Lteut.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments of Mewar. 277 



feeling of contempt for Hindu legislation, and cast a retrospective glance 

 at the page of European church history, where he will observe in the time 

 of the most potent of our monarchs that the clergy possessed one-half of 

 the soil :* and the chronicles of France will shew him Charlemagne on his 

 death-bed, bequeathing two-thirds of his domains to the church, deeming 

 the remaining third sufficient for the ambition of four sons. The same 

 dread of futurity, and tlie hope to expiate the sins of a life, at its close, by 

 gifts to the organs of religion, is the motive for these unwise alienations, 

 whether in Europe or in Asia. Some of these establishments, and particularly 

 that at Nat'hdwara, made a proper use of their revenues in keeping up 

 the Suchla Birt, or perpetual charity, though it is chiefly distributed to 

 religious pilgrims : but among the many complaints made of the mis- 

 application of the funds, the diminution of this hospitable rite is one ; 

 while at other shrines the avarice of the priests is observable, in the coarse- 

 ness of the food dressed for sacrifice and offering. 



Besides the crown-grants to the greater establishments, the Brahmans 

 received petty tythes from tlie agriculturist, and a small duty from the 

 trader as v^appa or metage throughout every township, corresponding with 

 tlie scale of the village chapel. An inscription found by the author at the 

 town of Palode,t and dated nearly seven centuries back, affords a good 

 specimen of the claims of the village priesthood. The following are among 

 the items. The sirano, or a sir in every maund, being the fortieth part 

 of the grain of the lindlu, or summer harvest ; the kirpa, or a bundle from 

 every sheaf of the autumnal crops, whether muLhi (Indian corn), bajra or 

 jodr (maize), or the other grains peculiar to that season.^ 



They also derive a tythe from the oil-mill and sugar-mill, and receive a 

 khansa or platter of food on all rejoicings, as births, marriages, &c., with 

 churaie, or the right of pasturage on the village common ; and where 

 they have become possessed of landed property, they have hidmoh, or unpaid 

 labour in man, beasts, and implements, for its culture— an exaction well 

 known in Europe as one of the detested corvees of the feudal system in 

 France; 11 and the abolition of which was the sole boon the English husband- 

 man obtained by the charter of Runymede. Both the chieftain and the priest 



* Hallam. f See Appendix to this paper, No. III. 



I Each bundle consists of a specified number of ears, which are roasted and eaten in the 

 unripe state witli a Hllle salt. 1| Diet, de CAncien Regime, p. 131 ; art. Corvee. 



