Sugar-Cane Cultivation.
| Rupees. | |
| Hasil, or rent | 10 |
| Seed of one bigha | 20 |
| Gor, or stirring up the earth with spuds, eight times before reaping, sixteen men each time, at two annas to each | 16 |
| Two men at the well, at four rupees each per month, for twelve months | 96[[6]] |
| Two oxen, feeding, etc. | 18 |
| Paring and cutting forty thousand canes, at four annas per thousand | 10 |
| Placing canes in the mill, clothes to the men, besides one ser of sugar out of every maund | 20 |
| Shares of all the village establishment; say, if the bigha yields fifty maunds, of which they are entitled to one-fifth | 40 |
| Wood | 2 |
| 238 | |
| A bigha will yield as much as eighty maunds of sugar,[[7]] though fifty is esteemed a good crop; it sells at about four rupees per maund, or | 200 |
| Leaving the cultivator minus | 38 |
It will be observed that the grower’s whole expenses are charged; besides, to make up, we must calculate from the labour of the same two men and cattle, the produce profit of one bigha of opium and four bighas of wheat and barley, as follows:
| Rupees. | |
| Surplus profit on the opium, seven sers of opium, at four rupees per ser | 28 |
| One hundred and fifty maunds of grain, of both harvests, of which one-third to the Raj, leaves one hundred maunds, at one rupee each maund | 100 |
| 128 | |
| Deduct deficiency on cane | 38 |
| Profit left, after feeding, men and cattle, etc., etc. | 90 |
[598]
Sometimes, though rarely, the cane is sold standing, at four to five rupees the thousand; but, occasionally, the whole crop is lost, if the cane should unfortunately flower, when it is rooted up and burnt, or given to the cattle, being unfit for the use of man. This may be superstition; though the cultivators of the cane in the West Indies may perhaps say that the deterioration of the plant would render it not worth the trouble of extracting the juice.[[8]] I shall here conclude this rough sketch of the agricultural economy of Kheroda, which may be taken as a fair specimen of the old system throughout Mewar, with remarking that, notwithstanding the laws of Manu,[[9]] inscriptions on stone, and tradition, which constitute in fact the customary law of Rajputana, make the rent in kind far lighter than what we have just recorded, yet the cultivator could not fail to thrive if even this system were maintained. But constant warfare, the necessities of the prince, with the cupidity and poverty of the revenue officers, have superadded vexatious petty demands, as khar-lakar (wood and forage), and ghar-ginti (house-tax); the first of which was a tax of one rupee annually on every bigha of land in cultivation, and the other the same on each house or hut inhabited. Even the kaid sali, or triennial fine on the headman and the register, was levied by these again on the cultivators. But besides these regular taxes, there was no end to irregular exactions of barar and dand, or forced contributions, until, at length, the country became the scene of desolation from which it is only now emerging.
Hīnta, January 30.—This was a short march of three and a half coss, or nine miles, over the same extensive plain of rich black loam, or mal, whence the province of Malwa has its name.[[10]] We were on horseback long before sunrise; the air was pure and invigorating; the peasantry were smiling at the sight of the luxuriant young crops of wheat, barley, and gram, aware that no ruthless hand could now step between them and the bounties of Heaven. Fresh thatch, or rising walls, gave signs of the exiles’ return, who greeted us, at each step of our journey, with blessings and looks of joy mingled with sadness. Passed the hamlet, or purwa, of Amarpura, attached to Kheroda, and to our left the township of Mainar, held in sasan[[11]] (religious grant) by a community of Brahmans. This place affords a fine specimen of “the wisdom of ancestors” in Mewar, where fifty thousand bighas, or about sixteen thousand acres of the richest crown land, have been given in perpetuity to these drones of society; and although there are only twenty families left of this holy colony, said to have been planted by Raja Mandhata in the Treta-yug, or silver age of India, yet superstition and indolence conspire to prevent the resumption even of those portions which have none to cultivate them. A “sixty thousand [599] years’ residence in hell” is undoubtedly no comfortable prospect, and to those who subscribe to the doctrine of transmigration, it must be rather mortifying to pass from the purple of royalty into “a worm in ordure,” one of the delicate purgatories which the Rajput soul has to undergo, before it can expiate the offence of resuming the lands of the church! I was rejoiced, however, to find that some of “the sons of Sakta,” as they increased in numbers, in the inverse ratio of their possessions, deemed it better to incur all risks than emigrate to foreign lands in search of bhum; and both Hinta and Dundia have been established on the lands of the church. Desirous of preserving every right of every class, I imprecated on my head all the anathemas of the order, if the Rana should resume all beyond what the remnant of this family could require. I proposed that a thousand bighas of the best land should be retained by them; that they should not only be furnished with cattle, seed, and implements of agriculture, but that there should be wells cleared out, or fresh ones dug for them. At this time, however, the astrologer was a member of the cabinet, and being also physician in ordinary, he, as one of the order, protected his brethren of Menar, who, as may be supposed, were in vain called upon to produce the tamra-pattra, or copper-plate warrant, for these lands.
Māndhāta Rāja.
We also passed in this morning’s march the village of Bahmania, having a noble piece of water maintained by a strong embankment of masonry. No less than four thousand bighas are attached. It was fiscal land, but had been usurped during the troubles, and being nearly depopulated, had escaped observation. At this moment it is in the hands of Moti Pasban,[[13]] the favourite handmaid of “the Sun of the Hindus.” This ‘Pearl’ (moti) pretends to have obtained it as a mortgage, but it would be difficult to show a lawful mortgager. Near the village of Bansera, on the estate of Fateh Singh, brother of Bhindar, we passed a seura or sula, a pillar or land-mark, having a grant of land inscribed thereon with the usual denunciations, attested by an image of the sacred cow, engraved in slight relief, as witness to the intention of the donor.
Hinta was a place of some consequence in the civil wars, and in S. 1808 (A.D. 1752) formed the appanage of one of the Babas, or infants of the court, of the Maharaja Sawant Singh. It now belongs to a subordinate Saktawat, and was the subject of considerable discussion in the treaty of resumption of the 4th of May 1818, between the Rana and his chiefs.