Property Rights And Land Control In Tamil Nadu: 1350-1600 (india).

This dissertation explores the character of property rights and agrarian relations in the Tamil region of Southeast India from 1350 to 1600 principally through an investigation of inscriptional records. Previous studies have stressed the central role of the Vijayanagara king in extracting agricultural wealth to enrich the royal treasury and finance wars against the Muslim powers to the north. However, these analyses have neglected to examine patterns of production and distribution adequately from the viewpoint of the village. The present study suggests that these patterns, while significantly affected by ecological and geographical factors, grew directly from the cultural understandings of Tamil villagers and evolved slowly over many centuries of cultivation. After describing basic cultural, ecological, and organizational factors, the dissertation defines agricultural rights and tenures and compares these categories with materials found in the ancient legal literature of South Asia. The rich diversity of land transactions--gifts, sales, leases, mortgages--produced significant shifts of property resources at the local level. These shifts are examined in three separate case studies: the major temple centers of Kanc(')i and (')Sr(')irangam, a rural area (Pudukkottai) seeking protection from violence, and a single village (Devikapuram). The frequency and complexity of these inscriptional transfers suggests that a new emphasis should be placed on the strength of village institutions. Traditional local organizations, presumed to have lost their authority to Vijayanagara kings and their subordinates, actually maintained considerable vitality. An atmosphere of political instability permeated the whole period, brought about in no small part by the almost continual movement of peoples: military chiefs and their retinues seeking wealth, Tamil peasants seeking relief from revenue collectors, and religious pilgrims seeking solace. Finally, and most importantly, agrarian relations reflected the centrality of the religious gift and of temple worship in Tamil culture. These activities had become major concerns from at least the fifth century A.D. Though basic property concepts had been established by this early date, they were constantly adapted to meet the needs of local agricultural communities, not the personal desires of distant kings.PhDAsian historySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127663/2/8412150.pd