Volume 1

The annals and antiquities of Rajasthan, or The central and western Rajpoot states of India / by Lieutenant Colonel James Tod.

  • James Tod
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The annals and antiquities of Rajasthan, or The central and western Rajpoot states of India / by Lieutenant Colonel James Tod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    159/660 page 135
    Feudal—Incidents.—-Durations of Grants. Feudal Incidents.—-I shall now proceed to compare the more general obligations of vassals, known under the term of' Feudal Incidents’ in Europe and shew their existence in Rajasthan. These were six in number :—1. reliefs : 2. fines of alienation ; 3. escheats; 4. aids; 5. wardship ; 6. marriage. Relief.—The first and most essential mark of a feudal relation exists in all its force and purity here: it is a perpetually recurring mark of the source of the grant, and the solemn renewal of the pledge which originally obtained it. In Mewar it is a virtual and bona fide surrender of the fief and renewal thereof. It is thus defined in European polity : “ A relief^ is a sum of money “ due from every one of full age taking a fief by descent.” It was arbitrary, and the consequent exactions formed a ground of discontent; nor was the tax fixed till a comparatively recent period. By Magna Charta reliefs were settled at rates proportionate to the dignity of the holder.j* * * § In France the relief was fixed by the customary laws at one year’s revenue.:]: This last has long been the settled amount of nuz- zerana, or fine of relief, in Mewar. On the demise of a chief, the prince immediately sends a party, termed the zubti (sequestrator), consisting of a civil officer and a few soldiers, who take possession of the estate in the prince’s name. The heir sends his prayer to court to be installed in the property, offering the proper relief. This paid, the chief is invited to repair to the presence, when he performs homage, and makes protestations of service and fealty; he receives a fresh grant, and the inauguration teminates by the prince girding him with a sword, in the old forms of chivalry. It is an imposing ceremony, performed in a full assembly of the court, and one of the few which has never been relinquished. The fine paid, and the brand buckled to his side, a steed, turban, plume, and dress of honour given to the chief, the investiture§ is complete; the se- questrator returns to court, and the chief to his estate, to receive the vows and congratulations of his vassals. * ‘ Plusieurs possessewrs de fiefs, ayant voulu en laisser perpetuellement la propriete a “ leurs descendans, pricent des arrangmens avec leur Seligneur; et, outre ce qu’ils donnerent “pour faire le marche, ils s’engagerent, euX et leur posterite, a abandmmer pendant une anriee “ an Semnaur, la jouissance entiere du fief, chaque fois que le dit fief changerait de main. C’est ce qui forma le droit de relief. “ Qnand uu gentilhomme avait deroge, il pouvait effacer cette tacbe moyennant finances “ et ce qu’il payait s'appelait relief, il recevait pour quittance des lettres de relief ou de reha- “ bilitation.”—Art. ‘ Relief,’ Diet, de Pane. Regime. + Viz. “ i he heir or heirs of an earl, for an entire earldom, one hundred pounds ; the heir ‘‘or heirs of a baron, for an entire barony, one hnndred marks; the heir or heirs of a knight, “for a whole knight’s fee, one bundled shilling at most.”—-Art. III. Magna Chaita. I “ Le d'oit de raeba' df*voit se payer a ebaque mutation d’heritier, et se paya memo “ d’abord en ligne direct e.—La coutume la plus generale T avait fixe a une annee du revenue.” —“ L’Esprit des Loix,” Liv. xxxi. chap, xxxiii. § That symbolic species of investiture denominated ‘ improper investiture,’ the delivery of a turf, stone, and wand, has its analogies amongst the mountaineers of the Aravali. The old baron of Beclnor, when the Mer villages were reduced, was clamorous about his feudal rights over tho«e wild people. It was but the point of honour. From one he bad a bare from an- other a bullock, and so low as a pair of sticks which they use on the festivals of the Holi. These marks of vsssalage come under the bead of ‘petite serjanteri’ (petit serjeantry) in the feudal system of Europe. (See Art. XLI. of Magna Charta )
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