Chapter XII: Economic Condition of Southern India (1800)

CHAPTER XII

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA (1800)

IN the preceding chapters we have dwelt on the history of Land Settlements in Bengal, Madras, and Northern India. We have seen that everywhere the local authorities pressed for a Permanent Settlement of the land revenues. In Bengal a Permanent Zemindari Settlement was made in 1793, and this was extended to Benares in 1895. In Madras a Permanent Zemindari Settlement was made in the Northern Circars and elsewhere between 1802 and 1805, and then there was a change in the policy of the Directors. Thomas Munro recommended a Permanent Ryotwari Settlement, and the Board of Revenue recommended a Permanent Village Settlement; a Ryotwari Settlement was made, but it was not declared permanent. In Northern India Lord Wellesley pledged the faith of the British Government in 1803 and 1805 to conclude a Permanent Zemindari Settlement, and Lord Minto and Lord Hastings pressed the Directors to redeem this pledge. The Directors broke the pledge and ordered a Mahalwari Settlement, not permanent.

Such is the history of Land Settlements in India during the second period of British rule in India. The first generation of British rulers—the generation of Clive and Warren Hastings—settled nothing; they were bewildered by the land question, and their harsh and ever-changing methods ended in oppression and failure. The second generation—that of Cornwallis and Wellesley and Lord Hastings—gave a Permanent Zemindari Settlement to Bengal, Benares, and the Northern Circars; a Ryotwari Settlement, not declared permanent, to the newer acquisitions in Madras; and a Mahalwari Settlement, not permanent, to the Ceded and Conquered Provinces of Northern India.

We shall pause now in the course of our narrative to examine the economic condition of the people of India at the commencement of the nineteenth century. It is necessary to examine somewhat minutely how the people of India lived, and tilled their fields, and produced their manufactures, what incomes and wages were earned by men, what employment occupied the women. No study is more interesting and instructive in the history of nations than the study of the material condition of the people from age to age. And, fortunately, we have in the valuable works of Dr. Francis Buchanan—the first statistical inquirer employed by the British Government in India—some detailed information concerning the occupations and industries of the people of India.

On the 24th February 1800, Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of India, directed Dr. Francis Buchanan, a medical officer in the employment of the East India Company, to make a journey through Southern India; with a view to make economic inquiries into the condition of the people and their agriculture and manufactures. Dr. Buchanan travelled from Madras territory into the Karnatic, Mysore, Coimbatur, Malabar, and Canara, and the diary of his journey and the results of his inquiries were published in London in 1807, in three quarto volumes. This work will be our guide in the present chapter, which deals with the condition of the people of Southern India in 1800. The later inquiries of Dr. Buchanan in Northern India will be dealt with in the next chapter.

THE JAIGIR OF MADRAS.

On the 23rd April 1800, Dr. Buchanan left Madras on his tour of statistical inquiry. There was little waste land in the immediate vicinity of Madras, and the soil produced a good crop of rice if the rainfall was sufficient. In some places the people irrigated their fields from old tanks and reservoirs, and these fields were covered with rice. Charitable people had built Choultries or inns on the wayside for the free accommodation of travellers.

Further on, the road westward passed through a country “at present naked,” but showing some signs of improvement in the shape of plantations of cocoanut palms. At Condaturu the country assumed a different and pleasing aspect, and Dr. Buchanan saw one of those old Hindu irrigation works for which Southern India was always famous. It was a large reservoir formed by shutting up with an artificial bank an opening between two natural ridges of ground. The sheet of water was seven or eight miles in length and three in width, and was let out in numerous small canals to irrigate fields in the dry season. In the rains it was replenished from the Chir Nadi; there were sluices at different places twenty or thirty feet wide; and these sluices were fortified by stones, placed in a sloping direction, to let out the superfluous water. The reservoir could irrigate the lands of thirty-two villages during a drought of eighteen months. “In a country liable to famine from want of rain,” wrote Dr. Buchanan, “a reservoir such as this is of inestimable value.”

Further westward, between Condaturu and Sri-Parmaturu, the country was poor and overrun with low prickly bushes. There was little cultivation, and in most places a crop would not be worth the seed. Palms and wild dates grew, however, on the soil almost spontaneously, and the former produced drinks in the shape of Tari and Jagari.

At Sri-Parmaturu there was another old reservoir which irrigated the fields of the village containing over two thousand acres of rice lands. Beyond this spot the land was again bare and barren, and there was very little cultivation, until Dr. Buchanan came to the ancient Hindu capital of Kanchi, now called Conjeveram.

Conjeveram boasted of a large old reservoir which irrigated many fields covered with a thriving crop of rice. The Dewan of Nawab Mahomed Ali had also constructed a fine tank lined all round with cut granite, which descended to the bottom in steps. Choultries or inns were also built of granite on the sides of the tanks for the shelter of travellers, and the pillars were elaborately carved.

Conjeveram was a large town and regularly built, but was not populous. Many of the buildings were unoccupied, and the houses were only one storey high. They had mud walls and were roofed with tiles, and were built in the form of a square with a court in the centre. The streets were wide and clean and crossed each other at right angles, and on each side there was a row of cocoanut trees. Most of the Brahmans of the place were the followers either of Sankara Acharya or of Ramanuja Acharya. The former lived in the ninth century and was a rigid Vedantist, resolving all universe into the one Primal Soul. The latter lived in the eleventh century and was a more popular Vedantist, inculcating the faith of a Personal God. In modern times, the doctrines of Sankara are often identified with the cult of Siva, while those of Ramanuja blend themselves with the cult of Vishnu.

After leaving Conjeveram, Dr. Buchanan found the country once more a desert till he came to Damerlu, the last village in the Jaigir of Madras. A canal from

the Palar river irrigated much valuable rice land between Damerlu and Oulur. At Oulur the soil was good but was fit only for dry grains, and bushes and trees grew in the midst of fields.

On the whole the Jaigir of Madras, which had been in the possession of the East India Company for half a century, was not in a flourishing condition. Frequent wars, a heavy land-tax, and the diversion of the revenues from possible local improvements to the purchase of the Company’s Investments, left the country poor and the population sparse. At Condaturu the Collector, Mr. Place, had repaired the old reservoir during his administration, and had augmented the land-tax considerably. But long stretches of the country remained unirrigated, uncultivated, and sparsely populated—“a desert,” as Dr. Buchanan calls it.

THE KARNATIC.

Lord Wellesley had not yet annexed the Karnatic when Dr. Buchanan travelled through the country, and it was therefore still nominally under the Nawab of Arcot, though virtually under the administration of the servants of the Company.

On his way to Arcot, Dr. Buchanan saw another splendid old Hindu reservoir, called the Kaveri-Pak. The reservoir “is about eight miles long and three broad, and fertilises a considerable extent of country. I never viewed a public work with more satisfaction, a work that supplies a great body of people with every comfort which their moral situation will permit them to enjoy.”

