The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I Part 2

Karan.

Kayasth and Prabhu.

Khatri.

Rajput.

The Brahmans are, as they have always been, the highest caste. The Rajputs are the representatives of the ancient Kshatriyas or second caste, though the existing Rajput clans are probably derived from the Hun, Gujar and other invaders of the period before and shortly after the commencement of the Christian era, and in some cases from the indigenous or non-Aryan tribes. It does not seem possible to a.s.sert in the case of a single one of the present Rajput clans that any substantial evidence is forthcoming in favour of their descent from the Aryan Kshatriyas, and as regards most of the clans there are strong arguments against such a hypothesis. Nevertheless the Rajputs have succeeded to the status of the Kshatriyas, and an alternative name for them, Chhatri, is a corruption of the latter word. They are commonly identified with the second of the four cla.s.sical castes, but a Hindu law-book gives Raj.a.putra as the offspring of a Kshatriya father and a mother of the Karan or writer caste. [45] This genealogy is absurd, but may imply the opinion that the Rajputs were not the same as the Aryan Kshatriyas. The Khatris are an important mercantile caste of the Punjab, who in the opinion of most authorities are derived from the Rajputs. The name is probably a corruption of Kshatri or Kshatriya. The Banias are the great mercantile, banking and shopkeeping caste among the Hindus and a large proportion of the trade in grain and _ghi_ (preserved b.u.t.ter) is in their hands, while they are also the chief moneylenders. Most of the important Bania subcastes belonged originally to Rajputana and Central India, which are also the homes of the Rajputs, and reasons have been given in the article on Bania for holding that they are derived from the Rajputs. They, however, are now commonly called Vaishyas by the Hindus, as, I think, under the mistaken impression that they are descended from the original Vaishyas. The Bhats are the bards, heralds and genealogists of India and include groups of very varying status. The Bhats who act as genealogists of the cultivating and other castes and accept cooked food from their clients may perhaps be held to rank with or even below them. But the high-cla.s.s Bhats are undoubtedly derived from Brahmans and Rajputs, and rank just below those castes. The bard or herald had a sacred character, and his person was inviolable like that of the herald elsewhere, and this has given a special status to the whole caste. [46] The Kayasths are the writer caste of Hindustan, and the Karans and Prabhus are the corresponding castes of Orissa and Bombay. The position of the Kayasths has greatly risen during the last century on account of their own ability and industry and the advantages they have obtained through their high level of education. The original Kayasths may have been village accountants and hence have occupied a lower position, perhaps below the cultivators. They are an instance of a caste whose social position has greatly improved on account of the wealth and importance of its members. At present the Kayasths may be said to rank next to Brahmans and Rajputs. The origin of the Prabhus and Karans is uncertain, but their recent social history appears to resemble that of the Kayasths. The Guraos are another caste whose position has greatly improved. They were priests of the village temples of Siva, and accepted the offerings of food which Brahmans could not take. But they also supplied leaf-plates for festivals, and were village musicians and trumpeters in the Maratha armies, and hence probably ranked below the cultivators and were supported by contributions of grain from them. Their social position has been raised by their sacred character as priests of the G.o.d Siva and they are now sometimes called Shaiva Brahmans. But a distinct recollection of their former status exists.

Thus all the castes of the first group are derived from the representatives of the Brahmans and Kshatriyas, the two highest of the four cla.s.sical castes, except the Guraos, who have risen in status owing to special circ.u.mstances. The origin of the Kayasths is discussed in the article on that caste. Members of the above castes usually wear the sacred thread which is the mark of the Dwija or twice-born, the old Brahmans, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. The thread is not worn generally by the castes of the second group, but the more wealthy and prominent sections of them frequently a.s.sume it.

