52

SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION.

tem. The revenue is their own; they assess their subjects as they please, and have an uncontrolled power of life and death in their dominion. For these honours and advantages they pay an annual tribute, or maintain a stipulated number of troops for public service. Under these chieftains are pundits, duans, and oppressors of various denominations; who all agree in extorting from the poor ryots every thing they possibly can, to enrich themselves: that, in conformity to the general system, they may be able to answer the exactions of their superiors; who view the growing wealth of their ministers with an eager eye; and when sufficiently accumulated, seize their persons, and claim a large share of the spoil.

This system of oppression so completely pervades all classes of society under every form of oriental government, that it is almost impossible, out of the British dominions, to find an Asiatic of any caste or tribe, who, like the English country gentleman, in the middle walk of life, enjoys his patrimonial inheritance, surrounded by domestic happiness and rural pleasures. Such a character is not probably confined to this favoured island: however it may be comparatively known in other European states, it certainly would present a most uncommon spectacle among the Asiatics. A system of oppression prevails from the throne to the zemindar, whom I have frequently heard give the order for a patell and head farmer to be unmercifully flogged, as representative of the village he was ruining by his extortions. This system ascends by a regular scale from these Brahmin and Banian zemindars to the imperial despot upon the musnud; who, like the Babylonish monarch of old, allows of no alter

ORIENTAL DESPOTISM.

53

native to those who obey or disobey his unjust decrees, than that they should receive gifts and rewards, and great honour; or be cut in pieces, and their houses made a dung-hill: that monarch one day fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, commanding an oblation of sweet odours to be offered unto him, and the next condemned his three friends to a fiery furnace for not worshipping his golden image. Or of his immediate successors, one of whom clothed his virtuous minister with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, as a reward for his services; and the other, who at the instigation of his wicked counsellors ordered him to be thrown into a den of lions! Such was despotism two thousand years ago, such it continues at this present day!

That absolute power hardens the heart, in whatever climate or country it is permitted, cannot be doubted. We need not confine our remarks to Asia: some of the cruel and wanton acts of tyranny exercised by the feudal barons in Europe, over their bondmen and villains, are too shocking for the modest page. Oriental despotism proceeds on different grounds, though acting from the same principle; lust and revenge predominated in Europe, dominion and avarice in Asia. It would be painful to describe the various modes of oppression within my own knowledge; I shall only mention one anecdote in confirmation of what I have lately alluded to; it happened at Tattah, on the banks of Indus, where one of my friends was the English resident at the prince of Scindy's court. Tattah, the capital of those princes, has for many years been in a declining state, occasioned by wars and revolutions. The little commerce it enjoys since the English factory

54

ATROCIOUS CRUELTY.

has been withdrawn, is in the hands of the Hindoo merchants; the the principal officers in the commercial and revenue departments are also Hindoos. The prince and his court are Mahomedans, who, like other oriental despots, permit these officers to amass wealth by every means in their power, and then seize their

prey.

The collector of the customs was a Hindoo of family, wealth, and credit. Lulled into security from his interest at court, and suspecting no evil, he was surprised by a visit from the vizier, with a company of armed men, to demand his money, which being secreted, no threatenings could induce him to discover. A variety of tortures were inflicted to extort a confession; one was a sofa, with a platform of tight cordage in net-work, covered with a chintz palampore, which concealed a bed of thorns placed under it: the collector, a corpulent Banian, was then stripped of his jama, or muslin robe, and ordered to lie down on the couch the cords bending with his weight, sunk on the bed of thorns; those long and piercing thorns of the baubul or forest acacia, which being placed purposely with their points upwards, lacerated the wretched man, whether in motion or at rest. For two days and nights he bore the torture without revealing the secret; his tormentors fearing he would die before their purpose was effected, had recourse to another mode of compulsion. When nature was nearly exhausted, they took him from the bed, and supported him on the floor, until his infant son, an only child, was brought into the room; and with him a bag containing a fierce cat, into which they put the child, and tied up the mouth of the sack. The agents of cruelty

THE SHEEP-SKIN DEATH.

55

stood over them with bamboos, ready at a signal to
beat the bag, and enrage the animal to destroy the
child: this was too much for the father's heart! He
produced his treasure, and on his recovery he was
sent for to court, invested with a sirpaw, or robe of
state, and exalted to a high situation in another pro-
vince; there to accumulate more wealth, and, at a
future period, be again subject to the capricious fiat
of a needy despot.

Another act of tyranny sometimes practised by the
Mahrattas, is called the sheep-skin death. On this
occasion the culprit is stripped naked, and a sheep
being killed, the warm skin of the animal is imme-
diately stretched to the utmost, and sewed tight over
the prisoner's body; he is then conducted to the flat
roof of the prison, and exposed to the fervour of a
tropical sun, the skin contracting by the heat, draws
with it the flesh of the agonizing wretch; until putre-
faction, hunger, and thirst terminate his suffering.

I shall conclude this subject with a translation of a bill of sale of some land in India, written originally in the Tamul language, introduced in the Mysore Researches by Colonel Wilks. It affords a very satisfactory specimen of those deeds among the natives of India. // "Be it propititious!

"On this fortunate day, Monday the 16th, of the month Ahvany, of the year (of the cycle) Kahlyuktee, in the year of Saliyahan 1720, and of the Cali Yug 4899, being the third day of the increasing moon, under the auspicious conjunction and happy influence of the constellation Ashanattee and Magarum: Kistna Sawmey Pilla of Cunnatoor, the son of Vencatachelum Pilla, for himself and his house, executes this deed of

sale of land to Cumance Sawmey Pilla. That is to say: of the twenty-eight established shares of Cunnatoor, I have made a full and complete sale to you of my own two shares therein, for one hundred chuckrums; and you having paid, and I having received the said one hundred chuckrums for the said two shares: therefore possess the Nunja, Punja (wet and dry lands), trees, groves, gardens, hillocks, water, wood, stone, and treasures; the well that points beneath, the tree that points above, together with all property belonging in common thereto, within its four boundaries. Your children from generation to generation, are free to bestow, or exchange, or to dispose of it at their pleaPossess and enjoy it as long as the sun and the moon, the earth and its vegetables, the mountains and the river Cauvery, exist; and all prosperity attend you. Thus it is subscribed by me Kistna Sawmey Pilla, with my full consent to Cumana Sawmey Pilla. This deed is written by Mootoo Sawmey, the village Conicopoly." (Signed) KISTNA SAWNEY.

sure.

Witnesses

ARNACHELUM,
SUNKALINGUM,

SHUMMOGUM.

That the inhabitants of Baroche, when under the English government, were considered to possess landed property in their own right, appears from the lease of some lands which I obtained for a term of ninety-nine years, from Lullabhy, the celebrated zemindar at Baroche; not drawn up in such strong terms as the preceding deed of sale, but equally binding on all parties concerned in the transaction.