1839] 



On the Statistics of DuUiun. 



399 



Land and oilier Tenures^ 



Lands are held under a great variety of tenures in Dukhun, some by 

 virture of offi es which are hereditary, some as hereditary freehold pro- 

 perty, some in free gift from the state, some in Jagheer or military or 

 feudal tenure, some on a quit rent, and in many other ways ; but a ra- 

 pid notice of the different tenures, and of the office-bearers holding lands, 

 will best assist to give acinar idea of their quality and number. 



In the first place, the proprietary right of the soil was (and is) in the 

 people, and not in the sovereign. The sovereign could assess the land 

 as he pleased, and assign away a part of the whole of the revenue arising 

 from the land-tax or assessment, either in free gift (Eenam), military 

 tenure (Jagheer), or quit rent, or in any other way : but he could not 

 justli/take away a man's land either for his own purposes or to give it to 

 others ; although, as a despotic prince, like all other princes of India, he 

 had the undoubted ability to do so at his pleasure : yet few instances 

 are known of this oppressive exercise of their power, and there are ma- 

 ny instances on record of their purchasing land from their subjects. I 

 have laid before the public translations of official documents, in which 

 the sovereigns have been parties, containing the most irresistible proofs 

 of the people having the uncontrolled right to dispose of their lands as 

 they pleased, by gift, or sale, or devise, or in other ways. These trans- 

 laiions are too lengthened to be introduced in this report, but they will 

 be met within the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain 

 and Ireland. 



All lands in Dukliun were classed within some village boundary or 

 other ; and to this day these boundaries are guarded with such jealousy 

 by the inhabitants as to be productive of broils and bloodshed on their 

 slightest invasion. The village lands were divided into family estates, 

 called Thuls, which bore the name of the family, and the estates bear 

 the name to this day, although the family be extinct or Gutkool, as it is 

 availed ; and half the estates in Dukhun are now Gutkool, but preserve 

 their family names. These estates were hereditary and freehold, bur- 

 thened only with the sovereign's land-tax, &nd assessments for village 

 expenses, as a gentleman's estate in England is burtbened with land- 

 tax and assessments for highway and poor-rates, &c. ; there were not any 

 tithes, but in each village there were lands assigned for religious objects, 

 either to temples or to sacerdotal persons. Every village had a consti- 

 tution for its internal government ; it consisted of the Pateel or chief, 

 assisted by a ChowguUa ; the Koolkurnee, or village accountant, kept; 

 the village records and ds tails of assessment and revenue; and there 



