Mr. Hodgson's Description of the Village of Pudu-vayal 83 



proprietors of the soil, landholders, freeholders, copyholders, zemindars, 

 mirasidars, or ryots. The name is of httle import, if the benefits they 

 claim exist and are respected. By the grantee they had been respected from 

 A.D. 1784. to 1817, the latter being the year in which these memoranda 

 were taken by me and a friend in the village, in the presence of all the 

 parties interested. To the grantee's interests I have not given a name ; he 

 is, obviously, an intermediate agent between the sovereign and the village 

 occupants, with 2. permanent and extensively beneficial interest : an interest 

 liable, however, as shewn above, to much fluctuation. The interest is 

 derived from the sovereign by the relinquishment of revenue, and not from 

 the occupation of land by the grantee ; from ousting the village occupants, 

 or from any encroachment on their rights. The grantee does not possess 

 an acre of land in the village, and has not a single plough of his own ; 

 yet it is manifest, if custom permitted him to oust the hereditary occupants, 

 and to employ hired labourers or slaves in their stead, he could in one year 

 increase his income twenty-five per cent, or more, as many of the second 

 class of cultivators will engage to cultivate land, find labour, oxen, and 

 seed, on the condition of retaining something less than one-third of the 

 gross produce. The extent of the revenue relinquished to create the 

 grantee's beneficial interest is shewn to have been, in a good year, star 

 pagodas 627, out of a total revenue of star pagodas 1,042, being more than 

 sixty per cent. In a bad year it is shewn that the reserved revenue paid to 

 the sovereign exceeded the whole amount collected as revenue from the 

 cultivators by I67 star pagodas. 



The beneficial interests in this village are then found to be divided into 



three classes : 



1st. The cultivators of the soil, being the hereditary village occupants. 

 2d. The grantee, holding the village by grant from the sovereign, and 



collecting the sovereign's revenue by virtue of his grant. 

 3d. The sovereign, who receives a reserved revenue to be paid by the 

 grantee. 

 The details exhibit the following facts : 



1st. The undisturbed possession, by the ancestors of the present village 

 occupants and by themselves, from time immemorial, of the lands of the 

 village as defined by known boundaries, on conditions fixed by custom. 



2(Sy. The uninterrupted payment by the cultivator of a revenue in 

 grain from time immemorial, or without doubt during the last one hundred 

 years, the rates of payment remaining always the same. 



3dly. The receipt of a diminished revenue by the sovereign, owing to an 



M 2 



