262 Capt. Franklin's Memoir on liundelkhund. 



the whole country was eventually subjected to Wuhammedan sway, and 

 finally to that of Raj d Chhatuasal. 



The events which followed the overthrow of the Chandela dynasty are 

 very imperfectly known ; but from the local annals of the province, it 

 would appear, that various adventurers exalted themselves upon its "ruins, 

 and this state of confusion and anarchy in all probability prevailed without 

 any party obtaining decided ascendancy during tiie long interval between 

 the invasions of Mahmud and Timur ; but about the period of the latter, a 

 tribe of warlike Rajput adventurers from GdharUiuni, under the conduct of 

 a chief named Dewddd Bir, ravaged the district of Cdnd?-, on the right bank 

 of the Jumna river, and fixed themselves at Mao Mahoni* This chief was 

 the founder of the Bundela dynasty. Mao Mahoni, Cdlpt, Cunch, Cdndr, and 

 Bijdxvar were iiis conquests ; and his power is stated to have been princely, 

 so much so, that in imitation of other great powers, he was enabled to assume 

 and support the family appellative of Bundela, and thus gave name to his 

 dynasty and dominion. 



The Bundelas are of the solar line, and trace their origin from Ramchan- 

 DRA through his great descendant Lavan Ciisa, who estabhshed his authority 

 in the province of Benares ; and their genealogical line is traced through 

 seven princes bearing the title oC CdsUwara, Lord of Cast, or sovereign of 

 Benares ; seventeen bearing the family appellative Gd/iarwar, and thirty 

 bearing: that of Bundela, 



The conquests of Dewddd Bir, and the dominion which he established, 

 suffered no diminution during the rule of his successor, Arjuna PAla ; and 

 SuHAN Pala, the third in descent, increased it by the addition ofCordr, which 

 he wrested from a colony o( Cunghdris, who had settled there. But nothing 

 worthy of notice seems to have occurred after this period, until the succes- 

 sion of Mendini Malla, about the latter end of the reign of Ibrahim II., 

 or the commencement of that of Babeu. 



Mendini Malla, the eighth in descent from DevAda, appears to have 

 been of an enterprising character, and is mentioned by Febishta in his history. 

 His principal conquests were from the PUdrs, 'vhich unfortunate race, having 

 been driven out of Malwa, had settled in the mountainous parts which bor- 

 dered on the Bundela possessions. The aggressions against this race did not 

 terminate with Mendini Malla ; they were resumed by his grandson, Pre- 

 TAP HRAD, whose territory eventually became so extensive, as to induce 



* Mow. 



Ill 