20. Castes from whom a Brahman can take water. Higher agriculturists.

The second group of good castes from whom a Brahman can take water falls into three sections as already explained: the higher agricultural castes, the higher artisans, and the serving or menial castes from whom a Brahman takes water from motives of convenience. These last do not properly belong to the second group but to the next lower one of village menials. The higher agricultural castes or those of the first section are noted below:

Agharia.

Ahir.

Bhilala.

Bishnoi.

Chasa.

Daharia.

Dangi.

Dumal.

Gujar.

Jadum.

Jat.

Khandait.

Kirar.

Kolta.

Kunbi.

Kurmi.

Lodhi.

Mali.

Maratha.

Mina or Deswali.

Panwar Rajput.

Raghuvansi.

Velama.

In this division the Kurmis and Kunbis are the typical agricultural castes of Hindustan or the plains of northern India, and the Bombay or Maratha Deccan. Both are very numerous and appear to be purely occupational bodies. The name Kurmi perhaps signifies a cultivator or worker. Kunbi may mean a householder. In both castes, groups of diverse origin seem to have been amalgamated owing to their common calling. Thus the Kunbis include a subcaste derived from the Banjara (carriers), another from the Dhangars or shepherds, and a third from the Manas, a primitive tribe. In Bombay it is considered that the majority of the Kunbi caste are sprung from the non-Aryan or indigenous tribes, and this may be the reason why Maratha Brahmans do not take water from them. But they have now become one caste with a status equal to that of the other good cultivating castes. In many tracts of Berar and elsewhere practically all the cultivators of the village belong to the Kunbi caste, and there is every reason to suppose that this was once the general rule and that the Kunbis or 'householders' are simply the cultivators of the Maratha country who lived in village communities. Similarly Sir H. Risley considered that some Kurmis of Bihar were of the Aryan type, while others of Chota Nagpur are derived from the indigenous tribes. The Chasas are the cultivating caste of Orissa and are a similar occupational group. The word Chasa has the generic meaning of a cultivator, and the caste are said by Sir H. Risley to be for the most part of non-Aryan origin, the loose organisation of the caste system among the Uriyas making it possible on the one hand for outsiders to be admitted into the caste, and on the other for wealthy Chasas, who gave up ploughing with their own hands and a.s.sumed the respectable t.i.tle of Mahanti, to raise themselves to members.h.i.+p among the lower cla.s.ses of Kayasths. The Koltas are another Uriya caste, probably an offshoot of the Chasas, whose name may be derived from the _kulthi_ [47] pulse, a favourite crop in that locality.

Similarly the Vellalas are the great cultivating caste of the Tamil country, to whom by general consent the first place in social esteem among the Tamil Sudra castes is awarded. In the _Madras Census Report_ of 1901 Mr. Francis gives an interesting description of the structure of the caste and its numerous territorial, occupational and other subdivisions. He shows also how groups from lower castes continually succeed in obtaining admission into the Vellala community in the following pa.s.sage: "Instances of members of other castes who have a.s.sumed the name and position of Vellalas are the Vettuva Vellalas, who are only Puluvans; the Illam Vellalas, who are Panikkans; the Karaiturai (lord of the sh.o.r.e) Vellalas, who are Karaiyans; the Karukamattai (palmyra leaf-stem) Vellalas, who are Balijas; the Guha (Rama's boatmen) Vellalas, who are Sembadavans; and the Irkuli Vellalas, who are Vannans. The children of dancing-girls also often call themselves Mudali, and claim in time to be Vellalas, and even Paraiyans a.s.sume the t.i.tle of Pillai and trust to its eventually enabling them to pa.s.s themselves off as members of the caste."

This is an excellent instance of the good status attaching to the chief cultivating caste of the locality and of the manner in which other groups, when they obtain possession of the land, strive to get themselves enrolled in it.

