Note 82 — Chapter VI

With the exception, perhaps, of the right of election, which I have not seen noticed in any account of Continental India, the constitution of the Javan village has a striking resemblance to that of the Hindus, according to the following statement in the Fifth Report of the House of Commons on Indian Affairs. "A village, geographically considered, is a tract of country comprising some hundreds or thousands of acres of arable and waste lands; politically viewed, it resembles a corporation or township. Its proper establishment of officers and servants consists of the following descriptions: the Potail or head inhabitant, who has generally the superintendance of the affairs of the village, settles the disputes of the inhabitants, attends to the police, and performs the duty of collecting the revenues within his village, a duty which his personal influence and minute acquaintance with the situation and concerns of the people render him the best qualified to discharge. The Kurnum, who keeps the accounts of cultivation, and registers every thing connected with it. The Tallier and Totie, the duty of the former appearing to consist in a wider and more enlarged sphere of action, in gaining information of crimes and offences, and in escorting and protecting persons travelling from one village to another; the province of the latter appearing to be more immediately confined to the village, consisting among other duties in guarding the crops and assisting in measuring them. The boundary man, who preserves the limits of the village, or gives evidence respecting them in cases of dispute. The superintendent of tanks and water-courses, distributes the water therefrom for the purposes of agriculture. The Bramin, who performs the village worship. The schoolmaster, who is seen teaching the children in a village to read and write in the sand. The calendar Bramin or astrologer, &c.

"These officers and servants generally constitute the establishment of a village; but in some parts of the country it is of less extent, some of the duties and functions above described being united in the same person: in others it exceeds the number of individuals which have been described.

"Under this simple form of municipal government, the inhabitants of the country have lived from time immemorial. The boundaries of the villages have been but seldom altered; and though the villages themselves have been sometimes injured, and even desolated by war, famine, and disease, the same name, the same limits, the same interests, and even the same families, have continued for ages. The inhabitants give themselves no trouble about the breaking up and division of kingdoms; while the village remains entire, they care not to what power it is transferred, or to what sovereign it devolves; its internal economy remains unchanged. The Potail is still the head inhabitant, and still acts as the petty judge and magistrate, and collector or renter of the village."

In examining the interior of a village on Java, we find that, in common with the Hindu usage, it possesses a constitution within itself, independent of the supreme governing power. Here, as in Western India, it will be found that each village possesses its Petíng'gi or chief; its Kabayan, who is the deputy or assistant to the head of the village; its Kamituah or elders, generally men who have formerly been chiefs of the village; its Múdin or priest; its Ulu-ulu or Kapala Bandang'an, or superintendent of water-courses; its Jeru-tulis or writer, &c.