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JUNE, 1928 ] SIDE-LIGHTS ON DECCAN VILLAGE LIFE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
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earth, with some water in the centre, and march along the boundary-line. If, wilfully or even by accident, he went beyond the true boundary, it was believed that the ball of earth would fall to pieces, and that the kuluvádi himself would die in a fortnight and his house become a ruin. Here, as in the Deccan case, the Holeya, by acting falsely, incurs the wrath of the village-goddess, of whose divine presence the ball of earth, scraped up in the village, is the outward symbol.
We find the Mahår of the Deccan filling the role of arbiter, like the Mysorean Holeya, in respect of a dispute about the Pâtelki watan of a village in the Poona pargana in 1741-42. As the usual official inquiry failed to show which of the two claimants had the right to officiate ag Patel, the Deshmukh and the Desh pande were instructed to take the parties to the confluence of the Kộishna and Venya rivers and there come to a decision with the help of a village Mahår. On arrival at the Sangam, the two claimants were made to enter the water, while their castefellows bathed and lined the banks. The Mahår was then summoned ; and having likewise walked into the water, he seized one claimant by the right and the other by the left hand, declaring that he whom he held by the right hand was the rightful owner of the watan. The parties were then allowed to come ashore, and a period of ten nights was fixed as a test of the correctness of the Mahar's decision. The record shows that no harm befell the Mahar during that period, and the ruler therefore issued a final order and sanad in accordance with his statement. The confluences of rivers have always possessed great sanctity in India, and it was doubtless understood by all concerned, from the Raja down to the rayat, that in this instance the deity of the confluence had given a decision through the voice of the Mahår.
The Marathå government ordered the adoption of a somewhat similar procedure in the matter of a disputed claim to the Shete watan of Tasgaon in Miraj. The watan of Shete Mahajan or Shelepan, according to Mr. Sen, was usually granted as a reward to an enterprising man for establishing a new suburb or market-town, and was supported and remunerated by fixed contributions from the shop-keepers and retail-traders. In the particular case referred to, after various attempts, including an ordeal on the banks of the Krishna, had been made to decide the dispute, one of the parties again approached the Raja's govern. ment, agreed to abide by the decision of the caste-people, and begged that an ordeal might again be held at the Krishna. The Deshmukh, the Deshpande, and the Baluta were therefore summoned and questioned : and on their asserting that the rightful owner of the Shele watan was a certain Malkanna bin Balashet, the latter was sent to the river Krishna at Mahuli in charge of some government officials. There he and his rivals were made to stand in the water, and the caste-people were told to lead out of the water the one whom they considered to be the true Shete Mahajan. Their choice fell upon Malkanna, who, together with his supporters and relatives, was kept under guard at Mahuli for ten days. No ill befell them during the period, and Malkanna's possession of the walan was, therefore, formally sanctioned,
The record of Shahu Raja affords various glimpses into the criminal administration of the villages, and the part played therein by the Patel and others. A couple of she. buffaloes, which were stolen by Berads from a Silledar, resident in Jåmb village, Khatav district, were traced to Katgun village, the Patel of which agreed in writing to restore them to the Patel of Jamb. Instead of doing so, the Katgun Patel tried to palm off one barren and one old buffalo on the complainant. The Marath government thereupon intervened and ordered him to fulfil his undertaking. The Berads, it may be mentioned, appear in the diary more than once as the prepetrators of thefts and robbery, and were clearly quite as troublesome in those days as they have been in more recent times. As was customary in the case of the Råmoshis in other parts of the Deccan, a certain number of Berads, in charge of their own ndiks or headmen, were loosely attached to the villages in the southern districts, and in return for certain perquisites were expected to abstain from crime in the particular
