In the provinces of Canara and Malabar, the tenure of lands is very ancient, and is clearly pointed out by a ries of regular deeds, which have ve a very striking resem blance in both these provinces. Land formed a clearr" p 1 vate propmy, more independent and perfect in its tenure than even in England, and it still remains so. It is possess ed either by a single individual, or by a,number in partner ship, each of whom possesses an equally inalienable right in the estate. In Canara there are three kinds of occu piers : those who hold under the nair mul guerry tenure; under the shud mul gucrry tenure ; and the chalic guer ries. The land held under the first tenure descends to the heirs at law, and is inalienable. In eases of the non-pay ment of taxes, or of mortgage, it reverts to the owner as soon as he satisfies government, or the Mutgolle. Under this tenure, land is not even forfeited where the owner's life is taken away by the laws of the country, but passes immediately to the heir at law. On the failure of heirs it reverts to government ; but is always granted to indivi duals on the payment of a few years' rent. In some in stances the proprietors hold immediately of the govern ment; but their proprietary rights arc not in the small est degree lessened by this circumstance. The shud mul guerries, or tenants for ever, are in fact lesser proprietors, holding under those just described; they can, however, give up their lands to the latter, who are bound to reim burse them for the improvements they have made ; and in case the tenants for ever die without heirs, their lands revert to the superior landlord. Chalic guerries are te nants at will, who hold under the lesser proprietors. The tenants for ever, as well as the tenants at will, pay a fixed rent, either in money or.in grain ; and never by a share of the crop, as in the other parts of the British possessions in India, where fixed rents exist.
Private property in land in Malabar, where it has rest ed, from the most remote times, on a tenure as well de fined, extensive, and secure, as in Canara, is called jum mum, a word which signifies birthright. In one respect, indeed, these lands differ from the lands of the greater proprietors in this latter province ; for in Malabar they may become forfeited by acts of treason to the sovereign. In the event of the proprietor having no legal heirs, he possesses the right of adoption, which prevents his land from escheating to the government. In mortgaging lands in Malabar, there are some peculiarities. The proprietor receives from the mortgagee two thirds of the produce or rent of the estate, and retaining an interest in the land itself; when he loses this interest, he ceases to be a pro prietor. There are two other modes of transferring land, which, however, are very little different from that just de scribed. In all cases the mortgagee accounts to the pro prietor for the surplus of rent above the interest to which he is entitled. If the proprietor is under the necessity of raising further sums on his land, there are other forms of deeds established by the custom and laws of the country, by which he alienates so much more of his proprietary right ; and, in many instances, the money advanced on mortgage bears a value so nearly equal to that of the estate, that the proprietor at length " has nothing left him but a handful of rice, or a measure of grain," as an ac knowledgment of his title. In some parts of Malabar the
option of redemption is in the mortgagee ; in others, to the proprietor. Where the former has a right to refuse the redemption, and has long been in possession, there is another species of contract, by which the land is transfer red to the mortgagee as a kind of freehold. All these kinds of contract must be executed previously to the ex ecution of the deed called oltiper, by which the proprietor absolutely transfers his property. There are several de scriptions of tenure by which lands are granted in lease.
According to one of them, the proprietor receives a sum ol money in addition to his rent ; the tenant retaining so touch of the latter as will cover the interest of the mo ney advanced. Under another kind of leas,.-hold tenure, the interest of the money and the rent are ennsidered curtly for each other. Lands are also let for a number ol }ears for a gross sum advanced by the tenant on his entry to the farm. In those cases in which the land requires impruvement, the tenant binds himself to improve it, par ticularly to incluse it with mud-walls, and plant it with pro ductive trees, and erect the necessary buildings upon it ; and the proprietor, in consideration of those improvements, grants a lease for a certain number of years, which, how ever, is generally extended, if the tenant has fulfilled his contract. The buildings and plantations are so far the pro perty of the tenant that he can mortgage them. There is also a simple lease, when the rent is annual or for a de finite term. The general price of land is 20 years' pur chase. As the Hiodoo law requires that property should descend to all the male children of a family, and admits adoption, it is evident that land would be, in the course of time, divided and subdivided into portions not worth pos sessing, were not some measure adopted to elude the law. Accordingly, it is the general practice through the Penin sula to preserve the original propel ty nominally entire as long as possible, by letting it stand in the names of those who have the greatest shares in it. They manage it for the rest, each receiving his portion of the grain it yields. The various tenures which we have described exist in the greatest purity in the southern provinces of the Penin sula, situated below the Ghauts, which were last invaded; and it is on this account, as exhibiting the most genuine view of the tenure of landed property among the Hindoos, that we have dwelt thus long on the state of landed pro perty in Canara and Malabar. There is no evidence in the history of the llindoos, from the reign of their first princes till the downfall of the Hindoo sovereignty, that any ol the landed rights which have been enumerated and described were ever, in the smallest degree, impaired, or ever questioned.