degree of credit thence resulting, which enables him to borrow from the maháján (money-lender) and secures him a settled market for the disposal of his produce.' He is exempt from demand of 'chándniyá' (a payment-chándina-made by outsiders for the use of a site in the village); he is allowed a bit of rent-free 'khánabárí' or garden-ground near his house1, also a rent-free patch in his holding called 'talmundá,' or a nursery-ground for his rice-plants.

'A preference,' adds Mr. Sterling, 'is given to him in cultivating the lands of village lákhirájdárs (revenue-free, -the aimá, debottar, &c., lands, so often spoken of) when the holders do not themselves handle the plough; and his sons and brethren, and even he himself, may cultivate untenanted land as "pahí" raiyats in their own or any other villages.'

§ 13. Midnapore.

I include the district of Midnapore in this notice, though the greater portion of the district, being the old Orissa of 1765 (all in fact but the Patáspur pargana), came under the Permanent Settlement. The tenures now found in the district are those which are usually found described in Persian terms of the Mughal system and that of the Regulations, and again and again repeated in the Statistical Account. There is the usual array of Zamíndárís, the resumed 'lákhiráj' estates, and the 'bahálí' [i.e. those not resumed, but that remained in (ba) their own state (hál)]. Under them are the usual 'taluqs' or tenures,—' patnís,' ‘ijárás,' and the like. Of these no special mention is here required. A certain number of special jungle-clearing tenures (but sometimes granted out of favour) exist under the name of kámdurá. They are heritable and trans

1 The reader will also note the same custom in Assam. There is an exceedingly good account of the village (exactly resembling the villages all over Bombay and Madras) in Orissa, vol. ii. p. 241, and there

the differences of Brahman villages are noted. As the Brahman could not plough, the whole cultivation was done by the aid of tenants, which resulted in some peculiar ities.

ferable. I also notice favourable tenures called 'panchaki,' seemingly identical with the 'upanchaki' of Rangpur 1. It is also worthy of notice that the revenue-free tenure or 'aimá' seems to have been here created, not for the support of religious persons, but as a favourable tenure for cultivating the waste. As it is not entirely free, it is called 'málguzárí aimá.' No rent is paid for some years, and then the rent progresses to the rate usually paid in the pargana for similar lands. Some of these tenures in pargana Balrampur are said to date back before the Permanent Settlement; others, under the same name, are more recent.

To this class also belong what are known as 'mandali jôt' tenures in Midnapore, which are nothing more than the holdings of certain men who were set to reclaim the waste (ábádkár), undertaking that a lump sum of rent should be forthcoming. From time to time the terms of the bargain were readjusted. Naturally the ábádkárs became the mandal or headmen of the new villages. They had a higher status than ordinary resident raiyats; and they were entitled to make their own terms with their cultivators, thus getting a considerable profit out of the difference between the lump rent they paid and the total of the collections from cultivators. Their tenure became

transferable by custom.

See pp. 540 and 586.

SECTION IX.-CHUTIYA NAGPUR TENURES.

§ 1. Interest attaching to the Tenures.

The tenures of these districts have a peculiar interest for us, because here (and in Santália) we have one of the centres in which we can trace pretty clearly one of the earliest native methods of landholding in relation to the State, which are so interesting. Just as Oudh and Rájputána, and to some extent Orissa, give us the best information regarding the Rájput or Aryan organization which has so profoundly affected the constitution of village communities, so Chutiyá Nágpur is a centre which enables us to reconstruct the organization of Kóls and Dravidians, the latter being great colonizers and conquerors, like the Rájputs; and this organization is probably identical with what once existed in Gondwána (now the Central Provinces and Berar) as well as in Southern India1.

§2. General Description of the Country.

The Chutiyá Nágpur country covers an area of about 46,000 square miles. It consists of a series of table-lands rising in succession from 800 to 3500 feet above the sealevel.