The road from Kaveri-Pak to Arcot was bad, and scarcely fit for wheel carriage. People travelled, however, on bullock carts, and Mahomedan women sometimes rode bullocks, wrapped in white veils. The city of Arcot was extensive, and produced coarse cotton fabrics. The houses were about as good as in the towns of the Madras Jaigir. The hills in the vicinity were barren, composed of granite rapidly decaying. The country between Arcot and the western hills contained some good land which served for gardens and dry grains, while others were altogether barren.

The road westward from Arcot to Vellore, and from Vellore to Paligonda, lay along the valley of the Palar river, and the country was fertile and verdant. The fort of Vellore was large and beautiful, and the town was also large and built in the Hindu fashion. The villages along the road were, however, poor and miserable, and some of them in ruins. The people of Paligonda procured water from the Palar river by digging canals in the sand six or seven feet deep. The water was then conveyed by other canals to irrigate the fields, and thus rendered the valley of Vellore the finest tract of country in the Karnatic.

BARAMAHAL.

Dr. Buchanan then ascended the Eastern Ghats and reached Venkatagiri in Baramahal on the 4th May. The country had been settled by Thomas Munro some years before, and reminded Dr. Buchanan of England by its swells and undulations. As far as he could judge, one-half of the country had been ploughed, while the remainder was copse land and served for pasture. Iron was smelted from ores and black sand, and common salt was found in many parts of the country. The soil was reddish ferruginous clay intermixed with quartz and granite, and walls of huts in towns and villages were built of this mud, and were smoothed and painted with alternate vertical broad stripes of white and red. In some places the flat roofs of the houses were also terraced with this mud.

EASTERN MYSORE.

Dr. Buchanan now entered into the territory of the Raja of Mysore, who had been placed on the throne by Lord Wellesley after the fall of Tipu Sultan in the preceding year. He found Waluru a large town with a weekly fair, and manufacturing coarse cotton cloths much of which was exported. Coarse blankets, known as Cumlies, were also largely manufactured in the neighbouring villages. The arable lands amounted to seven-tenths of the whole, and perhaps a twentieth part of them was irrigated. Rice grew on the banks of the Pennar river. Fields were manured by women who carried the manure in baskets, and were ploughed by buffaloes and oxen.

On the 10th May, Dr. Buchanan arrived at Bangalore, which had been constructed by Haidar Ali as a frontier fortress after the best fashion of Mahomedan military architecture, and had been destroyed by his son, Tipu Sultan, who found it useless against the valour of British troops. The gardens were extensive and divided into square plots, the cypress and vine grew luxuriantly in that climate, the apple and the peach produced fruits, and some pine and oak plants introduced from the Cape of Good Hope were thriving. The arable land in the vicinity of Bangalore did not exceed four-tenths of the country, and the small proportion of irrigated land, formerly under cultivation, was mostly waste, owing to the neglect of the reservoirs during the recent wars. Tipu Sultan had received the kingdom in a flourishing state from Haidar Ali, of whom all people spoke to Dr. Buchanan in terms of high praise. But the oppressions or wars of Tipu had caused much misery, and had driven four-tenths of the cultivators from their home and country.

On the 18th May, Dr. Buchanan presented his credentials at Seringapatam, then the capital of the Mysore Raja. On the following day he had an interview with Purnea, the famous Hindu minister whose administration received the highest commendation from General Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington), and from every other Englishman in India who came in contact with him. Purnea had enjoyed much authority even under Tipu Sultan, and might have saved him if he had listened to his counsels. After the fall of Tipu, he became the virtual ruler of Mysore under the new Raja.

Seringapatam, which had a population of perhaps 150,000 under Tipu Sultan, was now reduced to a miserable state by the wars, and had scarcely more than 32,000 people. The district on the north bank of the Kaveri was called Pattana Ashta-gram, while that to the south of the river was known as Mahasura Ashta-gram. The country rose gradually on both sides of the river, was naturally fertile, and was irrigated by a noble system of canals sending out branches to water the intermediate spaces. The water of the Kaveri river was forced into the sources of these canals by anicuts or dams, formed of large blocks of granite at a great expense. Dr. Buchanan does not tell us if these useful and noble works were constructed by Haidar Ali or by his Hindu predecessors; but during the wars of Tipu Sultan very great damage was done; temples, villages, and dams were broken down, and canals were choked. Under the administration of Purnea, however, agriculture and industries were reviving. “Everything wears an aspect of beginning restoration. The villages are rebuilding, the canals are clearing, and in place of antelopes and forest guards, we have the peaceful bullock returning to his useful labour.“¹

The manner of reaping and preserving rice in Mysore has been minutely described. Water was let off from the rice fields a week before the reaping, and the rice was then cut down, about four inches from the ground, and stacked with the ears inwards. After another week it was spread on the threshing-floor and trodden out by bullocks, and then put up in heaps containing 60 Kandakas or 334 bushels. Each heap was marked with clay and covered with straw, and so left for twenty or thirty days till the division between the cultivator and the Government. The cultivators then stored their share in various different ways. Some kept it in narrow shafts, about 24 feet deep, in hard, stony soil, the floor, sides, and roof being lined with straw, and each pit containing 84 to 168 bushels. Others stored it in store-houses, strongly floored with planks. Others again stored it in cylinders made of clay, the mouth being covered by an inverted pot, and the rice being drawn out from a hole in the bottom when required. Lastly, some cultivators stored their rice in bags made of straw. Besides rice, Mung, sesamum, and sugar-cane were grown near Seringapatam. Ragi was extensively cultivated in dry fields, and supplied the lower classes of people with their common food; and Jowar and Bajra were the next most important dry corns.

Each farm near Seringapatam consisted generally of two or three ploughs of land. One plough was a poor stock, while the possessor of four or five was a great farmer. With five ploughs a man cultivated about 12½ acres of wet land and 25 acres of dry field. The farmer or cultivator was not turned out of his holding “so long as he pays his customary rent. Even in the reign of Tipu such an act would have been looked upon as an astonishing grievance.” On the other hand, the Government which received the rent was “bound to keep the canals and tanks in repair.”¹ The pay of farm labourers near Seringapatam was 6s. 8½d. a month, while away from the town it was 5s. 4d. a month. Women often worked in the fields and carried manure in baskets on their heads. They were generally well dressed, and elegantly formed; “I have never seen finer forms,” says Dr. Buchanan, “than even the labouring women of that country frequently possess. Their necks and arms are, in particular, remarkably well shaped.“¹

On the 6th June, Dr. Buchanan left Seringapatam on his way back to Bangalore. At Mundium he found the rice land irrigated entirely from tanks and reservoirs. At Maduru he found a large reservoir, said to have been built by Vishnu Vardhana Raya seven hundred years before. It received a supply from the neighbouring river by means of a dam and a canal, and when in proper repair was capable of irrigating all the neighbouring fields, under the level of its bank, throughout the year. At Chinapattam, formerly the residence of a Polygar family known as Jasadeva Rayas, glass and ornamental rings, steel wires for musical instruments, pure white sugar, and various other commodities were manufactured. Ramagiri was the next important place on the way, but had grievously suffered by Lord Cornwallis’s invasion of Mysore in 1792, and a large proportion of the inhabitants had perished of hunger. At Magadi the road passed through a wild and romantic country, consisting of low hills and valleys cultivated with dry grains. Valuable timber and bamboos grew near Savanadurga, which Lord Cornwallis had taken by assault, and had been deserted ever since. Iron was smelted in the neighbouring hills, and was repeatedly forged and purified for being wrought into instruments of husbandry, and steel was manufactured for weapons. Sandal-wood and much valuable timber was grown in the neighbourhood, and the lac insect was reared for that famous dye which used to be one of the best-known products of India from olden times. On the 21st June Dr. Buchanan reached Bangalore.

