1 - POPULATION, MANNERS, AND customs. 115
2 they originally sprang, migrating thence and. ex-
3 tending their conquests through the Punjaub and
4 into the Sirhind province, where, being of a mili-
5 tary and predatory character, they soon conquered
6 for themselves a permanent possession. The
7 practice of succession to property, both real and
8 personal, amongst the Manjhee Singhs, is by
9 bhaeebund and choondabund. The first being
10 an equal distribution of all lands, forts, tenements,
11 and moveables, among sons, with, in some in-
12 stances, an extra or double share to the eldest,
13 termed “khurch sirdaree,” assimilating to the
14 double share in the law of Moses. Choondabund
15 is an equal division among mothers for their
16 respective male issue.*
17 “This practice accords with the Hindoo and
18 Mosaic Jaws, and acts as a counteractive to the
19 many evils attendant on female rule. If the free
20 will of the widow were consulted, it is scarcely to
21 be doubted she would prefer the possession of
22 power and the charms of liberty, to the alter-
23 * “ This practice of choondabund is agreeable to the Hindoo
24 law. Vyara says, if there be many sons of one man by different
25 mothers, but in equal number and alike by class, a distribution
26 amongst the mothers is approved to Brihaspati. If there be
27 many springs from one, alike in number and in class, but born
28 of rival mothers, partition must be made by them, according tu
29 Jaw, by the allotment of shares to the mothers.
30 “‘ When a Manjhe Singh dies, leaving no male offspring, his
31 brothers, or his nephews, of the full blood, assume the right of
32 12