The Jats are the representative cultivating caste of the Punjab. They are probably the descendants of one of the Scythian invading hordes who entered India shortly before and after the commencement of the Christian era. The Scythians, as they were called by Herodotus, appear to have belonged to the Mongolian racial family, as also did the white Huns who came subsequently. The Gujar and Ahir castes, as well as the Jats, and also the bulk of the existing Rajput clans, are believed to be descended from these invaders; and since their residence in India has been comparatively short in comparison with their Aryan predecessors, they have undergone much less fusion with the general population, and retain a lighter complexion and better features, as is quite perceptible to the ordinary observer in the case of the Jats and Rajputs. The Jats have a somewhat higher status than other agricultural castes, because in the Punjab they were once dominant, and one or two ruling chiefs belonged to the caste. [48] The bulk of the Sikhs were also Jats. But in the Central Provinces, where they are not large landholders, and have no traditions of former dominance, there is little distinction between them and the Kurmis. The Gujars for long remained a pastoral freebooting tribe, and their community was naturally recruited from all cla.s.ses of vagabonds and outlaws, and hence the caste is now of a mixed character, and their physical type is not noticeably distinct from that of other Hindus. Sir G. Campbell derived the Gujars from the Khazars, a tribe of the same race as the white Huns and Bulgars who from an early period had been settled in the neighbourhood of the Caspian. They are believed to have entered India during the fifth or sixth century. Several clans of Rajputs, as well as considerable sections of the Ahir and Kunbi castes were, in his opinion, derived from the Gujars. In the Central Provinces the Gujars have now settled down into respectable cultivators. The Ahirs or cowherds and graziers probably take their name from the Abhiras, another of the Scythian tribes. But they have now become a purely occupational caste, largely recruited from the indigenous Gonds and Kawars, to whom the business of tending cattle in the jungles is habitually entrusted. In the Central Provinces Ahirs live in small forest villages with Gonds, and are sometimes scarcely considered as Hindus. On this account they have a character for bucolic stupidity, as the proverb has it: 'When he is asleep he is an Ahir and when he is awake he is a fool.' But the Ahir caste generally has a good status on account of its connection with the sacred cow and also with the G.o.d Krishna, the divine cowherd.

The Marathas are the military caste of the Maratha country, formed into a caste from the cultivators, shepherds and herdsmen, who took service under Sivaji and subsequent Maratha leaders. The higher clans may have been const.i.tuted from the aristocracy of the Deccan states, which was probably of Rajput descent. They have now become a single caste, ranking somewhat higher than the Kunbis, from whom the bulk of them originated, on account of their former military and dominant position. Their status was much the same as that of the Jats in the Punjab. But the ordinary Marathas are mainly engaged in the subordinate Government and private service, and there is very little distinction between them and the Kunbis. The Khandaits or swordsmen (from _khanda_, a sword) are an Uriya caste, which originated in military service, and the members of which belonged for the most part to the non-Aryan Bhuiya tribe. They were a sort of rabble, half military and half police, Sir H. Risley states, who formed the levies of the Uriya zamindars. They have obtained grants of land, and their status has improved. "In the social system of Orissa the Sreshta (good) Khandaits rank next to the Rajputs, who are comparatively few in number, and have not that intimate connection with the land which has helped to raise the Khandaits to their present position." [49] The small Rautia landholding caste of Chota Nagpur, mainly derived from the Kol tribe, was formed from military service, and obtained a higher status with the possession of the land exactly like the Khandaits.

