An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal Part 15

When lands are alienated by sale, they bring from 1600 to 2000 Mohurs a Khet, which high price is owing to the very small quant.i.ty of land that is brought to market.

The persons who rent lands from the owners are of two kinds: first, the Kuriyas, who occupy free (Khairat) land, are exempted from any services to government, except the repairing of roads, and the attending on armies employed on certain duties; and, secondly, the Prajas, who occupy the crown land, whether that be held by the Prince, or granted in Jaygir.

The Prajas are bound to perform various services at the call, both of government and of their immediate masters. The rent which both usually pay is one-half of the produce, with an annual fine of between two and three rupees for each Khet. Where the land is tolerable, these terms are considered as favourable for the tenant, and enable him to support a family with ease.

The following is the account which my Brahman gives of the agriculture of the Newars.

The hoe used by the Newars has been represented by Colonel Kirkpatrick, (in the uppermost figure of the plate opposite to page 100 of his Account of Nepaul,) but the figure is not good. It seems a very awkward instrument, as the blade is fixed by a long neck, so as to stand parallel to the short handle, at about the distance or six inches. The labourer, therefore, must either stoop exceedingly, when at work, or must sit on his heels, which is the most usual posture. Still these people use it with great dexterity, and one man in three days digs up a Rupini. After each hoeing, the women and children break the clods with a wooden mallet fixed to a long shaft, which does not require them to stoop. Almost the only other implement of agriculture these people have is the Khuripi, or weeding iron, and some fans for winnowing the corn. In Nepal, however, they have in some measure made a further progress than in India, as they have numerous water-mills for grinding corn. The stones are little larger than those of hand-mills, and the upper one is turned round by being fixed on the end of the axis of the water wheel, which is horizontal, and is placed under the floor of the mill, with which the stones are on a level. This wheel consists of six blades, about three feet long, and six inches broad, which are placed obliquely in the axle-tree. On these blades, the water falls down an inclined plane of about eight or ten feet in perpendicular height. The hopper is a basket perforated at the bottom, but has no contrivance to shake it. The people at one of the mills which we examined said, that, in one day, it could grind twelve _Muris_, or rather more than twenty-nine bushels.

In Nepal, rice is the great crop, and the ground fit for it is of two kinds, which differ in the manner, and in the time of their cultivation, so as to make two harvests of rice: but no one field, in one year, produces two crops of this grain.

Colonel Kirkpatrick indeed mentions, {222} that some fields yield two crops of rice successively, the one coa.r.s.e, and the other fine, besides affording in the same year a crop of wheat. This, however, I presume, does not allude to Nepal Proper, but to some of the warmer vallies in the dominions of Gorkha; as where he goes on, in the 99th page, to describe the expense of cultivation, he mentions the ploughings, an operation which is not employed in the agriculture of the Newars.

The first kind of ground produces the crop called Gheya, is the highest, and there is no necessity for its being absolutely level, as the fields are not inundated. From the 13th of March to the 11th of April, this ground is hoed; and, having been well manured with dung collected in the streets, it is hoed again. A week after this, the field is hoed two or three times, and is well pulverized with the mallet. About the 12th of May, after a shower of rain, the field is slightly hoed, and the mould is broken, and smoothed with the hand. Small drills, at a span's distance from each other, are then made by the finger, which is directed straight by a line. At every span-length in these drills are placed four or five seeds of the rice, called Uya Dhan, which is the only kind cultivated in this manner. The seed is covered by the hand, and a very small quant.i.ty only is required. In about five days the young corn comes up in small tufts, just as if it had been transplanted. From the 13th of June to the 15th of August, when the corn is about a cubit high, the weeds are removed with the spud. About the latter period, slugs, worms, and insects, fill all the moister fields in Nepal, and in order to be rid of them, the farmers keep a great number of ducks, which, at this season, they turn into the fields, to devour the vermin. The Gheya crop ripens about the 1st of September, and by the middle of the month the harvest is finished. The ears only are cut off, and next day the grain is beat out, and generally dried in the streets. Very little of the crop is made into Hakuya, a process that will be afterwards mentioned. After the Gheya crop has been cut, the field is in general cultivated with radishes, mustard, or some other crop, that is usually sown about the time.

