At Vol. ii., pp. 739 et seq., Supplementary Volumes, Sir W. Jones' works, are to be found some curious examples of the mode in which justice was administered in the neighbourhood of Benares towards the end of the last century, at the very time when Colebrooke thought the country was full of lawyers who rarely dissented from the authority of the Mitâxarâ. The recognised mode of compelling a debtor to pay up appears to have been by sending a Brahman to do dharnâ (is this our 'dun' ?) before his house, with a dagger or a bowl of poison, to be used by the Brahman on his own body if the debtor proved obstinate. When the tax-collector gave too much trouble, a ryot would sometimes erect a koor, or pile of wood, and burn an old woman on it, by way of bringing sin on the head of his tormentor. The lex talionis obtained in the following shape. Persons who considered themselves aggrieved by acts of their enemies, would kill their own wives and children, in order, as we may suppose, to compel their enemies to do a similar act to their own hurt. Thus two Brahmans cut off their mother's head to spite a foe. And it seems that upon being punished by loss of caste, out of deference to the feelings of the British Government, these simple-minded men expressed the greatest surprise, since they had acted, so they said, through ignorance. On one occasion five women were put to death together for witchcraft, after being regularly tried for the offence, according to custom, by the heads of their caste.

With regard to the lex talionis, a letter is preserved

in Recueil X of the Lettres cur. et éd., written by Father Martin in 1709, in which he describes the horrible practice in vogue amongst the inhabitants of the Marava country, of killing or wounding oneself, or one's wife or child, in order to compel one's enemy to go and do likewise. Such a practice can obtain only where no legal means exist of obtaining reparation for wrongs suffered. It would be very interesting to know to what extent this natural law has prevailed, in various forms, in South India, and whether its influence has yet altogether died out. The practice of Dharnâ would seem to be nothing more than a threat of instantly resorting to the lex talionis. And I take it that Marco Polo was mistaken in his view of the meaning of a creditor drawing a circle round his debtor, by way of arresting him, when he said 1 that a debtor who breaks such arrest 'is punished with death as a transgressor against right and justice,' and that he (Marco Polo) had seen the King himself so arrested and compelled to pay a debt. Doubtless the King was coerced by the threat, expressed or implied, that the creditor would kill or wound himself, if not satisfied, in which case the King would have been bound to kill or wound himself in return. Father Bouchet, in the letter cited above, tells us that obstinate debtors were arrested in their houses by their creditors in the name of the Prince, under pain of being declared rebels, and when so arrested durst not pass out until bystanders had interceded and made the creditors come

1 See Yule's Marco Polo, 279.

CHIEFS AND HEADMEN.

167

to terms. The use of the name of the Prince I regard as imaginary, and opposed to native ideas. What coerced the debtor probably was the fear of his creditor injuring himself. And possibly it is this fear that often operates on the minds of native servants of the present day when they decline to go on a long journey with their masters without first partially satisfying their creditors. And where, as so often happens, an old man or woman is killed by his or her own party in a boundary riot, probably in most instances the object of the slayers is to bring sin on their opponents.

When Buchanan journeyed through Mysore and the surrounding districts, he seems to have found almost every petty subdivision of a caste managing all its own affairs, without reference to any higher authority, through a chief or a body of headmen of its own. Thus a certain caste of weavers was ruled by its Nattamgar (Nâṭṭânmeikkaran) or hereditary chief.1 The Panchâlas 2 had a chief of their own, who levied fines from offenders and presented them to Kâlî. A chief styled the Kangyam Manadear 3 had settled all disputes arising between Vellalans in Coimbatore; but on discovering that he excommunicated men unjustly, the Collector had taken away his jurisdiction, and ordered the Tahsildar periodically to hold assemblies of the caste and arrange their dif ferences. Amongst the Idigaru the Government renter, assisted by a council, settled all disputes. For

merly, Buchanan tells us,' every village was ruled by its hereditary chief, called in Tamil the Maniyakâran (Monigar), who was also the hereditary priest of the village goddess, Bhadra-Kâlî. And from what the Madura missionaries have stated in their reports I believe this to have been generally the case.

3

Coming to more modern times, we find it stated in Steele's Hindoo Castes that the Lingayet castes continued to obey the orders of their Gurus, as directed by the late Peishwa; and that at Poona and Sattara every caste had its own rules, and settled its own affairs, expelling sinners and readmitting penitents. Penance was performed for Bramha-hatyâ, which included abusing as well as killing a Brahman, for killing a woman or a child, for eating forbidden food, drinking spirits, incest with a mother, or with the wife of a Guru, and other grave crimes. But, as a rule, readmission into the caste could be obtained, after penance, by paying a fine or giving a dinner to the caste. In order to prove innocence, ordeals of various kinds were resorted to.

1 Vol. ii. 213.

3 At pp. 122 et seq.

2 Vol. ii. 216.

4 See note 3, p. 54, above.

CHAPTER VIII.

Apathy of Rajahs-Normal state of an Indian country-Independent action of the castes against Christianity in 1651—Administration of justice in the eighteenth century-General and particular customs— Copper plates at Conjeveram-Results arrived at-The lawyers have made no progress: the Sanskritists have made much-Sanskrit books to be classified-Usages to be investigated and compared with the socalled laws-The case of the non-Brahmans—Nothing to be taken for granted Importance of the question of the Hands'-Injustice of judicially recognising the customs of the Western Coast alone.

I HAVE essayed to show in the third chapter that, according to the Brahmanic theory, the King should decide disputes arising between men who are not Brahmans, or between bodies of such men, after learning from the lips of the heads of the communities to which the disputants may belong what may be the established customs of such communities; and that the Heads of Castes not only are the depositories of traditional usages and customs, but also have authority to lay down rules for their respective classes.' I do not suppose, however, for a moment that this theory has in any degree influenced the minds of any of the successive rulers of South India. I prefer to believe with Maine' that the Rajahs of India, both great and small, have always refrained from troubling themselves about the manners and

1 Confer his Early Hist. Instns., 13th Lect.