Several Rajput clans, as the Panwars of the Wainganga Valley, the Raghuvansis, the Jadums derived from the Yadava clan, and the Daharias of Chhattisgarh, have formed distinct castes, marrying among themselves. A proper Rajput should not marry in his own clan. These groups have probably in the past taken wives from the surrounding population, and they can no longer be held to belong to the Rajput caste proper, but rank as ordinary agricultural castes. Other agricultural castes have probably been formed through mixed descent from Rajputs and the indigenous races. The Agharias of Sambalpur say they are sprung from a clan of Rajputs near Agra, who refused to bend their heads before the king of Delhi. He summoned all the Agharias to appear before him, and fixed a sword across the door at the height of a man's neck. As the Agharias would not bend their heads they were as a natural consequence all decapitated as they pa.s.sed through the door. Only one escaped, who had bribed a Chamar to go instead of him. He and his village fled from Agra and came to Chhattisgarh, where they founded the Agharia caste. And, in memory of this, when an Agharia makes a libation to his ancestors, he first pours a little water on the ground in honour of the dead Chamar. Such stories may be purely imaginary, or may contain some substratum of truth, as that the ancestors of the caste were Rajputs, who took wives from Chamars and other low castes. The Kirars are another caste with more or less mixed descent from Rajputs. They are also called Dhakar, and this means one of illegitimate birth. The Bhilalas are a caste formed of the offspring of mixed alliances between Rajputs and Bhils. In many cases in Nimar Rajput immigrants appear to have married the daughters of Bhil chieftains and landholders, and succeeded to their estates. Thus the Bhilalas include a number of landed proprietors, and the caste ranks as a good agricultural caste, from whom Brahmans will take water. Among the other indigenous tribes, several of which have in the Central Provinces retained the possession of large areas of land and great estates in the wilder forest tracts, a subcaste has been formed of the landholding members of the tribe. Such are the Raj-Gonds among the Gonds, the Binjhals among Baigas, and the Tawar subtribe of the Kawar tribe of Bilaspur, to which all the zamindars [50] belong. These last now claim to be Tomara Rajputs, on the basis of the similarity of the name. These groups rank with the good agricultural castes, and Brahmans sometimes consent to take water from them. The Dangis of Saugor appear to be the descendants of a set of freebooters in the Vindhyan hills, much like the Gujars in northern India. The legend of their origin is given in Sir B. Robertson's _Census Report_ of 1891: "The chief of Garhpahra or old Saugor detained the palanquins of twenty-two married women and kept them as his wives. The issue of the illicit intercourse were named Dangis, and there are thus twenty-two subdivisions of these people. There are also three other subdivisions who claim descent from pure Rajputs, and who will take daughters in marriage from the remaining twenty-two, but will not give their daughters to them." Thus the Dangis appear to have been a mixed group, recruiting their band from all cla.s.ses of the population, with some Rajputs as leaders. The name probably means hillman, from _dang_, a hill. _Khet men bami, gaon men Dangi_ or 'A Dangi in the village is like the hole of a snake in one's field,' is a proverb showing the estimation in which they were formerly held. They obtained estates in Saugor and a Dangi dynasty formerly governed part of the District, and they are now highly respectable cultivators. The Minas or Deswalis belonged to the predatory Mina tribe of Rajputana, but a section of them have obtained possession of the land in Hoshangabad and rank as a good agricultural caste. The Lodhas of the United Provinces are placed lowest among the agricultural castes by Mr. Nesfield, who describes them as little better than a forest tribe. The name is perhaps derived from the bark of the _lodh_ tree, which was collected by the Lodhas of northern India and sold for use as a dyeing agent. In the Central Provinces the name has been changed to Lodhi, and they are said to have been brought into the District by a Raja of the Gond-Rajput dynasty of Mandla in the seventeenth century, and given large grants of waste land in the interior in order that they might clear it of forest. They have thus become landholders, and rank with the higher agricultural castes. They are addressed as Thakur, a t.i.tle applied to Rajputs, and Lodhi landowners usually wear the sacred thread.

