Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.62

c8.62

In the Punjab on the other hand joint settlements of particular tribes appear to be the usual cause of joint ownership of fields²; perhaps these tribes are meant by the agricultural organisations mentioned in Bṛh. As recommended by the Smṛtis, common pasture grounds are often found even where the fields are private properties. Inscriptions often refer to fields which bear particular names or are designated by the names of their proprietors, so that here too purely private property is in evidence as prescribed in the Smṛtis. The boundaries of villages in the four cardinal points are carefully described in the donative grants, on account of which a village described in that manner is called *caturāghāṭaviśuddha* "fixed by four boundaries". Rivers, mountains, trees, hillocks, tanks etc. are utilised in marking the boundary if simply the names of the adjacent villages are not given. Also the boundaries of fields are fully described; thus in a Śāsana of 1091 A. D. the boundaries of a granted field is described in this manner: the names of the fields lying to the east and the south of it and the names of the owners of these fields are mentioned and the boundaries of a certain village are given as its western and northern boundaries.³ About the fixing of the boundaries see § 34. In Behar even to this day there is a proverb about the necessity of keeping the boundary ridges in order, in which the farmer who does not look after the boundary ridges of his fields is compared with an ape fallen from a bough.⁴