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.

    171/660 page 147
    on the greater western Rajpoot states. This error in policy requires to be checked by supreme authority, as it was in England by Magna Chartci * * * § when the barons of those days took such precautions to secure their own seignorial rights. The system in these countries of minute subdivision of fiefs is termed bhyad;f* or brotherhood, synonymous to the tenure by frerage of France, but styled only an approximation to sub-infeudation.f “ Give me my bhut (share),” says the Rajpoot, when he attains to man's state, ‘the bhut of the bhyad/ the portion of the frerage ; and thus they go on clipping and paring till all i» are impoverished. The ‘customs’ of France§ preserved the dignities of families and the indivisibility of a feudal homage, without exposing the younger sons of a gentleman to beggary and dependence. It would be a great national benefit if some means could be found to limit this subdivision, but it is an evil difficult of remedy. The divisibility of the Kutch and Cat- tiwar frerage, carried to the most destructive extent, is productive of liti- gation, crime, and misery. Where it has proper limits it is useful; but though the idea of each rood supporting its man is very poetical, it does not and cannot answer in practice. Its limit in Mewar we would not undertake to assert, but the vassals are careful not to let it become too small; they send the extra numbers to seek their fortunes abroad. In this custom, and the di- fficulty of finding daijas, or dowers, for their daughters, we have the two chief causes of infanticide amongst the Rajpoots, which horrible practice was not always confined to the female. The author of the Middle Ages exemplifies ingeniously the advantages of sub-infeudation, by the instance of two persons holding one knight’s fee ; and as the lord was entitled to the service of one for forty days, he could com- mute it for the joint service of the two for twenty days each. He even erects as a maxim on it, that “ whatever opposition was made to the rights of sub- infeudation or frerage, would indicate decay in the military character, the “living principle of feudal tenure,”j| which remark may be just where pro- per limitation exists, before it reaches that extent when the impoverished vassal would descend to mend his shoes instead of his shield. Primogeniture is the corner-stone of feudality, but this unrestricted sub-infeudation would soon destroy it.IF It is strong in these states; its rights were first introduced by the Normans from Scandinavia. But more will appear on this subject and its technicalities, in the personal narrative of the author. * By the revised statute “ Qui emptores,” of Edw. I., which forbids it iu excess, under penalty of forfeiture.—Hallam, vol. i. p. 184. f Bhyad. ‘ frerage.’ I Hallam, vol. i. p. 186. § Hallam, ibid. |] Hallam, vol. i. p. 186. *![ “ Be droit d’ainesse a cause, pendant 1’existence du regine feodal, uue multitude de guer- “res et de proces. Notre historie nous presente, a chaque page, des cadets redits a la mendi- “cite, se livrant a toutes sortes de brigandages pour reparer les torts de la fortune ; des aines, “refusant la legitime a leurs freres ; des cadets, assassinant leur aine pour lui succeder, &o.” —See article, ‘Droit d’ciinesse,’ Diet, de l’Anoien Regime.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3