Bangalore had possessed a large trade and extensive manufactures under Haidar Ali. Tipu Sultan had foolishly forbidden all commerce, both with the Nizam’s Dominions and with the Karnatic, and the trade of Bangalore had declined; but the place was again rising in importance after the restoration of the Hindu dynasty. Poona merchants brought shawls and saffron and musk from Kashmir and pearls from Surat; Burhanpur traders imported chintz and gold lace, cloth and thread; red cotton cloth, flowered with gold and silver, came from the Nizam’s Dominions; and salt, tin, lead, copper, and European goods came from the Karnatic. The exports from Bangalore were chiefly betel-nut, sandal-wood, pepper, cardamoms, and tamarinds. A vast quantity of blankets and cotton-wool was also imported.

Goods were transported by cattle in loads. In one year, 1500 bullock-loads of cotton wool, 50 bullock-loads of cotton thread, 230 bullock-loads of raw silk, 7000 bullock-loads of salt, and 300 bullock-loads of foreign goods were imported; while 4000 bullock-loads of betel-nut and 400 bullock-loads of pepper were exported. Cotton weavers made cloths for home use, and silk weavers prepared a rich strong fabric. The silks were dyed red with lac, or orange colour with Capili-podi, or yellow with turmeric. Workmen who made cotton cloths with silk borders earned 8d. a day, and those who made silk cloth earned 6d. Weavers obtained advances from merchants, and sold their goods to merchants or to private customers, never carrying them to public markets. Various kinds of white muslins were manufactured, and had a considerable sale. Women of all castes, except Brahmans, bought cotton wool at weekly markets, spun them at home, and sold the thread to weavers. And thus people of all classes—men and women—found in spinning and weaving a profitable occupation.

Indigo was considerably used for dyeing; the tanning of leather was a paying industry; and castor oil, cocoanut oil, sesamum oil, and various other oils, were largely manufactured and sold.

In a village near Bangalore Dr. Buchanan was informed that merchants often advanced money to the cultivators to pay their rents, and were afterwards content to receive one-half of the crop for the advance and for interest. The system of division of crops in a Village Community, described by Dr. Buchanan, is interesting. A heap of grain, consisting on the average of twenty Kandakas or 2400 Seers (about 4800 lbs.), was thus divided—

Table

Thus a payment of 5¼ per cent.of the produce of the fields secured to the villagers the professional services of the barber, the potter and the blacksmith, the priest and the astrologer. Of the remainder, the Deshmukh or Zemindar claimed 10 per cent.; and the balance was divided equally between the Government and the farmer. When Haidar Ali abolished the Deshmukhs, he claimed their share also for the Government.¹

NORTHERN MYSORE.

Leaving Bangalore on the 3rd July, Dr. Buchanan made a long and circuitous tour through the northern portions of Mysore. In the country round Colar he found the lands watered entirely by means of the reservoirs, often excavated by private individuals, while the larger ones were excavated at the expense of the Government. The old Hindu rate of revenue, laid down in the ancient law-books, was one-sixth or one-eighth or one-twelfth the produce; and when rulers and chiefs in Southern India claimed so large a share as one-half the produce, they made cultivation possible by excavating and maintaining vast irrigation works at their own cost, and they took their share in kind, not in money.

Rice, sugar-cane, betel-leaf, and vegetables were grown on wet lands at Colar, and the quantity of rice grown was nearly equal to that of the dry crop Ragi. Poppy was also plentifully cultivated, both for making opium and on account of the seed which was used for sweet cakes. The quantity of wheat grown was about one-half of the rice. Farm servants got 29 1/4 bushels of grain and 13s. 5d. annually; the rate for day labourers was about 3d. for men and 2d. for women.

Both Colar and Silagutta had suffered greatly under Tipu Sultan’s arbitrary rule and frequent wars, but were reviving after his fall. Cotton cloths of various kinds were the most important manufactures. Travelling westwards, Dr. Buchanan came to the famous Nandi-Durga, in the vicinity of which the Northern Pennar, the Palar, and the Southern Pennar all take their rise. The country beyond the hills was desolate, one third of what had been formerly cultivated was waste, and villages were deserted since the invasion of Lord Cornwallis. The people said they had suffered from five great evils—the failure of rain, the three invading armies, and the defending army of Mysore!

On the 18th July, Dr. Buchanan came to the great Balapura, which had become an independent State under its Polygar Narayan Swami on the dissolution of the Vijainagar kingdom in the sixteenth century. The State, however, had subsequently fallen under the power of the Moghal and the Mahratta, the Nizam and Haidar Ali; and had finally passed under the administration of the restored Hindu dynasty. It imported chintz and muslin, and exported sugar.

Further to the west was Madhugiri, which had also become the seat of an independent Polygar on the fall of the Vijainagar kingdom, but had since passed under the rule of Mysore. Haidar Ali had improved the fortifications of the hill, and turned it into a considerable mart with a hundred families of weavers. The place had declined under Tipu Sultan, and finally ruined by the wars of Mysore with the Mahrattas and with Lord Cornwallis. Rice and Ragi, sugar-cane and wheat, cotton, pulses, sesamum, and various kitchen vegetables were grown here when Dr. Buchanan visited the place. Dry soil, fit for Ragi, paid a rent of 1s. 1d. to 3s. 4d. the acre. If irrigated, it paid 9s. to 11s. an acre. The cultivator had a claim to his lands, and could reclaim them even after an absence of years. If, in the meantime, the temporary tenant had made improvements, the original cultivator was required to pay for them. A labouring man earned 4s. a month, and a woman 3s. 4d. There was frequent scarcity in this part of the country owing to failure of rain, but seldom any famine causing loss of life. “It is when war is joined to scarcity, and interrupts the transportation of grain, that famine produces all its horrors. These were never so severely felt here as during the invasion of Lord Cornwallis; when the country being attacked on all sides, and penetrated in every direction by hostile armies, or by defending ones little less destructive, one-half at least of the inhabitants perished of absolute want.“¹

On the 31st July Dr. Buchanan reached Sira, which was a large and prosperous town under the Moghals with 50,000 houses, and therefore a population of a quarter of a million. It then passed under the rule of Haidar Ali, and was ruined by the Mahratta invasions and the oppressions of Tipu Sultan. Rice and Ragi, wheat and sugar-cane, pulses and cotton, were the principal produce. Rent was paid sometimes in money and sometimes in a share of the crops. Betel-nut, pepper, sandal-wood, and spices were imported into Sira, while blankets, cloths, oil, butter, ginger, and cocoa-nuts were exported. A thin, coarse muslin and certain varieties of thick cloths were the principal manufactures.

