8 THE HIGHLxiNDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



that early period so greatly above anything they have 

 since shown themselves capable of. The explanation 

 seems to lie in the circumstance mentioned. The real 

 establishers of these courts, and introducers of the arts, 

 were not Gonds but Hindus. 



It is the custom in all families which trace their 

 lineage to the fountain-head of Hindu aristocracy among 

 the Eiijpiit clans of Rajasthan to retain, like the Celtic 

 chieftains of our own country, family bards, whose duty 

 it is to record in a sjenealooical volume, and recite on 

 great occasions, the descent and family history of their 

 patrons. The bardic office is hereditary, and where the 

 lineage of the family is really ancient, the bard is 

 generally also a descendant of the bards of the original 

 clan. Often he is the chief bard of the clan itself, and 

 resides with its hereditary head at the family seat in 

 Eajasthc4n, visiting at intervals the cadet branches of 

 the house to record their domestic events. In Gond- 

 wana, numerous chiefs claim either a pure descent from 

 Eajpiit houses, or, more frequently, admit their remote 

 origin to have sprung from a union between some Rajput 

 adventurer of noble blood and one of the daughters of 

 the aborigines. Few of them are admitted to be pure 

 Rajputs by the blue-blooded chiefs of Rajasthan ; but all 

 have their bards and genealogies. These, like such 

 documents in all countries, often go back to fabulous 

 times, and are overlaid with modern fiction ; but the 

 legendary portion of the bardic chronicle can generally 

 be separated with little difficulty from a solid residue of 

 probable fact. 



The general conclusion to be drawn from the evidence 

 of these writings, supported as they are by tradition and 

 later history, is that during the fourteenth and fifteenth 



