banera; too powerful for subjects547. They hold on none of the terms of the great clans, but consider themselves at the disposal of the prince. These are more within the influence of the crown. Allowing adoption into these houses, except in the case of near kindred, is assuredly an innovation; they ought to revert to the crown, failing immediate issue, as did the great estate of Bliainsrorgarlm, two generations back. From these to the holder of a charsa, or hide of land, the peculiarity of tenure and duties of each will form a subject for discussion.

Revenues and Rights of the Crown

I need not here expatiate upon the variety of items which constitute the revenues of the prince, the details of which will appear in their proper place. The land-tax in the khalisa demesne is, of course, the chief source of supply; the transit duties on commerce and trade, and those of the larger towns and commercial marts, rank next. In former times more attention was paid to this important branch of income, and the produce was greater because less shackled. The liberality on the side of the crown was only equalled by the integrity of the merchant, and the extent to which it was carried would imply an almost Utopian degree of perfection in their mutual qualities of liberality and honesty; the one, perhaps, generating time other. The remark of a merchant recently, on the vexatious train of duties and espionage attending their collection, is not merely figurative: “our ancestors tied their invoice to the horns of the oxen548 at the first frontier post of customs, and no intermediate questions [143] were put till we passed to the opposite or sold our goods, when it was opened and payment made accordingly; but now every town has its rights.” It will be long ere this degree of confidence is restored on either side; extensive demand on the one is met by fraud and evasion on the other, though at least one-half of these evils have already been subdued.

Mines and Minerals

The mines were very productive in former times, and yielded several lacs to the princes of Mewar549.

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The rich tin mines of Jawara produced at one time a considerable proportion of silver. Those of copper are abundant, as is also iron on the now alienated domain on the Chambal; but lead least of all550.

The marble quarries also added to the revenue; and where there is such a multiplicity of sources, none are considered too minute to be applied in these necessitous times.

Barar

Barar is an indefinite term for taxation, and is connected with the thing taxed: as ghanim-barar551, ‘war-tax’; ghar ginti-barar552, ‘house:tax’; hal-barar, ‘plough-tax’; neota-barar, ‘marriage-tax’; and others, both of old and new standing. The war-tax was a kind of substitute for the regular mode of levying the rents on the produce of the soil; which was rendered very difficult during the disturbed period, and did not accord with the wants of the prince. It is also a substitute in those mountainous regions, for the jarib553, where the produce bears no proportion to the cultivated surface; sometimes from poverty of soil, but often from the reverse, as in Kumbhalmer, where the choicest crops are produced on the cultivated terraces, and on the sides of its mountains, which abound with springs, yielding the richest canes and cottons, and where experiment has proved that four crops can be raised in the same patch of soil within the year.

The offering on confirmation of estates (or fine on renewal) is now, though a very small, yet still one source of supply; as is the annual and triennial payment of the quit-rents of the Bhumia chiefs. Fines in composition of offences may also be mentioned and they might be larger, if more activity were introduced in the detection of offenders. [144]

These governments are mild in the execution of the laws;

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and a heavy fine has more effect (especially on the hill tribes) than the execution of the offender, who fears death less than the loss of property.

Khar-Lakar

The composition for ‘wood and forage’ afforded a considerable supply. When the princes of Mewar were oftener in the tented field than in the palace, combating for their preservation, it was the duty of every individual to store up wood and forage for the supply of the prince’s army. What originated in necessity was converted into an abuse and annual demand. The towns also supplied a certain portion of provisions; where the prince halted for the day these were levied on the community; a goat or sheep from the shepherd, milk and flour from the farmer . The maintenance of these customs is observable in taxes, for the origin of which it is impossible to assign a reason without going into the history of the period; they scarcely recollect the source of some of these themselves. They are akin to those known under the feudal tenures of France, arising from exactly the same causes, and commuted for money payments; such as the droit de giste et de chevauche554. Many also originated in the perambulations of these princes to visit their domains555; a black year in the calendar to the chief and the subject. When he honoured the chief by a visit, he had to present horses and arms, and to entertain his prince, in all which honours the cultivators and merchants had to share. The duties on the sale of spirits, opium, tobacco, and even to a share of the garden-stuff, affords also modes of supply556 [145]

Footnotes

509. Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii.