21. Status of the cultivator.

The above details have been given to show how the different agricultural castes originated. Though their origin is so diverse they have, to a great extent, the same status, and it seems clear that this status is dependent on their possession of the land. In the tracts where they reside they are commonly village proprietors and superior tenants. Those who rank a little higher than the others, as the Jats, Marathas, Dangis and Lodhis, include in their body some ruling chiefs or large landed proprietors, and as a rule were formerly dominant in the territory in which they are found. In primitive agricultural communities the land is the princ.i.p.al, if not almost the sole, source of wealth. Trade in the modern sense scarcely exists, and what interchange of commodities there is affects, as a rule, only a trifling fraction of the population. India's foreign trade is mainly the growth of the last century, and the great bulk of the exports are of agricultural produce, yet in proportion to the population the trading community is still extremely small. It thus seems quite impossible that the Aryans could have been a community of priests, rulers and traders, because such a community would not have had means of subsistence. And if the whole production and control of the wealth and food of the community had been in the hands of the Sudras, they could not have been kept permanently in their subject, degraded position. The flocks and herds and the land, which const.i.tuted the wealth of early India, must thus have been in the possession of the Vaishyas; and grounds of general probability, as well as the direct evidence already produced, make it clear that they were the herdsmen and cultivators, and the Sudras the labourers. The status of the modern cultivators seems to correspond to that of the Vaishyas, that is, of the main body of the Aryan people, who were pure and permitted to join in sacrifices. The status, however, no longer attaches to origin, but to the possession of the land; it is that of a const.i.tuent member of the village community, corresponding to a citizen of the city states of Greece and Italy. The original Vaishyas have long disappeared; the Brahmans themselves say that there are no Kshatriyas and no Vaishyas left, and this seems to be quite correct. But the modern good cultivating castes retain the status of the Vaishyas as the Rajputs retain that of the Kshatriyas. The case of the Jats and Gujars supports this view. These two castes are almost certainly derived from Scythian nomad tribes, who entered India long after the Vedic Aryans. And there is good reason to suppose that a substantial proportion, if not the majority, of the existing Rajput clans were the leaders or aristocracy of the Jats and Gujars. Thus it is found that in the case of these later tribes the main body were shepherds and cultivators, and their descendants have the status of good cultivating castes at present, while the leaders became the Rajputs, who have the status of the Kshatriyas; and it therefore seems a reasonable inference that the same had previously been the case with the Aryans themselves. It has been seen that the word Visha or Vaishya signified one of the people or a householder. The name Kunbi appears to have the same sense, its older form being _kutumbika_, which is a householder or one who has a family, [51] a _pater familias_.

22. The clan and the village.

It has been seen also that Visha in the plural signified clans. The clan was the small body which lived together, and in the patriarchal stage was connected by a tie of kins.h.i.+p held to be derived from a common ancestor. Thus it is likely that the clans settled down in villages, the cultivators of one village being of the same exogamous clan. The existing system of exogamy affords evidence in favour of this view, as will be seen. All the families of the clan had cultivating rights in the land, and were members of the village community; and there were no other members, unless possibly a Kshatriya headman or leader. The Sudras were their labourers and serfs, with no right to hold land, and a third intermediate cla.s.s of village menials gradually grew up.

The law of Mirasi tenures in Madras is perhaps a survival of the social system of the early village community. Under it only a few of the higher castes were allowed to hold land, and the monopoly was preserved by the rule that the right of taking up waste lands belonged primarily to the cultivators of the adjacent holdings; no one else could acquire land unless he first bought them out. The pariahs or impure castes were not allowed to hold land at all. This rule was pointed out by Mr. Sloc.o.c.k, and it is also noticed by Sir Henry Maine: "There are in Central and Southern India certain villages to which a cla.s.s of persons is hereditarily attached, in such a manner that they form no part of the natural and organic aggregate to which the bulk of the villagers belong. These persons are looked upon as essentially impure; they never enter the village, or only enter reserved portions of it; and their touch is avoided as contaminating. Yet they bear extremely plain marks of their origin. Though they are not included in the village, they are an appendage solidly connected with it; they have definite village duties, one of which is the settlement of boundaries, on which their authority is allowed to be conclusive. They evidently represent a population of alien blood whose lands have been occupied by the colonists or invaders forming the community." [52]