Retracing his steps to Madhu-giri, Dr. Buchanan made some inquiries as to the famous cattle of the place, and found that every town and village in that hilly country had herds of breeding cattle. The Goalas or cowherds lived in small villages near the skirts of the woods, cultivated a little ground, and sold the produce of their dairy in the towns. Every family paid a small tax of four shillings a year to the Government, or rather to the Beni Chavedi or butter-officer, who paid an annual revenue to the Government. Iron was smelted and steel was manufactured at Madhu-giri and many neighbouring districts.

Travelling southwards, Dr. Buchanan found the fields well cultivated at Tavina-Karay, but saw much waste land at Tumkuru; and all the villages were fortified. Ragi was largely grown here, but there were also many rice fields. Gubi, further south, was a mart of some importance with 154 shops and a weekly fair. Coarse cotton cloth, both white and coloured, blankets, sackcloth, betel-nut, cocoa-nut, tamarind, grains, lac, iron, and steel from all the country round were sold at this mart.

Dora-Guda had iron mines, and Taniva-Karay was a place of importance with an outer and inner fort and an open suburb with 700 houses. It formerly belonged to a powerful family of Polygars, and one of them had built four temples and four great reservoirs for the irrigation of lands. The country round was once completely cultivated, but had been desolate since the invasion of the Mahrattas under Parasuram Bhao. Further south was Beluru, where there was a good deal of fine rice ground, as well as a fine reservoir. The whole of the country between Beluru in the north to Seringapatam in the south—a distance of forty miles as the crow flies—had been laid waste at the time of the invasion of Cornwallis in 1792; and the people had been forced by Tipu Sultan to leave the open country and retire to the woods, where they lived in huts and procured provisions as best they could. A large proportion of them had perished of hunger, and the country was only half populated even in 1800, when Dr. Buchanan visited it.

Not far from Beluru was the district of Naga-Mangala, where each Gauda or village-head partly rented his village and partly collected on the public account. The cultivators had a fixed property in the land, and so long as they paid rents according to the old valuation, they could not be turned out of possession. The rice ground paid its rent by a division of crops, and the dry field paid a money rent.

Mail-Kotay, about fifteen miles north of Seringapatam, was finely situated on a high hill, commanding a noble view of the valley of the Kaveri and the hills of Mysore in the south, of the Ghats in the west, and of Savana-Durga and Siva-Ganga in the east. It was a famous place of Hindu worship with a temple of great dimensions surrounded by a colonnade; and the fine large tank was surrounded by many buildings for the accommodation of travellers. It is said that even Tipu Sultan was afraid of seizing the jewels of this temple; they were kept in the treasury at Seringapatam; and the British troops spared them when they captured that capital.

At Tonuru, to the south of Mail-Kotay, Dr. Buchanan saw the magnificent reservoir of Yadava-Nadi, ascribed to the famous religious reformer Ramanuja who lived in the eleventh century. “Two mountain torrents here had united their streams, and forced a way through a gap between two rocky hills. Ramanuja stopped up this gap by a mound, said to be 78 cubits high, 150 long, and at the base 250 cubits thick. The superfluous water is let off by a channel which has been cut with great labour through one of the hills, at such length as to enable it to water a great deal of the subjacent plain which is three or four miles in extent. When the reservoir is full it contains a sufficient quantity of water to supply the cultivators for two years.“¹

On the 1st September Dr. Buchanan returned to Seringapatam.

SOUTHERN MYSORE.

Leaving Seringapatam on the 5th September, Dr. Buchanan made a tour through the southern parts of Mysore. Near Pal-Hully, which had been entirely destroyed at the recent war, he saw the two canals from the Kaveri river which irrigated the district of Mahasura-Ashtagram. One of these canals contained a fine stream which never became entirely dry, and which enabled the cultivators to have a crop of rice even in the dry season.

The Lakshman-Tirtha river, a tributary of the Kaveri, rises from the hills of Coorg. Six canals were constructed from this river to irrigate the country, and dams which forced the water into the canals were fine works and produced beautiful cascades. The whole land formerly irrigated by these canals was about 18,000 acres.

There were no hereditary Gaudas or village-chiefs in these parts, and the revenue was collected by renters, who could not take from the cultivators more than was fixed by the custom established by the old Mysore Rajas. Haidar Ali had appointed Harkaras, or superintendents of land revenue, who kept the renters in check, and listened to the complaints of the people. Tipu Sultan had abolished the Harkaras, with the effect that the people were oppressed and the Government defrauded.

Further west, the country had been depopulated first by the invasion of Baji Rao and his Mahrattas in 1761, and then by the invasion of Cornwallis in 1792. Priya-Pattan, called Periapatam in the English maps, was a place of great importance in olden days, and had belonged to a Polygar family called Nandi Raj. This family held the territory bounded by the Kaveri on the north and the Coorg frontier on the west, and yielding an annual revenue of £9361 to the Rajas of Coorg. It is said that a Polygar prince of this family defended himself gallantly against Mysore about 1640, and finding further resistance impossible, killed his women and children, and perished, sword in hand, in the midst of his enemies. Priya-Pattan continued after this to be the scene of frontier wars between Coorg and Mysore; suffered when Tipu Sultan conquered Coorg; and was utterly destroyed by Tipu’s wars with the British.

“Tigers,” says Dr. Buchanan, “have taken entire possession of its ruins, a horse that strayed in a few nights ago was destroyed, and even at midday it is considered as dangerous for a solitary person to enter. It was deemed imprudent for me, who was followed by a multitude, to enter into any of the temples, which serve the tigers as shelter from the heat of the day.“1

The wet lands near Priya-Pattan were entirely irri-gated from reservoirs, but in the southern parts of the district canals from the Lakshman-Tirtha river afforded water to the cultivators. The Hainu or wet rice, Karu or dry rice, sugar-cane, ragi, horse grain, pulses, sesamum and other crops were grown in this district. Farm labourers got from £1 to £1. 7s. a year besides one meal a day; and women labourers got 6s. a year besides two meals a day. Before the last Mysore war the poorest cultivator had two ploughs, and the richer ones had fifteen. A man who had two ploughs often possessed forty oxen and fifty cows, six or seven buffaloes, and one hundred sheep or goats. The produce of wet lands was equally divided between the Government and the cultivator after the village dues had been paid. There were extensive palm gardens before the war, and the pasture was good. Sandal-wood grew in the skirts of the forest.