510. Hallam’s Middle Ages.

511. It is a high gratification to be supported by such authority as M. St. Martin, who, in his Discours sur l’Origine et l’Histoire des Arsacides, thus speaks of the system of government termed feudal, which I contend exists amongst the Rajputs: “On pense assez généralement que cette sorte de gouvernement qui dominait il y a quelques siècles, et qu’on appelle systeme féodal, était particulière à l’Europe, et que c’est dans les forêts de la Germanie qu’il faut en chercher l’origine. Cependant, si au lieu d’admettre les faits sans les discuter, comme il arrive trop souvent, on examinait un peu cette opinion, elle disparaîtrait devant la critique, ou du moins elle se modifierait singulièrement; et l’on verrait que, si c’est des forêts de la Germanie que nous avons tiré le gouvernement féodal, it n’en est certainement pas originaire. Si l’on veut comparer l’Europe, telle qu’elle etait au xiie siècle, avec la monarchie fondée en Asie par les Arsacides trois siècles avant notre ère, partout on verra des institutions et des usages pareils. On y trouvera les mêmes dignités, et jusqu’aux mêmes titres, etc., etc. Boire, chasser, combattre, faire et défaire des rois, c’étaient là les nobles occupations d’un Parthe” (Journal Asiatique, vol. is p. 65). It is nearly so with the Rajput.

512. Gibbon, Miscell. vol. iii. Du gouvernement féodal.

513. A ‘skin or hyde.’ Millar (chap. v. p. 85) defines a ‘hyde of land,’ the quantity which can be cultivated by a single plough. A charsa, ‘skin or hyde’ of land, is as much as one man can water; and what one can water is equal to what one plough can cultivate. If irrigation ever had existence by the founders of the system, we may suppose this the meaning of the term which designated a knight’s fee. It may have gone westward with emigration. [The English ‘hide’: “the amount considered adequate for the support of one free family with its dependants: at an early date defined as being as much land as could be tilled by one plough in a year,” has no connexion with ‘hide,’ ‘a skin.’ It is O.E. hid, from hiw, hig, ‘household.’ ‘Hide,’ ‘a skin,’ is O.E. hyd (New English Dict. ssv.).]

514. Bapji, ‘sire,’ is the appellation of royalty, and, strange enough, whether to male or female; while its offsets, which form a numerous branch of vassals, are called babas. ‘the infants.’

515. Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 200.

516. Sanskrit, Sula.

517. See Appendix, No. XII.

518. See Appendix, No. XIII.

519. See Appendix, No. XIV.

520. ‘Full moon’ (See Appendix, No. XIII).

521. It is customary, when officers of the Government are detached on service, to exact from the towns where they are sent both bed and board.

522. Seized for public service, and frequently to exact a composition in money.

523. Hallam, vol. i. p. 197.

524. Some of these, of old date, I have seen three feet in length.

525. Hallam, vol. i. p. 199.

526. Hallam notices these laws by this technical phrase.

527. Sesodia is the last change of name which the Rana’s race has undergone. It was first Suryavansa, then Grahilot or Guhilot, Aharya, and Sesodia. These changes arise from revolutions and local circumstances.

528. [The Rathor dynasty of Kanauj is a myth (Smith, EHI, 385).]

529. Nala and Damayanti.

530. Relations anciennes des Voyageurs, par Renaudot.

531. It is generally admitted that armorial bearings were little known till the period of the Crusades, and that they belong to the east. The twelve tribes of Israel were distinguished by the animals on their banners, and the sacred writings frequently allude to the Lion of Judah.’ The peacock was a favourite armorial emblem of the Rajput warrior; it is the bird sacred to their Mars (Kumara), as it was to Juno, his mother, in the west. The feather of the peacock decorates the turban of the Rajput and the warrior of the Crusade, adopted from the Hindu through the Saracens. “Le paon a toujours ote l’embleme de its noblesse. Plusicurs chevaliers ornaient leurs casques des plumes de cet oiseau; un grand nombre de families nobles le portaient dans leur blazon ou sur leur Milner; quelquesuns n’en portaient que la queue” (Art. “Armoirie,” Dict. de l’ancien Regime).

