Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.19

c11.19

A few types of joint ownership can be distinguished: (1) The first is a complete and unlimited ownership and hence implies the right of the whole community in the soil. In this case in the particular village in which this system prevails the joint owners cultivate the lands in common and reap the profits in common in proportion to the number of *vṛttis* each has in the said village. Thus if a village is divided into 120 *vṛttis* among a few people, each such *vṛttidār*, owning say from two to five *vṛttis*, contributes labour in proportion to the number of *vṛttis* he holds, and his share of the produce is also in the same proportion. (2) The second type is one in which a particular portion of the village is held in common by the villagers, while they have their own plots other than those held in common by them. They generally cultivate their own lands in their own way independently of the others, but in the case of the common lands in the village all the co-sharers contribute their labour in common, and enjoy the profits in common each having a share of it according to a fixed proportion settled by the community in proportion to the amount of land held by each. In this case the community is the joint owner of only a part of the village, while the individual villager has his own lands, and his use of those lands is not controlled by the joint community of which he is also a member. (3) Another type of village is the one in which the joint community is the owner of all the lands in the village, but it does not cultivate the lands jointly or enjoy in common the fruits of the labour spent on them. The lands in the village in this case are divided into three classes, best, middling and bad, and every individual member of the joint community is given a portion of each of these three classes of lands; he is not to be in permanent possession of the allotted lands, but is required to part with them after a particular time in return for other plots in each of these three classes. Thus there is a periodical redistribution of the lands held by the joint community among its members who could enjoy their share during the period in which they are under them. This system is known as the *karaiyiḍu* in the Tanjore district.¹¹ Thus in the first case ownership rests with the joint community where the individual has no right over the property except as a member of the joint community; in the second case the joint community has only a limited right over the village, for it holds in common only a part of the village, and hence controls only that portion of the village, while the individual has proprietory right over certain lands in the village which he enjoys by his own right uninterfered by the joint community; and in the third case the joint community is the proprietor of the whole, but it distributes the lands among the co-sharers to be enjoyed by them until the next redistribution.