XXXIX 



is Very rare among tlie agricultural classes. Such an income, indeed, 

 is far more in this country than the money amount indicates to 

 English ears. The actual purchasing power of money in this country 

 is sometimes estimated at four times what it is in England, sometimes 

 at six times. Assuming the intermediate proportion of five to one, an 

 income of 20 rupees a month will be equal to one of c€120 a year in 

 England ; and 30 rupees and 50 rupees a month in this country will 

 be the respective equivalents of £180 and £300 a year in England. 

 In point of fact, indeed, the diflFerence is greater, both because from 

 the nature of the climate, the range of absolute necessaries is here 

 much abridged, and also because the general scale of incomes and 

 style of living throughout all grades of society are so much lower 

 here than they are in our own country. But though the incomes 

 above specified undoubtedly raise their possessors far above want, 

 still they appear small in extreme when regarded as the highest 

 incomes fi'om the possession of land in a very extensive country, and 

 the largest of them certainly confined to an extremely limited number 

 of instances. 



3. The dwellings of this class certainly do not indicate much 

 wealth ; tiled houses are rarely seen, and masonry walls are still much 

 more I'are. The almost universal habitation has mnd walls and a 

 thatched roof ; the latter of a very flimsy order, and both often much 

 dilapidated : and both walls and roof are the same within as without ; 

 the rooms have no ceiling, and their walls no sort of ornament or 

 decoration ; rarely even whitewash, and the floor is of simple earth 

 beaten hard. The value of the residence of a ryot of the more wealthy 

 class, of whom I am now speaking, probably rarely exceeds 200 

 rupees or £20. It may be urged that the habits of the people do not 

 incline them to spend money on improving their dwellings, but that 

 they rather invest savings in jewels or rich cloths for great occa- 

 sions, or in cattle, or expend them on marriages and other family 

 occasions. There is some truth in this; but though every family 

 above actual poverty possesses some jewels, yet probably very few 

 agricultural families possess to so large a value as 1,000 rupees or 

 £100 for both jewels and clothes ; and even supposing an equal value 

 in agricultural stock (and so much would very rarely be met with), 

 the whole aggregate value, £220, equal to £1,100 in England, is 

 extremely small to represent the whole property (exclusive of land) 

 of one of the most wealthy members of the land-holding class ; and 

 it is the most wealthy only who possess as much as this. 



4. And if we look within their houses, we still find few evidences 

 of wealth, or even of what we should consider comfort, I have already 

 described the interior of the house itself; and as to its contents, 

 there is nothing of what is commonly called furniture. There are no 

 chairs, or tables, or couches, or beds ; sometimes there is seen a 

 single rude cot which would be dear at 2 rupees. The inmates for 

 the most part sleep on the earthen floor, with nothing else below them 

 but a mat or a small cotton carpet. They sit on the floor, and from 

 it take their food, which is served in a few brass dishes, or perhaps 

 by preference and not from poverty on a simple plantain leaf. Their 

 usual clothes are simply of cotton, and cost little ; and when going 



