[1]. See Appendix, Nos. [VII]., [VIII]., and [IX].
[2]. This is the ‘sauvement ou vingtain’ of the French system: there it ceased with the cause. “Les guerres (feudal) cessèrent avec le régime féodal, et les paysans n’eurent plus besoin de la protection du Seigneur; on ne les força pas moins de réparer son château, et de lui payer le droit qui se nommait de sauvement ou vingtain” (Art. ‘Château,’ Dict. de l’Ancien Régime).
[3]. The chief might lose his patta lands, and he would then dwindle down into the bhumia proprietor, which title only lawless force could take from him. See Appendix, No. [IX].
[4]. See Appendix, No. [X]., Art. II.
[5]. This species would come under the distinct term of Hydages due by soccage vassals, who in return for protection supply carriages and work (Hume, vol. ii. p. 308).
[6]. Hallam, vol. i. p. 169.
[7]. In indulging my curiosity on this subject, I collected some hundred engagements, and many of a most singular nature. We see the chieftain stipulating for fees on marriages; for a dish of the good fare at the wedding feast, which he transfers to a relation of his district if unable to attend himself; portions of fuel and provender; and even wherewithal to fill the wassail cup in his days of merriment. The Rajput’s religious notions are not of so strict a character as to prevent his even exacting his rakhwali dues from the church lands, and the threat of slaughtering the sacred flock of our Indian Apollo has been resorted to, to compel payment when withheld. Nay, by the chiefs it was imposed on things locomotive: on caravans, or Tandas of merchandise, wherever they halted for the day, rakhwali was demanded. Each petty chief through whose district or patch of territory they travelled, made a demand, till commerce was dreadfully shackled; but it was the only way in which it could be secured. It was astonishing how commerce was carried on at all; yet did the cloths of Dacca and the shawls of Kashmir pass through all such restraints, and were never more in request. Where there is demand no danger will deter enterprise; and commerce flourished more when these predatory armies were rolling like waves over the land, than during the succeeding halcyon days of pacification.
[8]. The method by which the country is brought under this tax is as follows: “When the people are almost ruined by continual robberies and plunders, the leader of the band of thieves, or some friend of his, proposes that, for a sum of money annually paid, he will keep a number of men in arms to protect such a tract of ground, or as many parishes as submit to the contribution. When the terms are agreed upon he ceases to steal, and thereby the contributors are safe: if any one refuse to pay, he is immediately plundered. To colour all this villainy, those concerned in the robberies pay the tax with the rest; and all the neighbourhood must comply or be undone. This is the case (among others), with the whole low country of the shire of Ross” (Extract from Lord Lovat’s Memorial to George I. on the State of the Highlands of Scotland, in A.D. 1724).
[9]. In Persian ghulām, literally ‘slave’; evidently a word of the same origin with the Hindu gola. [The words have no connexion.]
[10]. Hallam, vol. i. p. 217.