SERVICE TENURES IN CEYLON.

APRIL, 1873.]

notation, 45th. Thus 1 + 3 + r = 1 + 4 +

40 = 45. The corresponding name of the second

scheme e-_º 3 (Dzuburjud) will number the same, according to the Ubtus or Zur notation

thus—3 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 9 = 20 + 2 + 10 + 5 + 8 = 45.

Now taking the two different notations we have merely to substitute letters of those nota tions to the number we want to indicate.

For

example, take numbers 57 and 28, which are not

in the table given above, or in Col. Kirk patrick's work. I suppose their names would be according to the first scheme 3 (nuz) and

i.5% (kaza) respectively; and according to the second scheme or the Ubtus notation zºo

(sukh) and $3 (zukhſ) respectively. For 3 = c + j = 50 + 7 = 57, and

}

1st

15s – Ja + 3 + 1 = 20 + 7 + 1 = 28) "he".

ce = e2+ 8–50+7=57 §3 = } + & = 20 +7 4 l =28

2nd scheme.

These are not the only names that may be

given them, for there may be as many others as

115

there are component parts to 57 and 28—a pleasant algebraical problem Therefore any names I give may not be those given to them by the Sultan. There is a resemblance between this calendar

and that in use in Southern India, commonly named “the Malabar” cycle. To the years com posing this cycle the Sultan appears to have given new names, as he did to the months of the year. Among several of the Brahmanical sects of Southern India it is still in vogue to have an a dhika mä sa, or extra month, once in

the course of thirty months. The numerical order of the years was the same as in the era of the Hejira; and the Sultan was satisfied with the mere change of the appellation. He gave to it the name of “the era of Muham mad, ” and he sometimes called the same the

“Mauludi era.” The latter does not seem very applicable, for Mauludi means birth, and the difference between the Prophet's birth and his flight to Medina from Mecca is nearly thirteen years.

SERVICE TENURES IN CEYLON.

(From the Reports of the Commissioner for 1870 and 1871.) THE Service Tenure Ordinance, No. 4 of 1870,

having for its object the abolition of predial

Besides the land thus held by the ordinary pea

serf

sant proprietors, there were the estates of the

dom in the Kandyan Provinces, and the payment,

crown, of the church, and of the chiefs. These are known as Gabadāgam, royal villages, Vihā

in lieu of services, of an annual money-rent, was

brought into operation on the 1st of February 1870, by Proclamation dated 21st January 1870. The Ordinance requires the Commissioners to

ragam and Dewalagam, villages belonging to Bud dhist monasteries and temples (dewäla),—and

Nindagam, villages of large proprietors. These

determine the following points :-

last either were the ancestral property of the

(1) The tenure of every service panguwa, whe ther it be Pravčni or Māruwena. (2.) The names, so far as can be ascertained, of the proprietors and holders of each pravčni panguwa. (3.) The nature and the extent of services due for each pravčni

chiefs (pravčnigam), or were originally royal villages bestowed from time to time on favourites

panguwa. (4.) The annual amount of money-pay ment for which such services may be fairly com muted.

Here, as generally in

of the court. In these estates, certain portions, known as Muttettu or Bandára lands, were re tained for the use of the palace, monastery, or manor-house, while the rest was given out in parcels to cultivators, followers, and dependents, on condition of cultivating the reserved lands, or

oriental countries, the

performing various services from the most menial

king was the lord paramount of the soil, which was possessed by hereditary holders, on the con

to mere homage, or paying certain dues, &c. These

dition of doing service according to their caste.

followers or dependents had at first no hereditary title to the parcels of land thus allotted to them.

The liability to perform service was not a personal obligation, but attached to the land, and the

These allotments, however, generally, passed from father to son, and in course of time hereditary

maximum service due for a holding large enough

title was in fact acquired. . . There were thus two distinct sources whence the claim to service was derived. The right

to support an entire family was generally labour of one male for six months in a year.

the

• A panguwa is a farm, allotment, or holding; a pravčni panguwa is an hereditary holding; maruwena Panguwa is de

fined by the ordinance to be an allotment “held by one or more tenants-at-will.”