By far the greater part of the rice ground, and that the lowest and the best, is of the kind which produces the crop of rice called Puya. The kinds of rice which are cultivated in this crop are very numerous, and it would be tedious to mention their names, as I have no observations to make on any one in particular. The fields which produce this crop must be perfectly level, as they are inundated during the greater part of the process of cultivation. Therefore, as the plain is by no means even, it has been divided into terraces. So much pains has been bestowed on this part of agriculture, that on the steep descents leading down to the rivers, there have been formed many terraces not above two feet wide.

The numerous springs and rivulets that issue from the surrounding hills have been conducted with great pains to irrigate these terraces, and have been managed with considerable skill.

The cultivation of the Puya crop commences between the 13th of May and 12th of June, during which the field is hoed two or three times, and manured with dung, if any can be procured. At any rate, it is always manured with the kind of earth called Koncha, which I have already described. The banks that confine the water are then repaired; and about the 12th of June, when, either by the rain or by the irrigation from aqueducts, the fields have been inundated, and the soil has been by the hoe reduced to mud, the seedlings which have been raised in plots sown very thick, are transplanted by the women. The men perform all the other parts of the labour. This is a time of festivity as well as of hard work; and the people are then allowed a great freedom of speech, to which they are encouraged by large quant.i.ties of intoxicating liquors, in a share of which even the women indulge. The transplanting ought to commence from the 12th to the 15th of June, and ought to be finished by the Amavasya of Asharh, but this is a moveable feast. On the Krishna Chat.u.r.dasi, which happens on the day preceding the Amavasya, the Maha Rani or Queen, with her slave girls, (Ketis,) transplant a small plot within the palace, and it is reckoned an unlucky circ.u.mstance when this is not the last planted field in the valley.. The fields are always kept under water, and weeds are not troublesome. The few that spring up are removed by the spud. This crop begins to ripen about the 15th of October, and by the 1st of November the harvest is completed, after which a considerable portion of the land is cultivated for wheat or other winter crops.

The Puya rice is cut down close by the ground. The finer kinds of rice are immediately thrashed, as is likewise all that which is intended for seed; but the greater part is made into what is called Hakuya. This is done with a view of correcting its unwholesome quality: for all the grain produced in the valley of Nepal is thought by the natives to be of a pernicious nature. The manner of preparing Hakuya is as follows: The corn, immediately after having been cut, is put into heaps, ten or twelve feet diameter, and six or eight feet in height. These are covered with wet earth, and allowed to heat for from eight to twelve days, and till they may be seen smoking like lime-kilns. After this the heaps are opened, and the grain is separated from the straw by beating it against a piece of ground made smooth for the purpose. Both grain and straw are then dried in the sun. The grain is called Hakuya, and the straw is the fuel commonly used by the poor, for fire-wood is very dear. According to the accounts received by Colonel Crawford, this manner of preserving rice was discovered by accident. Many years ago one of the towns was besieged by an enemy that came so suddenly as not to allow the citizens time to gather in the crop, which had just then been cut. The citizens, rather than allow the enemy to benefit by their corn, determined to throw it into the water and cover it with earth. In this manner it remained about a week, when the enemy were compelled to retire. When the grain was taken up it was found to have begun to rot, but necessity having compelled the people to eat it, they found, to their astonishment, that it was much better and more salutary than the grain which had been prepared in the usual manner. It is only the Newars that eat this Hakuya.