South-east from Priya-Pattan, near Hanagodu, Dr. Buchanan saw one of the dams of the Laksh-man-Tirtha river. " Advantage has been taken of a natural ledge of rocks which cross the channel, and stones have been thrown in to fill up the deficiencies. The whole now forms a fine dam, over which rushes a cascade about 100 yards long and 14 feet high, which in a verdant and finely wooded country looks remarkably well. This dam sends off its canal to the eastward…. The ground irrigated will amount to 2678 acres.“¹

South-east from Hanagadu lay the old kingdom of Hegodu Deva, who was said to have cleared this country and peopled it about the beginning of the fifteenth century. Down to the time of Haidar Ali the town contained a thousand houses; there were only eighty when Dr. Buchanan visited it. The district was famous for its sandalwood, while Mota-Beta, further to the east, was known for its rich iron ores.

On the 1st October Dr. Buchanan reached Taiuru on the Kampini river, a tributary of the Kaveri. In some villages of this district the Gaudas or village-chiefs were hereditary, and they were preferred, both by the Government and by the people, to the mere renters who also went by the same name. The hereditary Gaudas were better acquainted with the cultivators, were more cheerfully obeyed, and had greater credit with the money-lenders for the making up their rents at the fixed terms of payment. On failure of payment the crops were seized by the Government Accountant, whose duty it also was to sell the Government’s share of the crops collected as rent. Both at Taiuru and at Narsingpur the country was beautiful, and every field was enclosed with quick-set hedges and well cultivated, the whole being high ground without rice lands.

Narsingpur was on the banks of the Kaveri river, and had two temples and about two hundred houses. There was rich black soil close to it where cotton was extensively grown. Wheat and Womun were raised in equal quantities, and Ragi was grown on the red soil fit for its cultivation.

COIMBATUR

Early in October, Dr. Buchanan left Mysore and entered into British territory on his way to Coimbatur. Colegala District was well cultivated, and contained forty or fifty large reservoirs for irrigation, repaired by the Mysore authorities eighty years before, and some of them repaired again by the Company’s servants after the district had come to the possession of the Company. Passing through the grounds of the decayed reservoirs not yet repaired, Dr. Buchanan found the land entirely waste, so much did cultivation depend on irrigation works in this country. Major Macleod, the Collector, had set aside the authority of the Gaudas or village-chiefs, and had only employed them on fixed salaries to collect the land revenue from cultivators. The policy no doubt added to the land revenue, but weakened the ancient village-system of India.

The magnificent falls of Gangana-Chuki and the island of Sivana-Samudra struck Dr. Buchanan with wonder. The southern fall of Birra-Chuki was even more pleasing to his eye. He was told that the State of Sivana-Samudra had been founded by Ganga Raja about A.D. 1200, but he gives 1523 as a more probable date. The State fell, after the reign of three princes, under the combined attack of neighbouring powers.

The country near Colegala and Sategala lay immediately west, the mountains of the Eastern Ghats rising to a height of 2000 feet above the level of the upper country. The country was well cultivated as far as Pallia, but beyond that place more than half the lands were uncultivated, and the tanks were in ruins. Travelling farther eastwards, Dr. Buchanan entered the Ghats at Mathully, and threaded his way through the mountains until he reached Kaveripura on the Kaveri river, where a fort had been built by a frontier Polygar to protect the pass.

There was an old irrigation reservoir at Kaveripura which watered over five hundred acres of land; but it had burst fifty years before and had never been repaired. A considerable trade passed by Kaveripura between the upper and the lower country, and Dr. Buchanan met forty or fifty loaded cattle every day. Along the course of the Tumbula, a tributary of the Kaveri, there were five old reservoirs which had all burst fifty years before, and had never been repaired.

The village-heads, as stated above, had been set aside under the Company’s rule, and the country under Major Macleod paid a land revenue of £10,293 to £16,545 a year, realised through paid Tahsildars, who combined in themselves the powers of revenue collector, civil magistrate, and police. Farm labourers got from cultivators a pay of 5s. to 6s. 8d. the year, and a house to live in, and 1⅔rds bushel of grain monthly; and their wives received daily wages if able to work. The implements of husbandry in the plains were more miserable and fewer in number than those used above the Ghats.

On the 19th October Dr. Buchanan arrived at Nala-Rayana on the Bhawani river, after travelling through a country three-fourths of which seemed to be waste. A dam on the Bhawani sent off a canal on each side of the river, and the lands watered by these canals gave one unfailing crop in the year. A little land watered by reservoirs gave two crops, but the supply of water was uncertain. Cultivators under the Company’s rule were required to pay the full rent for the lands they cultivated, irrespective of the quantity of produce. This they felt as a hardship, and they desired to be placed on the old footing.

At Ana-Codavery, rice was grown on lands watered by canals taken from the Bhawani river. The dam on the river had been constructed by Nunjay Raja a hundred and twenty years before. In lands which were not irrigated, not over a sixth part of the ground was under cultivation. The soil was good, but the invasion of General Meadows had stopped cultivation; the inhabitants had retired to the hills and had perished in large numbers.

The Company’s Commercial Resident at Salem had visited these parts some months before Dr. Buchanan’s arrival, and had made advances to weavers for the Company’s Investment. The cloth ordered was Shalambru, resembling the Bafta of Bengal, and was made 36 cubits long and 2 1/4 cubits broad.

Travelling southwards through much uncultivated country, Dr. Buchanan arrived at the important city of Coimbatur on the 28th October. The chief of the place was the twentieth in descent from the first founder of the town. The family originally paid tribute to the Rajas of Madura, and afterwards came under the rule of Mysore. The place had suffered much during the Mysore wars, but was recovering, and contained two thousand houses.

There was much rice ground in the neighbourhood, watered by reservoirs which were filled by canals from the Noyel river. Ragi and other crops were raised on dry lands; cotton and tobacco were grown in some places; betel-nut and cocoa-nut were cultivated by rich farmers; and iron was smelted at Topun Beta, five miles from Coimbatur. 459 looms worked in the district; the wives of all the low caste cultivators were great spinners; and the thread was dyed red or blue as required. The Commercial Resident at Salem had twice made advances to the Coimbatur weavers. The weavers formerly paid a duty of about 4s. on each loom annually, and this was replaced by a stamp duty under the Company’s rule. The weavers thought this was harder, and requested the Collector to restore the former mode of assessment, without success.

Tripura, to the east of Coimbatur, was an open town with 300 houses and a weekly market. The rice land in the neighbourhood produced only one crop, and was irrigated partly from reservoirs and partly from canals brought from the Noyel river. Owing to want of repairs, more than one-third of the lands previously cultivated was out of cultivation. The poorest fields were set aside for pasture, and paid a small rent. Iron was smelted at China Mali, further east, and a duty of a thirtieth part of the smelted iron was paid as duty to Government in addition to a duty for cutting timber for fuel. China Mali had only 125 houses, and was suffering from small-pox. Lands in the district were irrigated from the Capely river, but no rice was grown.