Elsewhere, Sir Henry Maine points out that in many cases the outsiders were probably admitted to the possession of land, but on an inferior tenure to the primary holders or freemen who formed the cultivating body of the village; and suggests that this may have been the ground for the original distinction between occupancy and non-occupancy tenants. The following extract from a description of the Maratha villages by Grant Duff [53] may be subjoined to this pa.s.sage: "The inhabitants are princ.i.p.ally cultivators, and are now either Mirasidars or Ooprees. These names serve to distinguish the tenure by which they hold their lands. The Oopree is a mere tenant-at-will, but the Mirasidar is a hereditary occupant whom the Government cannot displace so long as he pays the a.s.sessment on his field. With various privileges and distinctions in his village of minor consequence, the Mirasidar has the important power of selling or transferring his right of occupancy at pleasure. It is a current opinion in the Maratha country that all the lands were originally of this description."

As regards the internal relations of clans and village groups, Sir H. Maine states: "The men who composed the primitive communities believed themselves to be kinsmen in the most literal sense of the word; and, surprising as it may seem, there are a mult.i.tude of indications that in one stage of thought they must have regarded themselves as equals. When these primitive bodies first make their appearance as landowners, as claiming an exclusive enjoyment in a definite area of land, not only do their shares of the soil appear to have been originally equal, but a number of contrivances survive for preserving the equality, of which the most frequent is the periodical redistribution of the tribal domain." [54] Similarly Professor Hearn states: "The settlement of Europe was made by clans. Each clan occupied a certain territory--much, I suppose, as an Australian squatter takes up new country. The land thus occupied was distributed by metes and bounds to each branch of the clan; the remainder, if any, continuing the property of the clan." [55] And again: "In those cases where the land had been acquired by conquest there were generally some remains of the conquered population who retained more or less interest in the lands that had once been their own. But as between the conquerors themselves it was the clansmen, and the clansmen only, who were ent.i.tled to derive any advantage from the land that the clan had acquired. The outsiders, the men who lived with the clan but were not of the clan, were no part of the folk, and had no share in the folkland. No services rendered, no partic.i.p.ation in the common danger, no endurance of the burden and heat of the day, could create in an outsider any colour of right. Nothing short of admission to the clan, and of initiation in its wors.h.i.+p, could enable him to demand as of right the gra.s.s of a single cow or the wood for a single fire." [56]

