RYOTS. 



and valuations. This arrangement hasbeen fo longeftablilhed, 

 and accords f;i well with the ideas of the natives, concern- 

 ing the diftinction-. of cafts, and the functions allotted to 

 each, that it has been inviolably maintained, in all the pro- 

 vinces fubject either to Mahometans or Europeans ; and to 

 h.nh it ferves as the bails on which their whole fyftem of 

 finance is founded. In a more remote period, before the 

 original institutions of India were fubverted by foreign in- 

 vaders, the induftry of the hufbandman, on which every 

 member of the community depended for iubfillence, was as 

 fecure, as the tenure, by which he held his lands, was equi- 

 table. Even war did not interrupt his labours or endanger 

 his property. It was not uncommon, we are informed, 

 that while two hoflile armies were fighting a battle in one 

 field, the peafants were ploughing or reaping in the next 

 field in perfect tranquillity. (Strabo, lib. xv. ) Under a 

 form of government, which paid fuch attention to all the 

 different orders of which the fociety is compofed, particu- 

 larly the cultivators of the earth, it is not wonderful that 

 the ancients fliould defcribe the Indians as a moil happy 

 race of men ; and that the molt intelligent modern ob- 

 fervers P.iould celebrate the equity, the humanity, and mild- 

 nefs of Indian policy. A Hindoo rajah refembles more a 

 father pvefiding in a numerous family of his own children, 

 than a fovereign ruling over inferiors fubject to his domi- 

 nion. He endeavours to fecure their happinefs with vigi- 

 lant folicitude ; thev are attached to him with the moil 

 tender affection and inviolable fidelity. We can hardly con- 

 ceive men to be placed in any ftate more favourable to their 

 acquiring all the advantages derived from fecial union. It 

 is onlv when the mind is perfectly at eafe, and neither feels 

 nor dreads oppreilinn, that it employs its active powers in 

 forming numerous arrangements of police, tor fecuriug its 

 enjoyments and increafing them. Many arrangements of 

 this nature the Greeks, though accultomed to their own 

 inftitutions, the molt perfect at that time in Europe, ob- 

 ferved and admired among the Indians, and mention them as 

 initances of high civilization and improvement. There 

 were eltabiifhed among the Indians three diftinct dalles of 

 officers, one of which had it in charge to infpect agricul- 

 ture, and every kind of country work. They meafured 

 the portions of land allotted to each renter. They had the 

 cuftody of the tanks, or public refervoirs of water, without 

 a regular diftribution of which, the fields in a torrid climate 

 cannot be rendered fertile^ They marked out the courfe of 

 the highways, along which, at certain diltances, they erected 

 ltones, to meafure the road and direct travellers. To officers 

 of a fecond clafs was committed the inflection of the police 

 in cities ; their functions of courfe were many and various ; 

 iome of which only we (hall fpecify. They appropriated 

 hdufes for the reception of ilrangers ; they protected them 

 from injury, provided for their fubfiltence, and, when feized 

 with any diieafe, they appointed phyficians to attend them ; 

 and, on the event of their death, they not only buried them 

 with decency, but took charge of their effects, and re- 

 stored them to their relations. They kept exact regiilers 

 of births and of deaths. • They vifited the public markets, 

 and examined weights and meafures. The third clafs of 

 officers fuperintended the military department ; but, as the 

 object; to which their attention was directed are foreign 

 from the fubject of this article, it is unneceflary to enter 

 into any detail with refpect to them. 



There is itill the fame attention to the conftru&ion and 

 prefervation of tanks, and the diftribution of their waters. 

 The direction of roads, and placing (tones along them, 

 is ft ill an object of police. Choultries, or houfes built for 

 the accommodation of travellers, are frequent in every part 



of the country, and are ufeful, as well as noble monuments 

 of Indian munificence and humanity. 



The precife mode, however, in which the Ryots of Hin- 

 dooltan held their poffeffions, is a circumitancc in its an- 

 cient political conftitution, with refpect to which gentle- 

 men of fuperior difcernment, who have refided long in the 

 country, and filled fome of the higheil ltations in govern- 

 ment, have formed very different opinions. Some have 

 imagined, that grants of land were made by the fovereign 

 to villages or fmall communities, the inhabitants of which, 

 under the direction of their own chiefs or heads-men, 

 laboured it in common, and divided the produce of it among 

 them in certain proportions. (Defcript. de l'lnde, par M. 

 Bernouilli, torn. ii. 223, &c.) Others maintain, that the 

 property of land has been transferred from the crown to 

 hereditary officers of great eminence and power, denomi- 

 nated Zemindars, who collect the rents from the Ryots, and 

 parcel out the lands among them. Others contend, that the 

 office of the Zemindars is temporary and minifterial, that 

 they are merely collectors of revenue, removeable at plea- 

 fure, and the tenure by which the Ryots hold their pofleflions 

 is derived immediately from the fovereign. This laft opi- 

 nion is fupported, with great ability, by Mr. Grant, in an 

 Inquiry into the Nature of Zemindary Tenures in the landed 

 Property of Bengal, &c. This queftion (till continues to 

 be agitated in Bengal, and fuch plaufible arguments have 

 been produced in fupport of the different opinions, that 

 although it be a point extremely interefting, as the future 

 fyftem of Britifh finance in India appears likely to hinge, 

 in an effential degree, upon it, perfons well acquainted with 

 the ftate of India, have not been able to form a final and 

 fatisfactory opinion upon this fubject. (Captain Kirkpa- 

 trick's Introd. to the Inltitutes of Ghazan Khan. New 

 Afiatic Mifcell. N° II. p. 130.) Though the fentiments 

 of the Committee of Revenue, compofed ot perfons emi- 

 nent for their abilities, lean to aconclufion againlt the here- 

 ditary right of the Zemindars in the foil, yet the Supreme 

 Council, in the year 1786, declined, for good reafons, to 

 give any decifive judgment on a fubject of iuch magnitude. 



Mr. Roufe, in his ingenious and inftructive Differtation 

 concerning the landed property of Bengal, adopts an opi- 

 nion contrary to that of Mr. Grant, and maintains, with 

 laudable candour and liberality of fentiment, that the Ze- 

 mindars of Bengal poilefs their landed property by here- 

 ditary right. Dr. Robertfon, in his " Hiitorical Difquifi- 

 tion concerning India," fuggefts, that the poffeffion of 

 land was granted at firft during pleafure, afterwards for 

 life, and at length became perpetual and hereditary pro- 

 perty. But even under this laft form, when land is ac- 

 quired either by purchafe or inheritance, the manner in 

 which the right of property is confirmed and rendered com- 

 plete, in Europe by a charter, in India by a " Sunnud" 

 from the fovereign, feems to point out what was its original 

 ftate. According to each of the theories above-mentioned, 

 the tenure and condition of the Ryots nearly refemble the 

 defcription which our author has given of them. Their 

 ftate, we learn from the accounts of intelligent obfervers, 

 is as happy and independent as falls to the lot of any race 

 of men employed in the cultivation of the earth. The 

 ancient Greek and Roman writers, whole acquaintance with 

 the interior parts of India was very imperfect, reprefent 

 the fourth part of the annual produce of land as the gene- 

 ral average of rent paid to the fovereign. Upon the autho- 

 rity of a popular author, who flourifhed in India prior to 

 the Chriilian era, we may conclude, that a fixth part of 

 the people's income was, in his time, the ufual portion 

 of the fovereign. Sacontala, act v. p. 53.) It is now 

 3 known, 



