28 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
State archives, allowed them to remain with the families of their 
compilers, the mutsaddis, with the result that they are completely 
lost to the State to-day. That there are stil! several vahis con- 
taining khyatas in the houses of the descendants of the old mut- 
saddis of Jodhpur and Bikaner, is known to everybody, but 
these vahis are so jealously concealed that even the respective 
Darbars are unable to induce their owners to produce them. 
Thus the blind ignorance and irresponsible wickedness of the 
owners has kept hidden from sight most valuable materials 
which, if known, would throw much light on the history of the 
States concerned and of India as well. 
I have said that shortly after coming into existence, the 
contemporary records—which, naturally, were in the form of 
notes not necessarily connected with one another—were incor- 
porated with the materials of the vamsavalis and, I may add 
here, of the genealogies, into a unique and in external appear- 
ance homogeneous composition, also called khydta, but extend- 
ing from the origins of the ruling family, not to say of the 
world itself, down to the current times. This happened as early 
as the middle of the seventeenth century A.D., and the most 
Singha I, and his prime minister Mihandta NénaSi. The 
latter, who was especially keen on subjects of historical re- 
search, is well known in Rajputana and particularly in Jodhpur 
and Bikaner for a work of general history of the Rajput tribes 
of Rajputana, which goes under his name. From the times of 
Jasavanta Singha I to about a century ago, khyatas continued 
to be compiled, probably by the sa:ne mutsaddis on about the 
same original lines, and the old khyatas, re-copied with more or 
less faithfulness, were integrated with the new information of 
more recent years. But the spirit of sincerity and impartial- 
ity which characterized the early khyatas was not always 
maintained. Truths which could. be plainly told in the six- 
teenth century, became unpalatable in the eighteenth and had 
therefore to be omitted or disguised in the khydtas of this 
period. This was chiefly due to the increased susceptibilities of 
a more dignified form. ‘Sindhayaca Dayala Dasa, a Carana, did 
this in Bikaner and produced a work which, though fairly 
accurate in the last pages dealing with contemporary or quasi- 
contemporary events, is distorted by a large amount of forgery 
in all the rest, the chief object of which is to exalt the Caranas 