23. The owners.h.i.+p of land.

Thus it appears that the cultivating community of each village const.i.tuted an exogamous clan, the members of which believed themselves to be kinsmen. When some caste or tribe occupied a fresh area of land they were distributed by clans in villages, over the area, all the cultivators of a village being of one caste or tribe, as is still the case with the Kunbis in Berar. Sometimes several alien castes or groups became amalgamated into a single caste, such as the Kurmis and Kunbis; in others they either remained as a separate caste or became one. When the non-Aryan tribes retained possession of the land, there is every reason to suppose that they also were admitted into Hinduism, and either const.i.tuted a fresh caste with the cultivating status, or were absorbed into an existing one with a change of name. Individual owners.h.i.+p of land was probably unknown. The _patel_ or village headman, on whom proprietary right was conferred by the British Government, certainly did not possess it previously. He was simply the spokesman and representative of the village community in its dealings with the central or ruling authority. But it seems scarcely likely either that the village community considered itself to own the land. Cases in which the community as a corporate body has exercised any function of owners.h.i.+p other than that of occupying and cultivating the soil, if recorded at all, must be extremely rare, and I do not know that any instance is given by Sir Henry Maine. A tutelary village G.o.d is to be found as a rule in every Hindu village. In the Central Provinces the most common is Khermata, that is the G.o.ddess of the village itself or the village lands. She is a form of Devi, the general earth-G.o.ddess. When a village is founded the first thing to be done is to install the village G.o.d. Thus the soil of the village is venerated as a G.o.ddess, and it seems doubtful whether the village community considered itself the owner. In the Maratha Districts, Hanuman or Mahabir, the monkey G.o.d, is the tutelary deity of the village. His position seems to rest on the belief of the villagers that the monkeys were the lords and owners of the soil before their own arrival. For the wors.h.i.+p of these and the other village G.o.ds there is usually a village priest, known as Bhumka, Bhumia, Baiga or Jhankar, who is taken from the non-Aryan tribes. The reason for his appointment seems to be that the Hindus still look on themselves to some extent as strangers and interlopers in relation to the G.o.ds of the earth and the village, and consider it necessary to approach these through the medium of one of their predecessors. The words Bhumka and Bhumia both mean lord of the soil, or belonging to the soil. As already seen, the authority of some menial official belonging to the indigenous tribes is accepted as final in cases of disputed boundaries, the idea being apparently that as his ancestors first occupied the village, he has inherited from them the knowledge of its true extent and limits. All these points appear to tell strongly against the view that the Hindu village community considered itself to own the village land as we understand the phrase. They seem to have looked on the land as a G.o.d, and often their own tutelary deity and protector. What they held themselves to possess was a right of occupancy, in virtue of prescriptive settlement, not subject to removal or disturbance, and transmitted by inheritance to persons born into the members.h.i.+p of the village community. Under the Muhammadans the idea that the state ultimately owned the land may have been held, but prior to them the existence of such a belief is doubtful. The Hindu king did not take rent for land, but a share of the produce for the support of his establishments. The Rajput princes did not call themselves after the name of their country, but of its capital town, as if their own property consisted only in the town, as Jodhpur, Jaipur and Udaipur, instead of Marwar, Dhundhar and Mewar. Just as the village has a priest of the non-Aryan tribes for propitiating the local G.o.ds, so the Rajput chief at his accession was often inducted to the royal cus.h.i.+on by a Bhil or Mina, and received the badge of invest.i.ture as if he had to obtain his t.i.tle from these tribes. Indeed the right of the village community to the land was held sometimes superior to that of the state. Sir J. Malcolm relates that he was very anxious to get the village of Ba.s.si in Indore State repopulated when it had lain waste for thirty-six years. He had arranged with the Bhil headman of a neighbouring village to bring it under cultivation on a favourable lease. The plan had other advantages, and Holkar's minister was most anxious to put it into execution, but said that this could not be done until every possible effort had been made to discover whether any descendant of the former _patel_ or of any _watandar_ or hereditary cultivator of Ba.s.si was still in existence; for if such were found, he said, "even we Marathas, bad as we are, cannot do anything which interferes with their rights." None such being found at the time, the village was settled as proposed by Malcolm; but some time afterwards, a boy was discovered who was descended from the old _patel's_ family, and he was invited to resume the office of headman of the village of his forefathers, which even the Bhil, who had been nominated to it, was forward to resign to the rightful inheritor. [57] Similarly the Maratha princes, Sindhia, Holkar and others, are recorded to have set more store by the heads.h.i.+p of the insignificant Deccan villages, which were the hereditary offices of their families, than by the great princ.i.p.alities which they had carved out for themselves with the sword. The former defined and justified their position in the world as the living link and representative of the continuous family comprising all their ancestors and all their descendants; the latter was at first regarded merely as a transient, secular possession, and a source of wealth and profit. This powerful hereditary right probably rested on a religious basis. The village community was considered to be bound up with its village G.o.d in one joint life, and hence no one but they could in theory have the right to cultivate the lands of that village. The very origin and nature of this right precluded any question of transfer or alienation. The only lands in which any owners.h.i.+p, corresponding to our conception of the term, was held to exist, were perhaps those granted free of revenue for the maintenance of temples, which were held to be the property of the G.o.d. In Rome and other Greek and Latin cities the idea of private or family owners.h.i.+p of land also developed from a religious sentiment. It was customary to bury the dead in the fields which they had held, and here the belief was that their spirits remained and protected the interests of the family. Periodical sacrifices were made to them and they partic.i.p.ated in all the family ceremonies. Hence the land in which the tombs of ancestors were situated was held to belong to the family, and could not be separated from it. [58] Gradually, as the veneration for the spirits of ancestors decayed, the land came to be regarded as the private property of the family, and when this idea had been realised it was made alienable, though not with the same freedom as personal property. But the word _pecunia_ for money, from _pecus_ a flock, like the Hindi _dhan_, which means wealth and also flocks of goats and sheep, and feudal from the Gaelic _fiu_, cattle, point to conditions of society in which land was not considered a form of private property or wealth. M. Fustel de Coulanges notices other primitive races who did not recognise property in land: "The Tartars understand the term property as applying to cattle, but not as applying to land. According to some authors, among the ancient Germans there was no owners.h.i.+p of land; every year each member of the tribe received a holding to cultivate, and the holding was changed in the following year. The German owned the crop; he did not own the soil. The same was the case among a part of the Semitic race and certain of the Slav peoples." [59] In large areas of the Nigeria Protectorate at present, land has no exchangeable value at all; but by the native system of taxation a portion of the produce is taken in consideration of the right of use. [60] In ancient Arabia 'Baal'

