An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of GorkhaHamilton, Francis
History
An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha
Hamilton, Francis
Nepal -- Description and travel; Nepal -- History
The persons who rent lands from the owners are of two kinds: first, the
Kuriyas, who occupy free (Khairat) land, are exempted from any services
to government, except the repairing of roads, and the attending on armies
employed on certain duties; and, secondly, the Prajas, who occupy the
crown land, whether that be held by the Prince, or granted in Jaygir.
The Prajas are bound to perform various services at the call, both of
government and of their immediate masters. The rent which both usually
pay is one-half of the produce, with an annual fine of between two and
three rupees for each Khet. Where the land is tolerable, these terms are
considered as favourable for the tenant, and enable him to support a
family with ease.
The following is the account which my Brahman gives of the agriculture of
the Newars.
The hoe used by the Newars has been represented by Colonel Kirkpatrick,
(in the uppermost figure of the plate opposite to page 100 of his Account
of Nepaul,) but the figure is not good. It seems a very awkward
instrument, as the blade is fixed by a long neck, so as to stand parallel
to the short handle, at about the distance or six inches. The labourer,
therefore, must either stoop exceedingly, when at work, or must sit on
his heels, which is the most usual posture. Still these people use it
with great dexterity, and one man in three days digs up a Rupini. After
each hoeing, the women and children break the clods with a wooden mallet
fixed to a long shaft, which does not require them to stoop. Almost the
only other implement of agriculture these people have is the Khuripi, or
weeding iron, and some fans for winnowing the corn. In Nepal, however,
they have in some measure made a further progress than in India, as they
have numerous water-mills for grinding corn. The stones are little
larger than those of hand-mills, and the upper one is turned round by
being fixed on the end of the axis of the water wheel, which is
horizontal, and is placed under the floor of the mill, with which the
stones are on a level. This wheel consists of six blades, about three
feet long, and six inches broad, which are placed obliquely in the
axle-tree. On these blades, the water falls down an inclined plane of
about eight or ten feet in perpendicular height. The hopper is a basket
perforated at the bottom, but has no contrivance to shake it. The people
at one of the mills which we examined said, that, in one day, it could
grind twelve _Muris_, or rather more than twenty-nine bushels.
In Nepal, rice is the great crop, and the ground fit for it is of two
kinds, which differ in the manner, and in the time of their cultivation,
so as to make two harvests of rice: but no one field, in one year,
produces two crops of this grain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account