Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.202

v3.c43.t1.202

² The indigenous Mina affords here an excellent practical illustration of Manu’s axiom, that “the right in the soil belongs to him who first cleared and tilled the land” [Laws, ix. 44]. The Rajput conqueror claims and receives the tribute of the soil, but were he to attempt to enforce more, he would soon be brought to his senses by one of their various modes of self-defence—incendiarism, self-immolation, or abandonment of the lands in a body. We have mystified a very simple subject by basing our arguments on the arrangements of the Muhammadan conqueror. If we mean to follow