Tempo:
CHAP. IV
INDEPENDENCE OF THE SIKHS
95
thus piously met, owned no subjection to one another, and they were imperfectly obeyed by the majority oJ:
^^
their followers; but the obvious feudal, or military of a chain of dependence, was acknowledged as the law, and the federate chiefs partitioned their joint conquests equally among themselves, and divided their resplective shares in the same manner among their own leaders of bands, while these again subdivided their portions among their own dependents, agreeably to the general custom of subinfeudation.^ This positive or understood rule was not, however, always applicable to actual conditions, for the Sikhs were in part of their possessions 'earthborn', or many held lands in which the mere withdrawal of a central authority had left them wholly independent of control. In theory such men were neither the subjects nor the retainers of any feudal chiefs, and they could transfer their services to x'iotion
whom they pleased, or they could themselves become leaders, and acquire new lands for their own use in the name of the Khalsa or commonwealth.- It would The system
be idle to call an everchanging state of alliance and ^°^ devised. dependence by the name of a constitution, and we ""^ J^^^^must look for the existence of the faint outline of a ied,^and°^' system, among the emancipated Sikhs, rather in the therefore ,
dom. Hence Gurumatta becomes,
literally,
'the
advice of the
Guru.' I
Malcolm (Sketch, p. 52) considers, and Browne (Tracts, ii. vii) leaves it to be implied, that Gobind directed the assemblage
Gurumatta; but there is no authority for believing that he ordained any formal or particular institution, although, doubt" less, the general scope of his injunctions, and the peculiar political circumstances of the times, gave additional force to the practice of holding diets or conclaves' a practice common to mankind everywhere, and systematized in India from time inxmemorial. Cf. Forster, Travels, i. 328, &c., for some observations on the transient Sikh government of the time, and on the more enduring characteristics of the people. See also Malcolm, Sketch, p. 120, for the ceremonial forms of a Gurumatta. of
j
—
—
1 Cf. Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 33 37. From tracts of country which the Sikhs subdued but did not occupy. 'Rakhi'
protection money) was regularly levied. The Rakhi amount from perhaps a fifth to a half of the rental or government share of the produce. It corresponded with the Maratha 'Chowt', or fourth, and both terms meant 'black(literally,
varied in
higher sense, tribute. Cf. Browne, India Tracts. and Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 32. The subdivisions of property were sometimes so minute that two, or three, or ten Sikhs might become co-partners in the rental of one village, or in the house tax of one street of a town, while the fact that jurisdiction accompanied such right increased the confusion. - Hallam shows that the Anglo-Saxon freeholder had a mail', or, in a
ii.
viii,
similar latitude of choice with regard to a lord or superior. (Middle Ages, Supplemental Notes, p. 210.)
INDEPENDENCE OF THE SIKHS
95
thus piously met, owned no subjection to one another, and they were imperfectly obeyed by the majority oJ:
^^
their followers; but the obvious feudal, or military of a chain of dependence, was acknowledged as the law, and the federate chiefs partitioned their joint conquests equally among themselves, and divided their resplective shares in the same manner among their own leaders of bands, while these again subdivided their portions among their own dependents, agreeably to the general custom of subinfeudation.^ This positive or understood rule was not, however, always applicable to actual conditions, for the Sikhs were in part of their possessions 'earthborn', or many held lands in which the mere withdrawal of a central authority had left them wholly independent of control. In theory such men were neither the subjects nor the retainers of any feudal chiefs, and they could transfer their services to x'iotion
whom they pleased, or they could themselves become leaders, and acquire new lands for their own use in the name of the Khalsa or commonwealth.- It would The system
be idle to call an everchanging state of alliance and ^°^ devised. dependence by the name of a constitution, and we ""^ J^^^^must look for the existence of the faint outline of a ied,^and°^' system, among the emancipated Sikhs, rather in the therefore ,
dom. Hence Gurumatta becomes,
literally,
'the
advice of the
Guru.' I
Malcolm (Sketch, p. 52) considers, and Browne (Tracts, ii. vii) leaves it to be implied, that Gobind directed the assemblage
Gurumatta; but there is no authority for believing that he ordained any formal or particular institution, although, doubt" less, the general scope of his injunctions, and the peculiar political circumstances of the times, gave additional force to the practice of holding diets or conclaves' a practice common to mankind everywhere, and systematized in India from time inxmemorial. Cf. Forster, Travels, i. 328, &c., for some observations on the transient Sikh government of the time, and on the more enduring characteristics of the people. See also Malcolm, Sketch, p. 120, for the ceremonial forms of a Gurumatta. of
j
—
—
1 Cf. Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 33 37. From tracts of country which the Sikhs subdued but did not occupy. 'Rakhi'
protection money) was regularly levied. The Rakhi amount from perhaps a fifth to a half of the rental or government share of the produce. It corresponded with the Maratha 'Chowt', or fourth, and both terms meant 'black(literally,
varied in
higher sense, tribute. Cf. Browne, India Tracts. and Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 32. The subdivisions of property were sometimes so minute that two, or three, or ten Sikhs might become co-partners in the rental of one village, or in the house tax of one street of a town, while the fact that jurisdiction accompanied such right increased the confusion. - Hallam shows that the Anglo-Saxon freeholder had a mail', or, in a
ii.
viii,
similar latitude of choice with regard to a lord or superior. (Middle Ages, Supplemental Notes, p. 210.)
©
2026
Lehal.net