68 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
Chronicles, and therefore needed not jurare in verba Todi, 
would never make such a categorical statement in the pre- 
sence of the most disparate and contradictory evidence. In 
chronological order. All, it is true, agree in representing Nibo, 
who died before his father, as the eldest son, but as to the 
other twelve, thirteen, or sixteen sons, the Chronicles are at a 
variance and do not afford, at a first sight, anv basis for 
direct statement or information, there is some indirect evidenc 
which tends to show that rava Viko was elder than rava Sajo, 
the progenitor of the descendants of Jodhd who have been sit- 
ting on the gaddi of Jodhpur, and consequently the ruling 
family of Bikaner is senior to the ruling family of Jodhpur. 
Futile as the question may seem to anyone who looks at 
it from a practical point of view and feels inclined to give 
more weight to greater power and wealth than to seniority, it 
is not a futile question to the eyes of the modern Rajput, to 
whom juniority in respect to a rival lateral branch means a 
condition of inferiority and almost humiliation. When I vis- 
ited Ratlam in connection with the edition I was preparing of 
the Vacanika of Ratana Singha, in 1914, and was even without 
my intention made acquainted with the controversy which the 
ruling family of that State has with the ruling family of the 
neighbour State of Sitamau about seniority, I had the first 
living instance of the importance whick the Rajput attaches to 
a point that in the eyes of an outsider has, if any, only an 
ideal value. It may therefore not seem an idle waste of time 
if I here enter into the question minutely, and examine all th 
evidence which indirectly tends to corroborate the assertion 
by the Rathoras of Bikaner that they represent the senior 
branch. 
ta, 
0 of — 
Citora about the year Samvat 1500, his eldest son Jodho fled 
from Citora and eluding the cavalry sent by the Rano to 
pursue him, sought a refuge in the sands of the Jangala 