On each terrace are well-cultivated plains, and the borders of each are scarped and forest-clad hills. The plains themselves are dotted over with wooded hills. In the east of the division are the tribes known as Mundas, Hos, and Santáls (Kolarian); in the west are Korwás (Kolarian

1 The materials for this sketch are Mr. J. F. Hewitt's paper on Village Communities in Journal, Society of Arts, vol. xxxv. p. 613 (May 1887); Chota Nagpur, its People and Resources,' by the same author (Asiatic Quarterly Review, April

1887, vol. iii.); an interesting 'Official Paper' in the Calcutta Gazette, 17th December, 1880, on the Lohárdagga District; and the volumes of the Statistical Account of Bengal, relating to the Division.

also). The independent States along the frontier of the Central Provinces are Gond (Dravidian). There are Bhúyá tribesmen in the States of Gangpur and Bonai, and in the (British) Singbhúm and Mánbhúm districts. In some parts there are also Uráons. These are all Dravidians.

It seems that the Kolarian tribes are the earliest inhabitants, and the Uráons and Bhúyás are invaders; in fact, part of that great wave of conquest made by the Nágá (snake-worshipping) people, who advanced far up to the Ganges valley. The Santáls are Kóls; they moved from Orissa to Hazáribágh to escape the Maráthás, and then, in the middle of the last century, settled in the hills which are now known as the 'Santál Pergunnahs.'

83. Kól and Dravidian Organization of Land.

Of these tribes some appear to have had but little organization, but to have lived by shifting or temporary ‘júm' clearings in the forests1. But in the plains they formed settled villages with a headman over each (mundá). The Nágá races in their advance, where they did not drive out the weaker tribes, admitted them, as it were, into their confederacy, and the system became one-that is to say, the Kól village system was strengthened by the Dravidian military organization, which was very like that of the Aryans.

There were senior chiefs or Rájás of territories, who had a central domain, while all around, estates were allotted to the lesser chiefs and to the servants of the kingdom,—some, as usual, on the frontier, being charged with keeping the passes. The villages, as usual with all earlier colonizing systems in India, show no sign of a joint claim to a defined area of soil. Such a right appears, rather, to arise at a later stage, when some petty chief gets a hold over the village by grant or otherwise, and then claims to be, in that little circle, what the Rájá was in his larger domain. His claim is distinctly territorial and is focussed on a

1 See p. 116, ante.

small area, so that it is distinctly felt in a way that the Rájá's general claim over a large area cannot be. When, in course of a generation or two, this chief's descendants form a considerable body, these jointly claim the entire area as a body of 'landlords'; or, dividing it up into ancestral shares according to their descent, constitute what the books call 'pattídárí' communities.

We have now to see how the Kolarian village system was modified by being taken into the Dravidian system.

The Kól tribes had no central government. The tribal groups, distinguished by a flag1, were called 'parhá,' and over which was a chief called 'Mánkí' or 'Mánjhí.' These were independent; they might meet for counsel and combine for defence, but often they were at war with each other. The parhá territory was divided into villages, each under its 'mundá' or headman, who was hereditary. There was a 'páhan,' or priest; but he was tribal, not local.

The Dravidians did not alter this organization, but their chiefs and Rájás took the rule over the mánkis, who, having no special estates, dropped into a secondary or inferior official position. What distinguished the Dravidian plan, was that in every village the Rájá or the chief took a certain area of land, the whole produce of which went to his State granary. It was easy to carry out this plan, because the whole village was divided into lots, according to certain principles. The lots were called (originally) 'khúnt'—a term said to mean stock (Latin stirps), and imply the allotment for a family group of the same order. The term 'khúnt-káti,' or the clearer of the holding, is still a term used to mark the right which, in the public estimation, attaches to the clearer of the primeval jungle. The 'khúnts' consisted of plots of different qualities of land, and in some places were periodically re-distributed, so as to give the person who enjoyed each a certain equality of advantage 2.

1 These are still displayed at ceremonial or festive gatherings.

2 In the Chutiyá Nágpur villages we find an institution which is common in Southern and Western

India where the level land was cultivated with rice, some uplands, called 'tanr,' to supply grass and stuff to burn for manure, were allotted with each holding.