meant the lord of some place or district, that is, a local deity, and hence came to mean a G.o.d. Land naturally moist was considered as irrigated by a G.o.d and the special place or habitation of the G.o.d. To the numerous Canaanite Baalims, or local deities, the Israelites ascribed all the natural gifts of the land, the corn, the wine, and the oil, the wool and the flax, the vines and fig trees. Pasture land was common property, but a man acquired rights in the soil by building a house, or, by 'quickening' a waste place, that is, bringing it under cultivation. [61] The Israelites thought that they derived their t.i.tle to the land of Canaan from Jehovah, having received it as a gift from Him. The a.s.sociation of rights over the land with cultivation and building, pointed out by Professor Robertson Smith, may perhaps explain the right over the village lands which was held to appertain to the village community. They had quickened the land and built houses on it, establis.h.i.+ng the local village deity on their village sites, and it was probably thought that their life was bound up with that of the village G.o.d, and only they had a right to cultivate his land. This would explain the great respect shown by the Marathas for hereditary t.i.tle to land, as seen above; a feeling which must certainly have been based on some religious belief, and not on any moral idea of equity or justice; no such deep moral principle was possible in the Hindu community at the period in question. The Hindu religious conception of rights to land was thus poles apart from the secular English law of proprietary and transferable right, and if the native feeling could have been, understood by the early British administrators the latter would perhaps have been introduced only in a much modified form.

24. The cultivating status that of the Vaishya.

The suggested conclusion from the above argument is that the main body of the Aryan immigrants, that is the Vaishyas, settled down in villages by exogamous clans or septs. The cultivators of each village believed themselves to be kinsmen descended from a common ancestor, and also to be akin to the G.o.d of the village lands from which they drew their sustenance. Hence their order had an equal right to cultivate the village land and their children to inherit it, though they did not conceive of the idea of owners.h.i.+p of land in the sense in which we understand this phrase.

The original status of the Vaishya, or a full member of the Aryan community who could join in sacrifices and employ Brahmans to perform them, was gradually transferred to the cultivating member of the village communities. In process of time, as land was the chief source of wealth, and was also regarded as sacred, the old status became attached to castes or groups of persons who obtained or held land irrespective of their origin, and these are what are now called the good cultivating castes. They have now practically the same status, though, as has been seen, they were originally of most diverse origin, including bands of robbers and freebooters, cattle-lifters, non-Aryan tribes, and sections of any castes which managed to get possession of an appreciable quant.i.ty of land.

25. Higher professional and artisan castes.

The second division of the group of pure or good castes, or those from whom a Brahman can take water, comprises the higher artisan castes:

Barhai.

Bharbhunja.