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XV. On tlie Religious Establishments of Mcwar.* By Lieut. -Colonel 

 James Too, M.R.A.S. 



Read December 6, 1828. 



In all ages the ascendancy of the hierarchy is observable ; it is a tribute 

 paid to religion through her organs. Could the lavish endowments and 

 extensive immunities of the various religious establishments in Rajast'han 

 be assumed as criteria of the morality of the inhabitants, we should be 

 authorized to assign them a high station in the scale of excellence. But 

 they more frequently prove the reverse of this position ; especially the 

 territorial endowments, often the fruits of a deaih-bed repentance,! which, 

 prompted by superstition or fear, compounds for past crimes by posthumous 

 profusion, although vanity not rarely lends her powerful aid. There is 

 scarcely a state in Rajpootana in which at least one-fifth of the soil is not 

 assigned for the support of temples, their ministers, the secular Brahmans, 

 bards, and genealogists. But the evil was not always so extensive ; the abuse 

 is of modern growth. 



An anecdote related of the Rajas of Marwar and Amber, always rivals in 

 war, love, and folly, will illustrate the motives of these dismemberments. 



* It is unnecessary to say more of Mewar in this place, than that it is the most ancient and 

 most respected of all the Rajput principalities ; its prince is the chief of the whole Rajput 

 race, and the pre-eminence of his illustrious descent is universally admitted. From their 

 migration out of the north of India and settlement in Saurashtra in the second century, we can 

 trace the vicissitudes of their fortunes to the present time, and as their country was less infested 

 by Mahommedan conquerors, it offers a better picture of Hinduism than any other portion of 

 India. 



f Menu commands, " Should the king be near his end through some incurable disease, he 

 must bestow on the priests all his riches accumulated from legal fines : and having duly com- 

 mitted his kingdom to his son, let him seek death in battle, or, if there be no war, by 

 abstaining from food." — Chap, ix., p. 337, Hmighton's Ediiion. The annals of all the Rajput 

 States afford instances of obedience to this text of their divine 1 egislator. 