Perenduru, north of China Mali, had 118 houses, and the district had 800 looms. Erodu on the Kaveri had had 3000 houses in the time of Haidar Ali, but had declined under Tipu Sultan. It was utterly destroyed during the invasion of General Meadows, but was reviving after the conclusion of peace. The canal passing by Erodu was a splendid work, said to have been constructed by one Kaling Raya four hundred years before, and still watered 3459 acres of land.

Further down the Kaveri river was the important town of Codomudi with an ancient temple and 118 houses. A canal taken from the Kaveri was conducted over the Noyel river to Pagolur village, and irrigated a large tract of land. The rent fixed in these parts by Tipu Sultan was four-tenths of the produce, but this was converted into a money rent, 3s. 5¾ d. per acre, by the British Government in 1799, and the rent for 1800 had not yet been fixed.

Major Macleod, the Collector of the Northern Division of Coimbatur, informed Dr. Buchanan that by the custom of the country no tenant could be turned out of his holding as long as he paid his rent. The Major thought it was impracticable for the British Government to receive the land revenue in kind without leaving a door open to excessive embezzlements. When the Company obtained possession of the Salem country, the rice grounds, watered by the fine canals from the Kaveri, paid rent in kind. The Company’s servants had changed this into money rent against the murmurs of the people, had extended cultivation and increased the land revenue. The Ryotwari system was preferred to the Zemindari system because it brought more revenue. “The regulations introduced by Colonel Read for collecting the revenue seem to me sufficient to secure the regular payment of more than can ever be procured from Zemindars; and I am persuaded that any deficiencies must arise either from a neglect of duty, or from dishonesty in the Collectors. I here allude to hereditary Zemindars merely as affecting the revenue and political state of the country, they must be considered as useful toward the improvement of agriculture.“¹

Caruru was a considerable town with 1000 houses on the Amaravati river, a tributary of the Kaveri. But the merchants were petty dealers, and the weavers were not numerous. Two canals from the Kaveri and several from the Amaravati irrigated this district. Sugar-cane, rice, and dry crops were grown.

On the 17th November Dr. Buchanan reached Daraporam (Dharma-pura), the headquarters of Mr. Hurdis, the Collector of the Southern Division of Coimbatur. The Collector was an active, intelligent and sympathetic young officer, mixed with the people, settled their caste disputes, and knew them well. “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. . . .

One great cause, indeed, of the poverty of the farmers, and consequent poverty of crops in many parts of India, is the custom of forcing land upon people who have no means of cultivating it. Thus all lands are apparently occupied, but it is in a manner that is worse than if one-half of them were entirely waste.“¹ The reason for this has been explained elsewhere. The Company desired to obtain its revenue from the entire arable land, whether they could be properly cultivated or not. The rents were enormously high; betel-leaf lands were assessed at £3, 16s. 9d. an acre, rice lands at £1, 15s. 9½d. to £1, 5s. 2d. per acre.

Travelling further westwards, Dr. Buchanan reached Palachy on the 24th November. Roman coins in a pot had been dug up in this place, showing the trade of this ancient Pandya country with Rome at the time of Augustus and Tiberius. The worst grounds in this district were left for pasture and paid no rent, and the remainder belonging to each village was reckoned as arable, and had an average assessment fixed, ranging from 2s. 10¾d. to 7s. 3d. the acre. “The farmers complain that the land is forced on them, and that they are compelled to rent more than they have stock to enable them to cultivate. A man who rents seventeen Bullas of land (a Bulla = 4¼ to 6 acres) is able only to plough nine of them, whereas, if he had full stock, he would plough between eleven and twelve, leaving one-third part in fallow. The rents, however, have been lowered, in some villages one-fifth, in others one-third, in order to compensate the loss which the farmer suffers by this manner of renting lands, where there is not a sufficient stock to cultivate the whole. This sort of tenure seems to be a great evil.“²

MALABAR.

On the 29th November, Dr. Buchanan entered Malabar, which had been transferred from the Government of Bombay to the Government of Madras only a few months before. He entered the territory of the Tamura Raja, known as the Zamorin to European writers. High mountains on the south poured down cascades from great heights, and cornfields were mixed with lofty forests and plantations of fruit trees. But the dry land was neglected, and the quantity of rice land was not great. The town of Colangodu contained a thousand houses, many of them inhabited by weavers, who imported their cotton from Coimbatur. Palighat was the most beautiful country that Dr. Buchanan had seen, resembling the finest parts of Bengal, but the cultivation of high lands was neglected. The fort there had been built by Haidar Ali after his conquest of Malabar. There was no land tax under the Government of the old Rajas, but Haidar Ali had imposed one called Nagadi on the low and fertile lands, exempting the higher grounds. Tipu Sultan’s oppression drove many of the proprietors into Travancore in the south.

The average produce of rice at the time of Dr. Buchanan’s visit to Palighat was 7⅛ seeds, and the rental was 4¼ seeds, or over sixty per cent of the produce. According to Mr. Smee’s valuation, the Land Tax assessed on the landlords was at the enormous rate of 84 per cent on their rental. ¹ The annual rainfall was sufficient to bring one crop of rice into maturity, while reservoirs constructed and maintained at the expense of landlords secured a second. The cattle was of very small size, and insufficient for the requirements of the country. Iron was forged at Colangodu.

On the 6th December, Dr. Buchanan entered the territory of the Raja of Cochin, who paid an annual tribute to the East India Company, but retained full jurisdiction, civil and military, within his own realm. " His country is so far better administered than that more fully under the authority of the Company, that neither Moplas nor Nairs presume to make any disturbance.” ¹ At Cacadu the hills were mostly uncultivated, but the pasture was tolerable, the cattle in good condition, and the valleys were covered with corn, skirted by the houses of the inhabitants shaded by groves of fruit trees. Close by was a Christian village, and the Papa or priest informed Dr. Buchanan that Christianity had been introduced by St. Thomas who had visited Madras in the year A.D. 60.

The Moplas of Malabar had been rich traders about the middle of the eighteenth century, and possessed vessels which sailed to Surat, Mocha, and Madras. Dr. Buchanan found them quiet and industrious on the coast, but " fierce, bloodthirsty, and bigoted ruffians " in the interior. Their religious leader claimed descent from Fatima, the daughter of Mahomed.

Returning from Cochin to Malabar, Dr. Buchanan travelled northwards till he reached Vencata-Cotay on the 22nd December. The valleys were beautiful, the declivities of the hills were formed into terraces for cultivation, but the summits of the ridges were waste. The cultivators complained of the Land Tax; “every evil in Malabar is ascribed to that as its source.” ² Agriculture was much neglected between Tiruvana and Parupa-nada, and this was due to the want of people and the poverty of those who were in the country. The sea-coast near the latter place was, however, filled with highly productive cocoanut gardens. On Christmas day the doctor reached Calicut, the old capital of Malabar.