The crops of rice in Nepal appeared to me very poor when compared with those of Bengal; and, if my Brahman was rightly informed concerning the extent of a rupini, they are really so. The rupini produces four muris of paddy, or 9-376/1000 bushels, but near Calcutta the biga (supposed to be of the same extent) of good ground produces often 640 sers, or 19-82/100 bushels. The difference of price, however, in the two countries makes the value of the produce in Nepal the greater of the two.

I have already stated that the value of four muris of paddy in Nepal is usually 13M. 2A. 2D., or about 54 rupees. But near Calcutta in harvest the usual price of 640 sers of paddy, is 5 rupees 5 A. 4 P. If no error has been made in estimating the extent of a rupini, the acre of good land in Nepal produces rather more than 28 bushels of paddy, or rice in the husk.

Immediately after the Puya crop has been cut, the ground is formed into beds by throwing the earth out of parallel trenches upon the intermediate s.p.a.ces. On these about the middle of November is sown wheat, or sometimes a little barley. These ripen without farther trouble, and are cut from the 12th of April to the 12th of May. The seed for a rupini is stated to be one pati, and the produce is stated to be two muris. This would make the seed about the fifth part of a bushel an acre, and the produce about fourteen bushels; but this seems to me greatly exaggerated.

I have never seen more wretched crops, and most of the fields of wheat are quite choked with hemp, (_Cannabis sativa_,) which in Nepal is a troublesome and useless weed. The wheat and barley are mostly used for making fermented or distilled liquors.

Pangdu Kodo, or Maruya, is the _Cynosurus Coroca.n.u.s_ of Linnaeus, of which I saw much growing on some of the higher parts of the plain. It seems to thrive well. The Maruya is sown from the 13th of June to the 14th of July, and twenty days afterwards is transplanted. It is ripe about the middle of September, and produces four muris a rupini.

In thrashing this corn, Colonel Crawford saw the Newars [Picture: Flail]

using a kind of flail, an implement which I have never observed in India.

Three pieces of Bamboo, about eighteen inches long, were fastened together in a parallel manner, at about a finger's breadth asunder, and then fixed to a peg, which pa.s.sed through a hole in the end of a longish pole that was a little bent. The instrument seemed to require considerable dexterity in its management, but appeared to answer the purpose intended.

The Sana Kodo of the Parbatiyas is probably the Paspalum kora of Wildenow. It also is transplanted, ripens in October and November, and produces as much as the Pangdu Kodo.

The Muccai and Muruli of the Parbatiyas are both by the Newars called _Kaunguni_, and are varieties of the _Holcus sorghum_. They are chiefly planted in the small vallies that open into the plain, and on high terraces, that have a bad supply of water.

The Urid, or Kala Mas of the Parbatiyas, is by the Newars called May; and Dr Roxburgh, in his ma.n.u.scripts, calls it _Phaseolus minimoo_, from its Telinga name. In Nepal this is the most common pulse. It is sown about the 1st of July, and reaped about the 1st of September. A rupini produces about ten patis, or an acre about three bushels and a half.

The Seta Mas of the Parbatiyas, or Chica May of the Newars, Dr Roxburgh has raised from seed, which I sent from Nepal. He thinks it a new species, which he calls _Phaseolus ocultatus_. It is sown about the 1st of July, reaped the 1st of October, and produces the same quant.i.ty that the urid does.

The Lato, Rato, or Ruta mas of the Parbatiyas, is by the Newars called Hayngu may. It also appears to Dr Roxburgh to be an undescribed species, and he has given it the name of _Phaseolus calcaratus_. It is sown and reaped at the same time with the preceding, and yields the same produce.

The Lal mung of the Parbatiyas is also called Hayngumay by the Newars.

The seeds of this plant, which I sent to the botanical garden, show it to be a _Phaseolus_, that is by Dr Roxburgh considered as a nondescript, and he calls it the _Phaseolus racemosus_.

The Mung of the Parbatiyas, and the Muk or Mugy may of the Newars, is the Dolichos Mungo of Linnaeus. Three manas are sown on a rupini about the 1st of July, and about the 1st of November produce eight patis.

