The whole face of India is parcelled out into
estates of villages.[3] The village communities are composed of those
who hold and cultivate the land, the established village servants,
priest, blacksmith, carpenter, accountant, washerman, basket-maker
(whose wife is ex officio the midwife of the little village
community), potter, watchman, barber, shoemaker, &c., &c.[4] To these
may be added the little banker, or agricultural capitalist, the
shopkeeper, the brazier, the confectioner, the ironmonger, the
weaver, the dyer, the astronomer or astrologer, who points out to the
people the lucky day for every earthly undertaking, and the
prescribed times for all religious ceremonies and observances. In
some villages the whole of the lands are parcelled out among
cultivating proprietors, and are liable to eternal subdivisions by
the law of inheritance, which gives to each son the same share. In
others, the whole of the lands are parcelled out among cultivators,
who hold them on a specific lease for limited periods from a
proprietor who holds the whole collectively under Government, at a
rate of rent fixed either permanently or for limited periods.
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