Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/266

 BAH.

188

The piece of land being made over to the planter, he was allowed to sow and to reap all the crops which the land might bear as long as the trees were young, he could make arrangements with some other cultivator to tend the trees for him, allowing him the use of the ground in and it



among the

When

the grove arrived at maturity, the fallen and dead wood, &c., was the sole property of the planter, so long as the trees stood. He alone had the privilege of cutting the long grass ( sarpat ) generally planted in the first instance around the grove for its protection from cattle. He had If, however, also the sole right to the grazing of the land of the grove. the trees fell and the land became thus vacant, the landlord alone had the right to cultivate it, and the grove-holder could not replant without perNeither could he cut the trees except one or two now and then mission. for his own immediate use without the zamindar's permission. He had, however, the freest power of sale or mortgage of all the rights above detailed; all groves left ownerless by the extinction of the family of the owner or by its desertion of the estate became the property of the zamindar. in

trees for his trouble.

whole produce, including the

its

fruit,

No

one of the very few privileges enjoyed by the ordinary cultivators has tended more directly to raise their character, or •/» •!• rather keep it from smkmg lower than it would otherwise have done, than the possession of these rights in the mango groves planted by their ancestors. fn,» „ possession «f oi di J.I16 ^.,==«c=,;«„ grove induces a feeling of independence.

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i

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It is seldom that we find the grove in possession of any one but the descendant of the original planter. It may have been mortgaged over and over again, but a sale outright seldom occurred.

The

tdl

The extent

was always one of rights

of the rights enumerated in deeds of sale, &c.. as the unquestioned right of the original proprietor of

the village. The interest extended to all the spontaneous products of the ponds, fish, reeds, wild rice, water-nuts, &c.; and if the under-proprietor's fields lay near to them he probably would be entitled to draw water from them for the irrigation of his fields before the other cultivators. The rights in excavated tanks would be better defined and more freely acknowledged than in the natural hollows, or in swamps in ponds, &o.

—

and marshes. Minor

The every

zamindari

Anjuri.

rights.

This, though not a tenure, may properly be noticed under the above heading.

old zamindar or hirtia was entitled to four chhat^ks of grain for in the outturn of each cultivator's plot. This amounted to

maund

It was strictly a zamindari perquisite, but was seers per 100 maunds. never levied by taluqdars or by zamindars other than Brahmans, as the due partook of the nature of alms, and Brahmans only could accept charity. Zamindars not of this caste would nominate some pandit or Brahman, of the village to receive the due instead.

25

Anjuri of another kind was a purely eleemosynary custom. It was then called " hdth uthwa, " and consisted of a few handfuUs of grain placed around the corn heaps by the cultivator for the bhumhdr, the attendant on the village gods, the pandit and the faqir. There was no measure for this,