Mr. Torin, the commercial resident, was endeavouring to establish the manufacture of long-cloth at this place. The pieces were 72 cubits long, and the prices given to weavers were 18s. 6¾d. to 16s. 4½d. the piece. There were 344 weavers, brought from Travancore and Cochin, and they worked 237 looms, and produced 468 pieces of cloth monthly. Mr. Torin had also established a manufactory at Palighat, which was better and cheaper.

Dr. Buchanan made estimates of the produce, rental, and the Land Tax of this neighbourhood, with the following results:

For a Field of Poor Quality.

Land Tax . . . . . £0 12 9½ Charges of collection . . . . 0 1 3¼ Seed . . . . . . 0 9 4½ Expense of cultivation . . . . 0 9 4½ Landlord . . . . . 0 1 11 Interest of money advanced . . . 0 1 0¾ Cultivator . . . . . 0 7 8

£2 3 5½

Or approximately the gross Land Tax was 14s.; the expenses of cultivation came to 19s.; the owners of the land retained only 10s.

For a Field of the Best Quality.

Land Tax and collection charges . £0 16 10 Seed . . . . . . 0 9 4½ Expense of cultivation . . . . 0 9 4½ Interest . . . . . . 0 1 0¾ Landlord . . . . . 0 8 6¼ Cultivator . . . . . 1 5 6¾

£3 10 8¾

Or approximately the Land Tax was 17s.; the expenses of cultivation came to 19s.; the owners of the land had £1 14s.

Table For a Field of Poor Quality.

For a Field of the Best Quality.

On the 1st of January 1801, Dr. Buchanan reached Tamara-Chery. All the lands here had passed into the hands of Mopla mortgagees. Owing to the persecution of the Hindus by Tipu Sultan, and the warfare of the Moplas, one-fourth of the rice lands at Kurumbara was waste and overgrown with forest trees. Some great farmers had ten ploughs, twenty oxen, twenty male and female slaves, ten servants, and twenty-five milch cows, but the number of such farmers was small. Male slaves sold at the low price of 9s. 6½d. to 28s. 8d., and women slaves at half the price.

The Collector, Mr. Coward, who accompanied Dr. Buchanan through his district, was of opinion that one-fourth of the district was capable of irrigation and rice cultivation, about one-half was high ground fit for dry grains or plantation, and the remainder was steep and rocky. “Mr. Coward thinks the Land Tax so high that it impedes agriculture.”¹

Leaving Mr. Coward on 5th January, Dr. Buchanan proceeded with Captain Osburne to Kutiporum, the residence of the Raja, who paid a tribute to the Company and had absolute authority in his territory. Here the Land Tax was 40 per cent., the landlord kept 27 per cent., and the cultivator 33 per cent. of the produce. Though accompanied by Captain Osburne, the worthy traveller did not receive kind greetings from the women of the country. “The Nairs being at enmity with Europeans have persuaded the women that we are a kind of hobgoblins who have long tails,” and the women naturally ran away at their approach!²

Tellicherry, Mahe, and Dharmapatam formed a circle under the management of Mr. Strachy, “a very promising young gentleman.” The whole of the circle, Mr. Strachy thought, might be cultivated or planted with fruit trees, but much of it was waste. The tax on rice lands amounted to 25 per cent.of the rent. The commerce of the circle was of great importance, and the principal articles of commerce were pepper, sandalwood, and cardamoms.

Mr. Hodgson, Collector of the Northern District of Malabar, received Dr. Buchanan at Cananore. A Mopla lady, who went under the title of Bibi or The Lady, was the descendant of those who had originally purchased Cananore from the Dutch, and entertained Dr. Buchanan at a grand dinner. The Biby paid 14,000 rupees to the Company as Land Tax, and owned Cananore and most of the Laccadive Islands. Succession, as among the Nairs, went by the female line.

Cherical was mountainous and very little cultivated, and the number of houses at Cananore and Cherical was 10,386. About the middle of January Dr. Buchanan left Malabar and went northwards to Canara.

CANARA.

Thomas Munro, the most distinguished and successful administrator of his time, had been sent after his settlement of Baramahal to settle Canara in 1798, as we have seen in a previous chapter. The Raja of Canara was then ill, but his sister’s son or heir waited on Munro, and Munro had cautiously informed him that his claims to the State would be laid before the Company. In the meantime, it was placed under the management of Tahsildars or revenue collectors, the Raja was deprived of his powers, and was allowed a remission of the Land Tax on his private estate for his support. The Nairs complained of a want of good faith in the British officers in these arrangements.¹ Munro levied a Land Tax of 24,000 rupees against a nominal claim of 32,000 rupees under the government of Tipu Sultan, but this reduced tax was all that the country could pay and consumed the whole rent of the lands. Trimula Rao, the Tahsildar, considered the tax heavier than at Arcot.

Dr. Buchanan stayed for a week at Mangalore, situated on a lake separated from the sea by a beach of sand. It had been a harbour at one time, but the depth of the opening had diminished, and vessels drawing more than ten feet could not enter at the time of Buchanan’s visit. The fort of Mangalore had been destroyed by Tipu Sultan.

Imams or lands assigned for the support of temples had been reclaimed by Tipu, but some of them had been concealed. Thomas Munro and his successor Ravenshaw permitted things to remain as before, and the principal Hindu temple had an income of £193 8s. 3d. the year. Munro’s land assessment was felt as heavy, and gave rise to much complaint. “The proprietors allege that the tax amounts to more than the rent, and that they are obliged to borrow money, or to give part of the profit from the lands cultivated with their own stock, to enable them to satisfy the claims of Government…. The universal cry of poverty, however, that prevails in every part of India, and the care, owing to long oppression, with which everything is concealed, render it very difficult to know the real circumstances of the cultivator. We may safely, however, conclude from the violent contest for landed property of every kind in Canara that each occupant has still a considerable interest in the soil, besides the reward due to him for cultivating whatever his stock enables him to do. It is indeed sincerely to be wished that this property may long continue unmolested, as no country can thrive where the absolute property of the soil is vested in the State.“¹ Dr. Buchanan did not know that the contest for land in

India, even when the land is over-assessed, is due to the fact that land is virtually the sole means of subsistence for the nation; the cultivator must have his holding on any terms or starve.

Rice land was irrigated by canals from streams in the low valleys and from reservoirs in higher lands; while on very high lands the crop depended entirely on rains. Sugar-cane was cultivated mainly by the Christian population, and betel-nut and black pepper were grown in plantations. Salt was manufactured by the people as at Malabar, but the quantity produced was inadequate. Rice, betel-nut, and pepper were the principal articles of export; cotton and silk cloths, sugar and salt were imported.