The Seta, and Cala Bhot Mas of the Parbatiyas, are called Musa and Gya by the Newars. They are two varieties of the _Dolichos soja_, the one of which has yellow flowers and white seeds, and the other has black seeds, and purplish flowers. The former is ripe about the 1st of November, the latter about the 1st of September. Their seed and produce are equal to those of the mung.

The Mosuri of the Parbatiyas, and Mosu of the Newars, is the _Ervum lens_ of botanists. About the 1st of November two manas are sown on a rupini; and about May produce twelve patis.

The same is the case with the Pea, or _Pisum arvensis_, called Kerao by the Parbatiyas, and Caigo by the Newars.

The mustard called Sarishi by the Parbatiyas, and Turi by the Newars is mostly cultivated as a pot-herb. It is sown about the middle of October, and is cut before it flowers. Another, which by the Newars is called Ika, is the _Sinapis ramosa_ of Dr Roxburgh. About the 1st of February two manas are sown on a rupini, and about April produce two muris of seed. The ground is afterwards cultivated for rice.

Sesamum is called Til by the Parbatiyas, and Hamo by the Newars. It grows commonly wild as a weed, but very little of it is cultivated.

The sugar-cane is planted in considerable quant.i.ties, and seems to thrive. The Newars make a very little extract, soft sugar, and sugar-candy; but a large proportion of the cane is eaten without preparation. It is planted about the 1st of April, and is cut, from the middle of November to the middle of May. The juice is generally expressed by a lever.

Ginger, the Puli of the Newars, is planted about the 1st of April, and dug up in October or November.

The common radishes are by the Parbatiyas called Mulu, and by the Newars Kipo, and are very much cultivated. They grow in vast abundance all the year, except from the 15th of November to the 10th of February. In order to procure a supply of this useful article, for three months of winter, a large quant.i.ty is sown about the 1st of September, and pulled about the 1st of November. The roots are then buried in a pit for six or seven days, during which they seem to undergo a kind of half putrid fermentation; as when they are taken out of the pit, and dried in the sun, they exhale a most powerful stench. These dried roots are called Sinky, keep all winter, and, although offensive to the smell, enter largely into the diet of the poorer Newars. These, owing partly to the great quant.i.ty of sinky and of garlic which they eat, and partly to the dirtiness of their linen, exhale a worse smell than any people I have ever been among.

Methi, or Fenugreek, grows at all seasons, except from the 15th of November to the 12th of January. It is used only as a pot-herb, and is the one most commonly consumed in Nepal.

Khira, or cuc.u.mbers, grow to great perfection, and with another cucurbitaceous plant called Kangkari, are ripe from the 13th of June to the 15th of August.

The garlic is planted about the 1st of January, and is taken up from the 12th of April to the 12th of June.

Bera, or the Solanum Melongena, is sown about the 1st of May, and is ripe about the 1st of October.

In the hilly parts of the country, the common potatoe (Solanum tuberosum) has been introduced, and grows tolerably: but it does not thrive so well as at Patna, owing probably to a want of care.

The Sakarkandh (Convolvulus batatas) succeeds better. It is planted about the 1st of April, and is taken up from the middle of October to the middle of December.

Most of the European kitchen vegetables have been introduced: but they are only to be found in the gardens of men of distinction, and in very small quant.i.ties.

When Colonel Kirkpatrick visited the country, {230} the only kitchen vegetables (meaning, I presume, European) were cabbages and peas, both of which were of the worst kind. They had, he says, the Thibet turnip, but cannot raise it any more than the potatoe, without receiving the seed annually. This, compared with what I observed, indicates some degree of progressive improvement.

None of their fruits are good, except the oranges and pine apples; but both of these are in great perfection. The peach is every where wild, and is also reared in gardens: but it does not ripen till long after the rainy season has commenced, and is generally half rotten before it becomes soft. At Kathmandu the Plantain tree (Musa) dies to the ground in winter, but the roots are not killed, and in the spring send up fresh stems. Some good plantains come from Nayakot, and other valleys, that are situated lower than the capital is.

