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Art. XXV.—Remarks on the Revenue System and Landed Tenures of the Provinces under the Presidency of Fort St. George

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

Rámaswami Naidu
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Extract

[No questions of greater practical importance, perhaps, have ever occupied the attention of the British government in India, than those of the allodial rights of the inhabitants, and the amount and species of revenue which it might be justified in claiming from them. There are certainly none, among the vast number of peculiar and delicate cases connected with the government of our possessions in that country, which have elicited so much conflicting opinion, which have been more ably argued by men of the highest talent and information, or which have appeared more difficult of solution.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 1834 , pp. 292 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* On the Land Tax of India, &c. by Lieut.-Col. Briggs, John, M.R.A.S. 8vo. London, 1830. See p. 450.Google Scholar

* On the Land Tax of India, by Col. Briggs, , p. 467.Google Scholar

* Alexander the Great.

† Dow's Hindústán, vol. i. p. 166; Hamilton, 's Gazetteer, p. 150.Google Scholar

‡ Ferishtah, 's History of Dekkan, vol. i. p. 28.Google Scholar

§ Hamilton, 's Gazetteer, p. 33.Google Scholar

* Tondai, the name of a shrub, with which this part of India abounds. Mandalam, a province or country.—Ed.

† The ancestors of the author of this memoir at this time greatly contributed to the establishment of their factory.

‡ That part of the Karnatik now included in the Collectorates of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Arcot, and Koimbatur.—Ed.

§ Other accounts make it more extensive than is here mentioned.—Ed.

∥ The original inhabitants of the country.—Ed.

Káni-átchi, from the tamil, káni, property, and átchi, dominion, power.—Ed.

* Or townships. Nattam, in a strict sense, means the ground on which the village stands; and this with reference to the Súdras, or common people, only. That occupied by Bráhmans is called Agraháram.—Ed.

† The kings of the Vijayanaga empire were thus called. They subsequently conquered the whole of the Karnatik, and governed it up to the time of the Mu. hammedan invasion.—Ed.

‡ Temporary shareholders.

§ Lands not paying revenue—rent free.

∥ Lands paying rent in kind.

* The residence of the Pariyars.

† Nanja, irrigated.

‡ Panja, dry.

§ Free.

∥ Of whom I shall treat in another place.

* Another name of Adanda Chakravarti.

† To assay.

* In unirrigated lands a distributor of water cannot be required, and this proves that the number of village offices is regulated by local custom, and that Upper Ghát and Lower Ghát village customs are somewhat dissimilar.—Ed.

† Vide Mr. Hodgson's Memoir on the Village of Pudu-vayel, in the Trans. R.A.S. vol. ii. p. 81.Google Scholar

‡ An annual festival.

§ Kùra, a cloth worn in nuptials. Táli, a small gold plate tied round the bride's neck by the bridegroom at the nuptial ceremony.

* Agrahárams, the name by which a Bráhmana village is called.

† Exempt from every kind of tax.

* The sun, moon, a hog, and dagger, are engraved on it; the two first to denote that the grant may continue as long as those luminaries shall last in the firmament, and the two last to prevent Musalmáns usurping the grant, by shewing, that whoever shall attempt to snatch it shall incur the sin of killing a hog with the dagger.

† Akkarsú Mádhu Bhánjí Surya-Prácása Rao, was his title.

‡ Bammarasu Lingojí Karnatik Turfdár, was his title.

* Main, “head;” kávali, “watch.”

* The chief magistrate of a district, under the Mogul government, having cognisance of all criminal matters. He was also sometimes employed as receiver-general of the revenues.

† Almost all the dry lands in the jághír are under division of crops, except a few villages on the borders of the nawáb's country.

‡ It is a usual saying amongst the cultivators in these days, that their women were then obliged to wear a mira tála, that is, a piece of wood, as a marriage symbol, because they were destitute of gold to make one with.

§ These renters assumed the liberty of curtailing the váram of the inhabitants, &c.

* Fourteenth condition in the Sunnat Milkayat Istimrár:— “You will conduct yourself with good faith towards your ryots, whose prosperity is inseparably connected with your own.”

† The author proceeds to quote passages in support of his views from the works of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, Mr. Walter Hamilton, &c. which it is thought unnecessary to reprint here.—Ed.