Ivi 



(B.) — Extracts from Dr. Buchanan's ^' Journey from Madras through 

 Mysore^ Oanara and Malabar in 1800.'^ 



Bhavdni, Coimbatore district. — The hinds, or servants hired for the 

 year by the farmers, are here called Padiyak, and are on the same 

 footing with the Batigas of Karnata. They sometimes bind themselves 

 for a number of years, in which case the master advances money for 

 their marriage expenses, and deducts so much from their monthly 

 pay, until he is repaid. Unless tied down by some stipulation of this 

 nature, they may change their service whenever they please. A servant 

 gets from his master a house, and from fifteen to twenty Qopaldy 

 fanams or from 5s. to Qs. Sd. a year, with a monthly allowance of 

 twenty Vidlas or Ito^^o bushel of grain. Their wives, when they are 

 able to work, have daily wages. Day laborers at harvest time, whether 

 men or women, get daily one Bulla and a half (rather more than | 

 bushel) of the grain called Cumbu. At weeding the crops, the daily 

 wages are one Bulla of Cumbu, or about jf of a bushel. A man work- 

 ing with a hatchet or pickaxe gets one Qopaldy fanam (about 4f/.) a 

 day ; carrying earth in baskets, or the like, he gets f of a Gopdldy 

 fanam, or 3(f. ; and porters, for carrying a load eight Urnalivullies, or 

 Malabar hours' journey, get two Gopdldy fanams or nearly 8(f. 



On the houses of the Natives in Coimbatore district. — I went ten 

 Malabar hours^ journey to Navaputty ; that is, the nine villages, having 

 formerly been the principal of nine adjacent hamlets. It is a sorry 

 place, containing about 20 houses. The huts of the country, called 

 Chera, are like beehives, and consist of a circular mud wall about 

 three feet high, which is covered with a long conical roof of thatch. 

 Contrary to what might have been expected in a hot climate, but 

 agreeably to the custom of almost all Hindus, one small door is the 

 only outlet for smoke, and the only inlet for air and light. Each 

 family has a hut for sleeping, another for cooking, and a third for a 

 store-house. Wealthy men add more huts to their premises, but seldom 

 attempt at any innovation in the architecture of the country. 



On the condition of the people {Northern division of Coimbatore).' — 

 The cultivators and peasantry continue exactly in the same dress, and 

 same houses, that they used in Tippoo's government, and have a 

 prejudice against changes. Major Macleod thinks that their women 

 are beginning to wear more gold and silver oraameuts than they for- 

 merly did. The merchants and manufacturers are evidently improving 

 in their manner of living, are forsaking their pyramidal or conical 

 huts, and are erecting tiled houses. To enable them to do this. Go- 

 vernment, without charging interest, advances money which is repaid 

 by instalments. 



On the poverty of the peasantry [Dhdrdpurani, Coimbatore district). — 

 Mr. Hurdis thinks that the present rents are greatly too high ; and 

 no doubt, the peasantry here, as well as in almost every part of 

 India, are miserably poor. I am inclined to think, however, that 

 other causes contribute more to this than the greatness of the 

 rents. Mr. Hurdis says that all the land which is not cultivated is by 

 no means unlet {Tirsi) ; but owing to the want of rain and of stock, 

 the farmers are not able to cultivate the whole of what they rent. 

 This, in my opinion, shows that the fields are by no means over- 



