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836
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARI.
(AUGUBT, 1908.
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
BY ARTHUR A. PEBERA, (Continued from p. 811.)
(8) The Village. Tas organization of the village (gama) was based on the oommunal system, and its inbabitants were under three officers : the Pațirannehe, who registered the names of lands, their owners and the amount of produce; the Gamarála, who allotted the fields to the several shareholders and had in charge their irrigation and cultivation; and the Vitarana, who collected the revenue, superintended the Police and inquired into the general affairs of the village. These headmen also presided over the Gansabave, or the village court, where disputes other than murder were compounded or settled by oath.
The office of the Vitarana still exists in the Ganmuládêniyê, but the duties of the other two are entrusted to the Vel Vidane or the Irrigation Officer; the constitution of the Gransabive, too, is greatly altered.
Every village has & resting stall for osttle (gála), where traders going to distant towns keep their carts and bulls for a nominal charge, as well as a free halting place for belated travellers (ambalama), who carry their food in the skins covering the areca-blossom (kolapota). This is soantily furnished with a bench or two and an earthon vessel full of water, with a cocoanat-shell ladle (pintaliya).
Each person has his own ancestral plot of ground, to which, however small, be clings with a passionate attachment; and for it the king, as lord of the soil, used to claim certain foudal services from 15 to 30 days a year: in time of war to guard the barriers and passes into the hills and serve as soldiers, and ordinarily to construct and repair canals, tanks, bridges and roads, and to attend to other works of public importance. Now a commutation tax of Rs. 1:50 on every male under 55 has taken the place of these foudal obligations.
A considerable portion of the ground was reserved as private Crown property (gabadagama), and its cultivators were either hereditary tenants (pangukdrayo) or tenants-at-will (nilakdrayo), who had to give a share of the grain, and, according to their caste and rank in life, to perform certain services, if near the capital, to the king as their landlord, if not to his provincial representative (dissdre).
Chiefs and nobles performed varions honorary services and paid homage on New Year's day by presenting a roll of forty betel-leaves (bulat ata). The Goigama tenants carried messages, supplied betel and areca and kept guard at halting-places (atapattu or hêwa wasam) or provided for strangera visiting the village, attended his master's house during the domestic ceremonies, guarded it during his absence, and, when necessary, supplied cooked provisions (gam wasama) or kept watch at the threshing floor, and fetched baffaloes for ploughing (nila wasama). The Karava tenants transported the paddy from the fields to the granary, or attended to the carriage department (madige badda), or provided fish for the kitchen. The Duráva tenants trained elephants and looked after them or drew toddy from the palm-trees (madinno). The Navandanna tenants made articles of jewellery and carved betel-boxes (badálu) or supplied the kitchen utensils and agricultural implements (dchári) or cleaned and repaired the brads and copper vessels (lókuruvá) or were engaged
" Authorities
(1) Service Tenures Commission Reporta, 1869-1872. (2) Phear's The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon, 1880.
(8) Ceylon Census Reports, 1891. • Valontyo, writing in 1726, mentions, in his Beschryving van Oud en Nieuwe Oost-Indien, two other ofoons, itihlmy and Yaphemy; what their duties were cannot be ascertained.