Such is the account I could procure of the cultivation in the plains of Nepal. On the sloping faces of the hills, bounding the smaller vallies in its vicinity, I observed another mode of cultivation. The soil there is not formed into terraces; but in April is pared and burned, and then is sown with Sama, or the _Panic.u.m Italic.u.m_, with Tangni or Kakun, which is the _Panic.u.m colonum_, and with Kaungni, which is the _Holcus Sorghum_. When the soil is in heart, these produce very good crops, and once in the three or four years the field is allowed a season's fallow.

This seems to be the kind of land which Colonel Kirkpatrick calls Kohrya.

{231a}

In Nepal, the Gangja, Charas, or Cannabis sativa, as I have already mentioned, is a common weed: but in that country it is not cultivated, although much used for the purpose of intoxication. The dried leaves are brought from the Tariyani, but are reckoned heating, and are not so much used as the extract, which is called Charas: of this Thibet produces the best. The proper manner of preparing Charas is by making incisions into the stem, and collecting the juice, in the same manner as opium is produced from the capsules of the poppy. A coa.r.s.er kind is prepared from the expressed juice of the hemp.

Colonel Kirkpatrick {231b} gives a different account of the manner of preparing this drug, which, he says, is procured by rubbing the leaves of the plant Jeea, until the resin adheres to the fingers, from which it is sc.r.a.ped off with a spathula. The plant called Jeea is no doubt the _Cannabis sativa_, nor can much reliance be placed on the information which the Colonel received on this subject: as the person who gave it has evidently been inaccurate, when he stated concerning the Gangja and Subje produced from the same plant, that the former is prepared from the flowers and the latter from the leaves; while, in fact, the one is the dried plant, and the other the expressed juice.

The dose of Charas is from ten to twelve grains made up into a pill, which is smoked like tobacco. The dried leaves, or Gangja, are taken in the same manner, and both produce violent intoxication. While we were in Nepal, a shopkeeper, who attended the camp, smoked so much Charas that he died. From the accounts given me by those who saw him, he became stupid, but not irrational, and complained of nothing except thirst, for which he two or three times drank water. As it was not looked upon as any thing extraordinary, I did not hear of the circ.u.mstance till some hours after the man's death. He did not intend to kill himself; but, in the course of his indulgence, repeated the dose too often.

Two kinds of coa.r.s.e cotton cloth, called Khadi and Changa, are woven by the Newar women of all ranks, and by the men of the Parbatiya cast, called Magar. The cotton grows in the hilly parts of the kingdom, and is sufficient for the consumption; but none is exported from Nepal Proper.

These cloths const.i.tute the dress of the middling and lower cla.s.ses of people, although woollen would be better fitted for the cold of a Nepal winter. All those, however, that are not very poor, can afford to have woollen blankets, which are manufactured by the Bhotiyas, who even in summer wear no linen. The whole dress of the higher ranks in Nepal is imported, and consists chiefly of Chinese silks, shawls, and of the low country muslins and calicoes. The military alone wear European broad cloth.

In Lalita Patan and Bhatgang there is a very considerable manufacture of copper, bra.s.s, and Phul, which is a kind of bell-metal. The bells of Thibet are superior to those of Nepal: but a great many vessels of Phul are made by the Newars, and exported to Thibet, along with those of bra.s.s and copper. Iron vessels and lamps are also manufactured for the same market.

A very strong paper, remarkably well fitted for packages, is made at Bhatgang, from the bark of a shrub, which I call the _Daphne papyrifera_.

The supply, however, is not adequate to the demand, and not only the paper, but a considerable quant.i.ty of the raw material is imported from Bhot. The bark is exceedingly strong and pliable, and seems to be the same with certain tape-like bandages, employed by the Chinese in tying many of their parcels.