AGRARIAN ECONOMY IN TONDAIMANDALAM 19 mirasidars. The term miras is Persian and refers to hereditary rights. The persons referred to as mirasidars in Tondaimanclalam were hereditary landowners. A more ancient Tamil usage describes these rights as kaniya^chi (kani—land and atchi—dominion). The holders of these rights were known as kaniyatchikarars—that is the men with dominion over land. Brahmins who held this hereditary right, were known as swasti-yamdars. For simplicity, we shall refer to all such hereditary owners as kaniyatchikarars. The kaniyatchikarars controlled the village economically, socially and politically. Often the villages had a group of ka^iyatchikarars, but sometimes there was just one individual household controlling or dominating the village. In the former case the village was known as palabogam and in the latter case it was known as ekabogam8. The kaniyatchikarars had the exclusive right of disposal of the ^original and indestructible' properties of the soil usually denned as the astabhoga swamiyam or the eight-fold enjoyment.4 The group of kaniyatchikarars who held sway over a village, were known as the co-sharers or pangajis. They shared not merely the cultivable land, but residential sites, channels and tank beds and all else that constituted the village.6 The manner of such co-ownership of the village is conveyed suc-cintly by Ellis: For example, if a village be divided into 16 shares and an individual holds half a share, he is entitled to l/32nd part of the annual produce of the kaniyatchi-manyams and merais; of the total productive warapet land he must provide for the cultivation of l/32nd part and participates to that extent in the total profits from them; l/32nd part is his share, also, in all advantages derived from forests, wastes and water.8 Thus the kaniyatchikarar had wider rights than those of modern landownership, while in some ways it was more restricted. Everything in the village was a part of the domain of the kaniyatchikarar; not merely the warapet lands (wet lands wherein the ruler's share was paid in'kind), and tirvapet lands (dry lands where the ruler made periodically changing cash assessment) but the wastes and forests as well. All the lands in the village were classified as follows:7 First, there was the nanjai or wet land in the village. Second, there was punjai (dry) land on which there was annual cash assessments known as tirvai; then, temporary waste (seykal karambu) or fallow; there was also the waste land which constituted the grazing grounds and scrub jungle wherefrom fire-wood was obtained (anati karambu); finally land set aside for communal purposes (purambokku). The last two categories arc most significant. The waste land is a crucial aspect of the village economy which is used by all and sundry communally for grazing and fot procurement of firewood. The purambokku is also all the land which is