[1883.—"... from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin a security endorsed by the Mathura Seth is as readily convertible into cash as a Bank of England Note in London or Paris."—F. S. Growse, Mathura, 14.]
SETTLEMENT, s. In the Land Revenue system of India, an estate or district is said to be settled, when instead of taking a quota of the year's produce the Government has agreed with the cultivators, individually or in community, for a fixed sum to be paid at several periods of the year, and not liable to enhancement during the term of years for which the agreement or settlement is made. The operation of arranging the terms of such an agreement, often involving tedious and complicated considerations and enquiries, is known as the process of settlement. A Permanent Settlement is that in which the annual payment is fixed in perpetuity. This was introduced in Bengal by Lord Cornwallis in 1793, and does not exist except within that great Province, [and a few districts in the Benares division of the N.W.P., and in Madras.]
[SEVEN PAGODAS, n.p. The Tam. Mavallipuram, Skt. Mahabalipura, 'the City of the Great Bali,' a place midway between [Sadras] and Covelong. But in one of the inscriptions (about 620 A.D.) a King, whose name is said to have been Amara, is described as having conquered the chief of the Mahamalla race. Malla was probably the name of a powerful highland chieftain subdued by the Chalukyans. (See Crole, Man. of Chingleput, 92 seq.). Dr. Oppert (Orig. Inhabit., 98) takes the name to be derived from the Malla or Palli race.
SEVEN SISTERS, or BROTHERS. The popular name (Hind. sāt-bhāī) of a certain kind of bird, about the size of a thrush, common throughout most parts of India, Malacocercus terricolor, Hodgson, 'Bengal babbler' of Jerdon. The latter author gives the native name as Seven Brothers, which is the form also given in the quotation below from Tribes on My Frontier. The bird is so named from being constantly seen in little companies of about that number. Its characteristics are well given in the quotations. See also Jerdon's Birds (Godwin-Austen's ed., ii. 59). In China certain birds of starling kind are called by the Chinese pa-ko, or "Eight Brothers," for a like reason. See Collingwood's Rambles of a Naturalist, 1868, p. 319. (See [MYNA].)
1878.—"The Seven Sisters pretend to feed on insects, but that is only when they cannot get peas ... sad-coloured birds hopping about in the dust, and incessantly talking whilst they hop."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 30-31.
1883.—"... the Satbhai or 'Seven Brothers' ... are too shrewd and knowing to be made fun of.... Among themselves they will quarrel by the hour, and bandy foul language like fishwives; but let a stranger treat one of their number with disrespect, and the other six are in arms at once.... Each Presidency of India has its own branch of this strange family. Here (at Bombay) they are brothers, and in Bengal they are sisters; but everywhere, like Wordsworth's opinionative child, they are seven."—Tribes on My Frontier, 143.
SEVERNDROOG, n.p. A somewhat absurd corruption, which has been applied to two forts of some fame, viz.:
a. Suvarna-druga, or Suwandrug, on the west coast, about 78 m. below Bombay (Lat. 17° 48′ N.). It was taken in 1755 by a small naval force from Tulajī Angria, of the famous piratical family. [For the commander of the expedition, Commodore James, and his monument on Shooter's Hill, see Douglas, Bombay and W. India, i. 117 seq.]
b. Savandrug; a remarkable double hill-fort in Mysore, standing on a two-topped bare rock of granite, which was taken by Lord Cornwallis's army in 1791 (Lat. 12° 55′). [Wilks (Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 228, ii. 232) calls it Savendy Droog, and Savendroog.]
SEYCHELLE ISLANDS, n.p. A cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean, politically subordinate to the British Government of Mauritius, lying be-between 3° 40′ & 4° 50′ S. Lat., and about 950 sea-miles east of Mombas on the E. African coast. There are 29 or 30 of the Seychelles proper, of which Mahé, the largest, is about 17 m. long by 3 or 4 wide. The principal islands are granitic, and rise "in the centre of a vast plateau of coral" of some 120 m. diameter.