1919.]} Bardie and Histl. Survey of Rajputana. 25 
chronicles ee or, as they are locally called, the khyatas, 
t have come into existence con temporaneously with the 
prdhiyavalis, t.e. ag meas the end of the sixteenth century A.D. 
This is not a mere coincidence, and I believe that both the 
if so, they were even more imperfect and disconnected than 
the genealogical lists of the early period. Certainly, so far as 
Jodhpur and Bikaner are concerned, connected histories and 
chronicles seem to have been cules until the time mentioned 
above. How could they neni: then, all of a sudden, towards 
the end of the sixteenth century e explanation is 
very simple if one only thinks of the political circumstances in 
which the two principalities of Jodhpur and Bikaner—to say 
nothing of others—found themselves eer that time. Before 
the middle of the sixteenth century A.D. both Jodhpur and 
Bikaner had fallen within the sphere of power of Ser Sah, and 
a few years afterwards the Princes of the two rival States met 
each other at the Court of the great Akbar. It is natural that 
there, boftire. an Emperor who was ever ready to lend an in- 
terested and benevolent ear to the stories, beliefs, and disputes 
of his subjects, the Princes of Rajputana brought all their mu- 
tual rivalries and their controversies about pre-eminence and 
seniority, and each tried to back his claims with pedigrees of 
his family and with such stories as tended to add prestige to it. 
In doing so, they served a double purpose: asserting their 
right to a conspicuous position among their fellow Princes, 
and commanding more consideration from the Emperor. It 
was thus a spirit of emulation and ambition that awoke in 
the Rajput Princes who gathered at the Imperial Court, an 
interest in snes hace matters. Such an interest never existed 
before, when the Princes, living within the ramparts of their 
cities, were ier pe ith the panegyrics of their bards and the 
flatteries of their parasites, and never seemed to care much 
about their remote ancestors nor to inquire whence they came 
from. But now they began to inquire into the origins A their 
family, to refresh the memory of their ancestors and the tradi- 
tions concerning them, and to ‘complete their pedigrees with long 
lines of pauranika names linking their rogenitors with Rama- 
candra, Krsna and other illustrious personages of world-wide 
dl 
fearrs tra? ay ate 
ata 21a Gaye | 
ait afte Ss aur 
Sa Sas sore ta 