532. I was the first European who traversed this wild country, in 1807, not without some hazard. It was then independent: about three years after it fell a prey to Sindhia. [Several ancient dynasties used a crest (lanchhana), and a banner (dhvaja): see the list in BG, i. Part ii. 299.]

533. The monkey-deity. [Known as Bajrang, Skt. vajranga, ‘of powerful frame.’]

534. The Khichis are a branch of the Chauhans, and Khichiwara lies east of Haravati.

535. [Quintus Curtius, viii. 14, 46; Arrian, Indika, viii.]

536. The Pamir range is a grand branch of the Indian Caucasus. Chand, the bard, designates them as the “Parbat Pat Pamir,” or Pamir Lord of Mountains. From Pahar and Pamir the Greeks may have compounded Paropanisos, in which was situated the most remote of the Alexandrias. [?]

537. The space between the grand rivers Ganges and Jumna, well known as the Duab.

538. Domestic habits and national manners are painted to the life, and no man can well understand the Rajput of yore who does not read these. Those were the days of chivalry and romance, when the assembled princes contended for the hand of the fair, who chose her own lord, and threw to the object of her choice, in full court, the barmala, or garland of marriage. Those were the days which the Rajput yet loves to talk of, when the glance of an eye weighed with a sceptre: when three things alone occupied him: his horse, his lance, and his mistress; for she is but the third in his estimation, after all: to the two first he owed her.

539. Charsa, a ‘hide or skin’ [see p. 156 above].

540. ‘Ministers,’ from Mantra, ‘mystification’ [‘ a sacred text, spell’].

541. It is probably of Teutonic origin, and akin to Mantri, which embraces all the ministers and councillors of loyalty (Hallam, p. 195). [?]

542. Hallam, p. 193.

543. One I know, in whose family the office has remained since the period of Prithwiraja, who transferred his ancestor to the service of the Rana’s house seven hundred years ago. He is not merely a nominal hereditary minister, for his uncle actually held the office; but in consequence of having favoured the views of a pretender to the crown, its active duties are not entrusted to any of the family.

544. The numeral eighty-four. [In the ancient Hindu kingdoms the full estate was a group of 84 villages, smaller units being called Byalisa, 42, or Ch ubisa, 24 (Baden-Powell, The Village Community, 198, and see a valuable article in Elliot, Supplemental Glossary, 178 ff.]

545. Now each chief claims the right of administering justice in his own domain, that is, in civil matters; but in criminal cases they ought not without the special sanction of the crown. Justice, however, has long been left to work its own way, and the self-constituted tribunals, the panchayats, sit in judgment in all cases where property is involved.

546. See Appendix, No. XX.

547. [They are heads of the Ranawat sub-tribe. The latter enjoys the right, on succession, of having a sword sent to him with full honours, on receipt of which he goes to Udaipur to be installed (Erskine ii. A. 92).]

548. Oxen and carts are chiefly used in the Tandem, or caravans, for transportation of goods in these countries; camels further to the north.

549. [On the mines of Viewer, see IA, i. 63 f.]

550. The privilege of coining is a reservation of royalty. No subject is allowed to coin gold or silver, though the Salumbar chief has on sufferance a copper currency. The mint was a considerable source of income, and may be again when confidence is restored and a new currency introduced. The Chitor rupee is now thirty-one per cent inferior to the old Bhilara standard, and there was one struck at the capital even worse, and very nearly as bad as the moneta nigra of Philip the Fair of France, who allowed his vassals the privilege of coining it. [For an account of the past and present coinage of Mewar, see W. W. Webb, Currencies of the Hindu States of Rajputana, 3 ff.]

551. Enemy.

552. Numbering of houses.

553. A measure of land [usually 55 English yards].

554. Hallam, vol. i. p. 232.

555. Hume describes the necessity for our earlier kings making these tours to consume the produce, being in kind. So it is in Mewar; but I fancy the supply was always too easily convertible into circulating medium to be the cause there.

556. See Appendix, No. X.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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