VILLAGE.
'Bang, CHM Gmma, . . . SANSK.
Basti, Gaon, . . Hum Bang, SIAM.
Kyong, . . LErcita. Thiong, . . . Tin.
Go, Gao, Gon, Gmma, Gama, Grainanni, Gm naam, Gram, Gam, Ganw, Gaon are derived from the Sanskrit. In former times, in the whole of India, the property in the land resided in the village comniunities, and this is still the case with the greater part of it. The village community is not, however, co-extensive with the cultivating inhabitants of the village ; it consists of the de scendants or representatives of those by whom the village was, at some remote period, conquered or reclaimed from waste. In most cases these pro prietors are a part, and in some the whole of the agricultural population of the village. Any remainder consists of the descendants of persons who have taken up their ratidence in the village at later pciiods, with the permission of the- pro rietors some of whom have remained tenants-at P will, while others have by grant or prescriptio.n ac quired a fixity of tenure. The village proprietors formed prescriptively the municipal government of the village, and village government w. as the only institution, properly so called, which the Hindus possessed.
Corporate villages are still in many pasts of India an institution of the country. They are municipalities governed by a headman, often hereditary, and the different trades and. pro fessions practised by individuals, who received a regulated remuneration. Village communes of India are little republics, having nearly every thing they can want among themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations. The village watchmen are called Pasban, Gorayet, Peik, Dou raha in Hindustan.; Tillari in the south of India amongst the Teling race ; Paggi in Gujerat There never was cultivation in common, but each man broke up as much land as he'could, and it belonged to him -who first tilled it. Local taxes for common expenses were rateably raised. By the term village
is strictly meant, not merely the collection of dwellings which the cultivators inhabit, but the whole area which is in their occupation. Agri culturists in Northern India dwell in village communities, in Central India they are village proprietors, and in Southern and Western India they are ryots under the ryotwaii system, much like the peasant-proprietors of Europe. Gujerat cultivators do not live, a.s those of European countries do, each upon his own farm, but are invariably concentrated into villages.
The village system of land assessment is current in the N.W. Provinces, the Panjab, Nagpur, and Oudh. In Cuttack is a mixed plan of the ryotwar and village system.
Land surrounding the village homestead in N. India is called bara, also in the Upper Doab, goind. The circle beyond the bara is called munda, majhola, or agla, and the outer circle jungle (jangal).
The Gramma-deva, the tutelar deity of a village, is soruetimes one of the Hindu pantheon ; some times, as in the south of India, it is Hanuman ; sometimes one of the Ammun ; often a shapeless stone or piece of wood. The Gramma-devata are generally on the outskirts of the villages, fre quently beneath a tree, and are usually exposed to the open air without any covering temple. So long as the affairs of the community are ordinarily prosperous and no calamity threatens, they are content with the worship common' to the sect to which they belong, but in seasons of trouble the Gramma-devata are largely resorted to. When the .calamity is general, such as a drought or a ence, or a murrain amongst the cattle, the entire village will repair to the village deity, and seek by prayer and offeiings to obtain release. All the Assamese regard high trees and seques tered groves as the haunts of spirits. — Select Committee, House of COmmons, 1832 ; Forbes' 1?asamala, p. 241 ; Was. ; Campbell, p. 6 ; Mon and Mat. Prog., 1858.