Ten miles from Mangalore was Arcola, also called Firingy-Patta, because it was formerly inhabited by the Concan Christians. The whole country resembled Malabar, and the sides of the hills were formed into terraces for cultivation, but with less industry than at Malabar. Great damage had been done in the vicinity by Tipu Sultan and the Raja of Coorg in the recent wars. Dr. Buchanan found on the roadside many of the guns which Tipu had ordered to be transported from Mangalore to Seringapatam. A dam had been constructed across Bamala river, forming a large reservoir for cultivation.

On the 5th February Dr. Buchanan came to Einuru town, where he found eight Jain temples and a colossal Jain image, formed of one solid piece of granite and standing in the open air. The extent of lands held by the Jain temples at the time of Haidar Ali had been reduced by Tipu Sultan, restored by Thomas Munro, and again reduced by his successor Ravenshaw. The image of Gautama Raja (Buddha) at Carculla was one solid piece of granite, 38 feet high, and, according to the inscription, was made 369 years before Buchanan’s visit, i.e. about 1432.

At Haryadika, further to the west, which Dr. Buchanan reached on the 10th February, he made some inquiries into the incidence of the Land Tax, and found it was one-half of the rent. But “these people say that when the rice is cheap, the whole rent is not equal to the Land Tax.”

On the following day he came within sight of the Arabian Sea once more at Udipu, where the name of Madhava Acharya, the great Hindu scholar and reformer of the fourteenth century, was still revered, and his sect flourished. There were three temples and fourteen convents belonging to Sanyasins, who were religious teachers. Rice was grown from Udipu to the sea. “According to the valuation of five villages in this neighbourhood, I find that out of 2048 Pagodas, the gross value of their produce, the cultivators retain 1295 Pagodas. The share of the Government amounts in general to one quarter of the gross produce, and in these villages are 671 Pagodas, of which 37 are alienated in Inam or charity lands, as they are called. What remains to the landlord is 82 Pagodas.“¹

Travelling northwards, Dr. Buchanan reached Kundapura, and crossing the river, entered the Northern Division of Canara, then under the management of Mr. Read, “a young gentleman brought up in the same school with Mr. Ravenshaw.” Further north were Beiduru with its temple dedicated to Siva and the larger town of Batuculla with 500 houses. Travelling further northwards, he found the plain between the sea and the low hills only half a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, and cultivated for rice. The temple of Murodeswara stood on a lofty fortified promontory. Not far from it was the Pigeon Island, frequented by wild pigeons, and also by boats for coral, with which the place abounded. On the 21st February Dr. Buchanan reached the great lake and town of Onore.

Onore was formerly a large town and a place of great commerce, and Haidar Ali had made a dock here for building ships of war. His foolish and despotic son demolished this great mart after he had recovered it by the treaty of Mangalore, and the town was desolate when Dr. Buchanan visited it. Boats came from Goa for trade, and merchants lived scattered near the banks of the lake, and purchased rice, pepper, cocoanuts, betelnuts, and salt-fish for export. Most of the cultivated lands were private property, but the hills and forests belonged to the Government. Every man paid a Land Tax for the whole of his property, and cultivated it in whatever manner he pleased. Cultivators in moderate circumstances had four to six ploughs, but a great number of them had only one plough, and were poor. Cultivators obtained leases for four to ten years, and paid rents to proprietors, who paid the Land Tax to the Government.

“The proprietor ought to find security for the payment of the Land Tax. If he does not, a revenue officer is sent to superintend the harvest, to sell the produce, and to deduct the revenue from the proceeds. This is a miserable system, and one of true Hindustani invention, as the person sent to collect the harvest received an allowance from the farmer, and thus one of the idle tatterdemalions that formed part of the clamorous suite of some great man, had for a while the cravings of his appetite satisfied. If a man has given security, and fails in payment, on the third day after the term, the security is called upon and confined until the revenue is paid.”¹

An estate, which paid twenty Pagodas as Land Tax, sold for a hundred Pagodas, and could be mortgaged for fifty Pagodas. Sons divided their father’s estate equally among them, but the eldest managed the whole, and they all lived together. When a division took place among a number of cousins, the estate was commonly let and the rent divided. A good field produced 20 to 33 bushels of rice per acre, while poor soil produced 6 to 16 bushels. Sugarcane, pepper, sandalwood, cardamoms, betelnut, and cocoanuts were articles of trade.

Gokarna, to the north of Onore, was a place of note, owing to the celebrated image of Siva, called Mahabaleswar, which was worshipped there. It is said that Ravana, King of Ceylon, was carrying this image from the northern mountains, and deposited it here to take rest, and could not lift it again. The town had 500 houses, one-half of which was occupied by Brahmans. There was a large tank with a convent near it, and an image of Sankara Narayana was kept in a temple, “and it is a strong proof of the early prevalence of the doctrine … that Siva and Vishnu are different names for the same God.”

Ancola produced an annual revenue of 29,000 Pagodas, while Onore yielded 51,000, and Kundapura 50,000. Onethird of the good lands was waste. The Bazar in the town of Ancola had been frequently burnt by robbers, but was recovering under British rule. Thomas Munro’s land assessment was nominally lighter than that of Tipu Sultan, but his collections were really higher. “Major Munro, according to the account of the revenue officers, considerably reduced the rate of the Land Tax, but owing to his care and strictness in the collections, the revenue which he raised was much greater than was ever before realised.“¹ This is precisely what happened in most parts of India. The Company’s servants sometimes maintained or raised, and sometimes reduced, the old revenue, but their collections were more rigorous than the people of India had ever known before.

The greater portion of three northern districts, Kundapura, Onore, and Ancola was rocky and barren, and unfit for cultivation. Mr. Read estimated the different kinds of land thus:

Table

“The revenue, notwithstanding so much waste land, is said to have been greater during the first year of Major Munro’s management than it was ever before known to have been. Mr. Read attributes this to an increase of rent on the lands actually under cultivation, but of this I have much doubt.”¹

It is unnecessary for us to trace the return journey of Dr. Buchanan through Mysore to Madras, which he reached on the 6th July 1801. The account of his journey through Southern India, from the eastern to the western sea, which we have condensed in this chapter, is one of the most valuable records we possess of the economic condition of the country under the old regime, and under the new rule of the East India Company. Everywhere the extension of the Company’s rule meant the cessation of wars and disturbances, and the return of peace. With all these blessings which it conferred, the Company’s administration committed the fatal blunder of over-assessing the soil; and the condition of the people under the Company’s rule was therefore one of hopeless poverty—worse than in the native State of Mysore under the native minister Purnea.

Footnotes

¹ Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. i. p. 390.

¹ Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. ii. pp. 82, 83.

1 Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. ii. p. 96.

¹ Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. ii. p. 119.

¹ Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. iii. pp. 33-35.

¹ Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, &c., vol. iii. p. 103.