________________
152
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[May, 1906.
T'ext. Tammudu, tammuda taittu.
an
No. IV. A Nursery Rhyme.
Translation. Younger brother, younger brother is
amulet. Younger brother's wife is disagreeable. Disagreeable is taken and Put in the corner and Carried off by a fox.
Narayana !
Tammada pendlama marikithů. Marikithû tisukoni, Múlalo pettatai, Nakkaitûka poyai.
Narayana !
MISCELLANEA. A DISPUTED SUCCESSION : CHAMBA STATE, Kachhal's husband is never mentioned in PANJAB.
most versions of the legend, but in one version On the death of Raja Sri Singh of Obamba in a husband has been found for her in the person 1870, in the absenoe of a direct heir, Mån Suchet of Niwar, brother of Jlwar, so that these two Singh, the younger of his two surviving brothers are married to two sisters. brothers, laid claim to the gaddi, basing his In the ordinary versions, however, it is assumed, claim on the fact that he was the late Raja's rather than expressly stated, that Kachhal is uterine brother. In accordance with the sanad Bachhal's co-wife, i. e., also married to Jiwar. of 1848, however, the elder of the two brothers,
Nevertheless, in all versions, the claim of Mian Gopal Singh, was declared the rightful
Arjan and Surjan to the share in Gaga's heir.
inheritance, Jiwar's kingdom or property, It would be interesting to know on what this appears to be based on their relationship to claim was grounded. There is a very strong Gaga as the sons of Kachhal, or the adopted feeling among all the castes and tribes of the Bons of Bachhal, and not on their position &8 Pañjab that uterine consanguinity confers to the sons, actual or putative, of Jiwar or rights to any share in the inheritance. A son Niwar. by a woman's former husband is termed pichh
In the version of the myth published as the lagg, and is at most entitled to maintenance. Song of Gigá, in the Legends of the Pañjáb, we
In the legends of Gaga, however, a somewhat find Arjan and Surjan claiming Bâchhal as their similar idea appears to underlie one of the main adoptive mother, while Gaga persists in calling incidents of the myth. Gågå has two cousins, them 'sons of my mother's sister.' the sons of his mother's sister, who claim that Similarly in the Bijnor version* we find Arjan they are entitled to gbare in his inheritance on and Surjan basing their claim to a share in the
he ground that they are the adopted sons of his inheritance in the fact that their mother and mother. There are several variants of this Bachhal wero sisters. incident in the legends, but the changes appear Conflicting and vague as the variants of the to be rung on the following table of descent:- Gaga, myth hitherto collected are, it seems clear . Amar Singh
that a claim to succeed on the ground of uterine consanguinity, or on the analogous
ground of kinship through the mother's own Jiwar = Bâchhal Niwar = K&cbhal,
sister of
sister - the latter apparently being a curious, Bachhal
but not illogical, development of the former Gaga
idea - is not wholly untenable.
H. A. Rose. Arjan Surjan 4th December, 1905. Punjab Customary Law, Vol. III. p. 58 ; IV. p. 133; V. p. 63; VI. p. 9: and Feroxepore Code, p. 18, among others.
Pichh-lagy, or a child which is tacked on behind,' as it were, is a disparaging term in itself. A local term for such a son in the Ambala and Karnal Districts of the Punjab is gadhebra, a word which is not traceable in the dictionaries and the derivation of which is not known : Punjab Customary Law, Kamal, p. 13, and Ambala, p. 21.
• See Vol. III. p. 262, where 'noorn mother is an incorrect translation of dharm ki má, which can only mean 'adoptive mother.'
• See ante, Vol. XXIV. pp. 49 et 199.
