India history and geography

Source: archive.org: Glossary of Sinhalese Folk Terms appearing in the Service Tenure Register

Muttettuwa:—A field belonging to the proprietor, whether a chief or temple, and cultivated on his account jointly by tenants of every description. The proprietor usually finds the seed-paddy, and bears all costs of agricultural implements, and sometimes gives the buffaloes ; the service of the tenants is reckoned not by days, but by the number of the different agricultural operations to which they have to contribute labour, and they are accordingly spoken of as “ Wedapaha ” and “Weda-hata,” which are— 1, puran ketuma or puran-hiya (first digging or first ploughing) 2, dekutuma or binnegunhiya (the second digging or ploughing); 3, wepuruma (sowing including the smoothing of the beds); 4, goyan-kepuma (reaping including stacking), and 5, goyan-medima (threshing including storing). These admit of subdivisions. Hence the number of agricultural operations differ in different districts. All the tenants take a part in the cultivation, and are generally fed by the proprietor or by the Ganwasam tenants on his behalf. The sowing of the seed-paddy is the work of the Gammahe as requiring greater care, and irrigation that of the Mananna, unless special arrangements are made for it with a Diyagoyya who is allowed in payment, a portion of the field to cultivate free of ground-rent, or the crop of a cultivated portion. The Muttettu straw furnishes thatch for buildings, the tying and removing of which is also a service rendered by the tenants. The services of the different classes of the tenantry on an estate are centred in its Muttettu field. Hence the passing of the Muttettuwa from the family of the landlord into the hands of strangers is invariably followed by the tenants resisting their customary services in respect of the Muttettu. They have generally succeeded in such resistance. See first Report of the Service Tenure Commission P. 9. “In only a few cases have estates been sold away from the families of the local chiefs, and in these cases with the almost invariable result of the loss of all claim to service by disuse, the Kandyan tenant being peculiarly sensitive as to the social status of his Lord. A few years ago one of the leading Advocates in Kandy acquired three estates, and after several years’ litigation, he was compelled to get the original proprietor to take back the largest of the three, and the claim to services from the other two had to be abondoned. On the original proprietor resuming procession, the tenants returned to their allegiance.

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The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Full-text: Badahela-panguwa, Ganwasama.

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