274 Lieut.- Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments of Mexco): 



queen, on the death of prince Umra, the heir-apparent, in 1818, bestowed 

 a grant of fifteen higahs of land, in one of the central districts, on a 

 Brahman who had assisted in the funeral rites of her son. With grant in 

 hand he hastened to tlie Jat proprietor, and desired him to make over to 

 him the patch of land. The latter coolly replied that he would give him 

 all the prince had a right to, namely, the tax. The Brahman threatened 

 to spill his own blood if he did not obey the command, and gave himself a 

 gash in a limb ; but the Jat was inflexible, and declared that he would 

 not surrender his patrimony (^bdpota') even if he slew himself* In short, 

 the ryot of Mewar would reply, even to his sovereign, if he demanded his 

 field, in the very words of Naboth to Ahab, king of Israel, when he de- 

 manded the vineyard contiguous to the palace : " The Lord forbid it me 

 that I should give the inheritance of my fathers (hapota) unto thee." 



But the tythes, and other small and legally established rights of the 

 hierarchy, are still religiously maintained. The village temple and the 

 village priest are always objects of veneration to the industrious husband- 

 man, on whom superstition acts more powerfully tlian on the bold marauding 

 Rajput, who hesitates not to demand salvamenta {rekwdli) from the lands 

 of Kaniya or Eklinga. But the poor lyot of the nineteenth century of 

 VicuAMA has the same fears as the peasants of Cliarlemagne, who were 

 made to believe that the ears of corn found empty had been devoured by 

 infernal spirits, who were reported to liave said they owed their feast to 

 the non-payment of tythes.f The political influence of the Brahmans is 



* These worshippears of God and Mammon, when threats fail, have recourse to maiming, 

 and even destroying themselves, to gain their object. In 1820 one of the confidential servants of 

 the Raim demanded payment of the petty tax called gugri, of one rupee on each house, 

 from some Brahmans who dwelt in the village, and which had always been received from them. 

 They refused payment, and on being pressed, four of them stabbed themselves mortally. 

 Their bodies were placed upon biers, and funeral rites withheld till punishment should be 

 inflicted on the priest-killer. But for once superstition was disregarded, and the rights of the 

 Brahmans in this community were resumed. — See Appendix to this paper, No. I. 



•{■ Mais le bas peuple n'est guere capable d'abandonner ses inteiets par des exemples. Le 

 synode de Francfort lui presenta un motif plus pressant pour payer les dimes. On y fit un 

 capitulaire dans Iccjuel il est dit que, dans la derniere famine, on avoit trouve les 6pis de blS 

 vides, qu'ilf. avnient ete devores par les demons, et qu'on avoit entendu leurs voix qui repro- 

 choient de n'avoir pas paye la dime : et, en consequence, il fut ordonne a tous ceux qui tenoient 

 les biens ecclesiastiques de payer la dime, et, en consequence encore, on I'ordonna & tous, 

 L'Esjrit des Lois, livre xxxi. ch. xii. 



( 



